Feb 1, 20212 min read

Renovating the Bedrooms

After tearing out musty carpets, the bedroom walls were next. The pink wallpaper lining the master bedroom was peeling from the walls. In the smaller bedroom the blueish/purple color had to go! That was the first thing I thought when I walked into the tiny space. My husband agreed. Neither of us like blue to begin with, and this shade made our distaste grow even more. Little did we know, that behind the blue walls and dilapidated wallpaper our house held a secret.

One day, after looking at the deep windowsills in the house, my husband's grandfather remarked "You know, deep windowsills often mean the house is made of logs." Could that really be the case we thought?

A few days later, after taking hammers and prybars to the walls, we had our answer. There they were in all their old crusty glory. We knew at that moment, we had to save them.

I would love to say that it was just like Fixer Upper. But it was SO MUCH work. With the help of friends and family, we spent hours upon hours digging out lath and dusty horse hair plaster. We sanded down the massive old beams, shoveling out buckets full of debris. Then we added insulation, and applied new chinking between the logs. We spent every spare moment working and dreaming about what these rooms would become.

Next came the electrical work. Old knob-and-tube electrical wires were pulled out. Caleb replaced the old system with updated wiring, light switches, and outlets. We framed out a closet since there wasn't one in the master bedroom. Then it was time for drywalling and trim. Caleb custom made trim to match the original pattern we found in the house. We carefully replaced any of the missing or broken pieces.

Both the interior walls and the ceilings needed to be drywalled, spackled, sanded and primed. For days a thin white dust coated the entire house and we had to wipe down every surface.

Finally, we were towards the end of renovations and could start painting. After a few changes and some indecision on my part, we had the right colors. Rollers, brushes, and paint cans filled the rooms. Our shirts were splattered and dirty, but we didn't care! We could see the finish line.

Lastly, and of course my favorite part, was decorating. It's the most rewarding feeling to see everything come together and the hard work pay off.

As I'm sure you can tell from the photos, we still have more work to do. Baseboards need replaced, paint needs touched up, amongst other things. But we've come a long way and we're excited to keep going.