Wood Floors & Updates ~ Mountain Cabin Fixer Upper

We have been busy as bees and I have a lot of updates on our mountain cabin fixer-upper to share with you.  Since demo and renovations aren't very pretty, I wanted to start off with something that is.  Just up from the creek a bit is a raised bed full of lush green stems that are 3' tall and after waiting for months they have finally bloomed.  Bright red, with shades of purple, the bee balm blooms are beautiful and the bees and hummingbirds adore it.

Now on to the reno updates!
Remember the carpet runner that was on the stairs and in the upstairs hallway?  My mister removed it and the pine stair treads and floors underneath looked bad.  Really bad.

This is the before:




The stair treads were discolored on the edges with a lot of stains.
The carpet smelled so bad, so who knows what those stains are...yuck!







The hallway flooring didn't look that bad, except for where the carpet runner had been, which looked awful.







The small bedroom floor wasn't too bad.




The big bedroom wasn't too bad either, just a couple of dark spots here and there.







After the guys sanded the floors they applied some stain colors for me to choose from.




Since the stairwell and hallway walls are a knotty pine with a deep tone I decided to go with a natural sealer to leave the floors a light pine color.





The floors were sanded and then two coats of sealer were applied...I think they look great!
This is after:








Moving on to downstairs, you may remember the extra special and luxurious garage turned master suite?  Oh, it's just dreeeeamy!
Lovely green painted concrete floors.
Spacious built in shelving.
Lovely tiled floors at the entry and fireplace brick that no longer has a freestanding fireplace.




The luxurious built in spa tub.




Gorgeous green swirl wallpaper, lovely wainscoting with moldy corner and burgundy chair rail.
Oh...My...Goodness!
I could not wait to demo this!!!




I was so happy when the sledge hammer was taken to this area but man-oh-man...of all the things they did half way in this place...the tile on the wall and surrounding this tub was solid as a rock!  Me and my mister got a workout!!!

The heating and cooling system had been removed long ago so to the left you can see some of the duct work and venting we removed from the ceilings and floors.











Finally, the tub is GONE!
In the laundry area where you see the plastic kitty litter pail, there was a large water heater that supplied water to the spa tub, to the right is a large water heater that supplies the half bath (behind the door) and the kitchen, and in the upstairs bathroom there is a small water heater.
THREE water heaters in this 1700 sq. ft. cabin?!?!




We removed sheet rock from the master walls and once we got to the laundry room we discovered a scenic paneling behind the wallpaper.







The masking tape on the floor is a new floor plan for this area that I will show you soon.

First, we need to rewire all the electrical and relocate the panel box.  The stack washer and dryer was moved to the garage.  The fridge was moved in the laundry area so the kitchen could be rewired and a half wall was built to relocate the new electric panel box.

To help save some money my mister took a few days off so he could help the electrician and pull wires.  It took a long time to rewire the house and what a mess!







The upstairs bedrooms have holes in the sheet rock and the insulation is hanging out.  Notice anything in the top right portion above the insulation?




Yep, that would be an old hornets nest.  It looks to be very old but they came in through the outside light and made themselves a home in the wall.




Every wall has sheet rock that will have to be replaced.




The wallpaper has been removed and my mister is replacing the insulation.




In the last update, I shared the kitchen demo.  We originally left the refrigerator and sink portion in the kitchen area, but now we need to remove the sheet rock for the electrical work, so the "makeshift" kitchen is moving to the laundry room.




My mister is hooking up the sink plumbing and the table to the left will be our kitchen for a while.




We are working on the kitchen plan and I am having the hardest time deciding on what kind of cabinets to do in the kitchen!
Natural pine?
White shaker?
Cherry paneled?
Knotty Alder?
Chippy, rustic, weathered?
Too many decisions!




Since much of that wasn't very pretty I wanted to end with more flowers blooming by the creekside.






What's next?
Which flooring to replace the tile on the first floor.
Replacing the insulation and repairing the sheet rock.
Replacing trim and interior doors.
Kitchen design and cabinets.
Replacing window over the kitchen sink.
Replacing entry doors.
Install tongue and groove ceilings upstairs and deciding what to do with the ceilings downstairs.
The list goes on...

You can follow our fixer-upper adventure here!

Join us each week for AMAZE ME MONDAY!