Slowly Making Progress

October 26, 2015
nicole

Hi! I'm Nicole

Fearless DIY. Sharing building project tutorials and interior design tips. Let’s build something beautiful together. For more projects, design tips and behind the scenes, follow me @designtobuild.nicole

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What a great weekend!! Had dinner with my hubby and family Friday night. Saturday my daughter and I went to a local vintage fair–So much fun!! We picked up lots of great ideas and bought a few treasures along the way. Lauryn is really getting into this stuff and I love hearing her ideas on how and where to use a particular item. She has a very creative mind. I cherish this time we spend together on a venture we both enjoy. Truly blessed. 🙂

On Sunday night, my son, Chase and I made an industrial pipe lamp. I am so in love with these lamps and can’t wait to show it to you!! So cool!!

But for today, I want to bring you up to date with where I am on the little boys room…STILL going at it!! This has been a very long project, but I am SO loving how it’s all coming together.

When we last visited this project, I had just finished planking the ceiling…

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(My plan is to get a more industrial looking fan…I have a few in mind)

I am happy to say, I have accomplished quite a bit since then. After finishing the ceiling, I removed all the carpet, trim and baseboards in the boys’s bedroom. This was a job!! But “demo-ing” can be just as fun as creating! Great for tension and stress. 🙂

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Removing carpet is very simple. Start in a corner and use a flathead screwdriver to get underneath carpet and lift up. Once you have enough carpet lifted up to work with, start pulling it back. Roll it as you go…

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Next remove all the tack strips, padding and staples…

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The pain in the tush part of this task is cutting your carpet down to a size that meets the requirements for your garbage man to pick it up. I found a tool at Home Depot that cuts through carpet like butter! It makes this job so much faster and simpler. I highly recommend it!

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Next I removed all the trim and baseboards. This is a very noisy job. But again, you get to tear things apart (IF you’re not planning on using that same trim again–which I wasn’t). For this task I used my nifty tool above, a hammer, crowbar and a flathead screw driver…

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First using my “nifty tool,” I scored my baseboards and trim, breaking the seal where they meet the drywall. Then I gently hammered my flathead screwdriver behind the trim; just enough to break the seal a little more. Once that was broken, I hammered my crowbar, between the trim and drywall and carefully pushed the trim away from the drywall.

My son Ty loved this part of the project. What boy doesn’t like to be destructive?? And then to be given permission to do so…

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He helped me out a lot with this step. 🙂

After cleaning up all my boards and debris (staples, nails, chunks of padding, etc.) I was ready to start laying the floor. I had already painted my boards and poly’d them (4coats of poly).

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I started in the back corner of the room, so I could work my way out of the room. My choice of wood for this room was pine car-siding…

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I chose pine since it is a softer wood and the more dents and scratches marking up this floor, the better. All part of the distressed look. 🙂

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As you can see, I laid paper down as a buffer between my sub-floor and wood flooring. This helps prevent squeaking floor boards, that can be so notorious with wood floors…

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For my first row, I butted the groove part of the boards up against the wall and nailed them down. I only nailed my first row through the top of the boards….

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Each row after that, I nail gunned through the tongue part of the wood. This process went very quickly…Fit the tongue into the groove and using a mallet, “hammer” the board tight.

I used a pattern for this, alternating two foot and four foot boards.

Initially I was going to be lazy and not pull out the carpet in the closet, but after I finished laying all the wood, I knew I had to do it. It looked too unfinished and screamed “LAZY”. So I pulled up all the carpet…

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Moved into the closet and finished this space also. I’m so glad I did!! It wasn’t that bad and actually went pretty fast…

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I love how the transition from bedroom to closet turned out. I was kind of unsure how I was going to do this. But it actually flows very well…

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I’m so pleased with how this room is coming together. It has been a long project, but I’m learning so much. It’s a great room to try out these new ventures. I have a lot more confidence to go for it in the main living areas now.

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And I love the look this space is taking on! It is going to be totally industrial-vintage when it is finished. Exactly what I was going for!! Can’t wait to get my decor pieces in there! These boys are going to have the coolest room in the house. 🙂 Here is a sneak peak of just one of the many cool pieces (unfinished)….

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P.S. I haven’t forgotten, we need to finish up my parents’ home tour… I just wanted to catch you up on some of the progress I’ve made in the boys’ room. I promise, we will get back to my parents’ house. 🙂

 

 

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