New Floor

The kinda before picture. I had already started tearing stuff up.

It was nice to finally figure out what the crunching noise was when I walked on the carpet. Under the carpet were linoleum tiles that I'm told have been there at least since my father-in-law was kid. About 90% of them just came right out without much effort. Under that was a lot dust and some tar paper. According to the internet, it's a pain in the @!# to get tar paper off so we left it. (And we all know that the internet never lies.)

Kevin and Al worked on the floor for about 8hrs on Saturday. The first course took almost 3 hours. This is just some cheap stuff but it makes a TON of difference compared to the carpet that was there. In exchange for Al helping with the floors, Kevin went over and spent 30mins helping him install 2 cabinets. I totally think we got the better end of the deal.

Ta-Dahh!!!

SOOOOO much nicer!

One new wall

To make it easier to update some electrical across the house and add some other wires we decided that this wall would be the easiest to demolish and pull wire through. I stripped some of the wallpaper beforehand just to see what was under there. This I believe is pic after that. This is the wall that is the dining room on one side and family room on the other. It is also what we believe to be one of the original, original walls.

The inside of a 100+ year wall. Just an FYI: plaster is very dusty.

New wiring, a little drywall and some primer.

Add some magnetic paint, a little blue and a few whiteboard wall sticky things...

We've since added a couple of other things, but not much. Later today we'll redo the floors in that room and then maybe put the trim back on this wall.

Mason's Closet

Mason asked for a work space in his closet. Given that he doesn't really hang clothes and there was a sale on Elfa closet stuff... I decided to give it a go!
The infamous "Cowboy wallpaper" up close. I guess it's a Freeman thing. This wallpaper has been on the wall since Tom Freeman was a little boy living in the house. I was unable to salvage a decent sample.

After stripping the wallpaper.

Mason helped to paint the walls. I also found paint on just about every other surface in there as well on the ottoman in the family room.

Of course after painting I noticed the the electrical was screwy so decided to open up the back wall. The kids got to help with that as well. They quite enjoyed taking a hammer to the drywall but then, who wouldn't?!?!
Yay, the crazy electric. After the wall was opened it was noted that the light did not actually go through the wall but through the ceiling and then twisted down into the wall. And, yes that is knob and tube lighting.

Ta-Dah!! Finally put all together

And with all the stuff in it.

Of course now there's more stuff in it and it's hard to see where the closet is...

Color

This is the color of Mason's new closet. More pics will follow later of the process and such. Can't call us afraid of color!