Tuesday 26 August 2014

Antique Desk (Library Table) Makeover

Pin It

I'm in love with today's project.  My friend Laura gave me this antique desk because she needed to purge some pieces and she didn't think she would get around to this one.  Thank you Laura, you are awesome!  This piece was definitely in bad shape. 
 So I was looking for something that I can make into a bathroom vanity.  I was wondering if this is it.  Hmmm, can't decide, I think it will be gorgeous, but I'm not sure how it is going to clean up, then would I change the top, it's in such bad shape anyway, or would I just layer a piece of plexi or glass on top.  But it's too deep, so I will have to cut some off the back and move the legs forward.  I decided to sand it down and see how it goes and decide later.
  The top was very wavy.  The whole desk had been painted or stained with red, which was sort of flaking off, it was a mess.  But can you see the potential?
 I broke out my trusty sander,
 and sanded it down to bare wood, exposing a beautiful grain.  See those pieces of wood laying on the ground behind the desk?  That is the top.
 I broke apart all of the boards because they were almost completely separated anyway.There were 2 spots where the glue just wouldn't let go, so the wood tore a bit.  I cleaned out the joints and glued them back together.
I also glued some of the desk back together.  I'm not sure what all this desk has endured over the years, but she was not treated well.  I stained the whole thing with Ebony stain.
 Are you ready to see what she looks like now?  Ta daaa! 
 Isn't it gorgeous?  Look at the wood grain!  
 Can you tell how much I love this one?  It still has some scars on the top, but this is not a new piece of furniture, it has been around for a long time.  Who knows what it has been through, it has character.
 She's all dressed up and ready to be loved again for a long long time.
I don't think I can cut this up, although I think it would make an awesome vanity if I added a board in front of the board at the bottom to hold baskets.  And maybe put drawers on each side of the drawer where the shelves are, you see where my mind goes, I can see it, but then it's so pretty right now.  Yeah, I think I will have to keep looking for a vanity.
I believe I have another desk similar to this one, it is in pieces, and I haven't attempted it yet, but I think I'm ready, but I have a feeling it won't be a vanity either.


Pin It

Sunday 24 August 2014

We Rock! Remodelling a Stone House, Part IV

Pin It

Today's post is all about floors.  I already talked about floors in the basement in Part III, now I'm going to show you the upper floors.  The whole main floor was finished in maple, very beautiful!  The kitchen had been covered in tar paper and then linoleum many years ago.  There was a soft spot that we assumed was rot, however once we pulled up the maple flooring we found that it was not rot but an old basement access that when closed up, someone used thinner boards and therefore the top floor of maple was floating without support, thus the soft spot when stepped on.  We used the floor boards that we pulled up to patch other areas.  We also pulled up the subfloor and replaced it with new plywood.
This was my first test.  Johnny always says that if I see something on TV I think I can do it too.  Well, that pretty much covers it, well not just anything, I don't think I can sing, or dance, or play hockey, but if it's on HGTV, and it's not too heavy, then yeah, I think I can do it.  This project put my theory to the test.  I saw it done on TV, I decided I could do it, but really?  Can I?
There was a small doorway into the living room that we widened, plus there were a couple of heat ducts that went through the floor in this area, they left a big hole in the maple flooring.
I cut out some of the remaining flooring at different lengths and replaced them with the salvaged flooring from the kitchen.
Gave it a first sanding,
and moved on to the next spot. Johnny patched the subfloor, and I repeated the process mentioned above to patch the maple flooring.

Pulled out some pieces,
insert patch, and sand.
After that Johnny cut the excess scrap pieces and some of the original flooring so that I can come back and patch it with boards going in a perpendicular pattern.  I haven't done that part yet so you will have to wait to see the final picture.  See that spot in the upper left corner of the picture, that's where Buddy and Johnny put the new stairs in, they did an awesome job.  I thought it was going to be a gong show, but they did it lickety split!  Those guys know their stuff!
This is a picture from upstairs where the floors are fir. There were a few problems up there.  We are building closets where there were none before, borrowing space from other rooms.  This left areas that will need to be patched with old flooring.  Luckily there was flooring in the bathroom that I salvaged and will replace with tile.  Also there were old patch jobs done by people who obviously didn't watch HGTV!
I pulled up some of the flooring to find a hole in the sub floor.
I patched that with floor boards I saved when we cut a hole in the floor for the new stairs.  (Never throw anything out, you never know when you are going to need it.)
In go the salvaged fir boards.
This is one of the areas where I took the wall down, and then patched the area where there were no floor boards, the flooring to the left of the picture will be the new closet, that's why I'm not too worried about the two little pieces going the wrong way.








The following is a picture of a random floor board, broken in the middle of the floor.

So I replaced it.
The following area was patched with plywood, in the middle of the floor.  I assume there may have been a grate there at one time.  It was an eyesore, and when I pulled up the plywood, there was a hole there, so I patched it.
Can you find it?
This is what it looked like after sanding.
and another.
Are you bored yet?  Well just click me off, because I have more.
There were sinks in each bedroom, not sure why, but there were.  This was another bad patch job done by someone other than myself.
In case you can't see it well enough, here is another picture.
All patched up!
And here it is after I tore out the wall, patched the rest, and sanded it.  The floor in the top right corner is coming out, so I didn't patch it.  The spot with three floorboards all the same length is going to be under a wall, so no worries.  Thought you caught me slacking didn't you?  Ha ha
Same thing here, different room.
There were 2 large floor grates that needed to be removed and patched.  This one was in the Dining room.
Same process, cut out some floor boards, patch the hole.
Replace the floor boards.
I didn't get an after picture on this one because we piled some wood right there.  There was a floor grate in the hallway also, this is a picture of the finished area.
We tore up the bathroom floor,
and subfloor,

and replaced it with plywood.
This picture is what the floors looked like previous to sanding.
This is what it looks like after sanding.
There is still a lot of finishing to do, but this was a good start to making these floors beautiful!  If you stuck with me through this whole post, good for you, you must be extremely bored today, ha ha.


Pin It

Tuesday 5 August 2014

We Rock! Remodelling an Old Stone House, Part III

Pin It

Down to the basement we go.  When we bought this house a few years ago the basement was all built in with several rooms.  We tore them all out, and tore up the wood floor that had been built to try to level off the uneven cement.  I wish I had a picture of it, but alas, if I took one, I don't know where it is now.  We had just done a rough tear out so we carried on and finished tearing out any leftovers. 


 Johnny and Buddy decided that we should tear up the cement floor since it was so poorly done. When they poured the floor they lay rock down all across the ground and then poured cement over it.   Johnny broke it up with a sledge hammer (he IS a machine!!), then we threw all the rocks and cement out the window, then I went out and threw it all into a trailer.  We were lucky to have help from Jasmin and Dan one day, and Budd spent some time there too, those days we got a lot done, they rock too!!!


Johnny (AKA Manuel) in action.


The whole floor, one sledge at a time.


Almost done!


We had to leave the supports in place until we got the new beams up.





 Out with the old and in with the new, some of the "character" in this house is just a little too much for Buddy.  He's not an old school kind of guy!


I've got to admit the new beam looks a lot better than the old log.


View #2


That's it for now, next time we will be going back upstairs to start rebuilding, yay!


Pin It
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...