There’s a post I’ve been wanting write and pictures I’ve been wanting to show you. I’ve held off composing the words and unveiling the images because the finished product isn’t as I would like it to be. I wanted a perfect, dramatic “Ta Da!” moment, one that would accurately capture the true transformation of the space. And although the Before and Afters make quite an impression, the room falls short of perfection. If I’m going to be completely honest about this, and I might as well be, I had my heart set on submitting these photos for One Project Closer’s Before and After Contest from the summer of 2008, which they organized in support of Habitat for Humanity. But you know what? I never submitted the photos because the room wasn’t finished enough for me. That dramatic ending photo I’ve been pinning for hasn’t happened yet.
As the weeks passed and I showed bits and pieces of the room, I realized it would be months, maybe years, before it posses that certain “je ne sais quoi” I wanted. I then realized that I was being ridiculous, a bit vain and far too pigheaded. After all, who knows better than my fellow home remodelers that although you can transform a room rather quickly, it takes years of gathering the right knick–knacks, furniture and artwork for it to earn the labeled “finished” or “perfect.” Besides, you’ve already seen a lot of the room, so why not connect all the dots and show you the whole precess?
So today I’m showing you the space that was the biggest challenge for Joey and I. The one that took just a few days to destroy and over a year to rebuild. It’s the space that made me sob in defeat and exhaustion, where Joey and I had our most anger-infused arguments, where tools literally flew across the room in frustration and where we somehow managed to turned two dumpy bedrooms into a pretty awesome Master Suite (complete with pimped out shower). And we did it together with help our friends and family. And a plumber. In other words, this is the room that we’re the most proud of and the room that’s been the most challenging and rewarding.
Creating the Master Suite, which involved combining two small bedrooms, gutting every wall and ceiling in site (at one point, we could actually see from one end of the house to the other, and when we looked up, we saw the attic roof with such clarity that we could make out the sharp points of the roofing nails). We also closed in a window and built a bathroom and homemade closet that I adore.
I’m going to break this post down into three pieces, otherwise it would become painfully long and you’d never make it to the end. So, let’s cover the bulk of dirt and grime today and I’ll pick up where we leave off on Wednesday.
These are the two bedrooms we combined. The blue room is where the former owners, Mary and Jim, slept and the small white bedroom is where their three boys slept.
As many of you know, demo is a very messy but necessary chore when you’re trying to create a new space. The following batch of photos captures gutting the rooms, ripping down the wall between them and tearing down the ceiling (which revealed the attic above the rooms).
That’s my father-in-law, Joe, balancing on the old floor joists in the attic. It was treacherous walking up there on old 2X4s. A few days after this photo was taken, our building inspector informed us that we’d have to put in new support beams (2X10s) if we ever wanted to use the attic as livable space. I’ll get into that more later. Anyways…
So, there’s Phase One of creating the Master Suite. It was our first real taste at heavy demo and we were shocked by the mess and amount of work it was. But it was also kinda fun. And it made me feel like a tough, kick-ass chick when I looked around and observed the destruction that little
ol‘ me had just unleashed on multiple walls and ceilings. It was at that moment that I realized a very long, dirty, sweat-coated road lay before us and that there was a very good chance we’d make it to the end.
That’s my father-in-law, Joe, balancing on the old floor joists in the attic. It was treacherous walking up there on old 2X4s. A few days after this photo was taken, our building inspector informed us that we’d have to put in new support beams (2X10s) if we ever wanted to use the attic as livable space. I’ll get into that more later. Anyways…
You guys rock!! That is the messiest work you will ever do. I can’t wait to see the “finished project”.