Rec Room: AFTER

 

Construction completed! Lots more decorating work to be done, but the contractors are gone, and we are moved back in.  Here is a tour of the new space:

The old entrance to the rec room became a storage closet. This storage is great, especially since we don’t have a garage. It is now home to our tools (note Tom’s new massive tool chest), gear, cleaning supplies, and other necessities that we need easy access to. The attic access is also in this room for all the other stuff we don’t get at as often.

The new french doors to the rec room. These doors open up between the kitchen eating space and the rec room.

The media area and an attempt to capture the whole room.

Where the hallway once was, is now closed off to create an office nook. The door leads to the bathroom.

New tiles create an entryway for the exterior door.

Two Ikea Expedit bookshelves situated in a corner create a defined play area and house the boys’ toys. I’m still looking for the perfect basket to fill these bookshelves, but haven’t found one I love yet.

Having trouble remembering how it looked before?  Here are some side by side pictures to refresh your memory.

 

BEFORE            AFTER

 

                                

 

 

We are slowly finding furniture to replace the things that we got rid of when we began this project. I’ve got a million and one decorating ideas to give color and life to the room (stay tuned for another post about this), but for now  we are loving our clean, light, updated room!

Rec Room: Walls, Paint, Doors & Trim

The title pretty much sums it up. Once the drywall went up, the rest followed pretty quickly. We had a slight setback with the doors, which arrived damaged and had to sent back to the door finisher to be repaired.

I absolutely love the paint color for the walls, Sherwin Williams Wool Skein. It is a warm neutral with some green undertones. Just enough color on the walls, without taking away light.

A bit difficult to see in this picture, but we also put a 3x5 tile entryway in front of the exterior door. Please excuse the door, it was the one thing that stayed in this room and it desperately needs to be repainted!

A couple of views of the new entrance to the rec room.

Now the only thing left is CARPET!

We found our carpet at Home Depot for a pretty reasonable price. We chose this particular carpet because of its plush feel. The previous carpet in this room had been a neutral berber. Nothing against the carpet, but it wasn’t soft and it was nearly impossible to clean!  The carpet we chose is called Platinum Plus Dramatic II in the color Sandtrap. I tried to find a picture of it online, but couldn’t. You’ll just have to wait until the AFTER pictures to see it!

Rec Room: Let There Be Light!

Now that the rec room was completely down to its bones, it was time to start putting it back together again.

First the electrician came and worked his magic. Remember how I complained that we had no overhead lighting? Well, now we do. Tons of it, thanks to the wonders of can lights. And no more ridiculously long baseboard heaters either, just small Cadets in the wall.

What was the old entrance to this room (through the laundry room and down a dark hall) became a large closet.

Then new ceiling insulation to keep the room nice and toasty.

And then the real fun began, new drywall!

Rec Room: Demolition

As the title alludes, there was serious demolition that had to take place in order to get our room to the state we envisioned. First step, asbestos removal. Yep, we had it in the popcorn ceiling. Which meant that they also found traces of it on the drywall of the walls, too, since when they applied it they just sprayed it everywhere. Yuck.

Asbestos abatement (as the pros call it) is no little matter. As homeowners, we could have legally removed it ourselves, but we didn’t want that dangerous exposure, so we contracted out. The above pictures are the safety showers they had in place during the abatement. Everyone had to be out of the house during the process. Pretty serious stuff.

So after the asbestos guys left, here is what our room looked like:

Next the ceiling insulation came down, and the old closet frame.

 

then came the exciting part, cutting out the opening for the new french doors.

 

Time to start putting the pieces back together!

Rec Room Remodel: BEFORE

When we saw this house for the first time, we saw great potential in the rec room. Once a two-car garage, this room had been converted into a master bedroom and/or rec room in the 7o’s. Decked out in dark wood paneling, hideous wallpaper, and popcorn ceiling, this room was stuck in the wrong era. The room had virtually no natural light, and no overhead lighting to boot. But we could see past all of that, and could envision what an awesome room this would be if it were stripped of all the cosmetic ugliness, given some light, and brought into the modern era. It took 2 years of living with it to perfect our plan and put it into action.

So here are the before pictures:

The TV area

Play area and kitchen eating space wall (you’ll see why this picture is here)

Old entrance to the room, which was through the laundry room and down a dark, dark hall.

And then the construction began…

New York City

We talked about it for years. When I turned 35 and my mom 65, we’d take a girls’ trip to New York. It seemed so far off. And then it was here.

Five days in the Big Apple. Nothing huge on the agenda, just time to hang out and explore. We had some fantastic meals and saw a great show, Warhorse, on Broadway.So much fun-to see all the sights, to eat fun meals, and most of all to be together.

Our fabulous hotel!

Drinks in our hotel the first night.

 

Lots of walking, enjoying Central Park, and fun restaurants.

NBC tour, Central Park, and dinner before Warhorse.

The Park and pedicures!

Rockfeller Plaza and dinner with my cousin at Stanton Social.

Times Square.

911 Memorial, Museum of Natural History, and the Statue of Liberty.

Breakfast at Serafinas.   I NYC!