Picture thread. VERY Very Very pic heavy - beware.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

Our good friends are out of the country for four months to adopt a baby so they let us have our way with their house. The original scope was just painting but we told them they need new can lights and trim. She always wanted to get rid of those old track lights so we figured now was the time to do it. The baseboards were newer but way undersized for the scale of the room. Also, previous BAD paint jobs OVER wires made it so the prep work to get them right would be way more labor intensive than to switch them out. I found a guy on Craig's list who had pre-primed pine cheap with no sales tax. $1.10 a foot.

The big window topper was missing its crown and the paint job was original cracked, checked and caked on paint. In to the trash it went. We salvaged the window sill with heavy sanding and wood filler.

The door casings were undersized, poorly painted and caked with caulk so they were trashed.

Before:



More before:





Oh No!! They drywalled over old lath. This is going to be a HUGE mess! That stuff between the lath is 100 year old plaster and there is 100 years of soot on top of the lath. The cashier at Home Depot asked me if I was a chimney Sweep when I ran to pick up supplies not realizing how filthy I was:



Lights going in:



Hallway Lights:




Drywall goes back up:




Mudding:






Every project requires a new toy. Half off!!! We couldn't afford NOT to buy it. $99 bucks at the Home Depot. Super suction, fairly quiet, great filter, 10 foot hose, two tool/attachment drawers and doesn't tip over. Also acts as a nice rolling work surface! It was the boyfriend's idea and I bitched and moaned about it but now I love it. :)




Anther new toy. We needed a new painting light. The old 500 watt floor light was a fire hazard and I got tired of burning my hand every time I moved it. This one is 1200 watts. Nice light but it puts out a ton of heat.



New crown in the kitchen to match the rest of the house:



New four-gang box to accommodate the extra switches. Four zones for the new lights:



New door topper and casing. The patch on the right was from removing an old alarm system (No, the boyfriend doesn't do all the work. I just take all the pictures :) ) :



Some (almost) finished shots:



Blinds go back up. You can see new window topper and casings:



Drapes re-hung:





Kitchen:





New baseboards with speaker and phone wire tucked away. We rigged a temporary out let for speaker wire to replaced later with a proper fixture:

[NMDemDist2]

1. wow!!

you are some damned fine friends!!!

It looks wonderful all through, is that a small TV by the kitchen door??

nice job!

[Hassin Bin Sober]

2. Thanks! It's some sort of monitor/tv. He runs his computer run through it...

.....for music, cable and internet. He built some sort of homemade DVR. He's a tech guy.

[angstlessk]

3. I have some eye teeth I don't use that I would gladly give up for your ability

I have realized I am no carpenter, I am no painter, I am no decorator. But I will not stop till I am done, damn it! Even if it looks like I did it, and not a professional! It still looks better than what I started with. But you, you with all that know how! My eyes are GREEN...