A Tale of Two Rooms - Part 2

When we moved into our house (8/17/2005), we knew there were a lot of things that needed our attention, and we've been working on them whenever we had the time and money.  Our first thing was gutting the kitchen and putting up fire-code sheet rock, new cabinets/counter/sink, and new flooring....well, we've progressed to the point where all the bedrooms are "ok" (Thomas' still needs a new paint job and ours still needs to have the rest of the wallpaper installed, but other than that...), the tv room has the fire-code sheet rock and was repainted, the former master bedroom was turned into my sewing/work room.....and earlier this summer, we had a new fence installed.  Phew....that's actually quite a lot to do over 8 years, but no, we aren't done yet.

Rebekah had asked for a big girl room (see part 1) and Ken was ready to finish up the space over the garage that would be his work room, quiet place, place away from the family when he needs to de-stress and think without interruption.  While I worked on redoing Rebekah's room, Ken finished priming and got all the painting done in his room, so that as soon as I was finished with purple, I could move right over and we could get started on turning that formerly empty space into a Victorian themed office.....it's been a LONG journey, but we are almost finished.............

 Both of these were taken while looking up from the garage - notice how there is a lovely hole into the room - when we first looked at the house (and when we first moved in) the only way to get up there was by using an extension ladder.  Also notice how there is NO insulation of any kind....subfloor and wall studs were all that were in place.....these were taken in October 2005.

 Sheet rock going up, yes, there is insulation being put in before we do the sheet rock, Rebekah was helping move things....in this she is 7 years old and Thomas was somewhere in there helping as well - you can see one of the Morris chairs that I will be refinishing.

 Half wall that Ken built - there is storage behind it - needed to have something there because of how steep the wall/ceiling was on that side

Door into our room from the office - yes, I had a GREAT time knocking that hole in the wall...jumping front kick got it started...lol

Primer going up...last picture was the last bit of ceiling that I needed to sand before the priming could be finished, and the picture above it is the "vent hole" which actually blows the air directly at a small wall {sigh}...but the room seems to hold heat well, so we shall see what it is like in the winter.

Paint going up on the walls - Ken was doing this while I was up to my neck in purple, black, and white...lol...nothing like being productive :-)

 19 cases of flooring - 21.46 square feet per case at {gasp} $41.66 each....we had 2 full cases left over, so I was able to return them and since I bought 3 cases from the store instead of through special order, I could return my 2 without paying a restocking fee..woohoo!!

 Wallpaper going up....the last picture still makes me laugh....was going right along with the wallpaper when I realized that we hadn't stained the door yet....whoops!

 More pictures of the flooring and the various tools and furniture we were working around - again because we had no other place to put them.

The lovely 3-in-1 underlayment (cushioning, noise barrier, sound barrier)...not as difficult to work with as I had anticipated, but my opinion was based solely on the lovely green plastic stuff that was available when we put the flooring down in my sewing room...ugh.

 Pretty sure we BOTH looked like this at the end of every day :-)

 allen & roth Kettle Pine flooring from Lowe's

 Door in process...looks really nice all finished...it was done this way because Ken wasn't sure if there was enough stain in our first can....but it all worked out in the end.

 Cruising right along with the flooring

 Finished door and wallpaper...next time, I'll make sure there's an extra set of hands to help me get the paper in place

 Flooring progress.  The first picture shows where we had the work table for most of this - on the platform that will hold the Victorian sofa....the next to last shows that I tried to get as much flooring in place before we had to move the sofa, and the last shows the little gold circle that covers the floor outlet which will be under Ken's desk (once we get it moved in).

 Finished sofa platform - stair nose, quarter round...woohoo!!

 Chair rail to the left of the windows - stained by the children, installed by the parents

 looking down at the finished sofa platform, then looking from that platform over to the door at the other platform (which is practically invisible due to the sunlight and the dog).

 Baseboard and quarter round trim along the back wall of the office - directly across from the doorway.  The white area to the right of the bottom picture will be another storage area.

 Baseboard, quarter round, sofa platform, and chair rail to the left of the windows.

 Chair rail to the right of the windows

 Curtain rod and curtains are up...this was pretty much the last thing done last night (other than clean up)

 Reading alcove with sofa skeleton in top picture, and bottom picture with the temporary cover (snowflake comforter that we've had since New York), Ken and Barklay.

 The Morris chair that has been in my family for generations, an old radio that Ken is thinking of tinkering with, and the 2 black cases next to the radio hold OLD typewriters - the ones where each letter had a key, not a disc or bulb or anything like that

 The reading alcove - spooky shot because of how the light was reflecting - both Morris chairs that I will be refinishing and the sofa skeleton.

 The second Morris chair...seat frame was redone incorrectly (totally my fault) so I will rebuild that completely when I start refinishing it.

Last pictures of the evening...taken from the doorway into the room.  First is Ken trying to sweep up as much sawdust and scrap bits as possible before using the vacuum and then the Swiffer, and the bottom shot was over towards the reading alcove.

For all intents and purposes, we could say that the room is ready to have furniture moved in (book shelves, desk, etc.)...only thing is that we are on the hunt for the "right"pieces.  I'm pretty sure that Ken will move in the current furniture and be happy with it until we find what we want in there.  And there's still the matter of the ceiling.  Right now it's still "primer white" while we try and decide what we want to do....and since we don't have the ceiling in place, the cove molding will be stashed away for the time being (don't want to install it only to have to take it down when we put the ceiling up).....we still have the casing to go around the windows, but that needs to be stained, so that is the goal for this coming weekend....nothing urgent really, and our aching bodies need a few days of rest before doing more work like this.

So...that's what the past few weeks have been filled with for me....I told Ken he'd be in the office by October and dang it if he isn't...so happy that he'll have his space, proud of myself that I was able to take his idea and make it a reality, and so tired from working as fast as possible to get it done.

Well, it's been a little while, and YES, I do have updated pictures that show off the new tables and rug...and how Ken has set up his room:

 
The top picture is looking in from the doorway so you can see his table/desk and the chairs and table set up for the chess set...whenever we find one that he likes.  Originally, he wanted a circular table....this one was better...and was found locally :-)

The second picture shows the table I found for near the sofa...it had to be tall, but not too wide, and I totally forgot to take measurements with me, but it turned out to be just perfect for where it needed to go.

The last picture is to give a better shot of the area rug that we ended up with.  The one we found a while ago is no longer carried in store, and I didn't want to have to order online and have it take forever to get here, especially since Ken was making noises about moving everything in (I did NOT want additional scratches on the floor!!), so Thomas and I found this one and thought it worked nicely with the overall feel of the room....yeah, who am I kidding...I liked it because it had the room colors in it, but was lighter so the room didn't feel so much like a tomb.

SO....for now, this is the end of Ken's office work...eventually I will get the last bit of baseboard and quarter-round trim installed (need to buy another piece...but that can wait a while) and we will install the cove trim once we've decided on the ceiling...but the room is usable and when the door is closed I can't hear the nonsense and Trek-chat when he's online :-D