Post party post

So...we have been intentionally holding back until we had the big 142nd birthday party and could reveal the house to family and friends. For the last two months we have been working at a furious pace attempting to get things done for the party. We were able to finish the two upstairs bedrooms, the stairway, and the "Landing," as we are now referring to the new TV room. We're taking a well deserved break and figuring out what to tackle next.

Our bedroom closet

Our bedroom

The landing, the photo does not do justice to the blue accent wall

The landing

The "green room," which does not photograph well

The "green room," before we added furniture

Thanks to everyone who helped us along the way, we could not have done it without you!

Saying Goodbye to the Mini-Master Bedroom

Very soon we are moving upstairs to our NEW Master Bedroom, and we're thinking about the past projects in our downstairs "temporary" bedroom. Since we spend so much time in this room, it got a lot of attention early on. When we bought the house, it had been Mama Arnold's bedroom and was in serious need of a face lift. The walls were an anemic shade of purple, the trim was white in places, and the floor was covered in a lovely green area rug with a cutout or the air vent.

The before, note the walls, trim, and rug

We started by painting the walls a crisp shade of light blue and the trim a clean, consistent white. We tried to install more electric outlets, the room had zero to start with, and found that the exterior walls had been filled with clay blocks as a firestop/insulation method. This is the 147 year old section of the house and we were lucky that this was all we found in the walls. We were able to install three outlets and we eventually installed a switch for the overhead light and ceiling fan. Hello twenty-first century!

To create a sense of privacy, we reframed the existing large entry and installed French doors with trim that we found to match what was left of the original trim in the adjacent "parlor."

The doors shortly after install, the trim is not done

We pulled out the old area rug and found the previous floor treatment - a lovely tarpaper that was hard to part with. We went with a wood laminate that we installed ourselves - of course. It was a fun-filled weekend with a lot of sore, bruised knees and aching backs.

Brew and Frank on the new floor

Lessons learned: Engineered flooring is not as durable as the fake laminate when it comes to dog nails, it's impossible to wire with clay in the walls, and small rooms DO NOT equal small projects.

Items found: Probably some junk we can't remember and the clay blocks in the wall.

Thank you: Jason for helping with the electrical and Amanda and the rest of the move-in-and-paint crew!