Before and 'Somewhat' After Photos

I thought I would share some before and after photos of the deck/closet area. I still can't believe how different things feel and I'm extremely attached to this new closet and don't think I'll ever be able to leave....ever! Haha!

Exterior Deck View

Interior View

Exterior Ground View

 

On Friday, Doug stopped by in the late afternoon and started hanging the closet door. They got the door hung, but need to build a floating jamb, nail the trim work and attach the baseboards. These last steps are sl..ow..ly coming together.

Yesterday Mike's parents came down for the day to help us out with assembling the interior of the closet. We spent most of the day working on that and we thank Sherman for his hard work, skills, and knowledge, and Ruth for her help and keeping us sane with goodies and supper. The shelving, rods, and brackets are all installed and it actually looks like a closet! I'm SOOOOO excited! I will actually have a place to put my clothes, rather than piles on the floor or in the basement.

Once the door, trim work, and baseboards are in I will post the finished product! We have photos we took yesterday of our work and will share those as well with the finished product!

We still have the exterior painting to complete on the new masonite siding so if anyone has the itch to paint and come to Carroll - feel free! :)

Thanks for reading!

 

Carpet and Weekend Visitors

The carpet is in!

The carpet guy was here at 8:30 on Friday morning and was finished by 10:45. He installed the carpet in the spare bedroom and closet, and the walk-in closet in our bedroom.

We are very pleased with the look of it. It makes the room feel completely different. We even debated taking the spare bedroom for ourselves since it smelled so clean and new and looked so great! Of course, with the new walk-in closet in the other bedroom that didn't make much sense!

They told us to just leave the baseboards on and he could install the new carpet with no problem. So that's what we did. Well, the previous owners painted the baseboards, which were stained wood, white (without removing the baseboards from the wall). So they only painted what parts of the baseboards were showing above the carpet. The old carpet was actually slightly thicker than the new carpet, therefore, with the new carpet in, you could see easily see the baseboards were 3/4 white and 1/4 wood stained. Ugh! Of course it wasn't a perfect line of where they had painted and where they hadn't. I didn't get a picture of it because I was embarrassed because it looked horrible. So I spent Friday afternoon taping the new carpet and painting the bottom parts of the baseboards white that were showing the wood stain still. What tedious work! I had to use one of my small craft paintbrushes because it was so close to the carpet and such a small line all around but still very noticeable.

Thank goodness it actually work out and made a huge difference! You can't even tell in the photos below. I wish I had a before photo to show you how big of a difference it made.

Enjoy the photos!

Spare bedroom with new carpet

Spare bedroom with new carpet before it's put back together

Spare bedroom view from hallway with new carpet

Spare bedroom with new carpet
(we had to empty the closet for carpet installation, it's full again now,
but soon to be empty with the new walk-in!)

Spare bedroom with new carpet

Spare bedroom with new carpet and somewhat put back together

Walk-in closet with new carpet

Walk-in closet with new carpet

We are just waiting for Doug to come back with the door and trim-work that he has stained and then Saturday we will have Mike's parents down to help us install the shelving, rods, and brackets! I know what I'll be doing Sunday - putting our closet to good use with all my our clothes and shoes!!

I'll be posting 'Before and After' photos soon and then hopefully a completely finished closet within the next week! Thanks for following our project!

I also wanted to share some photos of our visitors we had this weekend! We ended up working late into the night on Friday night to get the house back in order for our cousins Holly, Ryan and their boy Tate. They had a newly carpeted room all to themselves! Thought I would share a few photos from our weekend together.

Tate really enjoyed giving Bella treats
(Bella definitely got her fill)

Tate tried so hard to put her collar on

Tate trying to reason with Bella about putting the collar on

He just loved putting on my shoes
(tried on my flip flops, slippers, and tennis shoes)

What a funny boy! Too cute!

What a catch! Fishing at Swan Lake in Carroll

Mommy and Tate fishing - he just wanted to cast it over and over and over...

Checking out the baby fish they caught!

 

Preparation for Carpet!

Last night (Thursday night) we spent the evening preparing for the carpet. After Mike got done at the school, one of his friends/coworkers came by to help us out. We got the furniture all cleared out and got a couple quick pictures of the empty room and old carpet.
 

Spare bedroom with old carpet

Spare bedroom with old carpet

The guys getting pumped to rip out carpet - called it 'man work'

Spare bedroom closet where carpet was missing
because of wall removal for bigger closet

The guys worked pretty quickly and were able to get the carpet and padding out in no time. I helped some, but it was pretty disgusting - tons of dust and dirt pieces or something! The old carpet was stained pretty bad and also had blackening around the edges. Very happy to have that gone!

Spare bedroom with no carpet/padding

Spare bedroom with no carpet/padding

Spare bedroom with no carpet/padding

We also got started on the painting in the walk-in closet. We decide to go with white because it would allow it to be brighter in there and the walls wouldn't soak up the light with a different/darker color. We were able to get one coat on and will see if it needs another. 

Mike got a lovely shot of me 'fingerpainting'
(the lines/shadows on the wall are from the light we are using)

Walk-in closet after 1st coat

We should have carpet by the afternoon so will be sure to post those photos in the next day or so! I can't wait!
 

Day 4 & 5 Construction

Wow! I still can't believe how fast this has actually come together. The past few week I've been so antsy and just wish the construction was over, but when I actually look back and think about it - it's flown by! It seems like just yesterday that we were clearing out the bedroom and taking 'before' pictures of everything.

The construction crew returned on Monday - about 5 guys. They were here bright and early at 7:30am and just went to town on things. They finished the floor by insulating that on the outside underneath the closet, then covered that. Then they all moved indoors to sheetrock the inside. That took a lot longer than I originally thought it would. I guess they said the ceiling is the hardest to do.

I was actually surprised at how much of a difference 3/4 inch sheetrock makes. The room felt slightly smaller just by putting that in - who knows, maybe it's just an illusion. After they got that taken care of they headed back outside and finished siding the west side of the house. Last step was to put the post back on the deck where the deck railing meets the new closet - to give that a more sturdy feel.

They all cleaned up around 2:30 - took all of the trash to the landfill, packed up all their tools and equipment, and headed out. Their part was done!

Doug would be back to pick up the new door to stain it to match the rest and pick up his trailer. He said the drywall guy, Mark, would be by tomorrow (Tuesday) to mud/sand/texture the walls. Once that was done, we could get carpet in and paint!

Since the drywall guy couldn't start until Tuesday and needed a couple days, we pushed back the carpet installation until this Friday morning. So in the next couple days he will finish the walls and then carpet guys will be here Friday morning to install carpet in the spare bedroom and the new walk-in closet. They should be finished by lunch!

We will do the painting in the new closet in the next week. Once we've painted our hearts out, Doug will be back to install the new door and put the trim work on. Then it'll be time to hang the shelving, brackets, and rods. Slowly, but surely, things are coming to an end. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Day 4 Photos:

View from different angle in master bedroom

Deck cleaned up a bit - siding still hasn't been painted

View from backyard - yard looks much cleaner
without the mess of tools and equipment

View from SW corner of backyard

You might be wondering why we didn't have them finish and close in the underneath of the new closet. If you look closely in the photo above, you'll see a window next to the bush on the left (west side) of the house. That is almost a full size window into our basement and it allow for a lot of light to come in and it's an exit in case of emergency (fire). We hate to close that area in and lose that window. Another reason is that our hose hookup for the backyard is below that too. Way too much work and cost to get that moved.

 

West side of house

West side of house looking towards front (north)

The only photo I have for Day 5 is the one below. Since the construction is done, the only difference is the inside - and really not much of a difference (to us it's a huge step towards the final goal!) The drywall guy, Mark, came to get the first coat of mud on the sheetrock. We've got a nice big fan in there drying it out so it's ready for the next coat or two tomorrow (Wednesday). We're hoping the mud, sanding, and texture will all be done tomorrow, but it could be Thursday before it's all finished.

 

In the next day or so, I'm planning to do a post of 'Before and After' photos to really show the dramatic changes. Be sure to check it out!

 

 

Day 3 Construction

I'm finally getting around to posting last week's progress of the construction. The guys started Day 1 on Tuesday, Day 2 on Wednesday, and Day 3 on Thursday. 

Thursday was spent putting new masonite on the one side of the new closet, finished the roof work - add the soffeting (sp?) and some other stuff I have no clue about!

The electrical/plumbing guy came back to finish getting the heat run to the closet. He got that all run and moved the dryer vent to go out the south wall of the house since it was previously going out the west wall which is now our closet. He just needs to get some different material for the tubing from the dryer to the vent so it doesn't get too kinked and cause a build-up of lint. We have been without a washer/dryer since last Tuesday pretty much! Ahhhh!

They spent some time inside the closet getting the insulation put in and plastic over the insulation. Because of Friday's nice weather, they spent that time finishing up another project so we were without any commotion on Friday! 

Today, Monday, they are working a full day with all the men they have getting everything finished. They are hoping today is last day for them! Wow!

The next steps once they finish will be having the drywall guy come and mud/sand the sheet-rock. We have the carpet guys coming on Wednesday morning to lay carpet in the new walk-in closet and then the spare bedroom and that closet. We will keep the carpet in our master bedroom since it is still in great condition.

Sometime in there, Mike and I will paint the walls and ceiling in the walk-in closet. At some point we'll paint the side of the house that has the new siding so it will match. Once the painting in the closet is done, Doug will come back to finish putting in the woodwork and door and frame and then we are all set! Whew!

Enjoy the photos!

Here you can easily see the addition - we will paint the new siding to
match the existing and then also the transition board down the middle.

Full view of the back of the house

They did not get around to siding the west side of the closet yet.

View from hallway into bedroom & closet
You can see Bella stretching to check out the new room!

All insulation is in and covered!

 

Day 2 Construction

The construction has been moving along nicely! I'm surprised how fast it's going. I didn't realize things would look so different so quickly. I can't complain though - I'm already imagining all the room I we will have.

The pictures below are of Wednesday's construction work. The guys didn't come until about 11:30 so it wasn't a full day of work but it definitely made a difference from Day 1. 

They spent most of the time getting the new roof tied in with the existing roof line. After that they got the plywood on and enclosed the closet. It sounded like rain late yesterday afternoon and all night last night so they wanted to make sure they had the roof taken care of. They were able to get the shingles on in case of the rain. 

Enjoy the photos!