Tag Archives: diy

Holiday Happenings

I gotta say the 3-day weekends has been great and so wish we had these all the time as we got a lot done over these past couple of weekends. I hope the holiday’s were great for everyone and that you are excited for the New Year!

We got the double windows removed, the new French doors in and the water pipe capped (the water pipe came out where the new French doors are) over the Christmas holiday. This New Year’s weekend we removed the two windows and door from the west side of the room, got it all sealed back up, installed a new window and got 2 of the 3 sections of the popcorn ceiling removed. I did get a new ceiling fan ordered and 8 pendant lights which should be arriving in the next couple of weeks which will be perfect timing. It will take next weekend to get the first coat of mudding on, and finish the remainder of the popcorn ceiling removal. Then fingers crossed we will be ready the weekend after that to texture the room. We are getting there!!!

This the brace to keep the ceiling up as we took out these windows and needed to reenforce the area for the door.

Notice at the top the reinforcement, so we could remove the ceiling brace to install the doors.

Doors installed

West wall – before, we took out the windows and this door and closed it in with just a window where the door is now.

Outside looking in – this is now closed up and just a window.

Basically a completed view – just needed to do the side where the single door is (which is above where we removed it and put in a window).

Popcorn ceiling removed on 2 of 3 sections

I wanted to include this picture, this is the very top section of the ceiling that bumps up to the upstairs walkway. The builders did not texture the wall here, instead just had it popcorn textured and ran a brush over it. Needless to say, it all fell off with just touching it. Thank goodness we are doing it all over again!

And we are back at it…

I was still sore last weekend, so we didn’t get a lot accomplished and by the time I should have sat down to write the blog, my shoulder and arm were just over doing anything. However, I’m feeling much better now! Still have the tingling in a couple fingers, but I don’t feel like I can’t lift anything, so we jumped back into things this weekend. Chad worked most of the day Saturday, so pretty much Sunday work, but happy with the progress. Last weekend we got new wiring ran, decided to replace the old insulation and got the patio pad poured. This weekend, the sheetrock went up and we pulled down the temp wall that led into the hallway so we could put up sheetrock to close that off. We did take out some sheetrock on the wall that bumps up to the kitchen. I wanted to open up that wall – for an open floor design. We knew it was a load bearing wall, which meant we would have to reinforce it. What did we find instead… the upstairs sewage lines and water lines. That answers that question, that wall cannot be opened up. There is no way I’m up to messing with moving those lines. We have the kitchen and master bath water/sewage lines to play with, so I opted to give up that designing makeover dream (the opening of the kitchen to living room).

Next weekend we will be in San Antonio so I most likely won’t have an update. We do plan on working on both Dec 24-25 as Ciera is spending the weekend with us in San Antonio and therefore spending the holiday with her boyfriends family. I asked Chad what he wanted for his birthday (12/24) and what he wanted to do for Christmas, he said work on the house. So we will be working on the house. I’m dreaming of a completed remodel (like of I’m dreaming of a white Christmas). Look for an update then after Christmas!

patio pad poured. The new door is to be ready for pick up on 12/21!

New wiring on the wall that doesn’t have the black insulation. New insulation in this side wall and then replace what is on the back wall (got rid of the insulation in black).

This is the living room looking into the hallway – framing so we could put up sheetrock.

Sheetrock on the fireplace wall and the wall that will become the entertainment center.

This is the hallway looking into the living room (if you could see in there). What is the blue tape for? To help keep any dust from coming through until we are ready to tape it properly for mudding/texturing.

Crushed designing dream – not even going to try and move all of those lines to open up the wall between the living room and kitchen.