what lurks under

is it possible to have what looks like a perfectly wonderful room.. make a mess of it.. then bring it back to an even better existence? of course it is...and we're well on our way of doing it!

photo..before we bought this house..a big selling point was this room. right off the kitchen and open to back yard with windows enclosing the room and sunlight streaming in. I immediately had the vision of taking the sliding doors off and opening up this wonderful space as a small family room

photo..after moving and settling in as a warm cozy family room.. wrong!
the windows were tight but i included thermal drapes for the winter months..the look was right and my vision was starting to come together...but..warm it was NOT!

photo during...the previous owners had put electric heat in this room but had never insulated the floor, which by the way, when we took it up found it was also just sitting on the deck. yup..pergo floor sitting on deck and nothing but earth!

photo during...construction..strike that...destruction! pergo floor removed (carefully)..decking cut (carefully)...layers of foam insulation board installed between the rafters..deck boards screwed back on. note on this part..the deck is very close to ground, which meant no way to work from below..it was done from above, using mirrors when needed to see under the boards that were left in place. not any easy task according to the curses I heard during this part.

photo during...breath held...pergo floor successfully relayed!

photo during..electric heat was removed, piping for gas heat from main house is being installed. these pipes are being boxed in as we speak.

photo during...and now the part I have been waiting for...THE DOOR..is being removed..applause..dancing..

photo during...the opening, which is 6 feet wide of sunlight streaming in, also has a step down...the adjoining floors are maple hardwood in the kitchen and pergo maple in the sunroom.
a maple step is being made and installed

photos during...looking in sunroom from kitchen

a few peeks at the progress so far...just peeks now..we don't want to spoil the ending!

I just could not wait to share this project with everyone. It's one I've been waiting impatiently to do...progress updates are promised!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone...I'll be filling in nail holes and painting!

sue

Sharing a great idea

Today's post is taken from another blog which I have to share.

From Apartment Therapy a great idea...How To: Make a Pocket Sized Floor Plan

"If we had to name the best thing in our design arsenal it wouldn't be having our Pantone Book memorized, or knowing the name and year of every piece of furniture.So what's the one trick that helps us more than anything else?One of the best tricks we have found when designing our living space is proportion. Most of our truly great furniture finds have come from random places while we were out and about... not from when we have "left the house determined to buy a sofa."

Say you are out at a flea market and you come across an amazing French Provincial Couch that you think would be the best thing since sliced bread in your living room. You drag it home, wrangle it through the door frame, scoot everything out of the way... only to find out that it's really 3 inches taller than it should be, or 4 inches deeper than it needs to be, or one shade greener than it can be to work with your room.

So you're stuck selling it on Craigslist, or in the paper, before you can find another one. And then the whole process starts all over again.Because we've found the best inspiration for our homes is usually found in unsuspecting pl aces, one of the things that has helped us most is to have our house in our back pocket (figuratively of course).
We have taken card stock and adhered color swatches and floor plans to them. A jump ring keeps them all together, so when we want to know how big our entertainment center really is... it's all right there.

By having this on hand, be it in the glove box of your car, your purse, man bag... whatever the case may be, it can save you a ridiculous amount of headache and second guessing.

You will want to include basic information like the size and layout of your rooms, color choices (fabric swatches are perfect for this!) and sizes of existing pieces of furniture.

Other things that might be helpful are window heights (in case you are curtain shopping), height from the floor to the bottom of your window (in case you need something low to fit under it), and the location of your electrical outlets and floor vents (which are things we rarely think about, but end up being a pain later on).

Don't worry if they are hand drawn, they are only reminders of what's back at home, although if you want to wow the sales associates, feel free to Photoshop until your heart's content.

You can also laminate your layouts so they are spill resistant, although a note of caution, the color scanners at the hardware stores, are unable to mix paint accurately if they have a coating on them. If you would like that extra layer of protection, consider putting your paint chip on the ring lose so it's able to be used when needs be.

All of these things are nice to have on hand, so when you find "the perfect piece" you will know before you get it home if it will really work in your space."

I do have one thought to add to this. Being such a visual person, I think I would also include a photo of the room.

Thank you AT for this helpful idea that I can share with my readers.

Have a great Thursday everyone

Sue