This Flippin House – Grand River Living Room

Our 1916 Colonial will be benefiting greatly from my upcoming week off.  Since we moved in, we have done absolutely nothing to this room beyond moving furniture in – partially because we didn’t have to do anything to make it livable, but also because the room wasn’t in too bad of shape.

Typical settlement cracks plague the walls, and there’s evidence of prior water damage on the ceiling from a leaking radiator in my brother’s room.  Beyond that, the only thing we were worried about was the paneling that covered the west wall of the room.  Having pulled paneling off of the walls in the Foyer during a spring break a couple years ago, I was really hesitant to pull this paneling off but we’re Schroeders.  When we do something, we do it right, or at least we try.

Imagine my surprise when I saw a window hiding behind one of the pieces of paneling!  I was shocked, and could feel the adrenaline kicking in because I felt like I had found treasure.  Usually when we uncover something here, it’s a problem.

There’s more though.  To the right of the fire place is another window, or at least a hole where a window used to be.  But, under panel number three was… ANOTHER WINDOW.  The third window is actually in place just like the first one, so we have two complete windows just waiting for hardware and a saw to cut an opening through the siding to let the light pour through.  That’s right, somewhere in this house’s past (est. 30-40 years) someone boarded over the windows and put new siding on the house.

Why would someone do that?  I haven’t a clue.  I expected to see water damage or something but it really looks like someone just hated windows and covered them up.  This is far more exciting than the porn and panties we found left in the walls of the house (I wish I were kidding, but there was women’s underwear in the insulation in the attic.  Don’t ask.  I don’t know).

This is just day one though.  All that’s left in the room is some clutter, the entertainment center and couch.  After Greg gets home from work I’m going to con him into helping me extract the couch and entertainment center.  Once the room is cleared out, we can get to the always exciting task of plastering walls and ceilings.

Game plan for the week:

1. Fix all of the walls and ceiling with plaster.
2. Prime and paint the entire room.
3. Add insulation around the fireplace and windows since we can clearly see daylight in some places.
4. Replace the carpet.
5. Build a fireplace surround to cover the hideous brick and tile “creation” left by some previous owner.
6. Fix the pocket doors.

It’s a good thing I have the time off because this would be a nightmare to work on in my “free time” in the evenings.