Master bedroom and closet are finished!

The master bedroom is finished! The walls are my favorite color; Wave Crest by Behr in flat enamel finish.

The best part is that we are moved back into our room after three months in the second bedroom.

The ceiling fan was bought a few years ago when we first moved in; it's been relocated from the older master bedroom to the new one.

I planned the windows to be spaced so that the bed could fit between them; now we just need to figure out what we want to hang over the bed.

The door to the left below leads to what will be our master bathroom (which will be the last thing finished). To the right is our new closet (just need to put the door on).

The closet has cedar on the ceiling and behind both hanging rods.

I still need to buy pegs to put on the wall that the mirror is currently leaning against (it will go elsewhere), so I can hang robes, purses, etc.

The walls are Wave Crest (flat enamel) and the trim/doors are Ultra Pure White (semi-gloss), both by Behr. The ceiling fan is one that I bought a few years ago at Lowe's for the original master bedroom; I'm not sure of the model but it's made by Hunter. The carpet is from the Great Expectations line (I think it's made by Shaw) in Natural Wood color. Floor registers are from Signature Hardware's Whittington Collection in brushed nickel. Blinds are 2 inch faux wood in white from Home Depot.

Master bedroom

Here's a current view of our hallway. We've taken up the carpet just past what was originally the doorway to the second bedroom (which is where the doorway to the new laundry room will be located on the left) and extended it into the part of what was the old master bedroom. The header you can see at the end of the hallway is where the new linen closet will be. The last doorway on the left is the entrance to the new second bedroom, and the doorway to the new master bedroom will be at the end on the right.

Speaking of the master bedroom, it's coming along nicely. The wall that divides the bedroom from the walk-in closet and master bath still needs to be built, as well as the wall that will be between the bath and the closet. Of the walls that are currently built, most of them are sheetrocked (but not yet spackled).

The picture below was taken from what will be the master bathroom, looking out into the master bedroom. The two studs to the right are the start of the wall that will divide the bedroom from the bathroom and closet. If you look closely, you can see the wiring for the ceiling fan.

We have a room 99% finished!

We've come a long way since the end of November, when the second bedroom looked like this. We also took three weeks off around Christmas due to the holidays, the weather, etc.

Since then we spackled, sanded, spackled some more, primed, painted, cut/painted/installed trim, ordered carpet, installed the electrical outlets/switches, hung the ceiling fan, and put up the blinds. Here's what it looks like as of this morning:

Before the township comes on Tuesday to sign off on this room, the closet door needs to be painted and hung, and two small pieces of trim need to be added under one of the windows. I also have a few painting touch ups on the walls and trim. Below you can see the closet in its current doorless state.

The walls are Sea Sprite and the door/trim are Ultra Pure White (both by Behr). The ceiling fan is the 44 inch Auberville by Hunter in brushed nickel. Carpet is a remnant that we got from World Wide Flooring. Floor registers are from Signature Hardware's Whittington Collection in brushed nickel. Blinds are 2 inch faux wood in white from Home Depot.

Time for me to grab some paint brushes and respirator and work on the closet door.

So much has changed over the past seven months

A lot has happened in the past seven months. Here are before and after pictures of the outside from the backyard. The orange line on the ground in the before picture shows the location of the new foundation walls for the addition.

And here's the after picture; the orange line has been replaced with the actual walls.


Since announcing that I'm pregnant last month, we've had a few people ask if that's the reason for the addition. It's not, although I'm sure the extra space will be even more appreciated once the baby arrives next May.

Inside work has begun on the second bedroom

If you've been wondering what the addition looks like from the inside, you're finally going to find out. Until a week ago, the inside of the house looked fairly normal. There were some new electrical outlets, a few new windows, and a couple of windows that had been removed, but nothing exciting or picture-worthy.

Last week we broke through the old gable wall in the second bedroom (that's the one in the front of the house, which was set up as a guest room/office). Now when you walk into the bedroom from the hallways, you can go from the existing part right into the addition.


If you head towards the addition part, you can even look to the right into what will be the new part of the master bedroom.

We're hoping to have the second bedroom finished by Christmas, and will move on to finishing the master bedroom after that. I'm also hoping to reclaim my dining room for at least a few days to host Christmas dinner (most of the stuff that was in the second bedroom has been temporarily stuffed into the dining room).

Catching up, part II

The front wall of the house was the second to be completed finished (after the gable wall). With all of the soffit, facia, and siding installed, the house looks basically finished from the front (except for the window stickers, various construction items and lack of landscaping/shutters).
We had been accessing the addition from the outside by leaving the last small window (as wells as the sill and crip) uninstalled. In order to get to a point where we were ready to close up that access and break through the old gable wall, the insulation for the addition had to be installed. The rough electrical for the two bedrooms was also completed and cuts were made for the new heat/air conditioning vents in the two bedrooms. The rough wiring for phone jacks is even completed.

Deciding on the placement for the outlets and vent meant a lot of time spent bent over the plans, staring at them and trying to envision possible furniture arrangements (with many breaks while I ran to measure a piece of furniture). It was reminiscent of when I made the decision on what windows I wanted and where.

Once the rough electrical and insulation inspections were passed, the last window (the small one to the right of the scaffold in the picture below) was installed and the back wall was finished.

Landscaping and shutters will probably not happen until the Spring. Landscaping for obvious weather reasons, and the shutters because we're still debating color. I had originally suggested the idea of blue (a darker blue, but not as dark as navy), but Chuck wasn't sure how that would look. So I suggested black, and he was amicable to that. Unfortunately, his mind reading powers weren't working that day, and he didn't realize that I intended to match the color of the front door to the shutters. As it turns out, he doesn't like the idea of a black front door. So we're back to blue. Which means I have to find the shade of blue that I have in my head that's available for shutters and a door that I like. That could take a while.

Time for a catch up post (or several)

How many entries can I start with a statement about how I haven't blogged in a while and I promise to be better about updating in the future? I wish I could say this is the last, but we'll see.

Anyway, a lot has been done over the past two and a half months, but for now let's start with some of the things we got done in September:

On Labor Day weekend we disconnected the electrical service, relocated everything to the new gable wall, and hooked it back up again. No one got electrocuted, none of the food in the fridge/freezer spoiled, and I was even able to make it to a friend's birthday celebration that evening (albeit a little late). The phone service was relocated a few days later. Because no post is complete without pictures, here's a shot of Dad on the scaffold working with the electrical lines:

A few weeks later, the house got a new roof. We realize that we would never be able to match our 15 year old shingles (which have discolored over time), and that we (meaning I) would never be happy with an eight foot stripe of not-quite-matching shingles on the roof. And really, no one wanted to hear me complain about it for years to come.

So we ended up hiring a roofer to re-do the entire roof. It was money well spent, and they completed the job in one day. If you're looking for a roofer in this area, let me know and I'll happily give you the contact information.

Of course, a new roof meant that we got to pick out any color shingles we wanted. Or, I debated over the color choices while my husband said he was fine with whatever I wanted and my father reminded me that I needed to make a decision and let the roofer know sooner rather than later.

Since I'd never been crazy about the gray shingle / yellow brick combination (I know some people love gray and yellow together, but I'm not one of them), we ended up going with Shakewood. Here's a picture of the roof on the day it was finished:

In the picture above, you can also see that we finished the Tyvek on the front of the house, and finished installing the new windows in the front. You can get a much better idea of the layout of the new windows now that the last old window is gone. The triple window on the far left is almost nine feet wide and fairly heavy, but installation went very smoothly. Same thing for the new double window that's to the left of the front door.

More to come in the next catch-up post.