Not to sound like a broken record but not a lot has changed with the house since our last blog entry. Partly because of Clemson's shockingly successful football season thus far, but also because the gung-ho, let's-get-this-thing-done mentality has worn off a little. We accomplished a lot in a short amount of time, and I guess, we decided we deserved a break. And what better way to do that than to completely engross ourselves in college football!? Since we're settled and not in a rush, we're both content to keep the house projects on the back burner until the regular season finishes up in the first of December.
Though the projects aren't chugging out at the initial rate, we are getting things done here and there. The Den is our current room of interest and here's a look at what's been happening between commercial breaks...
First, it may help to have a little reminder of what the Den looked like Before:
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| View of the large wall-to-wall built-ins before |
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| Small built-ins before |
Our first plan of action on the Den was to remove both sets of dated built-in cabinetry fixtures. They weren't pretty and they didn't really suit our needs because the large built-in was made for a tiny, old-school, boxy-type TV and our big flat screen TV wouldn't fit on it. So we chose to simply tear them out. Well, it should have been simple.
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| Demo-ing the uuu-gly built-ins |
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| Almost gone and a sneaking suspicion arises... |
And what do you know, we've got problems.
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| And it's confirmed |
The hard wood floors do not extend beneath the cabinetry leaving a section of exposed subfloor and the ceiling is missing its popcorn texture leaving a section of unfinished sheetrock where the upper cabinets had been.
So we will have to bring in someone to add hard wood and finish it to blend with the existing stain and finish, as well as, someone to patch and blend the ceiling. This unexpected bump in the road is a bummer because it's going to slow us down and eat in to our already stretched budget for this room. To keep on track, we went ahead and begain priming what we could while we arrange for the repairs.
At this point, I am already really excited about the future of this room because the primer alone makes the room feel brighter and a lot less dungeon-like.
Once the priming, trim painting, and ceiling and floor repairs are finished we are going to be installing a natural grass-cloth wallpaper to conceal the paneling grooves. The paper will be very similar to this one :
Then we will be installing a built-in desk with cabinets above it where the smaller set of cabinets used to be to the left of the fireplace. To finish the room, we will be transforming the fireplace but in what way, we haven't really decided on. We are not in love with the stone or it's assymetrical layout but finances will probably limit and control what we are able to do. At the very least, we will be painting it and giving it a new mantle but we are still searching for other budget-friendly solutions.
We are both anxious to have this room completed so that when we have guests over we have something other than canvas tailgating chairs to offer them!!
