Reno Day 6

It's Sunday and we have plans with the family to go to a Maple Syrup Festival, so this may be rest day instead of reno day.

Things are moving along quickly. My brother has been off work this past week so he was here helping out with my Dad (which is good, because with two little kids, I wasn't much help except in the coffee/lunch/cleanup areas).

So far, the wall is up, with drywall on and taped and the first coat of mud is on. My Dad may pop over today to do the second coat. The finish line is in sight, and this renovation has gone quite quickly!

I will post a budget breakdown, so you can see how much (how little) was spent on renos. Of course, labour was free since it was family, but we will get them something to thank them for their time and hard work. We couldn't have done this without them!

Renovation list:
- move light switch (since the current location will be covered by the new wall)
- open kitchen heat vent into bedroom
- close other bedroom vent and open into bathroom
- new light fixture (a low-light chandelier doesn't work for a boy's room)
- install a dimmer switch
- frame the wall
- drywall
- tape
- mud - 1st coat
- mud - 2nd coat
- mud - 3rd coat
- sand
- hang a room darkening blind
- door trim
- prime new wall (bedroom side and hallway side)
- paint bedroom
- door
- baseboard
- decorate
- move C in


So far, we are under budget, and ahead of schedule (or at least, ahead of where I thought we would be!). This reno creates a domino effect for the rest of the house. Once this room is done, and C is moved in, we have to rearrange/fix up P's room (since it won't have C's stuff in it anymore), rearrange the new dining room/living room shared space, paint the new hallway and the living room/dining room, front entry etc. And the bathroom needs some work. We have been in this house for 5+ years and we have only painted our bedroom, P's bedroom, and the kitchen. And now, this year, we will be working on all other parts of the house.

Why now? We desperately need the bedroom space for C and can't afford to move right now. So, like I said, domino effect. We will have to paint the hallway side of the new wall, so we might as well paint the whole 'public' living space at the same time so they are the same colour. Since we moved the dining table into the living room, we now need to rearrange and repurpose this space. And the bathroom just needs to be done. We are also on a mission this year to fall in love with our little house all over again - and to do that we need to make it function for our family of four, and we need to clean up/clean out a lot of stuff! It's going to be fun though! Especially the challenge of doing all of this on a very minimal budget (two kids in daycare!) and as much of it ourselves/with a little help from family.

Once I get the pictures uploaded to the computer, I will post more detailed posts on each the items above with before and after pictures etc.