While we’re at it…

The phrase “While we are at it…” is our least favorite phrase right now. We were doing a lot of dry walling, so we figured… why not take out the paneling between the dungeon (a study) and the second bedroom in the basement, and replace it with drywall before we get new carpet. The paneling came off really easily. If that were all we started doing this morning, then we might have the pieces up and ready to be mudded right now.

But, Joe-Home-Owner-The-FM-Guy (a previous owner over 15 years ago who wired the house with FM radio wire) as we call him, was very lazy when he did remodels on the house. So, we have to fix things that he did wrong.

Which, in this case, meant moving that wall. If we had left it, then the drywall, thicker than the original paneling, would make the door not open all the way- poorly placed narrow door. So we moved the wall to line up with the rest in the basement, and correcting that little hall area, and putting in a 30 inch door, not a 24 inch door to the second bedroom, and getting the wall off the original carpet and on to the cement. We discovered that moving the wall over 7 inches wasn’t that hard, and so we did. It is moved, mostly nailed in (we are taking a break) and the next step is drywall, finally. The original carpet that Joe had built the wall on top of, not the brown carpet, was really a gross yellow shag. Yech. Don’t worry, nothing that we are doing is structural. But it will help straighten out some stuff that has always been really wrong.

It makes both of us wonder where a home improvement project ends and a remodel begins.

Why not, while we’re at it…