One of the big factors that influenced my wife and I to buy our house was the belief that a little DIY would beautify the house. The family room was butt ugly, but it just needed some love. As you can see from the photos below, the room was covered with faux wood paneling.
Before Photos
After Photos
Demo
One of the first things I did after closing on the house was to rip down all that faux wood paneling and remove the carpet. The paneling was 4′ x 8′ x 1/4″ thick sheets that were easy to remove since there were installed with brad nails. Underneath the paneling was the old 2′ x 4′ gypsum board that were easily removed since there were installed with nails. The boob light by the door, the ceiling fan, the wall mounted light, all base and door trim molding, baseboard heating covers, and the closet doors (sold on Craigslist for $40. I love Craigslist) were all removed. (link to other blog post). At this point, the room was successfully demo-ed and ready to be put back together.
The Rebuild
The first step is always drywall. The room took 16 sheets of drywall and 1 day to install. It took me 3 days to tape and spackle everything. A professional probably could have done this room in 2 days, but I am only a weekend warrior. Luckily for me, my mom volunteered to prime the room while I went to the lumber yard to buy all new base, crown, and door trim molding. Since primer dries quick, my mom was able to paint the room while I painted all the molding in my garage.
WEEKEND WARRIOR TIP: It is easier to throw 2 coats of paint on the molding before installation. After you install the molding and caulk, you do a finish coat of paint.
After the room was painted and dry, I installed a new ceiling light fixture and re-installed the ceiling fan. I ordered a new ceiling fan, but had to wait a week for delivery. When the new fan came in I replaced the existing ceiling fan and sold it on Craigslist for $40 (See a theme, I love Craigslist).
After the lighting was installed and I could see better, I began to install the molding. You first have to do the door trim, followed by the base molding, and I finished up with the crown. I was able to do the door trim and base molding in a few hours, but needed my dad’s assistance for the crown molding. Since my dad has a full time job, he was only able to come over after work. Since we only had a few hours each day, it took 2 days to complete the crown molding.
WEEKEND WARRIOR TIP: Use shoe molding rather than quarter round It just looks better.
When the molding was complete, I caulked (fast dry) the nail holes and gaps and applied the final coat of paint. I also replaced the outlets with tamper proof outlets (future baby proofing) and replaced the light switches with new black ones.
Since the air condition registers and return grates were metal, I cleaned them and got white Rust-Oleum spray paint to freshen them up. They were in good shape, so no reason to throw them out and buy new ones.
The Flooring
The existing flooring was oak hardwood with significant staining, most likely from dogs. I brought in a floor guy to refinish all the floors in my house, and he was able to get rid of most of the pet staining in the family room. We decided we can hide the remaining stains with area rugs, so we didn’t replace the flooring. Refinishing the floor cost less than $2/SF, which was a slam dunk.
When hiring someone to either finish or refinish your floors, look for a contractor who can do dustless sanding. Its not 100% dustless, but it’s pretty close. I also can’t stress this enough, use oil based polyurethane, DO NOT USE WATER BASED. Yes, water based is cheaper, but its a far inferior product that does not last. Water based products will at best last 10 years, will start to turn grey around years 5-7, are not nearly as durable as oil based, and will not bring out the wood grain as well as oil based.
The reason oil based products are better is because of the higher VOC. VOC has a bad reputation these days, but the VOC is what makes the product work. If you look at the cost of refinishing water based product every 10 years versus oil based products that need to be done every 30 years, oil based will be your most economical. Don’t worry about the VOC, as you won’t be staying in the house when they refinish the floors since you can’t walk on them anyway.
Painting
We did 2 coats of ceiling paint, Glidden. The Glidden paint goes on pink and dries white. I prefer this paint for ceilings so you can see that every square inch is painted. If you go right for white ceiling paint, it is very easy to miss a spot.
For the walls, my wife picked SAILCLOTH, flat, by Benjamin Moore. As a house warming gift my mom bought us paint and she will only use Benjamin Moore. She has tried every brand under the sun, but she says the Benjamin Moore products are more durable, can be cleaned easily when the kids dirty them up, and their color lasts the longest. Since she had 30 years of experience painting her house, I take her word for it.
WEEKEND WARRIOR TIP: When using Benjamin Moore, always buy form the classic line. It is thicker paint that coats everything fuller and with less coats. It is also more durable when cleaning them
WEEKEND WARRIOR TIP: Start at one end of the room and work your way around. When you get back to where you started, apply the second coat, the first coat does not need to be 100% dry. This saves time on cleaning up.
All the molding (and the inside of the doors) were painted with Benjamin Moore’s Chantilly Lace, semi-gloss, which is very white. We then painted the finished wood bay window. As a primer on the finished wood, I used a great product called Gripper. Gripper just requires a light hand sanding and then you apply it like regular paint. Once it dries, you paint over it and the paint does not chip off. The existing windows in my house were painting in this fashion and we have had no chipping in over 4 years.
Baseboard Heating Covers
I grew up with forced air heating, so baseboard heating was new to me. I cut a piece of the old heating cover as a sample and went to home depot. Since my old covers were larger than what was in stock, I went to a plumbing supply store to get replacements. I highly recommend going this route your first time as the plumbing supply store will be able to answer questions and help you out.
The process to install the covers is simple in steps, but I found is to be physically challenging. The covers come in three pieces, the back (the piece against the wall), Clips that slide into the back piece and hold up the front, and the front piece. The back piece is the easiest to install as you cut it to length and screw it into every third stud.
WEEKEND WARRIOR TIP: Before installing the new covers, vacuum out the fins the best you can, and bend back any fins, with a fin comb, that appear to be bent or out of place.
WEEKEND WARRIOR TIP: Check the baseboard heating pipes that go through the floor, they can rub against the floor and make noise. I added copper mesh around the pipes to reduce the noise from rubbing against the floor.
I installed the back piece followed by the brackets that hold the front piece in place. This was difficult, as you have to snake the brackets behind the heating element (pipe) without damaging the fins, and then snapping into the back piece. Snapping the brackets into the back piece is easy when you practice it before starting the install, but working around the fins made it difficult.
Once I installed the brackets, I had to snap on the cover piece. You finish the ends and any corners with the appropriately pieces, as told by the plumbing supply store. The corner and end pieces are a breeze to install as they slide into position.
WEEKEND WARRIOR TIP: Paint the baseboard heater covers before installing, using Rust-Oleum spray paint. I didn’t do this in the family room, but did so in my bathrooms. The fresh white looks much better.
TV WIRING AND STEREO
Since I didn’t want ugly wires running up and down my wall, I bought a wire organizer kit to hide the TV wiring behind the wall. This kit was easy to install and gives the wall a clean look. I wired 2.1 surround sound speakers by running white speaker wire along the white base molding and door trim molding. For audio/visual/cable/etc, I always use Monoprice.com because their prices are fantastic. They constantly are much cheaper and as good if not better quality than anyone else. When Best Buy sells a $30 HDMI cable, Monoprice sells it for $3.
Finishes
For the finishes, my wife chose an antique brass theme, which consisted of light switch covers, door hinges, and Schlage door handles. We ended up ordering them online since their selection is larger than stores. The outlet covers were basic white, plastic from Home Depot. They cost basically nothing and have a clean finish. I recommend the larger size covers over the standard as they hide any drywall defects around the outlets.
The new ceiling light was a standard brush nickle boob light from Home Depot, very affordable and looks modern and clean.
I purchased this Hunter ceiling fan online. It has a brushed nickle finish with dark wood blades, dimmable LED light, and remote. I purchased this Hunter fan from Build.com, and it is compatible with three-way switches, which matches my current set-up.
Decor
You can see our decor in the after photos. This is a family room/place room for the kids so we did not go high end on anything. I purchased the media console used on Craigslist for $50. The wood furniture is 40 year old Ethan Allen hand-me-downs that were a little beat up, and our ugly, but comfy, brown couch.
Stats
Time: 2-3 weeks
Demo – 1 day (Free)
New Drywall – 4 days ($240, 16 sheets, plaster, tape, screws)
Painting – 2 days ($125, 3 gallons)
Molding – 4 days
Refinishing floors – 3 days (contractor applied 3 coats)
Heating covers – 1 day
Electrical – 1 day
Finishes – 1 day
Total Cost:
