Architects and Designers love seeing their projects come to life, but rarely do they get the chance to go beyond tools such as paper and computers to actually build their creations themselves. Currently, I have this opportunity and am gaining such great experience.
In January, my wife and I purchased a house, which was built in 1969 and had been greatly maintained, however the lack of updates throughout the years was evident. Prior to purchasing the home, the home inspector made a comment about how it appeared to have great bones. He also commented about how neat and professional the electrical looked. During the same visit he mentioned that the flooring looked like it was installed the day the home was built. I am not sure that all of the flooring was original to the building of the home, but I would agree that the house was in desperate need of some updates.
Removing the floor was actually the first project on the list. What was discovered was that the existing finish flooring was covering over the original hardwood floors. A professional flooring refinisher told me that they are in great shape and will look great when he is done. I would have to agree.
Flooring is one of the areas that I am leaving up to the professionals. The projects that I have completed or that I am in the process of finishing are demolition, minor interior wall and soffit framing, installing and finishing drywall, and painting. In addition, I have been assisting the electricians and plumbers throughout the work they have completed.
Two rooms have seen major updates since we purchased the home. In the basement, I converted a former large bedroom to a family room. Due to the fact that this room is directly below the bedrooms, I removed the existing drywall and plaster ceiling in order to install new sound proofing insulation and strapping to soften the noise that will be heard upstairs. The finish drywall is yet to be installed, but I am happy to say that even without it, you cannot hear a conversation occurring above from the room below. Success.
Another room that has seen major change is the outdated bathroom. This, I will have to agree with the home inspector, was close to original. The big challenge with this room was the size of the existing space. The room is sandwiched between a small bedroom, which will be our master bedroom, and the kitchen, so there was no room to expand the footprint. The solution I chose was to change out all of the existing outdated bone colored fixtures to new white fixtures in order to brighten the space. Also in terms of fixtures, we chose a pedestal sink, in order to gain some space, rather than installing a vanity cabinet. Lastly, we plan to use a dark color on the upper part of the walls where plenty of natural light will hit and install wainscoting on the lower portion, which will be painted white to brighten up the space and reflect the light. I just installed the new tile this past weekend and am planning to tackle the new wainscoting next. Then it is time to get the plumber and electrician back to complete the finish work.
Being the designer, project manager and executing the majority of the construction work myself has proved to be a very difficult task. Not to mention this has all been done in my spare time on the weekends.
Although the process has been difficult and stressful, it has been very rewarding. I have been able to see my vision come to life. In terms of professional experience, it has also proved to be very rewarding due to the exposure of all of these specific skills. One example of this experience due to assisting the plumber is gaining a better understanding of where rough-in plumbing ends and the finish work begins.
The work at the house is still an on ongoing process with a completion and move in date by the end of May. I cannot wait to live in and enjoy my hard work with my family.
