INTERIOR RENOVATION

September-October
Progress has been ongoing in the interior as well as the exterior. It is difficult to shoot good interior photos because of sometimes close quarters and odd lighting. The inside of the house needed a lot of re-arranging which included a lot of plumbing and electrical. Walls have been added in places, and removed in others, so much of the house is now a chaotic mixture of dangling wires, exposed pipes, missing doors and all the trash that goes with such a massive undertaking. Camping out during this project has become a challenge, to say the very least, but I love to see the changes as they occur so I am putting up with a "little" inconvenience.

November-December
Progress is slowly moving forward. . There are several new photos mixed in with the old ones below.

This is one of the many odd configurations in the house. There is plenty of room for the W.C. to face the same direction as the vanity which will give about 18 inches more room for a longer vanity. Opposite the vanity wall is the doorway into the bathroom and a tub/shower.

Left is the old tub/shower.
I believe there is a nursery rhyme about a crooked little man who lived in a crooked little house... well, here is the crooked plumbing.

Left photo shows the original old lighting fixtures. A new vanity has been ordered and new lights and mirror are waiting to be installed.

The first photo above, shows what we found when we opened up the wall behind the kitchen sink. Now, I'm not a plumber (never mind, electrician), never played one on TV or even slept at a Holiday Inn Express, but I am pretty sure this is just plain wrong! The second photo is the same space with the sheet rock back in place, just waiting for the new kitchen cabinets which have been ordered and should be in production.

New kitchen cabinets have arrived but looking pretty unfinished.

We are closer to having a real kitchen again. Lights and appliances will soon be finished and then I can move back in to this space. No more microwave meals! YEAH!
In the kitchen photo above you catch a glimpse of the new beams. Below is the crew beginning to refurbish the old unsightly ones.

December 5

Today the old beams which had been encased in dry wall get a face lift with Knotty Alder. The beams are the one part of this house which nearly sunk the deal. When we first looked at this house I could not get past the beams. I really don't like beams since they just scream 1980's to me. I had to take them and my head back to a different period of time, colonial, the style of this house, to work past a fact over which I had little control. The beams were there, they were structrual and had to stay. There were only two big ones, unevenly spaced in the great room ceiling, so I thought adding more smaller opposing ones would make it look more like a design feature... we shall see, below we are getting close.

Upstairs in November. The insulators have come and gone. At left is the little dormer in the bunk room. With the insulation in place you can more clearly see the window seat.


The second picture is the same space with the sheet rock and mud completed. There will be a cosy seating area that will also double as a bed when we have lots of company.

The ladder is leaning against a raised headboard on the sleeping platform. At the opposite end, there will be a twin bunk over the foot of the lower (queen size) bed. Other than the two sleeping areas there is a large space in the bunk room for a den area with a sofa, chairs and of course, TV.

The reason for all the creative sleeping spaces is that this area was carved out of attic space and I had to accommodate duct work. I designed the bed platforms over the duct work to maximize usable area in the space.


This small alcove was another of the quirky little spaces I had to work with in this house. It will contain a daybed when finished. Hopefully it will live up the to picture in my head. Stay tuned for the finished product.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I took advantage of the Black Friday sales to pick up lots of fabric and decorator items for this little nook so the design plan is taking on a definite 'shape'.

Below are the old stairs which have nothing to recommend them except they are some what safer than the next photo with the handrail removed. No handrail is somewhat unnerving to someone who is a little bit careless and a lot klutzy! New and improved version coming soon!

And at last new stairs. I was so happy to have a hand rail again and real treads that I can safely run up and down.

Above
Below are two shots of one of the upstairs bathrooms. On the left is the original strangely configured vanity. The cabinets were old and too low. Behind the sink is where the shower was built-in and across from the vanity is a toilet. It was a large space but made no sense from a design standpoint. A closet opened into the space and served the adjoining bedroom.

After all the old stuff has been ripped out we installed the Jacuzzi tub that was in the master bath.

Unfortunately, there was no room for this tub in the master bath and it had to be relocated. It will be a great thing to have in the house and fits nicely in this bath which is the guest bath for the upstairs. A cool new vanity is on order and will arrive soon. A spacious tile shower will be constructed to complete this bath. By some miracle we did not need to relocate the potty. YEAH!