DIY’ing my home.

Ronni

Ronni

Well-known Member
Location
Nashville TN
Ron's house is 50's style ranch house he bought a few years back that he's slowly been remodeling. Since we've been together he has gratefully turned over the cosmetic aspects of the house to me. He LOVES doing the construction, creating new bones from old bones so to speak, but feels somewhat out of his depth at putting the finishing touches on the projects, picking paint colors, decorating and adding the touches that move it from a bare room to a warm and welcoming space.

That's the part of having a house I love the most!! I get such a kick out of bringing a bare space to life, decorating it in a way that adds personality and personalization to the room. Even though I'm not living there yet (and currently the loose plan is that I'll move in sometime late next year after he's done the needed renovations to the bedroom and master bath to accommodate my belongings) he's so happy to be able to turn the decorating part of his renovations over to me, and I am so happy to accept that!!

I'm hoping to make this thread a sort of diary of changes to the house. I wish I'd taken a whole bunch of before photos so that I have some record of the changes already made, but I didn't, so I'll just start now and capture what I can.

Several months ago, he replaced the old full sized glass panels in the den with french doors. I'll take an actual picture of the finished product when I'm over there this w/e.
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Our current project is creating a wall unit/bookcase/cabinets on the far wall of the den. Again, no before pictures, but imagine that wall as just bare wall around the window before he added the beginnings of the bookshelves and cabinets.

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He's finished the cedar shelving for the RH side, we'll put that up this w/e. We can't add shelves to the LH side because of the fuse box. (This room used to be the garage.) So I'm getting creative about how to cover the fuse box but still make it easily accessible when needed. Currently looking for some long, skinny art, with an accompanying accent piece.
 

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StarSong said:
Wow! Very impressive, Ronni. I have two questions:

Was he employed in the construction trade?
Do you loan him out?
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:lol:

He has his own construction/renovation business, which he and his two daughters own together. Yes, his daughters are his carpenters!! They're amazing! Almost as amazing as he is lol!

He's really very generous with his time with friends and family. He was over here just this w/e helping my daughter and son in law fix a plumbing problem they had in their master bath. He's not a plumber, but knows a bunch about plumbing and electrical because of his work. Saved them a few hundred dollars especially because it would have been an emergency call with a $120 emergency fee on top of the service call and other charges.
 

That looks like it's going to be a BEAUTY when it's done Ronni. I do envy your eye for interior decoration, I'm hopeless.. and how lucky you are to have a carpenter at home. My father was a carpenter.

My husband is very handy thank goodness, and does all of our electrics and plumbing and repairs everything in the house , and he does the decorating as well as the car repairs . Last month we built a new barn just between the 2 of us.. but really nothing more ambitious than that!!

I wish I had an eye for Interior design tho'... just never have...dya fancy a trip to the UK per chance? ;)
 
Ronni, I just love hearing about home renovation/decor. My ex was also a carpenter/builder. Funny, we had the same 2 bookshelves on either side of a window at the end of our L/R.

I've been in my condo 11 years now; decorated and furnished as well as I could afford; re-painted and re-carpeted. I'm done. So now, I'll enjoy yours vicariously.

I too, have a gray metal fuse box in my short hallway. I was going to get a long, fabric wall hanging to cover it, but in my case when I had the interior repainted, the door to the box was painted too, so it "disappears".

Were you thinking fabric, along these lines? hanging.jpg

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It's great he can still do this sort of work. Is he a "computer" guy as well, as in, using one? Years ago, I tried construction, as in dry walling and it didn't work out. After a few hours, that was it for me. Then I tried working for a fence making company. Didn't work either. I had no problem doing some (note...."some") work on my vehicles, but left brake jobs and some other stuff to pro-mechanics. Ended up finding out that being a Clerk and using a computer was really my job passion.

Basically, the only real "manual labor" I've done, that didn't bother me, was painting. Some walls in our last house and my wife's bathroom walls. I put together our computer desks and chairs and that REALLY tired me out. Like I said, I'm much better using a computer keyboard than an electric saw and such.

Nice looking job you both are doing.
 
Great photos Ronni such a labor of love. This is what makes a house a home. I like nothing better than to do renovations around the house as well as rearranging furniture and anything else I can rip apart. My Dad once said that the dust never settles in my home. lol
 
RadishRose said:
Ronni, I just love hearing about home renovation/decor. My ex was also a carpenter/builder. Funny, we had the same 2 bookshelves on either side of a window at the end of our L/R.

I've been in my condo 11 years now; decorated and furnished as well as I could afford; re-painted and re-carpeted. I'm done. So now, I'll enjoy yours vicariously.

I too, have a gray metal fuse box in my short hallway. I was going to get a long, fabric wall hanging to cover it, but in my case when I had the interior repainted, the door to the box was painted too, so it "disappears".

Were you thinking fabric, along these lines? View attachment 57214

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Yes! I've been looking at canvases mainly. I hadn't even thought of these type of hangings! Thanks RadishRose...I'll expand my search!
 
Hoping this w/e to get wooden slatted blinds up on the window, and the cedar shelving up on the one side of that wall unit, (the side that doesn't have the fuse box) and start figuring out how to decorate it. It's a bit problematic because the light source is at the top of the unit, and once the 2 shelves go up, it will block the light to the lower area. Ron installed an outlet (you can see it in the pic) so we can use a small lamp on one of the shelves. I was thinking maybe one of those salt lamps? They have some lovely designs and the glow is soft and diffused.


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That will take care of one shelf. Maybe just put very light colored items on the other shelf so that they show up against the wood more? Won't know for sure how it will all work till the shelves are up and I know more what I'm working with.
 
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Ronni, your house looks so nice, I love the den! :cool: It's nice that Ron is able to do all those things himself and I know you'll have a lot of fun putting on the finishing touches. Way to team up and work on something that will be enjoyed by both of you. I bought my nephew a nice Himalayan salt lamp years back, it was shaped like an elephant and he loved it.
 
Found this canvas that I loved!!! Ron did too when I showed it to him. It wasn't quite big enough to cover the fuse box, so I suggested he make a frame for it.
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He found some scrap cedar out in the workshop, and voila!!! I found the metal floral hanging separately, but I like the way they look together. The old glass bottle with the spray of japanese cherry blossom was something Ron had. I love it, just not sure it’s going to stay there.
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The window isn't centered on the wall, so we struggled with making the shelving asymmetrical, or making it even and having the window offset, which is what ultimately won out. So I went looking for something to put to the left of the window to balance things some. Found this amazing planter wall hanging with most of the little pots broken, so I added some new jazzy candle holders

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And finally, we got the shelves up. He made beautiful cedar shelves. Only the top one is sort of decorated, the area is very much a work in progress. But at least now I have something to play with. :)

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Thanks all. We're heading out of town this w/e so we won't be doing any work on the house. But next w/e we're going flat out! I'm determined to finish the decorating of the shelves, and Ron is going to get started (and hopefully finished) making the doors to the cabinets underneath.

Well, we also have to finish the laundry room...before we met he'd completely gutted it and put in new cabinets, new washer and dryer, new door..it's the laundry room of my dreams lol! But it needs finishing..some patching of the drywall, and then painting.

We need to finish both those projects so he can get started on the Master Bedroom, so that there's a place to put me, so I can move in lol!!!
 
Ron has been completely wrapped up in his daughter's house project because his friend Vince came into town to help, and understandably Ron felt he needed to focus on that and give Vince all his time till he had to leave again. He left Saturday, and so finally I think we can switch focus back to the house. Well, sort of...the next several weeks are also crazy. I have a dear friend coming in from France and I'm hosting a gathering of a bunch of our mutual friends next weekend. The weekend after that we're traveling to Lookout Mountain for a weekend with another couple in their cabin. There are two weekends after that and then it's Thanksgiving!!! And Christmas is staring us in the face after that!!

I have managed to accomplish a few more cosmetic touches in the den and kitchen while also, just by the way, trying to figure out what on earth to do with Ron's little "surprises!" He called me and asked “Would you like a fern?” I said ”Sure!” thinking how nice it a little one would look on the small side table under the kitchen window, along with the pothos that's also sitting there.

Fern, my a$$!!!!! Folks, he brought home a damn tree!

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I think it's called a Majestic/Majesty Palm? It's gorgeous, but it sure ain't a fern, and there was all kinds of rearranging that had to happen to fit it...AND its sister by the way!!!!..... into the house.

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I still don't know if these are their final destinations, but for right now at least they're not still in the middle of the floor and we're having to walk around them to get to the kitchen!!! Once we get the back porch done, at least one of them will go out there while it's warm.
 
The decorating is coming along so nicely Ronni, and the ferns are very pretty too! I know what you mean about having room for large plants inside the house, my rooms are so small there's not much available floor space for anything but needed furniture. Good idea to put one of them on the porch when you can. It does really sound like you'll be busy for the rest of the year at least....enjoy!
 
I've had several royal palms. A bit smaller. They're beautiful but need to have old stalks removed and need to be re-potted. They can last inside about 4 years before looking too shabby. It all looks great!
 
OK, so now that the Thanksgiving and Christmas Craziness is over and things have dropped back down to a dull roar, we're starting back in on the work on the house. Ron wants to finish up the den and the laundry room, both of which are almost-but-not-quite finished, so that we can begin work in earnest on the Master Bedroom and Bathroom, getting it renovated so that I can actually move in!

The den needs to be painted and he needs to make the cabinet doors to the wall unit he built. We finally had a full day to get the ceiling done which, if you've ever painted, is the most cumbersome part of a painting job. The walls you can do a wall at a time, moving just a bit of furniture out from the wall and covering it and still being able to use the rest of the room. But a ceiling? EVERYTHING has to get moved out of the way so that you can paint, so of course the room is completely unusable till you can move everything back. In our case, we carried the smaller pieces out and moved to big pieces to one end of the room, painted half of the ceiling, and then moved everything to the other end and painted the rest. Painstaking and tedious, but we got it done!! Even got some of the trim done as well. This coming weekend we hope to finish the wall painting in the den, then Ron is going to start on prepping the laundry room for painting while I finish up the trim in the den.

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It's gonna be great Ronni. I just love seeing remodeling going on. You must be so excited! I'm looking forward to more of the progress.
 

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