Almost Finished Product

Ok! Here it is. Cass and I, over the winter, did some work to the fireplace room that made some big changes to how the room looks now.

We bought some moulding to wrap the sliding door with. Since I had received a miter saw for Christmas, I decided there really was no good reason that I shouldn't finish that door so we could hang up some curtains and hopefully stop some of the warm air in the house from escaping through the great big glass wall in the family room. We painted the moulding the same color as the wall since it was mostly going to be covered by the curtains anyway. But wow, when we got that installed, it was amazing the difference. The room instantly looked and felt closer to being finished. I was really happy with how the miters turned out, too. Since I'd never done a mitered corner, I wasn't sure how they would turn out.

Cass and I used some of our Christmas gift money to buy some new curtains and a new rug for the room that went well with the colors we picked out for the fireplace wall which is a smoky blue and khaki for the other walls. We installed the curtains on a dual curtain rod setup so the blue panels and the brown panels are on separate curtain rods. That way they can retract farther to the right which makes using the sliding door a lot easier. It was awesome how similar the blue of the curtains was to the blue on our wall. Plus, it matched the blue in the awesome area rug we found. So, here's a good look at how the room looks now. We haven't installed the mantle, base boards, or crown moulding yet but we'll be starting those soon.

Still Working on the Fireplace

Well, Cass and I took a break from working on the fireplace room for a while, but I also forgot to blog about it. We got the Fireplace installed as you saw from my last post from November last year. Right after installing it, I had my Dad (Eaton) come over to help tile around the fireplace. We found this tile edge that you can use as a transition between carpet and tile since we wanted to have a foot wide hearth. So, I had to get hack saw to cut that stuff and boy was it scary cutting out that chunk of carpet. That was another "no turning back" moment!

Dad, my master tile installer, pretty much handled the tile installation while I helped when he needed a hand and he showed me how it works. I think it'd be cool to tile the Kitchen someday! Who knows? The tiling job seemed to go well, no major trouble. The biggest obstacle we faced was finding a way to hold up the tiles that were put in right above the fireplace itself. We didn't have any tiles below to support it, so we taped them to the wall and let them dry. It worked out good. Thankfully, it doesn't take too long for the mortar to dry, so we were able to continue. Cass and I picked out a special decorative tile to dress up the row of tile directly above the fireplace. Once we get the mantle up, it should look real nice. the hard part has actually been DOING the mantle. We haven't even started making it yet. I just recently got all the tools I think I'll need to do it, so we should be starting that soon. I'll try to blog about that a little sooner than it took me to get around to this, though!

Here's a few more pics from the day we installed the tile. I also put in a light fixture and Cass started priming the walls.








I'll post another entry soon showing everything we've done up to date on the room.

Fire!! On the wall!

Well if you hadn't already guessed it, Cass and I were busy installing a fireplace in the family room this past weekend. We had her Dad come out and spend the night at our place on Friday night so we could get started on it first thing Saturday morning. I woke up at 6:30am, he and I had a quick breakfast, and we dove right into the project around 7:30ish! We didn't start making noise with the power tools until 8am, though.

Dad B. started prepping to cut the hole in the side of the house so he could then start framing for the fireplace. Before we could really get started on anything, he needed me to go to the hardware store to get some nails, screws, etc. A list of like 3 things. So I go down to the local Ace Hardware in Ypsilanti. Dad B. calls me while I'm at the hardware store with a list of lumber that I needed to get since I hadn't bought quite enough before the weekend. So that added another 5 or 6 things to the list for which I needed to go to Lowes to get. So I went there, got the stuff, and loaded up the truck only to find that I left my phone in the truck while I was in there. Cass and Dad B. had been trying to call me because there were more things I needed to grab. D'OH! (Cass took several pictures of her Dad on the phone talkin' with me since that seemed to be the trend that morning.)

So I go back into Lowes, buy THAT stuff, load up the truck AGAIN, and guess what....NOPE! Lol. Dad B. didn't call again, I forgot to grab the little red tags you tack to the back of lumber when you have it loaded in the truck. So I had to go back into Lowes. Oy vey!

By the time I finally left Lowes, it was about 10am. Dad B. had the hole in the wall knocked out by 9:45, so unfortunately I missed that exciting part, but when I got back there was a 4 by 5 foot hole in my house! That was pretty wild! I think it would have been fun to be on the outside of the house watching as Dad kicked the wall out after cutting it out, but I was too busy running in and out of Lowes! Lol. Oh well.

So the rest of the day basically consisted of Dad B. doing the installation with me helping from time to time if he needed an extra hand. The rest of Cass's family came over around lunchtime and Chad and I hung drywall. Here's a few more pictures of the process...









Dad B. got the chase for the fireplace finished and the gas line installed just before sundown! Good timing, eh? After actually positioning the fireplace, hooking up the power, switches, and gas line we gave it a whirl and WHAMMO, we had fire! Pretty groovy! I think it looks really nice too!

I spent the next day painting the exterior of the chase so that I'd actually have daylight to do it in as opposed to trying to paint it after work with the sun already down. I also installed some of the cement board for the tile that we're going to surround the fireplace with until my utility knife broke! Oh well, I only have a 6.5" by 3' piece of cement board left to install so as soon as I can get a new knife I'll be golden. Next weekend, my Dad and I are going to put up the tile and hopefully we'll have most of the room done by Thanksgiving. We'll see!

Renovation of the Family Room...

Well, we finally started our first major renovation. When we first moved into the house the closest thing to "demo" that we did involved removing the baseboards so we didn't paint over them and remove wallpaper. This time we're actually taking down some wood paneling and completely replacing the drywall on the largest wall in the family room.

We're not big fans of wood paneling. Especially paneling that's been painted over! To us, that's just a lame way of covering up the fact that you don't like your house's 70's decor. Heh heh! Cass and I actually started tearing down the wood paneling week before last just to see what it looked like behind the wood paneling. Thankfully, we didn't open a can of worms that we couldn't handle in doing so.

This past Friday we were able to get the rest of the wood paneling down and on Saturday we got the drywall on the big wall down.




After we got the paneling and the drywall down, we noticed that the home builders had framed out an area for a fireplace! (Hmmm...wonder if that might come in handy someday.)

The last thing we did was put in a new leg to the family room's power circuit for some new overhead lighting WITH a dimmer switch and something else...you'll find out what it is soon enough.

The wiring went well. I took a stab at putting it in on Saturday, but for some reason at the end of the day I was only getting voltage to the power for the "something else" not the overhead lighting. On Sunday I bought a new junction box and redid the wiring and this time it worked. Got power successfully to both legs. I know it worked because I have a volt meter and I tested it lol! I was so proud of myself. This was a first for me, and I actually did it!

More to come soon. Stay Tuned!