TT's Dining Room Progress Thread

[tangotori]

Welcome to my Dining Room Progress Thread
I'll post regularly (when there's stuff to share) and keep you all up-to-date!

Almost everyone knows that we live in an itty bitty bungalow. It's so small, in fact, that it doesn't have a dining room. So we're transforming our front bedroom into this very important room.

Unfortunately - because I was out of commission for a few weeks and so couldn't help (darn surgery) - progress has been snail-paced. Over the last few weeks DH has slowly been pulling down the plaster & lathe in the room. Next week our electrician will be in to remove the knob & tube in this room and re-wire it properly. Jason the Electrician-Guy is the best! Then we can start to insulate and drywall.

But...

We're also making some structural changes to this room. Take a look at these pics:



The easiest thing to explain... we're going to be building a larger opening/doorway through to the dining room (represented in red above)... but it'll be shifted to the right of the current doorway by about 2 feet.

The reason we're shifting the doorway to the right about 2 feet? That's where the new wall will be. Yep... we're making the room smaller. The reason? The bedroom on the other side of this room is our teeny tiny bedroom. We're going to make it 2 feet larger.

Anyway... we're really looking forward to this part of our renovation if for no other reason then that we get a larger bedroom! But of course it'll also means that we'll have a place to gather for dinner rather then the living room I also like that it will open up the house a little - the new larger doorway will connect the living room with the dining room with the kitchen. Our house can't be "open concept", but this new doorway will at least lend itself to that feeling a little.

Naturally DH will have to find a new place to store his golf clubs

[geetwin]

more room for the clubs?

[tangotori]

Geetwin... we'll create a special and sacred space for DH's clubs in the basement

[smoodgie]

Your new doorway layout looks great!! Like you said, it'll open up the space without going open concept.

Too bad about hubby's golf clubs. But moving them down to the basement is all for the sake of good design

[tangotori]

DH worked sooooo hard yesterday!

Take a look:

Over the last few weeks, DH has slowly been removing the plaster & lathe on the walls... yesterday he took the whole ceiling down!!

But the best part of all?
DH removed the section of plaster that will soon be our new doorway!


We'll remove the wall studs next week and install a new header for the doorway.

In the mean time, this is what our new doorway looks like:

This view is from the living room.

And this is from the kitchen:


I love it already!!
It's so open!!

What I really loved... when I walked in the back door I could see the dining room window... and what a difference it has made to the light and air flow of the house!!

The sad part... the opening you see above will be about 2 feet smaller... but it'll still be about twice as wide as a normal doorway.

DH will be removing the plaster & lathe from the last remaining wall (you can see it in all it's hospital green glory above)... this wall houses our clothing closets. Yesterday I purchased a garment rack and our clothing now resides in the living room, affectively blocking access in/out of the front door! LOL!

But there's so much more to do in this room!!

Once DH has removed the p&l on the closet wall (leaving all the studs for now) he and I will be installing a new wall 2 feet into the room from this wall... this will make the dining room smaller.

On Friday we purchased a new window - we'll install it in about 2 weeks.

In the mean time, we'll be stuffing the walls with insulation! As is often the case in an older home, the walls didn't have ANY at all!

And as soon as the window is installed we can drywall!

After that is done, we'll move our bed into the dining room and then start tearing apart the bedroom! But that's a topic for another thread!! HaHaHa!

I'll continue to take and post pics of the dining room as it progresses!

[smoodgie]

Increasing the size of the doorway was an AWESOME idea!!! Even from the pictures, I can see the difference between "before" and "after"

Looking forward to following the progress

[sweetie]

That is amazing! I don't know how you and DH do it! It does look great, bright, open and inviting.........

[tangotori]

Okay... another update

DH has installed headers to support the openings, and he's installed the framing for our new wall! Take a look:


1st pic: Opening with new headers (without new wall)
2nd pic: The view from the living room (without new wall)


1st pic: Opening from the living room, with the new framed wall.
2nd pic: View from the kitchen


View from the dining room to the kitchen


The space between the new framed wall and the old wall (to be removed) - this is where my new closet will be!!

Through the week we'll be insulating, next weekend we'll be installing the new window and then (maybe next weekend?) we can drywall. Once we have it mudded, taped, sanded and primed, we'll move our bedroom into the dining room and start tearing apart the bedroom!!!

We're a long way from done!!

[tangotori]

I thought I'd also show you what we're going to have to deal with...

Here's a pic of the plaster wall in the living room - it's been badly damaged where the header was installed!

DH did his best, but it was a tough job removing the existing framing (he had to replace the original header with one that would tie into the new dining room doorway's header) without removing the plaster. It was inevitable that some of the wall would be damaged.

We have a plaster-guy we're going to bring in to fix all of our living room plaster problems... but that won't be for some time, now! I'll just have to look at this lovely, crumbly wall for a while longer.

BUT... here's the real condundrum... how to patch the threshold area between the dining room and living room? Here's what we're faced with...


We have a bundle of these oak strips (living room side) in the attic... I was thinking of laying these strips lengthwise across the threshold (FYI: I'd also lay them in the threshold to the bedroom - it needs it too AND it would then be a consistent design feature in the house). Problem... the floor in the dining room is fir. How would it look for these two different floors to sit next to one another? We're eventually going to re-finish the oak floors - we could do both floors and try to have them match a little better... but different woods take the stain in different ways. Hmmm... I'm just not sure.

We could also do each threashold in a tile - perhaps the same tile as the kitchen. How would wood - tile - wood look? With this solution, the two wood types wouldn't be sitting directly next to one another.

Of course we could always lay carpet in the dining room. We're definitely laying carpet in the bedroom.

Thoughts, please

P.S. The short pieces of oak you see above will be replaced with longer pieces (to the length of the other flooring)... easy job

[geetwin]

BUT... here's the real condundrum... how to patch the threshold area between the dining room and living room?

how would a thin darker strip along the threshold with the lighter oak cut at the same 45 degree angle and then where the longer strips try to incorporate the same thin darker strps to sort of match the other thin darker inlays--a shame to cover the inlayed (if thats the d/room)i have a picture in my head if you dont grasp what im trying to describe