TV Room

The TV room is one of the first rooms we decided to renovate. (We started with 3 rooms when we first moved in). It originally was a bedroom with some strange walkthrough closet and a second closet under the staircase. It had 3 entryways (one from the front hall, one from the diningroom and one from next to the bathroom).

We decided to remove the extra closet space, leaving only a closet under the stairway. Close off the door to the diningroom (leaving 2 interior doorways) and add an exterior door to the porch (when we demolished the exterior wall plaster we found framing for an old door). The room will be our tvroom/media center so there will be builtins along one wall (where the diningroom door used to be).

Here is the before picture and here is the current progress picture (where we are now). Farther below you will find a journal of the progress we made with pictures (chronologically):

The Original Room

Current Progress: First coat of paint complete, floor patched and trim started!

Wednesday April 15, 2009

My father-in-law and husband both took a week off in April to do some demolition and after the chimney project was done they moved on to this room.

The demo took a whole day, it’s a large room and the chimney ran through it so they also got this layer of chimney out during demolition. One of the walls was removed making some of the smaller closets part of the room. Now there will just be a closet under the staircase.
Here is where the Chimney was:
Where the closets used to be:
Closets after Demo
The closet under the stairs that is remaining:
Closet under stairs

Saturday May 29, 2009

We modified the wall between the diningroom and tv room from a doorway to a wall. This way the tv room will have only 2 doors (plus a new exterior door).

Saturday June 6, 2009.

We framed in the new exterior door as well as the adjacent closet door. Once the door arrives we just have to remove the siding on the porch and install it ( I wonder how easy that “just” really is)!

Framed closet in tv room

Sunday June 7, 2009.

Some temporary work lights have been installed so we have no excuse but to keep working when it gets dark!

Sunday-Friday July 5-10, 2009

I stained and then polyurethaned the new door we ordered.

Saturday-Sunday July 11-12, 2009.

My dad came out to help install the new door we ordered.

August 15-16, 2009

Mom and Dad came out and helped us to install the new windows!

August 29-30, 2009

The outlet wires were run (see pictures above).

October 17-18, 2009

Finish prep for insulation – in the tvroom this meant firring out the exterior door and installing the closet light. (see pictures above).

First recessed light installed

First cable/internet drop installed

October 19, 2009

INSULATION! We had spray foam insulation sprayed into the exterior walls of the tvroom, bathroom and gym. Here are the tvroom pictures after insulation!

Insulation in progress

more in progress pics

insulation done!

November 14-15, 2009
We installed the rest of the recessed lights in the tvroom – prepping for drywall now!

recessed lights going in

November 22, 2009
Ryan framed the chimney hole into a wall and then we ran the speaker wire for the 4 back speakers.

Speaker drop and chimney framed into wall

December 5-6, 2009
Electrical work continued, the outlets and lighting circuits were hooked up to the circuit breaker box and tested out (and it all worked!).
While I did electrical work, Ryan started framing out the wall around the diningroom builtins that protrude into the tvroom. He wanted a nice square wall since the builtins will be built off of this wall. Here’s his in progress pictures:

wall in progress

December 12-13, 2009
Demolition again! We had to demo the interior walls so that once the drywall was up we wouldn’t hurt the new drywall by doing demo on the opposite side. We can now see through the whole downstairs 🙂 Very strange!

interior walls demo’d

Ryan also finished framing in the wall around the builtins (we ran out of wood the weekend before).

new wall area finished

electrical feed to tvroom (this gets cleaned up later)

December 19-20, 2009
Drywall is up! Mom and Dad came out again this weekend to help put up the drywall. The drywall arrived on Friday so we got started Friday evening and got the ceiling of the tvroom done and the exterior wall (so we could bring in the drywall and lean it someplace.

ceiling is getting started

last ceiling piece

another shot of the ceiling

exterior wall started

Saturday we finished up the tvroom, gym and the ceiling of the bathroom before dinner! It was a long day but here are a few pics of the work in progress:

walls going up

proof that even i helped

i think we’re cutting more drywall here

look at those perty walls!

and more walls!

crown moulding will cover that gap!

December 28, 2009 – January 1, 2010
A week off to work on the house! And this meant taping and spackling progress were made. We got the seams and screw holes taped and spackled right off the bat.

seams taped

Then we got the corners taped – some friends came out and helped a bit with this.

January 9-10, 2010
More spackling progress (ceiling corners still not taped) but second coats on seams and corners are getting done at this point.
January 18, 2010
Finally taped the ceiling corners! Third coat on seams is done (walls only) and corners are on their second coat.

spackling progress

January 23-24, 2010
Wall side of ceiling corners is now spackled and second coat on corners is completed (this is actually the picture above).
February 6-7, 2010
Corner spackling continues. At this point the wall seams and screws are done. The ceilings need one coat of spackle on seams. The corners are not yet completed 🙂
February 13-14, 2010
Wall spackling is completed! On Sunday I spackled the ceiling side of the upper corners (they are only getting one coat since we’re going to have crown moulding cover this all anyway. I finished the corners (one side in morning, one at night).

Walls are ready for sanding

February 15, 2010
A day off for sanding! It was president’s day so I took the day off and sanded the walls. The ceiling is still behind but we’ll get to that next. I sanded the walls with 160 screens on a hand block and then 220 on a pole sander attachment to go over it really quickly a final time. Then I vacuumed the room and the walls really carefully. Finally I got out the drywall primer and primed one wall. The lines on the spackle from the sanding screens were bothering me and i needed to know if they would be covered by primer or not. So I primed a little bit (and YES the lines are covered perfectly and the wall came out nice and smooth)!

The first wall primed

February 18, 2010
Ryan spackled the ceiling – it was quick work (~30 min)!

ceiling spackling done

February 19, 2010
Ryan and I sanded the ceiling – I went around the edge and Ryan did the main part of the ceiling. Ready for priming!

February 21, 2010
The TV Room is officially primed! After work I started priming the walls while Ryan worked on insulating the bathroom wall (last wall). Then Ryan primed the ceiling since I was having trouble with it (not only am I too short but it hurts my neck too much). Ryan is much faster at the ceiling so now it’s his job 🙂

TV Room primed

TV Room primed (facing front hall)

February 22, 2010
After work we got the first coat of paint on the ceiling. I cut in around the ceiling (and some lights) and Ryan did the rolling. The color is a little more off white than white which wasn’t as expected but we think it will work nicely with the greenish wall color we got. You really can’t see the ceiling color in pictures so I’ll save the pictures until the walls are painted (maybe tonight!).

February 23, 2010
After work I got the first coat of paint on the walls! It took an hour to cut in around the ceiling and do all the corners and then another hour to finish the walls!

First coat of paint finished

paint still wet

the morning after (all dry)

Saturday March 20, 2010
Mom and Dad came out and Dad installed the new flooring to patch up the area that used to be a closet. The new flooring is shiny and slippery, not much like the old floor but will look better when we refinish the whole floor.

Before the new floor went in

And here it is all done!

We also removed the radiator and patched the flooring in that area with older flooring we pulled up. Under the builtins will be just plywood.

Took out the radiator

[note: add picture of patched floor here]
While I helped dad with the flooring, Maribeth (Ryan’s sister) stripped a bunch of trim for us. This will be the exterior door trim and the tops to the other doors in that room.

Maribeth stripping (paint that is) 🙂

Sunday March 21, 2010
Dad got up early and started working on the window sills and trim. The sills and the jam extensions are all in for the 2 windows and jam extensions for the door. While Dad and Ryan did this I worked on stripping some more of the trim.

New window sills in the tvroom

[Note: The gap of 1 year where no progress was made on the tvroom!]

March 19, 2011
Ryan installs the window trim!

Just getting started.

First window finished

Finishing up the second just in time for a lunch break (and a home depot run)

And the windows are trimmed out!

April 10, 2011
The new TV is up!

Tv hanging – and Fitz sitting like a good boy

I think we’re going to end up lowering it later on, it’s a bit high, we actually centered it above where the cabinets will be but we decided it will just have to be un-centered so it’s more watchable. It works for now and it’s gotten ryan motivated to start the built-ins this week!

Starting the base to the built-ins

May 7, 2011
Ryan finished the base for the TV room built-ins. Which made it easy to jump into continuing work on the built-ins today. Ryan got the pieces for the boxes to the built-ins all cut and ready to go. Then we put the boxes together. We can finally get an idea for how they will look!

The right side cabinet box in place

Both sides in

Cabinet boxes in place!

May 13, 2011
Friday night he made the face frame for the right side cabinet in there, and Saturday morning he attached it and made the face frame for the left side. Then he played with his router bit that he hopes to use for the doors.

The built-ins with face frames!

The router detail we plan to use on the doors, we just have to pick a type of panel to use, this would be a flat panel option.

May 20-21, 2011
Friday night Ryan started working on the cabinet doors and now has all of them made up! Here’s a picture of one set of doors, the small ones are still clamped while the glue dries and these Ryan shimmed in so you can see what they will look like.

Doors!

Here’s a closeup of the door detail before the doors were finished:

Door details

Sept 20, 2011
The weekend was mostly about dry-walling the front hall but we also got the closet of the tvroom sheetrocked so it’s ready to plaster.

Tvroom closet wall finished

And the closet ceiling

Oct 2, 2011

This weekend was rainy so Ryan worked on built-ins instead of outdoor work. First he put the backs on, then he attached them permanently. Then he made a counter top and installed it, it came out great!

: Built-ins installed with backs

: Poplar counter top Ryan made

He also got a start on the bookcases that will go on top of the cabinets.

: Start of the bookcases

The last project was lowering the tv, here’s a good view of the built-ins as of the weekend progress:

Nov 14, 2011

Finally a little time to work on those bookcases again, Ryan got them put up, not completely installed yet and they need faceframes but they are looking good!

Nov 21, 2011

Got the faceframes installed and the bookcases fully installed.

Dec 3, 2011

More built-in work, Ryan finished up making all the shelves!

: Shelves all finished!

Next up he made the side panel for the end of the built-ins. This is all sanded flush now and looks great!

: End panel all finished up!

Next up Ryan started on the crown molding around the built-ins.

: Crown molding base piece installed

Sunday Ryan put in the last piece of base molding and then put up the crown. It really came out great. All we have left is doors and drawers to finish up then prime and paint!

Crown installed around cabinets!

While Ryan worked on crown I worked on the closet for the tvroom, getting the wallpaper scraped off and then some durabond put up.

Back wall (mostly just the edges of plaster needed sealing here)

: Side wall – this is where I stripped the wallpaper so the whole wall was in rough shape

Dec 11, 2011

Time to start on drawers, first we started with a single drawer to figure out the process.

: The first drawer installed! With slow close!

On Sunday we were able to get the other 2 drawers done pretty quickly now that we knew what we were doing (it took a while to figure out the drilling template the first time). So we have one cabinet filled with drawers! 3 down, 7 to go!

: Slides all installed

: Drawers have locking mechanisms on the bottom, and cutouts for the slides

: Drawers installed

: Undermounted slides so you don’t see it on the sides at all.

Jan 17, 2012

Some spackling… more progress on the tvroom closet

: Skim coat on the left hand wall

: Taped the right hand wall

Jan 30, 2012

A few more drawers done this past weekend.

: 3 more drawers done and installed (still need face frames but we’re saving those for last)

: 4 more drawers ready to go!

: The last cabinet, ready for the hardware to be hung!

Feb 6, 2012

Saturday we got to work on the drawers, ryan hung the last bit of hardware for the drawer slides, then we built the last 4 drawers! Next we made face frames for them all with a nice routed top and attached them. All 10 drawers are finally done! Just doors to finish up and the built-ins will be done.

: The right hand cabinet with finished drawers!

: The middle cabinets with finished drawers

: And the left hand cabinet with drawers – that’s 10 total!

Once the drawers were done Ryan then worked to hang the doors for the tvroom.

Door to the front entry hung! This swings out into the entryway as it originally did.

: Door from the tvroom to the kitchen area installed!

: A view of the built-ins and the door hung

Feb 13, 2012

Ryan got the closet door hung and lots of trim and baseboards installed in the tvroom this weekend!

: The closet has a door – and the door to the front hall has trim!

: Baseboards in front of the built-ins (note that cap molding is just sitting there to see if we like it, not happy with it)

: And trim and baseboards over to the door going towards the kitchen!

April 18, 2012

Since my dad was out for the week to do the nursery floor, we also had him sand down the tvroom floor.

First pass sanding the tvroom floor

April 20, 2012
My dad and brother were out this past week to help work on the nursery and also to get the tvroom floor done. They got 2 coats of poly on the tvroom floor, we saved the final coat to do when all the painting was done.

This is actually after only a single coat but it’s a good view of the tvroom floor.

May 11, 2012
Finally the fan is installed – this was a sore point and ended up having interference from a CFL bulb in the kitchen! But now it’s installed with the fancy dimmers we wanted to use!

The fan all installed!

June 24, 2012

Time to finish up the crown molding in the tvroom finally!

: Crown molding now continues around the room. A few pieces needed to be scribed since the ceiling dips in places but luckily ryan is good at that now 🙂