Since the weather is a little iffy outside for another month or three, our plan is to work on the inside of the house to the extreme!  Well, at least what we can afford and lots of creative economical ways to fix up some of the inside things we’ve been dealing with.  Our dining room has been a huge roadblock in our plans.  It’s just a little room, about 10 foot by 12 foot, and it has six openings into it.   It’s a common theme in this old house… just too many doorways!  It tends to make the room more of a large traffic hallway then a room.   No matter what you do, you end up blocking a pathway.

And it just ended up being a lot of brown.   Brown walls, brown floors, brown furniture, brown piano, brown accessories, brown curtains… you name it, it was pretty much a shade of brown in there.

We took down the overhead lamp in the middle since it was just not working and everyone was bumping into it all the time.   It was way oversized for the room as well.  Just did not work.   But unfortunately, when we replaced the torn up tile, it was apparent to us just how old and dingy the other tiles and the suspended ceiling frame was!   It was like one thing led to another and then another.   It was time for a total redo in this room to reclaim it as a functioning part of our home.

I removed all the pictures and stuff, and we covered up the piano and a dresser in there… and got started.   In a perfect and well budgeted life, I would have loved to remove the drop ceiling.   However, we got a good look of the original ceiling when we removed the lamp and buddy, it’s far far worse than the drop ceiling.  That is not something we want to tackle for awhile.  It’s very old and nasty and just a mess.  So, painting the tiles is the thing.

Now, we thought about taking them all down and painting them but it was dreadful to just replace one tile in the middle…  the frame is old and a little wonky, and so we just decided to paint it in place.  It worked best.  I was kind of surprised, I’ve never painted a drop ceiling before.   It was a little slow going, but I didn’t have anywhere to be and the girls were visiting with a friend, so I was on my own.   I just put on some music and took it tile at a time.   The way it looked after each tile was done was so encouraging that I got it all done in a few hours.  Working overhead can be a little hard on your arms, so I just took frequent breaks.  It was so wonderful once I got done!   Really made the room super bright and fresh looking.

Next up is to fix this wall.   We are going to open up one opening and close in another.  The one on the left goes into my small office, and there are already three openings into that very small space.   Loosing one will not hurt at all and in fact, it will make it a little better.   And it will make the room so much more functional.   Now we can put a table and chair set in that corner and out of the traffic flow.   We are thinking that a bench/booth sort of combo would be super nice.

And opening up the other opening which is TEENY…  only 27 inches wide, would make it so much more nicer into the dining room.   It would let in more light and connect the two rooms in a much more pleasing manner.  It can be opened up to 63 inches wide!   Twice the size it is now.  Wonderful!

 

 

So, that is the plan today, to remove a portion of the old plaster and lath and get it ready for a sheet of drywall!   Should be fun… demo is always fun.    And don’t worry, it’s not a load bearing wall, just a little interior one…   without electricity on it!   Easy peasey, just messy!   More pictures to follow!

 

 

 

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