Autumn's remodel job... Part Deux

02/05/09

It's been a long time since I've updated... probably because I've been working my BUTT off. *grin*

When I left you last, I'd drywalled a couple of the rooms, textured some walls, ran a circuit, wired some outlets, cut some trim and painted the living room and bedrooms.

The next step was to get power to the cabin. The inspector came and green tagged the box (Boy, did THAT feel like Christmas) and the next thing I knew, the power guys showed up unannounced to make it happen.

Boy, does the outside of the house need a coat of paint. And NO, I'm not worrying about it until the inside's done. *grin*

Here's an old photo of BEFORE BEFORE in the living room. Before I did any work on it at all last time...

Here's the living room, painted except for a bit of final touchup painting.

MUCH better!

Once that was done, Mom and I started on the floors in the bedrooms. The floors are old, solid fir. Rowan's floor was a disaster, not only because I didn't bother to cover it during the drywalling, texturing OR painting, but because it had never, in 50 years, been refinished.

I'd refinished the floor in the other bedroom once before. A light washing, sanding and revarnishing was all it needed.

While we were doing floors... um... Bob went fishing. Hee!

Now, let's have a look at my room... before and after. Of course, keep in mind that "before" wasn't really "before"... I'd already remodeled this room once.

For what it's worth, I found an old photo of what it REALLY looked like BEFORE!

And here's what it looks like now. :)

Still have to finish the trim.

Now, here's a look back at Rowan's room. Before.

And now...

I still have to paint the trim in both rooms. And Rowan's floor turned out crummy because I decided to use a stain and varnish in one. But that's okay... it's getting carpeted anyway! :)

INTO THE ATTIC...

OK. If I thought going UNDER the house was gross, it was NOTHING compared to the attic.

Here's the first look I had at it.

Bob and I set off FOUR bug bombs up there before I went up. I thought, , "OK... I can handle this. Everything will be dead." Right?

Wrong.

THIS...

...was lying RIGHT where I had to climb into the attic.

Wriggling.

After four bug bombs.

FOUR of them.

Boy, did it crunch when I squished it.

So... back to business. After crawling around in SPIDER HELL and trying to hunch over under the rafters to read wiring diagrams in order to figure out how to wire a junction box, I started getting the hang of it. Here's one of my boxes.

This beautiful picture shows my wires coming down out of the ceiling, ready for light switches. It's only beautiful because it means I could finally get down out of the attic! :)

Wrist deep in the breaker box, hooking up the wires...

AND THEN THERE WAS LIGHT!

I couldn't believe it! It actually WORKED!!!!!!!

The only mistakes I made were on two switches... Rowan's was upside down, so I had to fix that, and the porch light switch was wired wrong because I'd done so many junction boxes that I messed up doing a simple switch-to-light termination. But I fixed 'em and now the power works FLAWLESSLY!

I still can't believe it.

CHAINSAW CARPENTRY

Bob is the original chainsaw carpenter. He's amazing.

We decided to cut a hole in the wall between the living room and kitchen to let in more light.

I just finished wiring the kitchen and bathroom outlets yesterday, but haven't taken photos yet. Next stop: plumbing! Then I can start putting in the sink and cabinets. :)

Click here for PART THREE!

Autumn