February Living/Dining Room Progress

We're making progress on the living room remodel project.  The tile installer was here and dry packed the floor in front of the fireplace.  The tile is another 4 to 6 weeks out from being delivered.  That puts the delivery estimate in late February early March.

We are progressing on the replacement of the living room ceiling.  At some point in the 60s/70s the ceiling was replaced with a popcorn ceiling.  There was a time when we thought we could just get use to the popcorn look, but we ultimately decided that it needed to go.  We looked at having contractors do the work, but we either couldn't get them to return calls, or the price was prohibitively expensive.  We did all the drywall in the kitchen ourselves, so we decided to do the same in the living room.  So far, we've raised all the panels and have started taping and mudding.  The plan is to finish mudding and sanding in the next two weeks.  The walls, which are still in pretty good shape, will remain the original lath and plaster.  We boxed in above the built-in cabinet in the dining room to give it a more finished look.  We will finish the sides of the cabinet with frame and panel wood.

We've been pouring over the Shop Drawings for Craftsman Interiors book by Robert W. Lang to figure out the construction of our frame and panel wainscot to be installed on the back wall of the living room and dining room.  We finalized our drawings, calculated the lumber list and have started collecting the materials.   We ordered six sheets of finish grade fir veneered MDF core plywood that's been loaded into the workshop.  The current plan is to begin cutting this down into the appropriate size panels and stain before installation.  The vertical frames are being built out of 3/4" reclaimed vertical grain fir lumber that will be milled down to the required 1/2".  Seeing the lumber material in the workshop is getting us very excited about this project.

There are no shortage of misc. other small projects in the works.  We have pulled most of the baseboard and misc. other bits of trim that need to be stripped of paint, sanded and stained.  Stripping paint has to be one of the most torturous home remodeling activities ever!

More updates coming soon.