Hallway Makeover Progress

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Matt and I have finally moved from our temporary “bedroom” that we had set up in the breakfast room into the guest bedroom. That took way longer than I had intended, but the craziness of 2020 really got my focus off of house-related projects. And then at the beginning of this year when I finally did finish the bedroom, Matt reminded me that we still couldn’t move into the bedroom until I finished the hallway floor.

So after finishing the floor in the hallway and giving it about a week for the polyurethane to cure, we were finally ready to move in. It’s going to take some getting used to. The breakfast room has three big windows, and the room always seems very bright during the day. Here’s how the room looked right after I finished it a few years ago…

But the bedroom has only one window, and it’s shaded by the huge oak tree in our front yard.

The room is very bright if all of the lights are turned on, but if we’re only wanting natural light (which we both prefer to turning on lights), it’s a much darker room than the breakfast room. So that will take some getting used to.

But other than that, we’re really enjoying it. I ended up having to get rid of the platform bed (although I kept the headboard) in the bedroom because Matt’s occupational therapist suggested that we get an adjustable bed since he spends so much time in bed. (For those of you who are new around here, Matt is my husband, and he has M.S.) I wanted one that high really good customer ratings, but wouldn’t break the bank. So we ended up getting this one, and we both really like it.

Anyway, now that the floor is finished and cured, and we’ve officially moved into the bedroom, I’ve been trying to finish up the hallway. I got the trim around the cased opening between the hallway and music room re-installed. I still have to wood fill the nail holes, caulk the cracks, and paint. But it’s nice seeing trim again, and not raw lumber and cut edges of drywall.

And I got the trim around the bathroom doors re-installed, although it also needs wood filler, caulk, and paint.

I also got the doors painted. I used Behr Mythic Forest on the doors, which is the same color on the music room bookshelves and doors, and the pantry cabinets.

The hallway looks quite a bit different than it did before. It was a very large and spacious area before, with three bedroom doors in addition to the bathroom double doors. There used to be enough space between the guest bedroom door (the door just to the right of the cabinets) and the wall with the other two bedroom doors to put artwork on that wall.

But now there’s no room at all for artwork.

And where there used to be two bedroom doors on that one wall…

…now there’s only one bedroom door on that wall…

I no longer have room to the left of the bathroom doors for a table and artwork…

But now I’ll have room for that stuff to the right of the home gym door where the master bedroom door used to be.

It’s a much smaller hallway now, but it was a huge hallway before, so we had plenty of room to spare. And moving that wall and removing the former master bedroom door allowed us to square up that room, which will soon become our master bathroom.

I anticipate that I’ll need just a few more days to finish up the hallway. I still need to:

• install the door trim on the other two doors,
• install the crown molding,
• install the baseboards,
• caulk and paint all of the trim, and
• prime and paint the walls.

It’s a pretty short list for a very small space, so I think it’ll be done very soon. And then I can start on the home gym!! I’m very excited about moving on to that project, so I’m feeling very motivated to get this hallway done.