Living Room Projects

We continued to work away on the living room renovations throughout the week. We got a lot accomplished and we have a little bit more work yet to go. While we worked on several of the projects simultaneously, I have broken the room down into the various projects to make it easier to follow along and to see the before and after photos.

Large & Small Windows
The living room has two windows. The first window is a very large one looking outside the front porch of the home. We plan on eventually replacing all of the windows with period style reproductions, but in the meantime, we are working on the trim. I just wanted to explain why one window looks wood (originally installed in 1950-1960) and one is plastic vinyl (originally installed in 1990s). Here is what what we started with:

Not the best view, but as you can see, the original window frame was painted white. Unfortunately, whoever painted it white, did not do anything remove the old varnish and so the paint was starting to peel and chip off, especially at the sill. Removing all the paint was a chore! It took almost an entire day of scraping and sanding to remove the paint. We first removed as much as we could using a heat gun and scraper and then sanded the frame with 50-grit and 60-grit sandpaper. My hands began hurting from the constant holding of tools and vibration of the sander that I enlisted the hubby to help with the top.

(Nothing sexier than a man on a ladder working on the house, in my opinion!)

We finally got as much of the paint as humanly possible off the window frame. We lost an entire corner on the upper right in the process. We repaired this using a wood putty mixture.

 

A couple of days later, I was finally able to add the first coat of stain. We used the same red walnut stain that we used on the floors.

We then had to repeat the entire process with the second, smaller window. That took almost as long as the first window. The interior of the smaller window was made up of four different pieces of wood, one of which was a curved, decorative type of molding. Sanding that was a real chore. Here is where we started.

 And once it was all sanded (finally!):

 And with the stain added.

Repairing the Walls
Another fun project this week included working on the over-textured walls. A while back, my husband had slipped on the ladder and broke off a large chunk of the original lath and plaster. Repairing that hole took a few days to accomplish. First, I had to install new laths.

That was the easy part. Next, I had to apply drywall compound, making sure a good portion stuck between each of the laths and that the compound remained rough so that an additional layer would adhere once the first one dried.

After a couple of days, I added the second coat of drywall compound, trying to get the repair as smooth and level as possible. I used an extra long stir stick that we had purchased and used that to ensure the drywall compound was as even as possible across the entire repair.

After a  couple more days, the second coat of plaster was completely dry and I was able to sand it down. I purposefully did not make it perfectly smooth because I felt that would make it stick out from the rest of the walls. They are no where near smooth either and have a slight texture to them, but more on that later. Here is the final result of the repair.

So, when we bought the house, just about every square inch of the walls was covered with a plaster texture treatment. I honestly do not understand why anyone would want huge chunks of plaster skipped on the walls. I hear that this is an expensive treatment to do. Well, it is not one for us. We believe that it was done at our house to hide the various repairs done that butted modern day drywall against original plaster. Nothing like a lot of drywall compound throughout the wall to hide the work done underneath! Using the Porter + Cable orbital palm sander, we smoothed out the walls as much as possible. Our finish is now more Tuscany than modern cover up. Talk about a dusty job!

And while I was busy making a huge dusty mess sanding the windows and two main walls, the dear hubby was busy installing the ceiling insulation (see below).

Finally, we opted to paint the lower half of the room a warm chocolate pudding brown from the Behr classic collection called Library Leather. With the Tuscany style texture, it actually does look like leather. We are very happy with our choice. We have yet to decide what color to paint the top half.

Ceiling Insulation
We have opted to install a nice thick insulation between the ceiling/floor joists on the main floor. We are doing this for a few reasons. First, the sound echoes through our house like crazy! You can hear every sound, cough, sneeze, and snore through the ceilings. It drives me crazy!

Second, our budget bill for heating and cooling this house is insane - as in excess of $300 per month. We do not have central air (yet) and we want to make the home as efficient as possible.

And finally, we are planning on installing tin ceilings on the main floor. Tin is a very noise conducting material (see point number one above) and we do not want to amplify the noises from upstairs. Hence, the insulation. My husband decided what was the best - one that was good for sound proofing, a fire break, and allergens. He also did all the heavy lifting and stapled it into place.

Installing the Woodwork
Finally, I got to start installing the woodwork. When we purchased our house, it had the pre-primed fake looking trim nailed and, in some cases, glued in place. Not only was the trim way too small in scale for the period of the house, but it was of such an inferior quality. This may have been due in part to the original installation of the pre-primed boards that were never painted. When I washed them the first time, they turned a nasty dingy gray. And that first super hot and humid summer saw the glued pieces fall of the wall - literally. Anyway, we have been planning to replace the woodwork for years, based on some of the wood we found hidden on the second floor and our research of bungalows, particularly the Craftsman style.

We purchased a selection of 1 x 8 open stock boards (baseboard), quarter round (toe kick), and chair railing. We also purchased 1 x 6, 1 x 4, 1 x 3, and 1 x 2 open stock boards to create our board and batten following some general instructions we found online. The first step was to wipe each board and trim piece with our favorite stain. Yep, you guessed it - red walnut.

The dear hubby had an emergency call and so my 12-year old son was voluntold to give me a helping hand. Together, we installed the baseboard (1 x 8), the quarter round (toe kick), the chair rail, and the 1 x 6 (under the chair rail). We had a lot of fun using the new compound miter saw and pneumatic electric nail gun!

This made a huge difference in the look and feel of the room! But we were not finished yet! A couple of days later, we installed the vertical 1 x 4 (framing and corner) pieces, the 1 x 3 dividers, and the 1 x 2 horizontal bar.

While researching the installation of board and batten, we stumbled across some information about wood putty that can be used to fill all the nail holes and cracks between the different pieces of wood. And guess what! It can also be used to fill the cracks in the floor (groan). Our next big project is to buy several tubes of the walnut wood putty and start filling in everything, including the floor cracks. I am then going to do a second coat of stain on the windows and wall woodwork, before finishing with polyurethane. Once again, I am planning on doing 3 to 4 coats on the windows and trim. And, we are planning on adding a fifth coat (yes, a fifth!) to the floor, to seal the cracks.We have learned after our sanding-the-wall project that dust fills those cracks and is a real pain to get out.

Moving Forward
Here is the list of things to do to finish the living room:

• Wood putty floor cracks
• Wood putty all wall trim pieces
• Install wood trim to upper portion of windows
• Apply second coat of stain to window trim pieces
• Apply second coat of stain to wall trim pieces
• Apply second coat of stain to window trim
• Seal with polyurethane all trim (1, 2, 3, and 4 coats)
• Seal the floor with polyurethane (5th coat)
• Paint upper wall
• Build built-in bookcases for third wall, to surround wall mounted television
• Build built-in bookcases for room divider and support (fourth wall)
• Install plywood ceiling
• Install tin ceiling
• Caulk tin ceiling
• Install crown moulding baseboard
• Install crown moulding
• Replace current light fixture with track lighting

Just when I think we are "almost" done, more things get added to the list. Regardless, I am bound and determined to get at least one room 100 percent finished this spring!