There’s a show on HGTV or DIY or something that follows folks who set out to perform renovations on their own homes. They often have high expectations and little amounts of skills so the comedy content is high as their errors and frustration mount. As much as I like to watch and poke fun at their tribulations, I have also found that I could have my own episodes of the show which would be quite popular.
Last weekend in a random discussion of what ifs, somehow it was decided that before mom comes on the following Saturday, we should perform a lofty renovation.
At project start:
- Room A: front bedroom used as guestroom
- Room B: attached bathroom to room A (making it a master suite…HA!) Had been de-bathroomed during the basement project and sat full of crap for nearly a year. before it’s life as a bathroom, it was also a bedroom.
- Room C: Back bedroom. Ryder’s room.
The plan:
- Move guestroom to back bedroom (C)
- Move Ryder’s room to front (A)
- Knock down wall between A and B to create big room for Ryder with a play area.
Seems simple enough…. demo, electrical, drywall, paint, carpet… done. The trick is doing it with one person in ONE WEEK!
Somehow I pulled it off and need only yet to install and paint fresh baseboards and window trim. The task of doing so led to many late nights, smashed fingers, large splinters and a drywall dust cough that will last another two weeks (yes I was wearing a mask mom).
The challenges I faced were:
- Finding rotted subfloor boards under the old shower. This had to be cut out and replaced. But the subfloor that the home depot guy insisted was the right stuff was actually 1/8th” too thick, which would have been extremely noticeable through the carpet. Ingenuity= problem solved.
- Ripping up the 1/4″ ply that evened the height between two previous floors. The ply was not only sufficiently glued down, it was stapled with 8 thousand staples making the removal process exceedingly difficult.
- Drywall mud…. it’s the worst thing in the world. I hate mudding, with a passion. Then to add insult to injury, it has to be sanded and sanded and sanded and sanded. Did I mention I hate drywall mudding? My normal drywall guy whom I would have been happy to pay wasn’t available on the short notice that I could give him.
All in all, it looks great. Kris found some wonderful carpet which was installed on Saturday and soon after they left I was busy painting. The last steps were to move Ryder’s stuff into the room and reassemble the guest room for mom who was already on a plane as the furniture was being built.
Whew
