Hey Everybody! The Study's Done!

Check it out!

It might just be the most beautiful study I've ever seen. And it only took 9 months to complete!

The Hallway Ceiling Saga

Ranch style homes. Everybody knows that they are objectively the best home design in human history. Simple, functional, elegant. One of the most well-recognized features of ranchers is their long, straight hallways. We have one. You may remember our hallway from such videos as that way-too-long timelapse of me stumbling my way through installing hardwoods.

P.S. Look how awesome it turned out (although this is pre paint and baseboards):

Well, since these hallways are what feels like 50 feet long, our lighting seemed to be a bit on the, oh, how shall I say it?, I-can't-see-anything-I'm-sorry-mom-I-haven't-been-eating-my-carrots-even-though-you-said-superman-ate-them side. We had one fixture near the entrance of the hall, and that was it. One light and then 500 feet to go. There were many-a-night where, on the trek back to our bedroom, I would become unsure of myself and have to call out to Natalie to come find me in the abyss.

Simple solution? Another light fixture!

We found this fixture at CSN Lighting. $18 a pop. Simple, functional, elegant. Perfect for our humble abyss.

As soon as the fixtures arrived, I spent 20 minutes replacing the existing fixture, then ran the wiring in the attic and had the new fixture installed in another 30 minutes. Oh, wait.

Mr. Graham got a bit wobbly in the attic, and being frustrated at his horrible lack of balance, got angry and kicked his foot through the ceiling! 30 minute project just turned into a 2 week project. Which brings us to...

How to Fix Your Ceiling When You Put Your Foot Through It

1. 
   
   Put a hole in your ceiling. Be creative! (pictured above)
2. 
   
   Mark all extremities of wonky-shaped hole and create a square. Extend square as far as you need to expose half of nearest rafers in order to fasten the drywall. If that is impossible, put a 2x4 above drywall and attach to neighboring drywall for support.

     3. Do your standard taping/bedding magic.

    4. Texture to match, which we all know is 100% impossible, so let's just call it what it really is: texture to make it look good enough to not notice every time you walk by.

    5. Prime your new ceilingbaby up.

    6. Paint your ceiling the same way you just got done doing a few short weeks ago. Disregard blotchiness-- wet paint.

    7. And after all of that, install your new light fixture, thus allowing you to travel your hallway safely for years to come.

P.S. Our bathroom door is uneven for no reason. Well, probably for the same reason as only having one light.

Before and After

We got carpet installed today, which brings our 4 bedroom renovation project to a near close. Here are some befores and afters.

The Study:

This has been the most major change we've made in our house. We ripped out a hallway-facing closet and added the room to the study. Unfortunately, I don't have any good photos on me that show the progress neatly.

Walls have been yellowed, new carpet installed. It will be furnished by this weekend. Still left: replace light fixture with something less... pull-stringy.

The Master Bedroom:

We decided to remove the shelf/desk built-in right inside the door because it completely blocked the light switch. So we did.

 Much better.

 Before (note the lighter square in the carpet. That's where the previous owner's bed used to be. Gross):

After:

 New carpet, new paint, new blinds. It's... just... *sniff*... so beautiful. We especially like the green/purple colors.

So, that's just a start the magical bedrooms. We'll work to get some better pictures together and give you a tour.

Bedroom #3

Ah yes. This was my favorite room when we moved in. I especially liked the flowery border wallpaper.

Natalie did not.

And here's some of my shoddy photography to show our progress. We've just finished painting all of the bedrooms, hung blinds, and just measured for carpet. I can't believe we're going to be able to sleep in our bedroom again soon...

Our Life for the Past Month

1. We have been priming all of the bedroom walls and trim, and installing .75" reclaimed red oak strip wood flooring.

2. Here is the current cost outline for our entire back-of-the-house project (four bedrooms):

• $500 for paint+primer+brushes+rollers+etc. (4 bedrooms, hallway, entry way)
• $175 for 100 square feet of hardwoods
• $15 for nails and staples for hardwoods
  
• $38 to rent flooring stapler
• $150 for drywall supplies/tools
• $30 for sandpaper

That makes a grand total of $908. We've also spent a little here and there for various tools, but I will be using those for the rest of my life, so I won't include them.

3. Thank you to our friends Justin, Annie, Katy, Sarah, Anna, Mark, Crawford, Rachel, Chris, David and Bonnie for the help!

4. We did timelapse through the whole project. Surprisingly, you can't see my butt crack even once! I'm very proud.