Amidst all the other day to day activities, we decided to remodel our living room. The original plan was to take down the wallpaper, add texture, and paint. Well, you know how home improvement projects seem to grow...
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| Before: Notice the Grass cloth wallpaper and dark paneling. |
Removing the wallpaper didn't work out so well. It was 4 layers thick in half the room and on top of a nice texture in the other half. Not much chance of getting all the paper off or matching the texture that already existed.
So we decided to gut the room down to the studs:
That's when we discovered there is no insulation in the outside walls of this house. So, we added new insulation before putting the new drywall up. We also replaced all the 2 prong outlets for 3 prong and put in new light switches.
Next came texturing and painting the walls. We added a personal touch by putting the girls' hand prints in the texture.
We stained and installed new baseboards and door facings to match the old crown molding (which we reinstalled.)
We also decided to get rid of the 1960's avocado green circle glass panel by the front door and put some glass block in it's place. (This is the only part of the job we hired someone else to do.) And yes, we do plan on painting the front door one of these days, also.
Finally, we were able to clean it all up and put our living room back together. We still need to find some new curtains, but we think it turned out great!
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| The Final Product |
I want to extend a special thank you to my dad for all the hard work and endless hours he put into this project. It would not have been possible without him. Thanks also to my mom for letting him spend all that time at our house. Thanks to my husband for all his hard work and dedication and putting up with the mess and stress. Thanks to my children for finding a way to play without getting hurt or making a bigger mess than we had already made.
It was a much bigger job than we originally planned, but I'm very pleased with the results!
