Remodel #2

So we have finished our second remodel project. This one was spur of the moment. Mike has been begging me all summer to knock down the wall around our stairs and build a banister. I kept saying no because I wanted the basement done first. Well Matt came over one day...why is it that he is always involved in the destruction of my house???.... and they were working on the basement when the dreadful wall project was mentioned. So they try to talk me into it and... well...they did. I was so sick of them talking about it that I finally gave in. The deal was that the wall had to be taken down, cleaned up and ready to be sheetrocked by 9:00, which gave them 2 hours. They agreed and started..... here we go again....

The boys dreaming of what was to come.

Lets see the before pictures. It wasn't bad at all, I thought it looked really nice.


As soon as they started I starting kicking myself. Why would I agree for them to destroy my house? It is going to be covered in dust, and there is no way they could get it totally cleaned up in 2 hours! Here is the beginning of the mess. This is from the kichen going down the stairs.
Next was the wall:
Wow! That part went really fast! And look how decently clean they kept it! I was shocked. They were really going to do it!!! ..... then I came back to reality and realized that no project goes this nicely!

When they were taking out the last 2x4 in the ceiling, the ceiling cracked....then broke....then all the insulation in the attic fell down into my leaving room. Yeah...... we couldn't really breath....it wasn't good.


My dream of a semi-clean construction project just went out the door. Luckily we just have the laminate and the hardwood floor in the upstairs. We had all the bedroom doors closed so it didn't get all over in there. But it was not a fun cleanup!!
You can tell the camera got a lot of dust on it as well.
What do you think? Did they make it?


They did!!! I was shocked! It was all cleaned up and ready to go with the sheet rock. Even with the huge extra mess. Now I just have a gaping whole in the floor....now you know why I wanted the basement done first, that confetti tile just doesn't do it for me!

Now came the rest of it.... the long part... the time consuming part... the dreadful sheet rock, tape, texture, and painting part.
It actually didn't go too bad. We were able to get the exact paint to match - thank goodness the previous owners kept the paint can downstairs.




I thought that the painting and sheet rock was going to be the hardest part.... nope- the banister was. We decided to just make our own to save on money and then we wanted it to look a certain way to match the rest of the furniture that Mike built in the living room. This was a project. After we got it all up, we painted it, painted it again, and then sanded it to give it the "worn" look like the rest of the furniture.


It turned out really nice. I was so proud of my husband and his handyman skills! Then to top everything off, I was in Blackfoot one night and when Mike got home from work he surprised me with a SUPER clean living room. He pulled out the couches and washed them all down and then conditioned the leather. He dusted everything and even got down on his hands and knees and mopped the floor.... yes girls...he hand mopped the ENTIRE room! And yes, I do have the best husband ever!

I LOVE IT!!! It was worth the time and every speck of dust! It really opened up the room and it looks beautiful!



So ready for the before and after pictures one more time? What do you think?

We have a couple finishing touches and then we will be really done.... I just couldn't wait to post pictures. Christmas decor is up and it looks great! Stay tuned for those pictures in the next post.