Miss Me?

You would think that I have been off partying...and well, you would be partially right. We went to Washington for two weeks to spend time with my family. It was awesome. 

Right before we left we were able to close on the refinance of our house. The only problem is that with it being so close to our trip we weren't able to demo the downstairs quite the way we had hoped. 

We got back on Sunday and early Monday morning we started ripping down things.

Just to give you a refresher, this is what it looked like before. 

With not too much effort, we began.

The ceiling came down first.

The ceiling was acoustic tiles which just snapped together. With a little tug we were able to pull them down.

Then we moved onto the drywall and the wood paneling that went over the top of it.

Demo work is empowering. There is nothing that quite makes you feel like "I am woman hear me roar" like smashing a wall to bits. 

But...It does make quite the mess.

Blake did the majority of the hard things. What can I say?...

After we had removed the drywall from one wall we moved onto the other.

Finding mold is always a possibility when you live in an old house. But, finding this very large spot caught me a little off guard.

(you can see the plug for a size comparison. Eeek!)

After removing all of the other walls we started to work on the Laboratory walls. Surprisingly, those walls were built out of plaster board. Which, if you don't know, is Annoying!

This picture also kind of gives you a better idea of how the room was set up with the Laboratory just smack dab in the middle of the room.

While taking down the built in cabinets in the Laboratory I managed to hit my foot with a cabinet. It still hurts, weeks later.

Once all the cabinets and drywall were down, you could finally see the light.

With all the walls and ceiling down we finally removed the carpet.

Then we wheeled the piano into the family room, to make room for the construction that was going to start.

The best part of the whole thing is that even though our pile of garbage was gigantic, we were able to dump it all in the community dumpsters the next day. 

Not bad for a days work. 

Stuck

I am having a hard time lately starting a project.

I have a lot of ones that I want to do...just having a hard time deciding which one is the best.

When in doubt? Write a list.

We will start with the smallest (littlest time and money) and go to the biggest.

1. Kitchen Countertop.

Our kitchen countertop is fine. That is about as far as I will go to praise it, but it is just that...fine. It is a beige laminate that is in good condition. I have no intention of replacing it until we do a complete kitchen remodel, down the road. But covering it up? Where do I sign up?

That being said, I have seen a ton of tutorials online on doing concrete countertop over your current countertop. I have read tons of methods on how to do it. My one big hangup is, most people hadn't found a sealer that was really resistant. Then I came across a review of using a mixture of different sealers to really "seal" it. Problem solved.

The supplies themselves are pretty inexpensive, the labor...is a little intensive. However, I think that it would make our kitchen look a little more modern, without a complete overhaul.

Not our kitchen, but you get the gist.

2. The spare room flooring.

The carpet in the spare room is pretty bad. It is not stained, but it does have a big burn mark from someone setting a hot clothes iron on it, and the seams are separating. I have thought a couple times about just taking out the carpet and painting the floor.

My problem with that is, I am nervous it would make the room seem cold, especially because it is in the basement.

Recently I was reading a blog where they had done a plank flooring out of plywood.

I was all ready to go...then it occurred to me that I don't know how to secure the nails, that go through the planks, into the concrete floor. Cost wise it isn't much, and it is an upgrade above a painted concrete floor and current carpet. My major hangup with it, is securing it.

3. The big project. The other "wing" of the basement.

It is going to be a little hard to understand the layout of our house if you haven't been here. So, I am going to try and explain it.

Ready?

When you walk down our front stairs to the right is the family room,

and to the left is a hallway...kind of.

When you first go through the door, to the left of the stairs, on the left is a little room. 

Our kids have lovingly named it the "secret laboratory."

(The wall with the map shares a wall with our stairs.) The space that is open (in the back on the left) is a secret passage way that goes under the stairs and into our family room. 

Across from the map wall is a desk.

(The room pretty much looks this messy All. Of. The. Time. Thank goodness for doors.)

The kids use the desk for coloring and playing and general mayhem.

I don't care if it is messy (most of the time) because it is their spot. They have even tagged the walls, and in some instances removed people.

On the other side of the laboratory is the toy room.

You can kind of tell in this picture how it is set up in the room.

The hallway is on the left, and on the right side of the wall is another little "hallway" so that you can access the laboratory from either side.

The previous owner used the laboratory for his own little work room. Basically this room is one Large room with a smaller room inside it.

Get it? Hopefully?

A very generic layout would look like this, with the hallway starting in the bottom middle.

Anywhooo.

I really want to tear down the laboratory wall and make two rooms out of the one big space. The toy room would become a bedroom and we would open up the laboratory to become a small open office.

Maybe have a desk like this going around the wall?

The problem is:

It will probably cost the most. We won't have enough money after it is done to replace the carpet, which could be bad come winter time. It is a very large undertaking.

But...we would probably appreciate this change the most. Making another room would be great, the kids toys would be inside that room so it would be nice to not have them take up an entire side of the house. Taking out the laboratory would also open up that space and make it feel a little less like a long hallway.

What say you? Start small? Or go big or go home?

See why I am having such a hard time?!