Grand Banquet Hall Insulated!

First of all, let me say when people come to visit, we want them to write on the walls, and we keep forgetting to have them do it.  So, if you come over please remind us to write on our walls!  Ummm, these would be the INSIDE framework of the walls, not the actual walls.   So disappointed I didn't have everyone write on them on Easter.  I even had the marker out and I forgot. 

  

  We spent part of the day on Friday insulating the walls in the living room/summer room/grand banquet hall.  Those are all of the names that this room has been called.  We need to think of one and stick with it!  At our house in town that we sold, we called the new room we built on, the "new room" forever! So this room is going to have a dining room table in it, couch, chairs, etc.  It's kind of a living/dining/sitting area.

 

 We plan on putting a tin ceiling in the grand banquet hall/summer room/living room.  Do you know how hard it is to figure out a tin ceiling when it all has to be special ordered?   It comes in all different sizes and designs.  We put these faux' pieces up to try to decide on a size.  I think the 'four square?' size or the smaller size would look good.  I don't care much for the large square.

 Insulation 

finished

in living/summer/grand banquet hall room!

Cindy

Changing plans, moving doors, finishing rooms, working hard!

 We have been working on the house so much, and cleaning out rooms, and preparing for Easter that I haven't had time to put pictures up of what we've been doing.  I don't know what my assistants have been doing, but they have not been helpful. Oh wait....I don't have any assistants!

Let me warn you this is probably the longest house post ever.  

First let's talk about when I returned home from FLorida....and I did not get pics...darn it!

 Dave surprised me by closing off the den with drywall and osb, so I would have an idea of what it's going to look like.  But then I've been cleaning out another area and moving furniture and it went in the den and I forgot to get pics before I filled it up.  (sigh)

So here are after pics...

 We call it the den...or the winter room.  The cozy room where the fireplace will be and it's right in front of our bedroom. 

 The den has a door that leads outside onto a porch.  So when I can't sleep at night in the winter, I can come in here and turn on the fireplace and read.  If it's summertime, I'll sit on the porch!

~NEXT~

 The reason the den is full of boxes

 and the closet is full of tubs,

 Is because I have taken all of this stuff that was moved from the other house, and dumped into this room last year, and took it out of cardboard boxes and put it in tubs and moved it out of the way, so we can work in this room.

 BadaBing!

BadaBoom!

Cleaned out - I wish it were that easy!

 Not only is it now cleaned out, but

 

it is completely wired and ready for insulation and then drywall!

 

~NEXT~

OK, let me try to 'splain.  See this door to the left (above)....and see that new looking wood (above)  Well, before Dave put that new wood up, the door would open and hang over the opening of the entry in to the living room.  You can kind of get an idea with the picture below.  It's really something I think an architect should have found.  And if the house were finished by someone else, it would have been one of those things that "we would do different next time".  As it is...we can change these things now. 

So we made the entry way to the living area smaller by a foot, by adding more wall (frame)

and now when the door opens it won't hang over the wall.  I know it's hard to envision without a complete wall there, but in house building you have to visualize alot, of what it will look like when it's finished!

~NEXT!~

(I Know - I told you we've been working hard!)

This is the entry into the kitchen...what?  Doesn't everyone store their bikes in the kitchen?

The original plan was for french doors.  But here's the other thing you have to do when you build your own home.  You have to think...is it convenient?  If I had french doors in the kitchen they would ALWAYS be open. I got the idea for the french doors in the movie It's Complicated.  She had french doors in her kitchen. It's a movie...it's not real life. So I changed it to a dutch door.  French...Dutch...what's the difference?  Kidding.  Big difference.  Dutch door allows the top half to be open and the bottom half to be closed to keep the dog out!

 

So when we made the entryway to the living room smaller (left side of below pic) and the entry way to the kitchen smaller (below pick right side) it provided a nook that would probably have been used for nothing.

 So, we came up with the idea to put a coat closet there.  We already have a coat closet in the foyer to the right of the ladder, but you can never have enough storage.  We can use the 'old' coat closet for blankets, sweeper, etc.

 

and the new coat closet for coats!

 

Closet finished!

~NEXT~

 and I think last....

if you look between the ladder and the door way, on the bottom you will see a new piece of wood.  That is the laundry room and that new piece of wood is where the entry to the laundry room used to be.

 The laundry room is a 'pass-through' room, and has a doorway in the center on the other side.  So, stay with me here....if you have a door way on one side against the left wall, and a doorway on the other side in the center, you have one wall (on the right) where you can put the washer and dryer, and the left side is basically wasted space.  Because when you open the door on the left side

and IF you had a washer and dryer or slop sink there, then you would walk into it.

 

 So Dave moved the doorway in the center so that it matches the other doorway, that way we can use both sides of the wall for appliances and cabinets and such.  Get it?

Jeesh...What do I need to do, draw you a picture?


Now do you get it.  See the bottom picture...You open the door, walk in and "OOOF" walk right into the washing machine.  (and actually the door would open out, not in, but you would still walk right into the washing machine - I'm not drawing another picture!) The top drawing..you open the door, and walk right on through to the master bathroom which leads to the master bedroom, so you can put your clean clothes away....once you get all those tubs out of the closet....sigh....
OK so I think that is it.  Sorry for the long post.  We've had a lot going on besides working on the house.
We moved his Mother again, from one assisted living facility to another.
Dave hurt his foot a few months ago, and after three Dr.'s,  one of them finally did an MRI.  We found out he tore his achille's tendon and has to have surgery.
We had to clean up the mess from the tornado last fall, which I failed to get picture of....I suppose I could get an after pic because I know I have before pics.  And we worked hard to get it cleaned up before having everyone over for Easter!
And people wonder what I do all day.....
Dave told me he plans on being upstairs by next Easter!  It's very exciting seeing this part of the house come together.  It's a lot of thinking ahead and a lot of work, but we're getting there!

Cindy Bee

Insulating the closet, bedroom and den

Around the first week of March, we decided to start in the closet, bedroom, den area.  Dave finished the wiring in those three rooms.  The closet is back where you see the four light bulbs hanging down. 

 Then the two of us worked together and got the insulation hung in about 2-3 days. You'll notice he is wearing a hat and coat.  It was cold up there when we were working on those rooms. 

 This is our bedroom, the closet is through the door below. 

 The reason we hung insulation on the interior walls in the bedroom is for sound, more than anything else. You don't usually hang insulation on interior walls.  Above where it is going every other direction is because it was easier to hang that way due to the outlets and wiring.  You would not do that on an exterior wall, such as below.

 Above still the bedroom.  We are going to have sconce lights on the sides of the window in the bedroom.

 

And this is the den.  The insulation is hung and we put osb on the wall where the fireplace will go.  Osb is wood chips glued together.  We hang it on the wall when we feel like we might need something a bit sturdier than just studs.  For example, we are probably going to have a mantle on this wall and a tv.  It's easier to hang those items with osb as a backing, then we will not be limited to where a stud is located. 

 I have some catching up to do on this blog, but this is enough for today!

Cindy