Saturday, November 14, 2009

Home Improvement Project #3



The area that is known as our library is about 190 square feet and opens into our living room. We had custom built bookcases built to outline either side and underneath the big windows. We bought two recliners and enjoyed the room for reading. I breastfed my children in that room and in those chairs and I napped a good portion in both chairs. After I rearranged my living room (with the addition of recessed lighting), the two recliners didn't flow quite as well into the room. I decided it was time to change the room into a dining area.

A friend of mine recently added an addition to her house. She got the idea from when we added our addition. She learned from all of our mistakes and built a better addition. She divided the room into a living room and a dining room. I decided I would take her idea and make it work in my house. She carpeted the living area and tiled the dining area. She thought it would work well in my library area. 

Tom and I toyed with the idea of putting in french doors or a sliding glass door in place of the windows. In the beginning, I hated the idea and he loved it. He looked into it. He decided against it. 

Then I was all for it and he hated it. We bounced around the idea for months, and then I conceded if I could get the recessed lighting in my living room.

Now we are back to the windows again and the door idea is popping up. The main problem is that the bookcases would need to be relocated somewhere else in our home. The best place would be in the room with the leaking roof which we have decided to leave for last in our projects. Keeping it simple we have decided to just replace the windows.

Off to Lowe's and Home Depot we went. We had great help in both stores. Home Depot won out because they had what we wanted in stock. We actually made the purchase, and since we were on a roll, we moved on to looking into replacing our front door and front screen door.

We found the replacement for the screen door. The door is a storm door with a retractable screen. At Lowe's, the door we wanted didn't have a very good doorknob or security rating, but the door was paint-able. At Home Depot the door we wanted had a great knob and a high-security rating but was not paint-able. The door did, however, come in a variety of colors, one being the matching Wineberry color of the shutters I would love to have outside my house, but am not allowed to purchase.

We decided on the "sandstone" color instead, but because we have not agreed on a color for the outside of the house we did not purchase the door. We just took a picture.


We rented a truck and brought the windows home. Tom moved the bookcases. The windows are sitting in my garage awaiting an installer. My two neighbors have decided they would like the job of window installation and house painting. One is a retired police officer, the other retired from fire fighting. They are bored.

They appear ready and willing but are getting a tad annoyed at our delay in choosing things. Tom and I are thrilled that we actually made a purchase. We feel like things are just moving along now.



Hopefully, these babies will be installed by the end of next week!

No comments:

Post a Comment