New and improved family room makeover!
 

I forgot how early in the morning 7 AM is! But Where it took the other guy days to put up the drywall, this team got it up in one day. Of course they were able to use part of the opther drywall. The *&^%$%^^ didn't mess everything up! So the drywall finishers will start tomorrow. Now they do have some messes to clean up form the $%%^&&%%! So hopefully it's painting next week and then furniture!!!!! Then my husband can go back to his 52 inch TV and let me have mine. When the $$%%^^%$%$ was doing the remodel, most of the shows were in reruns and I didn't mind turning off the TV at 9 PM but I don't want to now.

$$%^^&&&*&^^%= insert guy's name that scammed us.

Remember we want Before and After pics! ;)

I'm not sure I can figure out how to put pics on but I'll try!

Funny thing. When we were getting estimates after the first fiasco we got estimates for drywalling only and drywalling and general carpentry which would include painting. Drywalling only would be considerably cheaper. But my husband is not one who really gets to it and finishes a job. The estimate for the drywaller is a favorite here in town and gave us a very good estimate. But we chose the general contractor. So they came in and did the carpentry work neccesary to repair the other $%^&&%%$ work and put up drywall and said the drywall finishers would call us as to what time they would be here tomorrow to start the long process of finishing. I was suprised when this guy form the favored drywall company called. today. I told him I had never signed a contract with him, and he said he was the subcontractor from our contractor! So I get the best of both worlds!

We went out to pick drapes today. Our furniture is casual, that suede look with some leather on it. So my DH picks out these very adorned almost upholstered look draperies. They looked like they were for a very formal living room, not a casula family room. So we went to Walmoart and found some that kind of resembled waht he wanted but not as formal and definetley not the same price. We just have to find a rug now! I want an accent rug and we can't find one that's about 3x6 that we like. everything is in the 3z5 range.

I can see it all in my mind. You must be about busting with excitment at getting it all put together. Congrats!

Today the drywallers were here. I remember when $%^&&^% was doing the drywalling on the ceiling. Him and his motley crew had these little stepstools all over the floor and got up on them, strained their arms and backs to put the taping and mud on. They would get down, move the stepstool over a little bit and do some more. These guys came in today with those cute stilt thingys and just walked all over doing it. They completed in 4 hours what took $#$%^&&%$ about a week to do, and it is so neat. They came on time, told me when they were leaving for lunch, came back on time and cleaned up. It was amazing. I hope to have the painting started on Tuesady.

Had the contractor come out today for a quik review of how things are going. The family room will probably be ours to finsh next Friday!!!! Of course that means that's when WE have to put up the chair rail molding and base boards so we can schedule the carpeting. But the end is in sight. If they were finishing up this week, my husband is off this weekend. But he works next weekend so I don't know when he will be able to get to it. I want my TV back!!!!!

Almost there, Doyd! You'll make it!

Glad to hear it's FINALLY going your way, Doydie!!

Happy for you, Doydie!

Ahem ... pics???

Congrats!!! and Yes, Doyd, don't forget the pics..:D

Did ya see my ramp?? :)

OK, here are some pre pictures. I don't know what happened to my Christmas pics last year. They all turned out dark. Notice the dark paneling in the background. The guy is my younger brother. The other is a during make-over pic.

Tomorrow they sand!!!!! then they paint and then it's ready to bring the carpet and furniture in.! Yeah!!!!!!

Painting starts tomorrow!!!!!!! Even though I could find a million things wrong with $%^&&%%$#, he did clean up EVERY day. But these sanders today, it was a mess when they left. I asked them if they were going to sweep and they said that the room needed to settle for a couple of hours and the walls would need to be swept before they were painted. so, no they did'nt clean up. It was up to the painters to do that. So that meant I couldn't go downstairs at all! I really needed to do some laundry and couldn't. The poor cat, She is mainly black but not today. And since a cat grooms themselves as often as they do, I worry that she is getting it in her system.

One thing I did learn today from these guys was that I needed to completely turn off my furnace/air or the dust would go through the whole house through the air intake ducts. I guess that's why when the Mr. $%%^&^%%$ was sanding the whole house was a mess.

But we get paint tomorrow!!!! It will even look better with just the primer on.

Yay, Doyd! A beacon in the storm! :yahoo::yahoo::yahoo:


That spackle dust is truly nasty and I'm glad they had the sense to let it settle before it became a blizzard. It is a pain but you'll be better off for it.

Soooo? What color????

Ooooooohhhhh, Doydie! 2 more posts and you'll be an official "Senior Member."


Hmmm, I actually think I've had more Senior Moments since I've been a Senior Member... :Doh:

Here's the paint color. They put the ceiling paint on first, then the upper wall. When we saw the upper wall we were a little upset. We didn't realize it would be that dark. But when the lower wall color went on the upper wall color looked better. I have two pics. One just shows the colors. The other shows the 'box', The light colored wall in the back is just because they haven't got paint on it yet. We will put chair-rail in between the two colors on the wall.

When we had the house built 31 years ago we left a main supporting wall downstairs open so they had to put a metal beam up. So for years the only function it had was for me to hang my laundry on it. Well it was pretty good for pull-ups to. So this metal beam is now boxed in and looks a lot better. It looks like a real ceiling now.

Looking good! What color carpet then, almond/honey? You're going to love it soon, soon, soooooooonnnnnn!:)

starting to look good D finally, :looks around::::::: I still say the giant pit with lye was too good for#$%&^%**((*)()_&^*^%^@$#%@

All the painting got finished today and we paid the contractor. then I called the carpet place to let them know we were ready. She said that they will place the order next Monday and it takes 2 weeks for it to come in!!!!!!!! I want it now! So I guess this weekend we go carpet shopping again. But my husband is right in that the combined cost of the contractor and carpet would kind of deplete our savings. If we waited the two weeks we would hhave his paychaeck and my monthly SSD check. Don't you hate it when husbands are right? I just want to make sure everything is done by Thanksgiving. That doesn't give me much time to decorate.

construction dust:(
When we remodeled our kitchen {06} & bedroom {05} {DIY'ers} we constantly vac'd with our shop vac - it was so much easier to keep a handle on the dust with it- best gift we ever got from the family Christmas exchange:D

we missed the deadline to order thae carpet we wnated 'cause my husband drug his foot throuigh the whole process. So now we have Unclaimed frieght coming out tomorrow to measure and they can install next week. We cold get it installed this week but if we wait until next week the carpet will be on sale! So Now we just have to figure out the best way to put this chair rail up on an uneven wall. Plus my DH can't remember how to use the miter box. So this weekend him and my daughter are going to try to conquer that. He's trying so hard to get every little speck of old drywall mud off the floor. It has been scraped flat but he wants every bit of it off. So if al goes well next week we will have furniture. We haven't picked out light fixtures yet. He wants flush to the ceiling. I think the room is big enough it can take a little bigger than that. But Home Depot has these fixtures that are 2 for $15! And you know how money talk to a man.

The BBB finally heard from Mr. #$%^^%$#. He said he wa the one who quit because we had expectations of him that he couldn't meet. He isn't saying that we told him that he was fired.

End in sight!!!!
 

Carpet to be installed next week!!!!!!! Tomorrow I will call to get furniture delivered. So this wekend my DH and DD will put in the baseboards and if time allows will do the chair railing. I don't like the curtains my DH picked out but sometimes you have to let them buy it and then see the mistake they made. So they are still in their packages.

I have trim!!!!
 

We got, well my husband got, base boards and chair rail on three of the walls. I don't know why he didn't do chair rails on all walls and then base boards or visa versa but he's a man and you don't question a man when you can finally get a hammer in his hands. It really finishes them. I can't wait to get the carpeting in.

i can't wait to see the finished product.
looking forward to pics. :)

I bet my family room was worse than yours!
 

In 1995 my DH was transferred back to Iowa from Ohio and we bought a house with a nightmare basement family room! :eek:

Orange/white/yellow/brown/black thick SHAG carpet and dark "sorta" wood panels. :confused:

The laundry room was leftover carpets glued down and pieced together like a puzzle. :o

We got the upstairs all redone but didn't want to put any money in the downstairs for awhile so just left it and stayed out of the area except to do laundry and run back upstairs!

DH got the word to transfer again and an older couple came to look at the house.

They fell in love with the basement and bought the house at asking price!

Keep us posted on your renovations; I know it can be a pain and a real stresser to a relationship.

Since then we have done several and survived!

DH finally learned to say the magic words.. "yes dear; you're right".

We worked long and hard on the base boards today. When we did the room 30 years ago my DH was very meticulous about making exact measurements and the cut outs were right on as far as vent covers, switch plates, etc. But today he just put the baseboards over all of them and said he would do the cut outs later when he had the energy. That means we would have to take that piece of base board off, buy another piece, and do the cut out and nail it back on. So now I have all the plug ins and air intake vent that will have to stay bare until he 'has the energy'. I know he is tired but I am to. The chair rail will also have to come off to make room for the switch plates when he has the energy. Plus the stupid builder 35 years ago put all the switch plates at different levels.

We are exhausted! Over my DH three day weekend we got most of the base board and chair rail up and did the framing around one door. We have three doors left and all three windows to do. We are using my Dads very old miter box and saw and part of it broke today. We are leaving off the chair rail on the wall that it's going to be such a tight fit to get the fuirniture around. We figure every inch available helps so no chair rail until it's in.

Then we swept, and swept and swept some more. I don't care how many times you sweep it always comes back! And I think we probbaly need to sweep down the walls again. When we sat on the concrete floor we would get drywall dust on out buts. Then if we touched a wall we had a butt print on the wall! You think you have all that dust up but it isn't. We have even wet mopped the floor three times. So the carpeting is up that was on the stairs and everything is ready for the carpeters Wednesday.

When we were in makeing the down payment on the carpet today my DH saw an area rup he liked. It would be about $150.But when i showed him one that cost $59 it was to expensive! I don't understand. I've just got to get him to take back the ugly drapes he bought!!!

I think I'm going to make a wish list, kind of like a wedding or baby registry and give it to people for Christmas presents. I'll even put a bow on it and put there name on it for Christmas. But I think that's the only way I will get the drapes I want!

What a wonderful idea!

I wish you luck with the reburbishing of your new room. From what you've told us about it here, it seems you're gunna need it. :hug:

I can't wait to see the "finished" photos.

I cannot wait for the final product! It looks so nice already!

WooHoo, looking good!!!! :cool:

The Christmas idea is a great one..:)

carpet in!
 

I hope our accents of black and red give us a punch. It's a whole lot of brown going on!

Wow, Doyd, it looks like a whole other room! It's great and now you have to force yourself to put stuff on the pretty, new carpet!

Wow, it looks very nice Doydie! :)

Very pretty! And the kitty likes it too, hopefully not enough to pull at the carpet or pee on it! :yikes:

I only had one cat who pulled at the carpet thank goodness.

the family room has 4 different doors coming off of it. I plan on sanding, priming and painting all the doors the color of the upper wall. Now I just have to figure out what light fixtures I want. I'm hoping that the furniture will give me inspiration! That comes TOMORROW!!!!!!!! Well at least part of it does. Our theatre wall that will surround our black 52 in TV is black so I'm hoping that will help break up all the brown. We have to pick that up ourselves on Saturday. We could have paid $75 for delivery but we declined. My husband picked out maroon and gold curtains which I don't like but they only cost $15 at Walmart. I'm hoping to change his mind on that.

We haven't moved anything n place since we still have to do window casings and drapes.

Those pieces are heavy! I guess because each piece is actually 3 peices that's waht maked the difference. And the back of the couch looks weird because it's 3 pieces and there isn't any good connection. I had an old long stero cabinet that I took out allthe stereo equipment out of it and palnned a=on making a sofa table out of it. So I might put it behind the sofa. But it's dark walnut. I guess I could sand it and sprya pain it black like all the other wood accents, the theatre wall and then the drpaery rods with black finneals. I'm used to movinf my own furniture but I can't move these. I need to get those disk move things!

As you can see the before and after pics. First DH had a lawn chair and big screen TV then he had his new digs. It was quite easy to get it in the house. They had to remove the connecting rods between all three poieces then we removed our railing going down to the family room.

My grandkids will love hiding things in the compartment on the loveseat!

Got the theatr wall up today. It makes such a presence in the romm. It's just unbelievable. while we had our daughters help we started moving the old family room mess out of our daughters bedroom. The old entertainment center and heavy coffee table were to much for me to help. So tomorrow my DH will work on putting casing around the windows and I'll try to continue cleaning in her room. My babies have to have somewhere to sleep when they come for Thanksgiving!!!! We still haven't decided on drapes and ceiling light fixtures. So right now the room is a mess again!

It might be a mess now Doydie, but you and DH won't know yourselves when it's all finished. Just think..... all that extra room.:D

I can't believe the difference from your very first photo to those pictures with the furniture in the room.

It's looking fantastic..... and so comfortable!

It's been a hard road, and a frustrating one at times, but it'll be worth it when it's all finished.

I love the coloring so far...so peaceful and warm.. May I suggest you bring out some more color with your Drapes and throw pillows? Some Red maybe? Orange? :)

Took these today, it was my DH day off. We almost have all the trim done. We did finish trimming around the windows. I don't know at all what kind of curtains to get. I think it would look weird to have long curtains that when you open them you see half wall and half window. But I hated it when I had just window length curtains only. My sister is coming tomorrow and were going to try to decide where to hang pictures.