Tuesday, November 17, 2009

What you see is what I got......




This is one of the corners in our dining room. It is pathetic.  The house is over a hundred years old and the condition of this room is bad. There is a hardwood floor in it and that will be fine.  But the walls are in the process of being covered with new sheet rock.  It is covering up the black glue lines of the paneling that had been put on top of all of this.  The paneling was a good fix back then, for a previous owner, but it made the room look like a trailer house.  Some of the plaster walls show water damage from years ago.  That problem was apparently fixed but the wall was patched in a big uneven way.  The wall surface is the old fashion plaster that is rough and sandy textured.  It had been painted turquoise at one time then wallpapered over with fern patterned wall paper. We found a hole in the side of the wall that must have been where the first phone came into the house.  I can imagine it was an old fashioned one for sure.

As you can see my new window looks great, but I have a lot to do to fix this room.  The old paneling has been removed and today I will be building in the window with trim boards so that I can put on the new sheet rock. 
I bought nine sheets of drywall material, and I have three of them up already.  I am hoping to get most of this done this afternoon.  The three I put on look so good. 
The  hardwood floor will be lightly sanded and I will put a new finish on it.  The ceiling is going to be totally removed and new material will go on also. 
The major part of the work is ahead of me, but the hardest part was getting that paneling off of the walls.  I will be patching broken plaster around the window so I can box it in evenly with the wood trim and then apply drywall around it.
This will be a great fix when I get it done.  We still don't know if our Chicago kids are coming for Thanksgiving or for Christmas.  My goal is to be done before Thanksgiving, and I should be able to do that.  If they come at Christmas that will take off the pressure.  Thanks for reading....

6 comments:

Alan Burnett said...

The work seems to be coming along well. You are always so busy ... and so creative. Don't work too hard.

Tom - 7th Street Cottage said...

You hear that silence? It's the lack of envy I have for you right now. My dining room was a disaster too, but fortunately no paneling and the plaster was smooth, aside from lots of water damage. It took days of sanding and scraping to get it right. Even then, I finally gave up and painted it a dark color to hide the uneven spots.

Good luck. It'll be beautiful when it's done. But until then, you're gonna have your hands full.

Linda said...

Having seen these 'before' shots we'll appreciate the finished work all the more.

We don't have Thanksgiving here. I was just thinking it's nice but kind of tough at the same time to have two big family festivals so close together. it must make for a really busy time - to say nothing of the effect on the waistline!

Unknown said...

I thought you retired? LOL! Thanks for taking the time to blog about this...now get back to work! ;D

Far Side of Fifty said...

That is quite a project..your window looks great!! I am not a big fan of sheetrock..so messy and you have to tape and mud..that is a real art!! I have done some that turned out acceptable..but what a pain in the you know what. Have FUN..I hope you are taking lots of photos. :)

The Retired One said...

We did so much plastering in our old Victorian...I think drywalling is much easier and looks so much better. Unless you are a professional plasterer. Your room will look fantastic when you are done.
I am so glad you are resanding the wood floors! So many people cover them with carpeting and wood always looks SO much better!!!