Tearing Up The House with My Husband

Goodbye, wall! Oops, that wasn’t part of the original plan. Let’s start from the beginning.

After finishing up our upstairs bathroom, we can say that we have the reno itch. Let’s do this, this and that! There are plans for the basement, backyard and now, the office (formerly known as the guest bedroom).

THE OFFICE
Go up the stairs, and the room on the right is the office. It needed at the very least, a fresh coat of paint, and new electrical outlets where they no longer exposed and at floor level. On top of that, Cy envisioned new baseboards, and demolishing the corner closet (see the Solid Works floor plan). Then, I had an AH-HA moment! Let’s knock down the wall.

Imagine this. Floor-to-ceiling glass to create the look of uninterrupted space. Functionally, it will let in the bright sunshine for natural indoor light. The office will have almost a look of a loft while being enclosed, and a curtain could easily be installed to provide some privacy.

Part of our inspiration came from pictures, and our Pinterest accounts (Cy’s Pinterest; Judy’s Pinterest) are blowing up with our dreams of building something modern in our character home.

Right now, as I type out this blog post, Cy is hammering his heart out to finish the  framing of the “window.” After that step, we have far more ahead of us. It turns out, that this “small project” with a few steps turned into a big project with many steps.

With Cy doing most of the hard work, I’m left to assist and do the rest of the house work. So, I have to say that team work is the biggest key to DIY renovations. It starts by understanding each other’s strengths (Cy is handy, detail guy; whereas, I am the design and big picture gal), and leveraging them as far as you can – divide and conquer! What are some other tips?

• Communicate all dreamy ideas and make sure that all decisions are made together.
• Agree on a budget that you are both comfortable with.
• Take breaks, and reward yourself with froyo or something special because you deserve it.
• Remember, the reno will be worth it – and in the meantime, exercise a whole bunch of patience, keep an optimistic attitude, and have fun with it!

Soon, we’ll show you our AFTER pictures where we will start the post off with “hello, glass wall!”