Poster Framing - What a deal!

At my work there is an annual "artwork sale"...  Unwanted pieces from around our corporate building gets clear out & sold to raise money for charity.  The vast majority of the stuff isn't anything you'd ever want to hang in your house- but it's awesome if you're looking to pick up some really nice frames!

This year, I found this silver poster frame.  I paid just $1!

This is the spot I had in mind for it...

As you know, my oldest's room is decorated with a nautical theme, and we picked out this poster when visiting the Submarine Force Museum.  It was also special because my dad, uncle & grandfather all served in the Navy.  The small photo in the image above is a photo of my dad & uncle, and we have my grandfather's uniform hanging on the wall in here too, along with some of my dad's Navy  memorabilia.


I had bought one of those black plastic poster frames, but it completely fell apart. Then I just put the poster directly on the wall, but that didn't look all that great.


The frame was a little bit larger than the poster (I didn't have the measurements when I was at the sale!)  But since the original image in the frame had a black background, I used that to make it look like it was matted.

It's a heavy-duty frame, so it won't be falling apart any time soon.  It definitely looks more finished hanging up there. I'm very pleased with it!

Framing Bedroom Ceiling

With the upstairs tiling complete (and that equipment out of our master bedroom), they were finally able to make some progress on the framing of the ceiling so that new drywall can go up!

Happily, they got rid of the old ceiling fan.  I love having a fan in the bedroom, just not that one!  We have picked out a new one that has lights.

Doorway into new master bath

It's been over four weeks that we've been crammed into the boys bedrooms, so I'm excited to see some progress here!

Fridge Cabinet Dilemma

As mentioned, the wrong cabinet was ordered for above the fridge.  It was too deep... the floor plan showed the little alcove for the fridge, but didn't show that there was a framed out box above it.  Now we had to come up with a remedy, since we knew we definitely didn't want it sticking out so far (the whole reason behind recessing the wall!)

You can see it sticking out on the
left side of the photo

Our options were...
1-pay over $500 for a new cabinet.  We couldn't return the wrong one because it had already been installed (one reason you should be at home when the cabinets are being installed... but unfortunately, neither of us could take off from work that day).  They said they could put it on rush order and we could get it in about a week.
2-remove the sheetrock & framing above the fridge and use the "wrong" cabinet, just sliding it back to where it was measured for.  I was a little worried that there was a big beam or something behind there, which may have lead to the decision to frame it out that way, but luckily I had photos on the blog I could check!  There wasn't a photo of the exact section we were wondering about, but this post had photos of the coat closet that is on the opposite side of the wall.  It looked clear of huge beams.
3- not have a cabinet over the fridge at all.  This would require not even exploring option 2, or else we'd need to re-sheetrock.

We took the plunge and went with option 2.  Mike was able to do this himself.  After knocking through a hole underneath, he confirmed that there weren't any big beams.  Then he carefully sliced & took away the sheetrock.  He needed to put some framing in, so that the cabinet guys would have something to anchor the cabinet to.  They would then rip the long sides lengthwise, so they were the right size.

Of course, we discussed all of this with the head cabinet guy before doing anything.  He was on board with this, and I'm happy to report that it all worked out really well!  We now have a nice deep cabinet above there (that was one of my concerns with ordering a new, more shallow one!)

Framing- even more

While the electricians were working, our contractor was framing out some more areas that weren't completed.


First there was the window that went into the family room.  That was finally removed and framed out to become a solid wall.

That little bit of stone to the left is what I'm hoping we'll be able to keep exposed.

Then there was upstairs in the master bath.  We decided not to remove all of the stone up here, but the wall needed to be framed out a little more to accommodate the electric.  The light brown mud is where the rock was removed for breaking through the doorway into our bedroom.

I had wanted this doorway to be a bit more to the right, so that I could put my small antique couch on the left side.  But that would require a lot more work with extra support since we'd need to move the old beams.  It seems like a smarter choice to leave it.  I've decided that it will, instead, give me room to put the antique dresser Mike got me back when we were dating, on the right side of the doorway :)

Fixing Some Framing

There were a few places that the framers had done their work, but needed some tweaking... minor stuff really.

First there was the Butler's Pantry doorway.  The plans called for the cabinets to be stretched along just the back wall.  But then we decided that the antique cabinetry would fit in the U-shape.  This meant the doorway needed to be centered.

Next there was the coat closet/refrigerator recessed area.  The framers had made the coat closet deeper, and didn't leave space for the refrigerator to be recessed (which would mean it stuck out into the kitchen further than we'd like).

After testing that we'd have enough room to hang coats, they fixed that right up...

The only problem is that now I can't fit my wash baskets through the old basement doorway!  

I can not wait until the laundry room is functioning upstairs!

Master Bath framing

Just a quick look at the additional framing that has been completed in the Master Bathroom.

The shower has been framed...

It will eventually be tiled, and have glass doors.

They also removed the rocks from where the door between the bathroom & bedroom will break through.  It's now just that coating of mud and the plaster on the other side.

They are leaving this wall intact for a bit longer to contain the mess as much as possible!

Roof Details & Back Porch

The framing guys have done more work on the outside, adding some detail...

The top roof will be getting a fabricated slate (the same as is on the front porch).  It will be a dark gray color to match the real slate roof on the main house.  The materials were supposed to arrive from New Hampshire last week, but are delayed (something about the truck breaking down...)  It should be here early next week.  Fingers crossed!

The areas of roof on the sides & porch will be standing seam metal, also in dark gray.

Those window holes aren't the real size, that's just what they've been using to get in & out of the rooms.  I'm looking forward to them getting the full size windows in!

Here's a look at the architect's drawings again...

They have also now started on the back porch...

More Framing- upstairs

Here are better shots of the upstairs (still had to take them through the tiny hall window though!!!


To the left foreground of this photo, is where the laundry room will be...

This shot is from right where the laundry room door will be.  There will also be a linen closet to the right.

That back section, and the little bit to the front right of the photo, is going to be our master closet!  I'm VERY excited about that- our closets are currently really small.  The doorway to the master closet will be in the master bathroom.

To the right is the master bathroom, and you can see the entrance into the master closet in the center of the photo.  In the very foreground on the right of the photo is where the linen closet is.

The bathroom entrance is going to be to the right of where I was standing to take this photo... but the wall is still intact there, so I can't get a good head-on shot of the room until that comes down!

More Framing- downstairs

Here are some additional framing shots with descriptions.

This is the view from where the back door will be.  To the immediate right is the half bath, then the kitchen, and in the background there is the butler's pantry...

Here is a reverse shot from the butler's pantry/dining room entrance, looking back into the kitchen.  The half bath is in the far back corner...

Here's a shot of the half bath...

This is from the corner in the half bath, looking out the door...  The window (currently looks into the family room) is going to be closed up, and the door on the left is going to be opened up to twice the side to pass from the kitchen into the family room.

The refrigerator is going to be where the door on the right side is (that's our old back door that was off the main hallway).

Inside View of Framing

Here's the inside view of the first floor framing:

Getting a shot of the second floor was hard, but here's a peek through the hallway window:

It now has the ceiling and the attic space framed out too.  Mike actually climbed through this tiny window the other night to check out the second floor lay out.  It was quite comical!!!

There's no way for us to see the attic space until they break through the wall up there.  It will open into the stair landing.

They should be breaking through the walls in the next day or two... that's when it's really going to get messy around here!  But it will be exciting to easily be able to access that second & third floor areas, since I haven't gotten to walk through them yet!

Framing- the attic

We're also adding attic space over the new construction (which is great since we lost some storage space when we finished off the media room)

Here's the framing up there...

Framing the Second Floor

With the first floor all framed out, they've moved up to the second floor!

We got a peak at the wide boards that are beneath the clapboards of the house...

And some more of the stone under the boards..

The next thing we knew, it was up and mostly enclosed!

First Floor Framing- Day 2

The following day, it really stared to take shape- you can see the five windows across the back of the house...

They also did some plumbing/drainage work...

First Floor Framing- Day 1

While we were out of town, the work kept going on the house...
Here are shots taken at the end of the first day!

Stacks of Wood

All of a sudden, our backyard has been filled with wood...

You can see what a mess the backyard is... it's kind of strange with all of the pretty flowers blooming amid the mess!

The exciting stuff was about to start, right when we were leaving for Disney!

We're now back and had lots of fun on the trip, but the whole time we were wondering what was going on at the house!

Luckily our excellent house & pet sitters were out there taking photos of the progress each day- so we've got record of it all :)