Getting Ready for the Tree

After a week of installing new trim and painting the walls and some of the trim, the living room was ready for the tree.  We installed new wainscoting and caulked most of it.  It's nearly ready for a final painting.  Alyssa painted the walls, re-caulked the existing crown molding and picture rail and painted it so that it looked nice for the tree.

It's not quite done, but it was wonderful to have the tree and the train layout where it was intended to be.  We'll finish up this side of the room after Christmas.

Living Room Wainscoting

After enjoying our Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, we got to work on the wainscoting on the old dining room side of the living room, the music room, as Charlotte is calling it.  The Christmas tree is supposed to go on that side of the living room and we'd like to get it done before we cut down our tree.

Unfortunately the crown molding was damaged when our contractors removed the crown molding across the beam.  We'll have to fix that.

We moved the doorway three or for inches to the left to allow for a new support column and to allow for trim on the dining room side of the doorway.  Unfortunately this meant that we needed to take down the wainscoting that we had installed 13-14 years ago.  We also have to move an outlet.

Living Room Paneling

We've been working on our long enough that we've started to demo renovations that we ourselves have done.  In this case, it is we just need to adjust the paneling a little to accommodate the slightly shifted living room doorway.  We made the opening much bigger as well as moved the one west side of the opening to allow for casing on the dining room side of the doorway.

Bennet was curious to what Colin was working on.  Under the paneling, we can see my Dad's notes from when we put the paneling up more than a decade ago.  Thankfully, we only need to remove the paneling on one wall.

A Hole in the Ceiling

Yesterday morning the plumber (Pete) came out to look at the leak.  He couldn't find it, but suggested that we make an exploratory hole in the dining room ceiling. Ugh.  We were so proud of our fancy, sound insulated ceiling.  It doesn't seem that long ago that we were there, with our rented drywall lifter, attaching the drywall to the insulating clips. We were reluctant to make a big mess in our living room right now.

When Colin returned from his doctor's appointment, he had another look and found the leak on the cold water supply line.  The plumber came back out again but said that he couldn't solder the copper pipe in such a confined space.  Fair enough.  So today Colin cut into our beautiful ceiling.  I was hoping we could delay taking down the ceiling, but the drywall below the tub was disgusting.  It's going to have to come down sooner than later.  There was still more water sitting up there too.

Colin found the hole in the cold supply line right before it bends upwards.  The water was spraying horizontally.  The plumber was off today getting new glasses, so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

After cutting away a section of the ceiling directly below the box around the bathroom drain, Colin found the hole in the cold water supply line.  Thank goodness we shut the water off while we were gone.  The drywall we have taken down is disgusting and damp.  The drywall still up there is probably a mold factory.