Remodeling Project DIY Style

Well, all that DIY television has really added up to some progress. Sure, it has had its toll. Now my wife limits the amount of Norm, Tommy and Bob that I get to watch, but the trade off is that I get motivation from my good DIY pioneering friends 24/7.

The first task was the area above our fire place. I said the TV we have is fine, and my wife was arguing to get a 50" flat screen. I kept saying, "No honey, we don't need a bigger TV." while she kept saying, "I want a huge flat screen TV that I can hang on the wall."

Of course she won that argument (and almost every other one we've ever had). And why do I feel that something is wrong when the husband is saying we don't need a bigger TV and the wife is saying, but football starts in a month and I want a huge flat screen to watch it on?

So, the picture below shows, from left to right, the fire place in our living room and how I removed the wall, then framed in an extension so we can hang sheet rock providing an extension big enough to put a 42" LCD TV on it. It wasn't a total killing in the argument department as I got her down to a 42".



On the left where that hutch is, I'm going to build in some cabinetry with a slide out storage case for CD's and DVD's - can't wait!

Once that was done, we had to have a place to put our TV, which I thought was big enough for upstairs, but is now becoming our "downstairs rec-room TV". Since we didn't have a downstairs rec room, this required removing a wall and the two electrical outlets, moving the light switch to another wall and the cable outlet to a different too.



So, this picture shows from left to right 3 images of the wall, the studs after sheet rock is gone and the end result, with the old furniture. I'm sure there will be another argument that I'll lose about getting new furniture too.

While I was at it, I did manage to run speaker wire just in case we decide to later put surround sound in place.

I love DIY projects and the guys coming to hang the sheet rock and texture above the fireplace and the ceiling and wall sections that I removed are coming Wednesday. While I can hang the walls if there isn't a texture, our walls have an egg shell texture and the $300 they are charging us is well worth the migraine it would have given me trying to match the walls.

I'll post more pictures once it's all done.

*** I just got off the phone with my wife who said it's all done - so once she gets it painted pictures will be posted ***