Realizing that we only have approximately 4 1/2 months left until our new edition arrives, it was finally time to stop planning and talking about our room remodels and actually get down to business. We’ve showed you what we have in mind for our new nursery room and office/guest bedroom, but before we get to the fun stuff, we needed to do some behind the walls improvements that are a little less glamorous. I enlisted the help of my father and father in-law to assist me so we would be able to knock the majority of the hard work out in a day.
My Dad was able to come over Friday night so we got a little head start by going over our supply list and prepping the room for demolition. The first step was to remove the old base boards. All of them are solid oak original to the house, but they had been stained, varnished, and then painted over in white in recent years leaving them pretty messy. There was also a lot of retro fitting of cables, phone jacks, and electrical cord holders over the years, so we weren’t going to lose sleep over replacing them.
We used a hammer and pry bar to pull them away from the wall. Once you get one end started they pop right off with ease revealing the original layer of drywall and a very thick paint line.
Along with the base board trim, we also removed all of the window and door casing as well. The windows are a little more complicated since there are a few pieces that we needed to keep to re-install with the new windows that we will be ordering. I first started by cutting the built up paint between the window casing and the window stops.
Then I used a pry bar again to remove the casing.
We also needed to remove the window ledge and in the process cracked one of the 3, so I will need to use it as a template to make a new one.
I labeled the pieces that I needed to save for the new windows according to the direction the window faces in the house and what side of the window the piece attaches to.
After all the base boards and casing were removed, we covered the floors of both rooms with Kraft paper, painters tape, and some duct tape to hold down the seams.
This way during all the phases of the work we really don’t have to worry about scratching the floors, and it makes clean up a lot easier.
We also removed all of the outlet covers and sealed off the heating/cold air return vents so there wouldn’t be any dust circulated throughout the house. Here’s what we were left with before we started the demolition Saturday morning.
And it didn’t take long before all the old Sheetrock on the 3 walls were torn down thanks to a little hammering, pulling, and nail removal.
Then we were on to removing all of the old insulation, which was in pretty bad shape.
After all the old Sheetrock and insulation was bagged and moved outside, we brought in the new R-13 faced insulation. I decided to spend about $10 extra to get the pre-cut 8′ strips because during our bathroom remodel I bought the single large roll and found it very cumbersome to cut and work with in small areas.
It slides right in between the 16″ on center studs fitting just right. It has paper tabs that fold out on the sides that you then staple to secure it to the studs. It was pretty easy to tell the difference it made after installing it with how much warmer the room felt.
I also took the time to use spray foam around the window jam since that space is too small to jam insulation into, and that’s a big area that can make a window drafty like ours are.
We powered through late into the night Saturday finishing up the walls to get them ready for painting. Stay tuned for more details on those steps this week.
Looks good!