Showing posts with label Bonus room. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bonus room. Show all posts

12.15.2010

Plywood to plank flooring tutorial

When recently redoing the room above our garage, we decided that we were DONE with the carpet. Our plans were to rip it up, plank the floor, and then paint it. We never expected the plywood planking that we made to look good enough to STAIN!

IMG_5415Yup, that’s plywood!

Materials:
16 sheets of 15/32 pine plywood @ $16.49 per sheet
9 gigantic tubes of Liquid Nail @ $4.75 each
10 lbs of cut nails (ordered from Tremont Nail Company) @ $69.63 (includes s&h)
4 gallons of Varathane polyurethane @ $37.46 per gallon
2 quarts of stain @ $9.99 each
Square footage of the room: 533
Rough estimate of cost: $520

We started the project with sheets of plywood. We ripped them on the table saw into 6 inch strips that were all 8 feet long. Then, we Dustin carried all of this up to the house so it could sit and “acclimate” to the room. I don’t know if that helped, but that is something that is recommended when laying hardwood flooring.


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It, surprisingly, only took us an hour and 45 minutes to cut the sheets into the planks.

With the materials purchased and gathered, Dustin cleaned up the room with the shop vac. He made sure all the subfloor panels were nailed down securely. Some required him to add some screws to make  sure they were tight.
Then the fun started. We measured and figured… measured some more.. and some more…

Before we began, we made sure to figure out our pattern so that each row of flooring would alternate where the nails were. We also knew that we would need to cut shorter pieces for the end that were around 11 inches long. We wanted those “short” pieces to alternate back and forth with each row.


We started with the first board and squared it with the wall, leaving a 1/16 inch gap between the first board and the wall. We dry fitted it before applying a bead of Liquid Nail along the length of the board. We put the board in place and Dustin hammered in the nails on the marks. Later, he went though with a nail punch to make sure that the nails were at least flush with the flooring.

Between each board and each row, we left a 1/16 gap. The plan all along was to paint this flooring, so we wanted it to LOOK like planks instead of just a solid, painted panel floor. We worked our way back and forth, alternating which side we started on with each row. We didn’t worry about the 11 inch pieces we needed for each end until we were completely finished with the room.

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We wanted the nails to be in line, so we started this process by marking them as we went. (Later, I started marking them ahead of him because I wasn’t much help anywhere else). This also really sped up the process since he didn’t need to measure every 16 inches. After a while, Dustin made a jig to help with the measuring and marking for where the nails went. Then I just had to line it up with the previous board and mark rather than measure for every single nail.

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We ended up using 11 nails per board by alternating two nails then one then two, etc, as you can see in the above picture. We wanted it to have some order and thought they would look nicer lined up. We originally only nailed every 16 inches with two nails. When he took the first break, we realized that we needed to secure it a little more. The Liquid Nail was still wet and the board were moving up and down when we walked on them. That’s when he went back and added the single nail in line with each board.


Once it was all finished, we sanded the rough places and the spots where there was a little bit of blue and green paint from the lumber yard. As always, we had animal support throughout the whole process.  Up until this point here, we planned to paint the boards dark brown. We wanted a dark farmhouse plank floor look. We never imagined when we started that this would be a stainable project.


We hand stained the whole floor. There are tools that are made to make it easier and faster. We’ve never used them and wanted to make sure the stain went on evenly. And, we were dealing with plywood so we weren’t really sure what it was going to do. It went on perfectly… and in 4.5 hours.


We coated the floor with four coats of ploy. The first coat took about 8 hours to dry. We really didn’t want to have to sand between coats, so we made sure to recoat within 12 hours. He used a bristle applicator rather than a wool one. It seemed like he had better control over the thickness with it. We had to evacuate the house at night while it was drying. It was in the 30s outside, so opening the windows wasn't’ really an option. He’s not wearing it in the above picture because he had just started, but he did wear a face mask the whole time he did the coats of poly.


Since we didn’t plan to stain this until the last minute, we weren’t concerned with the fact that you could see white spots on the subfloor beneath. We knew that those would get covered up when we painted the floor. Since we didn’t do that, something had to be done. At night, with the overhead lights on, those places GLARED white.

I went out and bought some Burnt Sienna Americana paint. One night, while Dustin hung the new ceiling fan, I scooted around on the floor with my Americana paint and a tiny paint brush and filled in the cracks. I wanted to wait until the floor was completely poly’ed and dry because if/hen I got it on the flooring, it wiped right off with a paper towel. It was the perfect color and was the perfect solution for our dilemma.


Can you believe that this is the same room? Or, that this floor started its life as plywood?!

We are so happy with this flooring and our decisions! By doing this, we have saved well over $1500 that hardwood flooring would have cost. We like it so much, that we plan to do this in our kitchen soon. We plan to paint or whitewash it there though.

We've moved all the furniture in and I'm just trying to figure out what to hang on the walls! I'll definitely be putting the starburst mirror I made in here somewhere! The rest of the wall space is still up for grabs :)

January 18 UPDATE:
I've been asked, emailed, seen comments about the roughness of the floor. I walk barefoot on it all the time. It isn't rough. I forgot to mention that we did slightly sand it in places with a palm sander. If there were rough patches, we just hit it with fine grit paper. But, we only did that in about 10 small spots. We don't think twice about walking barefoot on it. Nor do we worry about having kids walking barefoot and crawling on it. It is smooth and sealed!



I’m adding this post to the DIY Club’s monthly contest!

12.14.2010

Painting the living room

I have promised a tutorial on what we did in this room. The flooring tute will be tomorrow, so I thought I’d do the painting process today. And, boy, what a process is was!
We sprayed, we rolled, we trimmed, we painted by hand, we taped off, we bought too much paint, we inhaled too many fumes.


The walls were rough cut wood hung horizontally. We didn’t hate this room before. It just wasn’t “us”. We also love light. This room has 6 windows, but all the light was soaked up by all the dark wood.

The ceiling was also wood. I originally planned to leave it alone. Luckily, Dustin talked me out of it. I LOVE the painted plank results! You can also see the original 5 lights in the photos above. We did four recessed lights (that were done before we painted) and a new ceiling fan that was a finishing touch.

We borrowed a sprayer and Dustin sprayed on Kilz. We used 5 gallons of Kilz on the walls and ceiling. We made sure all windows and doors were sealed up with tape and plastic. We also pulled out the face masks that we have so Dustin wouldn’t suffocate in the sealed off room.

Then, it was time for the ceiling. It got a light coat of primer sprayer on it and then the hand painting began.
See all those cracks between the planks? They are about 4 inches apart and run the entire length of the room. Each one had to be done with a brush. The ceiling got one rolled and brushed coat and Dustin picked up the sprayer again to spray the walls.
Because of their rough texture and the grooves that are between each plank on the walls, they were sprayed and then hand painted with a brush. Dustin sprayed the walls while I went behind him with a brush. Essentially, this room had every square inch of wall space painted by hand. The walls were so rough that the sprayer distributed the paint well, but wasn’t getting it into all the nooks, crannies, and cracks. Although it was a bit more work than expected, it went fairly quickly. And, the results are fantastic.
While the walls dried, we gave the ceiling a second coat with the brushes to touch up and make sure it was all covered well. Then, the walls got another coat of sprayed on paint followed by a paintbrush to even it, smooth it, and make sure knot holes were painted and rough patches were covered.
Then, it was time for the part I dreaded the most: the windows.
I love to paint. I even ENJOY trimming with a paint brush. But, I hate prep work. Of everything we have done in this room, I dreaded the actual taping off of the glass more than anything! :)
They are also solid wood. They weren’t ugly. I had hoped that we could just leave them wood and paint only the trim around them. It was all taped up pretty tightly while we did the rest of the room. But, it needed to be done. So over the course of a few days, these got taped, primed, primed again, and then two coats of white. After I painted all 6 windows shut, Dustin got them opened and proceeded to paint them all shut again himself. Luckily, they are all free now, but what a pain! We were even careful!
This has been one huge J.O.B! Just the paint alone completely changed the room. It is now bright, airy, and cozy.
Tomorrow, I’m posting how we did the floor. Dustin and I are sitting down in the morning to go over our materials list, the cost, and the steps to make sure that I include everything to show you how these two pictures really have have the same materials in them! :)


”PURDY

12.13.2010

We are (almost) DONE!

 

We have finally finished the living room redo! Now, we just need to do some finishing touches with a little bit of decorating. (and, we still need to move in our desk that had to be taken to Dustin’s parents’ house)

I still can’t believe this is the same room!

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The treadmill corner has been turned into a nice reading corner that just needs a little rug.

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We also moved the antenna cable (we’re too cheap for real Cable, folks!) so the room is now oriented differently. It seems to help make better use of some of the space up here.  (The furniture even just looks cleaner and newer in the new room!)

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This entertainment center was huge in our downstairs living room. Up here, it is itty bitty!

 

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The treadmill, unfortunately, had to stay in this room (It was assembled in here, we can’t take it out unless it is in pieces!). The recliner also now has a dark brown slip cover that is currently in the washer.

 

We love, love, love, love, love this new room!

 

And, I PROMISE, the next post will be a tutorial of how we did the pine plywood plank flooring (and a few tips of what NOT to do like us)

12.10.2010

busy little bees

So far this week, the room above the garage (which Dustin says we need to refer to as “the living room” from now on) got a lot of little touches that really add up.

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1. The new fan

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It is a little alienish, but we love it. It is super reflective, so it helps to distribute light even more.
As Dustin was hanging it, he couldn’t get it to work. He took it all down, tested it all, rehung it-- nada. I came up to check on him and asked what was going on. The fan operates by remote only so he narrowed the trouble down to the battery in the remote; it had to be dead. He pulled it out, looked at it and said “do you have any more of these anywhere?”

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My response: “No, but I bet if you peeled all the plastic off this one and took it out of the packaging, it might do the trick….” :) It’s a good thing he has me around.

2. Floor trim

There wasn’t any floor trim in this room originally. But, it needed some to finish it off. Since the whole room is rough cut lumber, store bought neat and tidy trim would look funny, so we ripped a few boards and got the trim for FREE. He them primed and painted them white to match the ceiling, windows, and trim.

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With a borrowed nail gun, the whole room was trimmed in less than an hour.

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Would you believe that this is the same room? It’s even the same corner.

Would you believe that the flooring is PLYWOOD? 

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There is more to come, soon. We also changed out the electrical outlets and switches and started moving the big furniture in.  But, my camera is currently charging, so those pics will have to be added later. I also went through the room and touched up between the planks with some Americana paint. We are finally getting a project 100% complete before we move along to the next :)

*and, as requested and promised, I will post a tutorial of how we did the plywood plank floor (and what not to do like us) very soon!

12.02.2010

Hindsight is 20/20

Dustin and I thought and thought and thought about what to do with the plywood flooring we have laid. Our plan all along has been to paint it. That's why we left a 1/16 inch gap between the boards-- we wanted you to be able to TELL that it was planks and not solid flooring.

Then, people started looking at it as we worked. Everyone who saw it said to stain it. So, we decided to stain it to see what it looked like before we made the final decision. Once you paint, there's no turning back. We though we'd give staining it a shot. (And, we only used 2 quarts that were $9.99 each)




Can you believe that this started as this? It has been a lot of work, but it is worth it! We never expected it to look GOOD, haha. We thought we would want to cover it up all along. Boy, we were wrong.






Yesterday, we hand stained the entire 533 sq ft of this room. It took about 4 and a half hours.



My motto is "work smarter not harder". I threw that out the window with stain fumes on this project, apparently. :)

Had we known that we were going to stain rather than paint, we would have done it with the plywood on sawhorses and in 17 nice big sheets rather than in 136 strips that were nailed to the floor... and we wouldn't have left a gap. We also wouldn't have purchase $50 worth of paint for the floor.  oh, hindsight :) Hopefully the paint we bought for the floor isn't too dark for the hallway walls, I might try to use one of the two gallons there- eventually.



Dustin is starting the poly process today and will finish it tonight or early in the morning. We are going to try to do 4 coats. Hopefully we have enough!

The plan is to shut off the room and the upstairs and crack open all the windows tonight. He'll have a fire blazing to help keep the temperature up while it dries too (yes, poly is flammable, but it's a wood stove just off the garage below that vents straight into that room :)). Meanwhile, we plan to camp out in the living room downstairs to escape the fumes and the chilliness that's going to be upstairs!

If we can't stand it, my mom might get a midnight sleepover with two cats who hate each other (and hate her cats), a needy beagle, and us!

I go back to the acupuncturist later today too. He'll be glad when our renovation project is over :) Although we wear masks, every week he notices that I still have a lot of "dampness" and irritation in my lungs. Part of that is hereditary. My whole family has a chronic cough/throat clearing issue. But, I know that a lot of it is from us doing projects like this trying to make our house cleaner and less 'carpety'. In the long run, it will be worth it, but I wish it wasn't so messy along the way!

**Update** We definitely couldn't sleep here last night so at midnight we packed up both cats (Mom had already came to get Ellie) and headed to Mom's to sleep in the fresh air. It is also drying pretty slowly, so he's only able to re-coat every 8 hours.  Layer 3 is getting applied now. Hopefully layer 4 happens later today. Then, it is just a waiting game for it to dry and cure. Here's to some extra patience :)

*Also, since this is 100% trial and error, I will be posting more of a tutorial once we are complete done. For now, I'll just stick with the handful of pics here and there :) The tutorial, along with a list of items, where we got it all, and the cost, will be posted on December 15.

11.24.2010

To paint or to stain…. and, you had me at “clean” button

The floor is slowly but surely coming along. Dustin worked most of the day today and has about half a day’s worth of work left to do.
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A few people have stopped by to see it and no one likes our idea to paint it. Everyone thinks we should stain it instead.
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I have to say, it looks better than I expected!  Part of the slowness of the project has been with making sure that the nails all line up and that the spacing between each board is as consistent as possible. (if we had considered staining it before we laid it, we probably wouldn’t have made any gap between each board). We have also been alternating the grain with the ‘calmer’ ones mixed in with the ones with a crazier wood grain.
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We already have the paint for the floor. This is a pretty good picture that captures the color. (those who are anti painting also don’t seem to like our color choice either, haha).
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So, what do we do? Paint it? Stain it? Use this paint as a stain? Regardless, we will be loading it up with Varathane when we get the paint/stain complete.

And, because I am so excited/impressed/happy I no longer have to vacuum….

I recently purchased a ROOMBA! It arrived Monday night but today was the first time I could get it set up to go. I LOVE IT.

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Yes, it was a bit pricey and I NEVER spend money. But, with three pets and a vacuum that never seems to get turned on, this is a splurge I was willing to make. (After saving up my pennies, thankyouverymuch, Dave Ramsey :))
I only let it clean the bedroom. Since we are in mid-project, our bedroom is the only room without a floor full of extra furniture in it. I can’t wait to turn it loose on the rest of the house… especially on my painted stained painted stained finished bonus room floor!
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