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Renovation - where to start?

34K views 495 replies 24 participants last post by  peanut 
#1 ·
Can anyone help me? We have a lot of work to do on our property. We need:

~ a new garage (our sill is under water for a few months of the year and the shingles are non-existent. This is a 1950s wonder.)
~ a mature 50' tree 10' from our foundation removed.
~ a new fence
~ a new kitchen (will need to be gutted)
~ new entryway (will need to be gutted)
~ refinished hardwood throughout, with some baseboard replaced,
~ and a structural engineer in to check our basement, which appears to be moving (as most homes in the area are!)

What order would you do these in?

The structural engineer wants us to gut the basement before he comes to look at it. Unfortunately for him we have a boarder staying there. We could move her upstairs, but that would mean emptying out my sewing studio. I could bring some of it to the main floor, but the reality is the rest of the basement has to be stored somewhere on site so we can access hubby's tools for the reno (we will be doing some of it). That seems to push the garage to the forefront of projects to be done. What do you all think?
 
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#106 ·
Having a heckuva time getting the backing and glue from the linoleum flooring up. Phoned the store I'm renting the machine that takes up the glue from, and they said it will also take up the backing, no problem.

So I left that and went on to preparing the ceiling and walls for painting. Everything has been primed with TSP. Now to wait till it dries and tape off all the areas I don't want painted. Hopefully the primer will go on this afternoon.

I must get out the vacuum and vacuum the area. I hope I don't wreck my back with it! Believe it or not, vacuuming is the worst thing out of all this. It's heavy and it's bending to the side, which are both bad for me.
 
#107 ·
Friend is over painting the cracks in the ceiling. I had a bit of a rest. :) Gotta love friends! :fdance: :fdance: :fdance:

Need to pick up new brushes when I go pick up the machine to scrape the floor. My cheap bristle ones aren't working very well according to my friend.

Cleaned out the hallway too, so I can finish scraping that floor for hubby too.
 
#108 ·
Well the floor scraper thingie was a bust. Doesn't really do much at all. Takes the backing paper off, but not the glue/adhesive. Also gouges the floor. My friend had to use it because I am too short to get it up at the proper angle to remove anything. Hubby will not be impressed with the floor situation. :( I decided to leave it till the end to work on. Tomorrow my friend is back and will use the machine some more, but I honestly don't hold out much hope for it.

My friend painted the ceiling and high parts and I painted the low parts. The primer coat is ON! Taking a break for supper and then I'll decide what to do next. The house is a mess!

One thing I will say...the entryway looks much better painted white. :)
 
#110 ·
One thing I will say...the entryway looks much better painted white. :)
The month before our wedding, DH decided to update the front entryway so it would 'look' better vs living in an 80's retro pistachio green/beigy peach colored wallpaper. We scrapped it all off and painted it white. A warm white. WOW does that ever update the house and it IS much brighter and cleaner in appearance. I hope you keep it very light and bright in there so that any light that comes in, reflects all around! :)

Also - I didn't even notice you had a green ceiling in there, its kinda cool but that does give the impression of being in a box with the lid closing down on you AND absorbing any light reflection. Goodbye green ceiling is right!

Your progress pics look great peanut!! Keep up the great work!
 
#109 ·
Okay. Picture time! Before and midway pictures. Still need to do the finish coat. It already looks a lot better in there! Also need to put on the pre-primed trim before the final coat.

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Property Fixture Door Wood Floor
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This is two coats of primer! One can did the space twice with some leftover. Sure like not having a green ceiling in there! Hubby will be disappointed though. He wanted to keep it and repaint it! No chance man...

The floor is a bit of a downer though. It's in rough shape. I'm leaving it for my friend to work on.
 
#111 ·
Wow! peanut! great job!..
ya, having a green ceiling is like.. idunno.. living in a coffin? lol

But really - what a difference a coat of paint makes.
Sorry about the floor. wish it was nice and easy for you. It will be worth the pain in the end.

Carry on!
 
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#112 ·
Very nice, and what a big difference! I bet it even smells like progress in there! Love the smell of new paint. Not good for me, I know, but it just seems like a fresh, clean smell.

I hope C likes the changes. I bet he'll like the white ceiling when he sees how it makes the space seem bigger.
 
#113 ·
It looks much nicer now we've put the finish coat on and everything is back in the closet. Tomorrow I'll hang the artwork and mirror and take new pics for you.

I've decided to leave the lighting (electrical) for hubby to do. As well as the baseboards and floor. Still not sure about the "feature wall". Will see what hubby thinks when he gets home.

When we returned the floor scrapper I complained to the woman at the shop that it chewed up our floor and that I could not use it at all because I was too short. She commented about two blades should be able to do the work. My friend, who was with me, quickly interjected there was only one blade on the thing. The store clerk was mystified and was going to talk to the owner of the store about it. She knows I am not pleased. I told her I was not happy my husband would be coming home to a ruined floor. She took my name. We'll see how good their customer service is...
 
#114 ·
So here is everything put back together. Everything looks so small in that room now. The painting looks too small and low to the floor. The 'welcome' sign looks too small. The mirror looks great! I am thinking of adding some hooks above the bench. What do you think?

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As you can see in the floor picture...it's a MESS! DH is NOT going to be happy about that! :sigh: Basically I'm leaving electrical, flooring and baseboards to him. The electrical is all here, just needs to be installed. He could do that his next two days off. I left the light dangling on purpose. Means he's more likely to get to it because he'll view it as a hazard. ;) We'll see. If he doesn't get to it, guess I'll be learning electrical!

I also left the trim on the door into the hallway up to DH to finish. The wall is 6 3/4" thick. I'd have to rip something on a table saw to cover it and I don't feel confident using the table saw.
 
#119 ·
Okay. Time for the accounting. Total cost so far is $597.86. Of that $322.00 was the new door hardware, covered by our C&H account. Leaving the remaining $275.86 to come from grocery money or jars...wherever I can pilfer from. Actually, I've paid cash for all but $161.83. I should be able to pilfer that before my CC bill comes. If not, well it can come from the C&H account like it's supposed to! I have a couple 8' lengths of door trim to return. That will net a refund of $40.

What needs to be purchased...

~ bifold doors
~ trim around door to hallway
~ floor finish
~ baseboards

In progress...lighting...
 
#121 ·
Fantastic! What a difference!

I think the welcome sign looks right. Once you get the trim around the door, that'll make the space where the welcome sign is smaller so the sign will be more to scale.

I think a coat rack on the wall where the picture is for guest coats would be very useful. Also, then if the closet is full or a little bit untidy, you wouldn't have to open the doors (when you get doors.) And you'd be able to use all the closet space for yourselves and not have to reserve any space for guests.
 
#122 ·
The coat rack behind the door sounds like a plan. I'd have to get a different type of door stop. My friend mentioned one that attaches to the door, rather than the floor behind the door. I think that kind of door stop would keep the door from banging into the hooks.

I may put one of my many pieces of artwork above the bench. I have lots to frame. Or maybe hang a rug or two! :)
 
#124 ·
I have one of those doorstops on the door to my office, which has bifold doors behind it. I can't use a door stop on the floor because the bi-fold wouldn't open then. It's very easy to install on the hinge pin and not very expensive. You might want to get that first and see how far it allows the door to open, then select a coat rack that would work with whatever the swing of the door ends up being.
 
#125 ·
Hubby came home, opened the front door, and laughed. That's a good sign! Of course after some discussion he was still talking about ripping the whole thing out and starting from scratch. The floor is the issue. It's laid underneath the closet and he thinks the floor needs to be lifted and replaced. He did agree the white made it much brighter and lighter.

He lamented the loss of the green ceiling, saying he thought I was the one who liked the green ceiling! :lol: The tricks our mind will play sometimes when we want something badly. He was talking about repainting it green to 'give the room some colour'. Over my dead body!

The floor ... There are two options as I see it: paint the sucker or lay linoleum. Linoleum is too cheap for this neighborhood, especially for a front entry. Most of the homes in this neighborhood have marble or hardwood. Man! I wish we hadn't bought in such an upscale neighborhood! Personally, I'm bucking for a paint job. We're already heading in the "country" decorating direction.

Hubby says he'll do the electric and make nice trim for the doors...eventually. :sigh: I've been waiting 18 years. I pointed that out to him and he wasn't too happy. I told him I left it and the baseboards because I didn't want to use the table saw without him there. He was thankful for that, and the fact I didn't do the electrical!
 
#126 ·
We have those hinge door stop thingies in the bathroom. They are fabulous!

I think that painting the floor, especially if you are talented and can make it look fancy, would be the best choice. I have seen some really cool floors. One person painted it to look like tile.
 
#128 ·
And the electrical is done! Hubby just finished installing the light and switching out the switches. We have one switch with no power going to it, and another that looks like it's a 3 way switch, but we don't know where to. I'm a bit nervous about the electrical in this house, but as hubby says "it hasn't burned down yet!" And we haven't seen any signs of trouble anywhere really. As long as all the lines are dead, I suppose we're okay. I think the power to the outside light also goes to the outside plug.

Right now we're going to return the door trim I can't use, and look at a better shoe rack. Hubby didn't like the one we bought the other day. He's willing to shell out $150 on a seat with shoe rack beneath. Hmm... Then it's on to dealing with the floor. We're thinking about that for awhile.
 
#129 ·
You have to be careful when you buy laminate. We have laminate in our LR and bedroom and if it gets even a few drops of liquid on it, it bubbles up. We're ticked about that because it wasn't cheap.

Maybe you could compromise on the ceiling and put in a lighter green, something to give the area some color but not so dark it makes the ceiling seem lower.
 
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