A Bedroom Renovation

[Lugnut64052]

I piddled around with an upstairs bedroom remodel for about a year and finally got it done (mostly).

Inspired by 67ChevyRedneck's ambitious house renovation and good progress thread I thought I'd post up some pictures of how it went. Plus, I'm sitting here on Christmas morning with nothing much to do while waiting for the company to show up and trying not to wander into the kitchen and swipe bites of turkey and brisket.

We live in a 45-year old house that's never been updated, so I started caterpillaring my way through the upstairs, re-doing one bedroom at a time. The second, major reason I did this room was because of a framing mistake when the house was built.



That side window was so close to the garage roof they had to lop the corner of the sill off to make it fit. Over the years, water hosing down the roof had further rotted the corner off, plus you couldn't flash the wall properly. So.......I moved the window over..........



..........almost two full stud bays, over to where it should have been in the first place. I replaced the sill ( man! That stuff is almost 10 bucks a foot at Home Cheapo ) and the brickmould, and re-glazed all the glass.

[Lugnut64052]

I should have taken better in-progress pictures, but here's the inside, with a few new studs showing. I was able to re-use the piece of sheathing I cut out and just moved it over into the old opening. Same with the window header.

[Lugnut64052]

Then I blew out the rest of the room. I wanted to add some more cable TV and some CAT5, plus the old drywall had about three layers of wallpaper and four or five layers of paint on it.



Amazing how much trash one room will create. Took two full sized pickup loads to the dump.

[Lugnut64052]

After some wiring and fresh insulation......onward to sheetrock.

[Lugnut64052]

Taped, filled, finished and sanded.

[Lugnut64052]

Retrimming the windows. I enjoy running trim. Lots of bang for your buck.



Chair rail is kinda overkill in a bedroom, but what the heck.....I like it.

[Lugnut64052]

Then I made a mistake. I had started this chair rail scheme in another bedroom and carried it on into this one. It never occurred to me that the garage side window was shorter than the others, so when I got around to it.........oopsy.



I didn't think it'd look right to run the rail an inch under the window apron, so I stopped it at the window. Turned out looking pretty good that way, I think.

[Lugnut64052]

Crown moulding kicks my butt. I have a terrible time getting it to fit right at the corners, endlessly cutting and carving on the ends to get it to fit correctly into the preceding piece.

I cut some long, triangular slats and screwed them to the corners . It helps a lot to have plenty of wood behind the crown so when you get it exactly in the right place you can nail it wherever you need to.



You can't tell it in the picture, but that cut is angled back 45 degrees for the next piece to lay onto it.

I did a knock-down splatter texture on the ceiling. Looks great and you can paint it. I colored it a light gray so the white crown would stand off of it better.

[68C15]

I like the triangle backer for the crown moulding. I may have to do that.

is it too late to reposition the chair rail?

[Lugnut64052]

Check out this periwinkle color. My daughter and wife picked it out. I had some misgivings at first, but it kind of grows on you after a while. Obviously a girl's room.





Need to get some different curtains as these came out of her old room.
I still need to do the closet doors and shelving, but she couldn't wait to move in. All in all, it turned out pretty nice.

On to the next room!

[Lugnut64052]

Originally Posted by 68C15

I like the triangle backer for the crown moulding. I may have to do that.

It's an enormous help to be able to gun a nail in wherever you need it and know you're going to hit wood. A corner is never exactly straight, so you're constantly twisting and adjusting the crown slightly as you go along to keep it tracking straight down the corner. Sometimes you need several nails in a row on one edge or the other to make it lay where you want it.

is it too late to reposition the chair rail?

I'd already done another room with it at that height, so rather than screw up the standard I started I decided to leave it. It turned out fine, and actually creates more profile changes for the eye to play over. I mitered it and glued a return on the ends. Everybody oohs and aahs over it.

[Bernie]

Looks like a great job. I'll remember the trick with the crown molding.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Looks great!

My wife opened me up to colors I never thought would look good on a wall.

[Sillyoldman]

I hate doing crown molding. I like the Kant strip idea. Best thing I ever did was buy a miter saw & brad nailers. Great looking work.

[Lugnut64052]

Originally Posted by Sillyoldman

I hate doing crown molding. I like the Kant strip idea. Best thing I ever did was buy a miter saw & brad nailers. Great looking work.

Yeah, I don't like running crown either, but it sure looks good when it's installed properly.

The nailing strip-- I had seen several setups and how-tos where guys were attaching a small backing block at intervals. It was my experience that you always need a nail or two where the backing block isn't. Makes crown installation life a lot easier with the full-length block behind it.

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

Looks great!

My wife opened me up to colors I never thought would look good on a wall.

My wife always had the fear that using bold colors would darken down a room, but that isn't the case. If you carefully browse through some home style magazines you see deep reds, greens, etc that look very striking when trimmed up in white. I didn't much like that periwinkle at first, but it's perfect for a teen-age girl's room. The pictures don't do it justice.

Originally Posted by Bernie

Looks like a great job. I'll remember the trick with the crown molding.

Thanks Bernie. Like most everything else, if I can work on it at an enjoyable pace, it's more fun than work.