A blog about renovating, remodeling and restoring a 1929 …

We can finally cross the laundry room door off our To-Do List/2015 Goals, and its only January 15th!

This is another one of my Re-use/Re-purpose projects. The door was the original exterior door to the basement.

When we did the attic remodel in 2009, our contractor used a metal door that he had from another project at the top of the attic stairs to try to keep dust down. It was dirty and banged up a bit and he was going to toss it when he was finished. It was the right size for our basement and Pete thought itd be a bit more secure, so we took it and replaced the wood door.

Like everything else in this house when we first moved in, the basement door was painted white, several times, and chipping and peeling everywhere. So waaaaay back in summer of 2010, we stripped it.

One of the wood panel inserts was cracked, but I wanted to replace them with glass anyway. Pete routed out the panels and patched up cracks and plugged the hole from the dead bolt.

Thats about as far as we got for apparently several years (sheesh, how time flies!). Our trim guy fitted and hung the door back in 2012, and down to the basement it went to sit on work horses. And sit

Pete would work on it a little here and there, and last fall I finally finished stripping the decorative trim that framed each panel. Pete had to cut out one side of the trim to remove the panels, so we bought glass bead trim to frame that side once the glass was installed.

FINALLY, we were ready to paint! I wanted to do a slate blue color that goes well with the Marmoleum tile. I chose Benjamin Moores Montpelier (AF-555) and realized as I was painting that it was a lot like the basement gray color! Of course Montpelier sounds a lot better than Basement Gray.

I really wanted to use ribbed textured glass panels, but we needed thick pieces and the glass place said it would have to be tempered glass which would greatly increase the cost. Since this was a free repurpose project, it didnt make sense to pay as much for glass as a new door would cost so we went with translucent white glass.

Over the past few days we put the finishing touches on the door, installing the glass panels with glazing putty and cutting and tacking in the glass bead trim.

Last night we hung the door (after a panicky search for the door hinge plates)!

Now that its finally done Im motivated to repaint the master bathroom, another small project thats been on my to-do list for several years. The door project was also one of the things I wanted to finish, along with cleaning up and re-organizing the basement, in order to move the litter box back downstairs. Romy and Lena have not been allowed down there because of what they might get into, and theyve been dying to know what weve been up to!

Now that were finally back to working on indoor projects, my highest priority was to finally finish the second floor trim, which required a second coat of varnish, and to finish staining and varnishing the utility closet bi-fold doors at the top of the stairs.

Every time I walked upstairs it was right in my face, taunting me. As long as those doors sat unfinished our entire attic renovation was going to appear to be unfinished, at least in my mind.

I was dreading having to stain all those louvers, but I finally set my mind to it. It was kind of a pain but all-in-all it really didnt take that long to do. Next came the sanding sealer followed by a light sanding and then the final coat of varnish.

Voila, the finished product:

Adding the second coat to the rest of the woodwork took the better part of a day, so just as I expected it was about a weekends worth of work. The problem was just finding the right weekend to do it, and with the cold weather settling in my window of opportunity was dwindling.

It was almost exactly a year ago when our woodwork was installed, and Im relieved that this project is finally complete!

Since we had to move all the furniture out of the way to do it, it also allowed me to do a thorough cleaning and find a place for all the crap that has been lying around. It feels great to walk into a neat, organized space.

So, now that thats done weve been working on other smaller projects.

Pete cleaned up his workspace in the basement and took down this laundry room door to finish working on it.

This 5-panel wood door used to be our old back basement door which we replaced with a more secure metal door that our contractor was getting rid of (and no, the panels werent missing when it was still our basement door!). Pete cut out the panels a while back when we stripped off the paint and hes finishing up routing out one side of the panel trim.

Earlier this week we picked up some glass bead moulding, which is the wood trim that holds the glass in the panel, and we also stopped at Evanston Glass and Mirror to choose a glass pattern that will become the new panels for the door. Once installed Ill be painting this door, but Im not sure what color yet Im thinking something a little different but not too crazy, like a nice slate blue?

Hopefully that will be ready to paint soon, but for now were back to working on the cottage remodel (which I havent talked about much lately, I know). Its been slow-going, and I really dont want to get into the particulars because I find it too exhausting, but suffice to say weve got a bunch of things to do over the next few weeks (insulation and other little things) and then were FINALLY ready for the drywallers! If that gets done over the holidays it will be the best Christmas present EVER (well, maybe the best one in recent years).

Well, I hadnt intended to take a 3-month hiatus, but there you go. Frankly, the past few months have been rather sucky for me, in addition to a good part of last year, but I wont get into that.

What I will say, on the positive front, is that after 3+ years we officially and finally passed our final inspection on the attic remodel yippee!

About a year ago we received a letter from the village, telling us that we need to essentially wrap it up or face a possible fine. I didnt think it mattered that we didnt have trim installed or even doors hung to pass, however I was pretty sure that theyd have an issue with our lack of stair railing on part of the staircase so I was reluctant to schedule an inspection. I pretty much ignored the letter for months.

Then our neighbor, who remodeled his bungalow attic after we did, received his letter and promptly called for inspection (that do-gooder!). He passed without a problem, so I thought I might as well give it a shot.

Fail.

As I suspected it was partially due to the stair railing, which because of the winder stairs (those pie-shaped stair wedges used to turn the corner) they required us to install a continuous railing from top to bottom. We also had to connect the shower light to the GFCI outlet (even though it was rated for wet areas), and probably the worst task was that we had to drywall the furnace closet. Ugh, that was going to be the tough one with the angle of the roof, and the fact that the furnace was pretty snug in that space and the spray foam insulation was sprayed around it.

So after putting it off for a few more months we finally decided we had to tackle it and get it over with. The shower light wasnt a problem. We debated about calling our carpenter guy to install the railing but we wanted to do it as cheaply as possible. Home Depot carried a simple style in poplar and we bought the cheapest railing brackets we could find.

I dug up my old-school protractor to figure out the angles we had to cut as it followed the winder stairs, and finally, after I dont know how many hours, it was installed. Of course it still has to be varnished and maybe stained too. I havent decided yet if I should stain it the same color as the trim, or just to leave it natural and varnish it to match the hardwood floors. I think the stain might make it stand out too much.

Even if we never sand the seams and paint it, the furnace closet looks a lot better than it did with the spray foam exposed, but it was a pain to do. Lucky for me, Pete did most of it, haha.

We called for reinspection and just like that, it was done at least the project is completed in the eyes of the local government. While it never seems totally complete in reality (according to my to-do list), its definitely nice not to have that hanging over our heads anymore!

Not only did I clean the bedroom this weekend (the Apartment Therapy January Cure weekend assignment), but we also cleaned the floors in the entire house which was the assignment for the first weekend that I had opted to postpone.

Look at how nice that hardwood looks!

I also decided to move the clothes hamper right next to the chair, upon which I usually tossed my clothes, in an attempt to quash that urge. I figured I could even use the hamper as a side table if I needed to.

Now it looks as though I need to hang something on the wall above it as it looks rather plain.

And as I hoped, Pete has finished working on patching and repairing the walls in the TV room closet, so I will be on track for painting this weekend. I may hold off on varnishing the woodwork until spring when I varnish the second floor trim, so that will save me some time.

The landing strip has been working out great so far. Even Ella gives it a big two paws up!

To me, theres nothing better to do on a dreary, rainy Sunday afternoon when I have the house to myself than to curl up in our master bedroom window seat with a latte, a cat or two and the latest This Old House magazine.

Pete is at the cottage, of course, and I jumped at the chance to stay home. I should be cleaning up the clutter or doing something more productive, but that stuff isnt going anywhere. It can wait until later.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! Of course I was super-busy with work leading up to Thanksgiving when I would have much rather had more time to prepare and just chill out. Along with some family issues its been a stressful month but things should start easing up in a few weeks.

Needless to say, my end-of-year To Do list has gone to hell, partly because Pete and I decided that we werent going to tackle the second coat of varnish this time of year. Its an alkyd varnish so its rather stinky and its just too cold to have the windows open. So that little project has been pushed back to next spring.

We have made progress, however. Even though this trim and staircase project isnt finished (and wont be anytime soon), at least it looks finished!

Oh, what a difference, no?! I think it looks like it was always intended to look instead of as an afterthought. I keep saying this but it really makes the upstairs feel like it belongs to the rest of the house.

I re-painted all the areas that were affected, and Im happy to say that the freshly painted areas blended in perfectly with the existing, even though our dining room paint job has got to be almost four years old now. (Nope, thanks to the blog, I see its actually almost five years old!)

It definitely pays to use a good quality paint for this reason (I used Benjamin Moore Aura), and even though the dining room is a deep orange and faces south there is no sign of color fading.

The carpenter also finished off some areas that I didnt really know how we should finish off, like our little stairwell ledge, which I always intended to use as a picture ledge, that is until the kittens knocked one of my prints over and broke the glass. Luckily they werent hurt, but my adored print was.

Anyway, he ended up extending the baseboard all the way. Once he finished I thought I must be able to find something unbreakable to put there which would also hopefully deter Henry from doing the cat walk (get it? Its a real cat walk! Haha.)

Off I went to Target, and sure enough I found the taller wood-like rectangular vase that fits perfectly in the space. My choices in dried flowers/objects were limited because of the cats, so I chose the wavy stick-like things. Henry still hopped around the vase, so I added the 2 short glass vases on either side and it made it wide enough that he stopped doing it. I need to add some decorative stone to those vases to keep them grounded, but it doesnt look like theyll be able to knock those over.

Now I need to revise that end-of-year list and update my To-Do List for 2013. Ugh.

I just applied the second coat of stain to the staircase and I am loving it! I need to brush on the sanding sealer coat of varnish by tomorrow so that its dry before Saturday when the carpenter arrives again.

He was here last Saturday as well and installed the baseboard trim upstairs its finally looking like a finished home! He has a little more trim to install in the laundry room and then install the door handles. Once all that is done, its still not finished: I have to fill the nail holes, stain the ends that he cut and apply the varnish topcoat.

So while it seems like the end is near, I have a big job ahead of me, not to mention all the cleaning up I have to do.

Looking at my end-of-year to-do list I havent accomplished much, although a lot of what I still need to do has been hinging on the carpenter finishing up first.

Im hoping to be really productive in the coming weeks.

Its Saturday morning and our dining room has quickly transformed into a workshop. The wood for our staircase was delivered yesterday and the carpenter was able to squeeze us in today.

He seems confident that hell get the staircase done, and might be able to start installing the baseboards as well. I was able to snap some photos while he ate lunch, and so far Im super excited about its appearance.

Well be staining this the same color as the trim, and Im hoping hell be finished with the staircase today so we can start on that tomorrow. If not, we still have some baseboard trim to sand (ugh!), and we can always install the kitchen baseboard trim.

There are 10 weeks left until my self-imposed deadline, but considering we are hosting Thanksgiving we really have five weeks to get this part done. It wont be the end of the world if it isnt our families have seen our house in much worse shape but it sure would be nice to show off the finished product by then.

It sounds like the carpenter is in the middle of a big project at the moment but Im hoping hell be able to return at least by next Saturday to continue with the baseboard and (hopefully) finish.

Now that Ive gotten the first coat of varnish on the rest of the baseboard woodwork, I can start to see the end in sight. Theres still a lot left for me to do though, even with the carpenter installing the trim, and Im determined to finish it all by the end of the year.

Here is whats left to really, truly finish the attic remodel:

As if thats not enough, while were doing the upstairs trim and stair installation, it makes sense to try to finish up a few other things on the main floor:

Gawd, I hope thats it!

Its a dreary Saturday.

I dont have anything in particular planned for the day.

The millwork said theyll be getting our order together early next week, so depending on the carpenters schedule, he could potentially be ready to install the baseboard trim and staircase within a week.

I must finish varnishing the trim.

That not only means this pile on the pool table

But also this pile

And this pile.

Yes, the trim in the right-hand side of this photo is lighter than the others. This trim will be going in the kitchen, which well do on our own. There are certain areas upstairs that I think are best left to the professionals.

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A blog about renovating, remodeling and restoring a 1929 ...