The Reason For My Profile Photo is Home Related:

You may have noticed that my profile photo looks like a coat of arms. I have dubbed myself Lady Sandalot of Walls, and hence needed a suitable coat of arms. The reason is our house. It needed remodeling. The house is 54 years old. It had new-ish bathroom and kitchen when we moved in so we didn't do much other than change wall colours and fix some floors. We've lived here for 25 years. It was high time.

We fixed the electricity, the bathrooms, kitchen and laundry room four years ago. Then we made plans, got delayed, made new plans and finally started again last year. First new roof, then entrance hall and livingroom, and finally this spring, corridor, our bedroom, guest room and our youngest's room. New windows, new ceilings, tear down walls, put new walls up, new flooring, and doors both inside and outside plus new electric stuff of course. It was a big job for the carpenters since nothing is straight in this house. My job started when they left. l never thought I would need so much filler to get the walls nice and even and I never thought I would spend so much time sanding!

This is what the house looked like when the carpenters had started tearing things down. We wanted to get the original raised ceiling back. The previous owners had lowered it:



And this is the huge abandoned wasp's nest they found inside the insulation in our livingroom ceiling:



The bedrooms and corridor mayhem:



We had to wait for the flooring in the livingroom. In the meantime we did our best with what we had. Electricity had to be shut down in the rooms they were working so not much light;



Enter me:



I wore a similar outfit a few days last December and then this very nice outfit this March and April.

The livingroom and entrance were done just before Christmas last year. We didn't even have time to hang all our paintings and photos on our new walls, and we had to drag that last carpenter out from behind the tree and ask him nicely to leave:



He came back this February to finish the job so I didn't scare him too much.

I am writing this post from a cramped corner in our guest room. We are done with everything now except the top of our new bedroom wardrobe and my office corner. The furniture carpenter has a waiting list and he doubts he'll have time for us this year. (Oh, yes, and we still have three very small and two very big windows to replace, but not in winter!)

Well, that's all I wanted to tell you, really. I am pleased with the result. It feels like the house has been like this all the time we've lived here so I guess what we have done was the right thing to do.

 

My stars, what a big project! Your home looks lovely now, and I can see why you are pleased with the result.

 

Thank you! The bedrooms are a shade darker than corridors and livingroom, but the floor is the same throughout. We've gotten rid of some tiny corridors which helped a lot for the feeling of air and space.

Yes. Absolutely! The house is so much easier to clean and keep tidy now.

Thanks for the tip. Wish I'd known about this before. I'm afraid it's too late. I only have a few family photos left to hang in the corridor designated to family photos only. I'm not planning to rearrange anything since I'm lousy at changing wall colours and such. If I suddenly decide to anyway I'll just have to live up to my coat of arms motto: "I'm still sanding."

 

Looks amazing Droopy!
Renovations are so stressful ... We renovated our kitchen a few years ago and it was almost divorce haha

 

Looking good droopy

Similar project going on here bit by bit...



That's an older pic, I've done a bit more since then but not too much as I've been building the new cactus house.

 

Oh dear, @Zigs , I feel for you. I hope you'll think it worth it when you're done.

Ty @Netty ! Yes, living in a cramped space without what we have come to think of as necessities is a bit hard after a few weeks. I've never considered divorce. Murder on the other hand...

 

I hate renovating but we are doing so on a very small scale (i still need to paint a nook ceiling and the rest of the house…after that we will see). Droopy and Zigs I admire your patience and bravery in tackling the jobs.

 

Ta Droopy

Took some up to date pics today

 

Great projects you two!!! Droopy congrats on your beautiful "new" home!

 

Hey @Zigs , that's coming along nicely!

@Jewell , I'm too old to be patient but we needed to do this, so I just had to.

Thank you @Cayuga Morning !

 

Ta Droopy, soon be ready for thatching

 

Such impressive work!
I have renovated two houses. That's all for me.

 

And you're doing all this on your own? I thought it was bad enough to sand, put up wallpaper, paint walls and thingies and all that. You impress me.

Goodness! You are tough to take on two. I can't take credit for the carpentry work, only the finished walls and some details. We also had to paint the outside of the house and that's where all our nice summer days went.