Before Photos - The Family Room

I thought next I would share another room we are currently working on - the Family Room.

I mentioned in a previous post, that in hindsight, it was a mistake to work on both living spaces at the same time, while attempting to actually live in the home (no matter how "quick and easy of a job" the contractor might claim it is). 

Hence our half-put-together family room.

This room's walls and ceilings were originally coated in a plaster-type texture, similar to spacalding you would roll onto a ceiling. The reasoning behind it, I believe, was that it was a cheap way to cover up imperfections in the original plaster walls that had been wallpapered over a few times.

Re-drywalling this room was not in our immediate budget. So, when our drywallers came to quote our Living Room, and they mentioned that they could "skim" over the texture, and that it wasn't going to be expensive, you can imagine we jumped all over it.

Now, please be gracious and remember that while this isn't our first home, this is the first time we've renovated a home on this scale. I mean Ryan's done some big renovations himself before, but not quite like this. So we're slowly learning that no project is ever as easy at it seems, and how budgets seem to get pushed with each project, and that if a contractor quoting a job says that it will only take a couple of days, it usually, in our experience, takes a couple of weeks.

So, when the "smoothing out" didn't working on the walls, we needed to come up with another cost-effective solution. It was here that I had the brilliant idea to do planked walls. It provided the covered that we needed, without the huge cost. It's also quite cozy, and has a cottage feel to it, which is nice for a Family Room.

The planking is over halfway complete, however we've come to a stand still for the next week or so. Ryan's work schedule has been busier than usual, and other projects have needed more immediate attention. But again, due to the lack of space to relax in, we just set up the room as best as we could just make things comfortable - particularly for the kids. It's hard enough for them to settle into a new home, the renovations and unsettled house make it even harder.

Here you can see some of the lovely old wallpaper.

This is the room where we have our main entrance. The front door is rarely used, unless by visitors, as it's on the other side of the house (we're on a corner). Because of it's situation to the driveway, this is our entrance.

Here are the earliest photos that I have. Here we are in the middle of removing the spacalding.

You can also see that the ceilings have been smoothed. For some reason, they set perfectly, which is nice, as it will help make the room feel finished off.

This room is also the access for the crawlspace for the latest addition. It's quite tight down there! Our plumbers had to remove some galvanized plumbing, and bring it all up to date.

Ryan's working hard putting up the planking.

Once the rest is finished, the boards will be sealed and then primed before being painted. I haven't selected any colours yet, but it will most likely be white, especially as this room gets limited sunlight. Aside from that, I would also like to replace our aluminum door with a wooden door.

Hopefully soon I will have some after photos for you!