The Husbear got home from work early today and pulled more of the downstairs bedroom apart. He pulled the Sheetrock from the wall, and under that was (mostly) old tongue-and-groove boarding that had been wallpapered over many times in the past. At some point in the past, there must have been some damage of some sort, as a large section had been replaced with apparently whatever they could find at the time. Pulling off some of the boards to check out what the insulation was like, we discovered there was no insulation in the walls at all! That would explain why it was so cold in that room last winter. We just thought it was because the ghosts stay in that room!

We were going to do the downstairs bathroom next, however we have skipped it and started working on the downstairs bedroom. Since we have moved in over year ago, the floor has had a “bounce” to it. So, we’re pulling up the floor and starting from the ground up. The previous owner had carpeted over press board that was laid on top of plastic that was over the original wood flooring. There was mold between the plastic and the press board, so it all had to be removed.

Our first inside project. The pictures show how the living room appeared before and as it does now (more or less).

We don’t know which set of previous owners put up the wood paneling, but someone eventually tired of it and just painted over it instead of removing it. We ripped down all the wood paneling, and found three of the existing walls had been sheet-rocked, and the fourth wall was done in all wood tongue-and-groove boards, some parts of it still having old wallpaper on it. This was a surprise for us. We knew the upstairs floors were tongue-and-groove, but we had no idea any of the walls were done that way.

We had originally talked about pulling down all the drywall, and refinishing the tongue-and-groove walls, but due to financial restraints at the time, decided against it. Instead, we put up sheetrock and finished it out. We might one day go back and strip everything back to the tongue-and-groove, but that probably won’t be for a while.

Living Room, Before:

Living Room, After:

Kitchen, Before:

As you can see from the pictures, the kitchen was in a pretty sad state. For the Husbear, this is the most important room in the house, since he’s always wanted a well-designed, fully-functional kitchen that was built the way he wanted it. So we spent a lot of time designing the “perfect” kitchen for him.

We started by pulling out all the hodge-podge of cabinets, the lone light fixture and remaining appliances, and then pulling up the linoleum from the floor and the paneling that was on the walls.

I then ran additional electric outlets (there was only one in the whole kitchen!). And I extended the wall the sink is on an additional foot to account for the dishwasher we would be installing, and then put up new sheetrock. We painted the kitchen a color called “Cricket Green,” with cobalt blue and white accent colors. We then laid down new floor tile. After that, we installed new cabinets, countertops and appliances.

We still have a few finishing touches to do for the kitchen. We’ll be turning the area that’s currently the laundry room into a pantry (one can never have too much kitchen storage space!). And, we still haven’t found a hood for the stove that we like. We may just end up having one custom made.

Kitchen, After:

Well, since I’m such a handy-man (snicker!), the Husbear and I have been doing a lot of renovations around the house. So far, we’ve gutted the living room and redone it, and we’re now almost done with the kitchen and dining room. I’ll have some before-and-after pictures on here before long, I hope. The only big problem with being out here is the internet connection–there isn’t one. Well, there is, but it’s via dial-up, and only up to 33Kbps! Argh!