The first project of this new house has begun. It all started on Ryan's birthday, when I gave the kids hammers and let them go to town on a closet that had been annoying me! They did fine work of the initial job and Ryan quickly took over gutting the room and the bathroom (not pictured, never pictured.) when he came home and saw what we were up to!
I will try to bring us up to date here on what has happened with this project thus far in the reno. The room that you see was filled with all the junk that we couldn't find a spot for when we moved in. Doors are great when spaces are big and empty! Once the closet was down, Ryan made quick work of moving all my junk and hiding it all over the house. I am still looking for a few boxes!
The floor was brought down to the concrete and then I spent an afternoon peeling wallpaper. Adam and Emily may make fun of me for bragging, but I kick wallpaper's butt every time! I am believed to be one of the best wallpaper removers in the country. Don't believe me? The walls have never been so smooth!
Anyhow! The wallpaper came down nicely and has been re-purposed into frames to hang at my unassuming siblings houses and we were ready for the next steps. Ryan spent an afternoon taking down shelves and paneling and pulling all the random nails out of boards. Some of the ceiling tiles in the shelved areas were glued, so that will be an interesting thing to work around when the time comes. 
We had a pal of mine come in to look at the duct work, as it is an add-on from a different project. Unfortunately, he told us that with the width of the duct that is needed for the addition above the garage, there was no way to hide it in the joists. So, Ryan and Rob have built around it and put up drywall in the hopes that, although it is low, by painting it the same color as the ceiling and giving the whole thing a consistent look, it won't end up being too much of a bother.Ryan spent another evening taping up the room with plastic to take down the popcorn ceiling. It is smooth as a baby's bottom now! Nice work, Ry!
After the popcorn, we had to tackle was the wiring! Boy, oh boy, was that a doosey! That one little switch that is hanging from the middle of the ceiling controls the light on the opposite side of the ducts. In order to get to it, Ryan ended up having to cut into the ceiling and pull new co-ax. After an eight hour battle with one switch, we ended up hiring out the electrical and the professionals installed five can lights and straightened out one of the issues we ran in to. We are still trying to figure out the other one!!
That leads us to this past weekend. Three months after the initial ripping out of the closet, Ryan took to tiling and got nearly the entire mudroom laid. Fantastic!!Please note that in all of the above sentences, I loosely used the term "we". All that means is that I am going to have a fantastic mudroom put together by one fantastic guy!
More will come after the guy comes out to mud and tape. Everyone has told us that muding/taping is a job to hire out and we are not people who shy away from taking good advice. Especially when it means we don't have to try to do something we have no idea on how to do.
Stay tuned!
