A Long Time Coming: Home Renovation Projects

In the last month Mitch and I have begun the first of many long-term renovation projects in the house.  We have recently created an appropriately-titled "Shit To Do" list for our house, and come up with a ten-year plan to complete it.  The first thing on the list:  baby's room.  

When we looked at the house the first time, the upstairs second bedroom looked like this:

We used it as a spare bedroom until recently, when Ma and Pa Poke came for a visit to begin the project of changing it over to a nursery.  We ripped off all of the trim and doors, then sanded and primed the walls.

Then we painted the walls a nice shade of orange (we have to start brainwashing the kid that he is an Illini through and through right away).  Actually, the color is more like orange sherbet.  Pa started installing the new trim and doors, which he had a REALLY good time doing.  

Mom did a lot of the door and trim painting, and luckily it was a beautiful weekend so we could do most of the painting outside on the deck.

A little side project that was begun was the replacement of all of the doors upstairs - both bedrooms and the bathroom.  Our house has old hollow doors, and many of them are damaged with holes.  Eventually, the entire house will be replaced with solid six-panel doors, of which Pa and Mitch installed. 

You can see that Mitch was taking notes so that he can do the rest of them himself.  Here was the semi-finished product when Mom and Dad left:

I finished painting the new doors, while Mitch and his dad re-installed the doors and put on new handles.  

After a little touch-up painting and some cleaning, here is the (almost) finished product:

We have a few outlet covers and things to take care of, and we are waiting to replace the window in the baby's room (another long-term project) before we consider this room "done".  But it's partially ready: we've got a baby blanket, Illini gear, and a Diaper Genie!  The crib is on backorder, and will be here in about a month or so. 

Finally, the finished doors:

Home improvement is very addicting - once you see how nice everything looks, you really want to do the rest of the house.  Little bits at a time!