Joe and Jamie’s Blog

Here are the past articles on this topic to follow along:
2008/03/23/a-little-housework-remodling-the-attic
2008/03/24/continued-house-work-in-the-attic
2008/04/14/progress-on-the-attic-project

Now as you probably notice this has been going on since March. Well from April til now nothing has gotten done except for maybe a few touches here and there. We both were way to busy on the weekends with soccer and work to get anything done. We don’t normally take this long to do simple painting, but eh, it’s done now.

Jamie and I wanted to finish painting our bedroom before school started, which was Monday. We did get it all done last week which was tough but great now that it is all finished. The colors came out nice and we are happy. Only thing left to do is paint the door and jam, but I am waiting for a day that I can remove the door to fix it up a bit. After we finish the door, there is just a section outside that needs to be completed, behind my clothing rack. This was a pretty inexpensive area to do, just a few gallons to complete the whole floor. Now I have to go finish hanging all the pictures again!

This weekend was incredibly eventful at the house. I actually woke up earlier than I do for work both days and did a lot around the house. We cleaned out one side of the attic and painted it with the new colors. We were able to use all the colors on certain areas that we planned out so we got to see what each one looks like. They are pretty nice, I think they will do well being light colors in a small area. The fresh paint just makes everything look so much nicer and cleaner. I mounted the pole for the coat rack and finally patched the whole in the drywall, still need to plaster it though. I primed the new railing we made on the left and boy did that new wood soak up the paint. We went with an interior flat enamel paint that is very low-lustre so it will help reduce glare and shine to hide some of the imperfections in the ceilings. The walls are antique white (light tan/beige color), the trim is going to be that blue color (forget the name) and the railing is brown (also forget the name). I know in the photo the brown looks like the walls but its a nice light brown, kinda looks like the color of hot chocolate or a melted milk chocolate bar. Let us know what you think about the colors.

Today we almost finished the project. Just a few odds and ends left.’

We have to just patch the drywall where the shelf used to be and buy the new dresser so we can bust up the old one.

For those of you who missed the first post on this, either click here to read it, or simply look at the previous post.

Here is the new wall/banister that we built in replace of the old shelf. Now I can’t push Jamie down the stairs over the edge, only the traditional way.

We used 2×4’s for the frame and just screwed and glued it together with liquid nails. Glue has become far greater than nails and screws lately, so it was the best bet along the drywall side since there wasn’t a stud where we where mounting it. The shelf that used to be there was a foot deep so we did have a stud to screw that into on the drywall side. It was pretty cheap to buy and was put together quicker than the trick to and back from Home Depot. Surprisingly they were open normal hours for a holiday.

Look how nicely the dresser’s fit in there. You can see to the left of it the hole in the drywall we have to repair. I’m saving that excitement for next weekend. Mounted the trusty fire extinguisher on the post. Every house should have one on each floor. You never know what may happen. Circuits can short, candles can burn, etc, etc.

You can see that we moved all of Jamie’s pig stuff to the shelf at the top of the stairs. She loves pigs so naturally we are up to our necks in pig stuff. Then there is my DVD collection, somewhere around 350, that shelf is only about 1/3 of them.

Look how nicely everything fit outside the room. There is plenty of walking space, every dresser drawer can open all the way without hitting anything now, and remember, all this was crammed inside the room!

I bought 2 foot long brackets that came with a hook on the end of them. From there I just cut a pole to size and screwed it to the bracket to keep it from sliding. Now I have a very sturdy clothing rack that not only looks nice, but won’t fall over on me every week. Its even longer than that cheap piece of crap too. It doesn’t block the outcoves at all. That small dresser is the one that is leaving shortly, just have to wait to get to a store to get the new one that will be in the room.

Look at all the space gained inside the room. That TV stand was used to hold the photo printer outside the room. It is temporary until my 50″ plasma gets fixed and I buy a nice new TV stand. This old one does the job for now. We can now access the laundry very easily. No more scraping it along the side of the dresser to get it out. The dresser we had there was so old and horrible. I was able to bust the thing up outside with no tools or effort. The top broke off while I was carrying it downstairs. We’re both glad to see it go. I have more space by my desk now that the DVD shelf and little glass stand are gone. Have more room to put useless crap, but hey, it’s room that I didn’t have before.

Now to you guys it may not seem like a lot more room was gained,  but if you were here you would be shocked like we were when we stepped back. Don’t mind Jamie, she’s just studying for a biology test. Sometimes I feel sorry for her. We work the same but at the end of the day I sit back and relax while she studies all night long about bones, muscles, systems, blah, blah, blah. Glad I learn a lot on the job so school is very easy. It’s much better to get paid to learn things.

So once again I sit back and relax and enjoy some Molson Tripple X.