I've been working on this way longer than I should have but I kept putting things off, then the baby came in August and I realized how much less time I was going to have with him around. I started to rip down sheetrock on March 16... and I finally gave myself a deadline of today (november 1st) to get things wrapped up. I still have some things to wrap up I got really close. My wife hated the cubby hole above the gas fireplace and wanted a "real" mantle. The one in place came off the wall only about 1". I found that it was sheet-rocked 2x4s.
Here are some before pictures of the main floor.
We decided on tile for the whole main floor after debating between combinations of wood, tile, and carpet. We crossed off wood since it since I've got family that has warped their wood from leaking refrigerators and my great dane would have a real fun time scraping it with his claws. We crossed off carpet off the list because we couldn't figure out how to integrate it in the main room while still maintaining a hard surface walkway from the kitchen to the stairs and front door. We've got finished edge carpet squares from a family friend that installs it that we'll use as area rugs.
After picking the faux wood tile and already having the paint picked out from our house work last year I put them up in the kitchen to see what it would look like with the cabinets and counter top that was there. We weren't happy about how the two new colors looked with the honey oak cabinets so I looked into gel coating the cabinets a dark brown. I posted up about that a while ago and have been impressed with first how they turned out but also that there is no wear on them to this point.
The tile got installed and wrapped up one day before my wife was induced with our son. We are very happy with how it turned out although as I progressed with baseboards and whatnot I've found a ton of grout that didn't get quiet cleaned all the way up. Still though, its by far the best part of the remodel.
Then it was just a matter of getting the drywall mudded and looking half decent above the fireplace. It doesn't look great despite my honest best effort when I look at it but others have said it looks fine. I wish I had better mudding skills and may try to get it looking better in the coming months. The mantle got ordered and installed then I painted it and the walls.
This is no where near the level of quality of work that most of you guys would do but it stretched me and I've certainly learned a lot from it all. I'm still scared of mudding and would have loved to pay someone to do it but that part just didn't work out. In the end though I think it is exactly what both my wife and I have wanted done with it for several years. We have a couch/chaise that we are picking up tomorrow and I'm exhausted and am quiet happy to make sure it gets broken in right. Thanks for letting me share.
