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You are here: Home / Other Houses / Third House / Living And Dining Room Renovation

Third House

Living And Dining Room Renovation

When we moved in, the living and dining areas felt very small and dark and outdated. There was a funny half wall between the dining area and living room that was really unnecessary. We wanted to take down that wall to make it all move open. Before we could do that though, Tony had to remove all the wiring and re-route the ductwork that was underneath this wall. He moved all the light switches that were in this small wall over to the wall by the kitchen. At the same time, he added a light to the living room because there was no overhead light.

Once all that prep work was completed I started taking down the drywall. It was actually pretty fun to rip out this wall.

living room and dining room renovation

Once the drywall was out Tony helped me take down the studs. We decided to replace all the flooring instead of refinishing the existing hardwood because once we took the wall down there were these holes in the floor. It would have been too hard to try and patch the floor and make it look seamless, so ripping it all out seemed like a better idea.

living room renovation in a 1990s split level

It took me about two days to rip out all the old hardwood. My mother-in-law watched the kids while I went to town on the hardwood. I kinda liked ripping the floor up, though it was a huge mess for a few days.  At some point in there Tony patched the wall and the ceiling where the half wall was taken out.

1990s split level makeover

We left all the furniture in the space, we just moved it back and forth wherever we weren’t working at the time.

living room renovation with new hardwood flooring

And this is how it looked with all the old flooring gone.

1990s split level makeover hardwood flooring

Then we started working on installing the hardwood. My mother-in-law took the kids again, and my father-in-law helped install the new hardwood. It took about two days to finish. Installing hardwood is one of my favourite renovations to do. It’s not too messy, and within a short time the floors go from rough subfloor, to shiny and new floors!

1990s fixer upper

1990s split level living room makeover1990s split level before and afterliving room makeoverliving room makeoverliving room makeover in outdated 1990s split level

 

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Previous Post: « Front Hall Painted Wood Trim
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Comments

  1. tooinspiredtosleep says

    April 14, 2018 at 8:39 am

    Can you tell me where you bought your new light? I love it and think it’d be perfect in our mudroom!

    Reply
    • Jessica Vanderveen says

      April 18, 2018 at 9:27 pm

      I bought it off amazon, you can get some great light fixtures there! Here’s the link https://amzn.to/2JWtyuF. It’s a semiflush mount, oil rubbed bronze with crystals.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Colourful Kid Bedroom | The Vanderveen House says:
    March 12, 2016 at 1:28 am

    […] Tony stained the floors using Minwax Jacobean stain. This is the same stain he used for the stairs. It was the closest colour match to the prefinished hardwood we installed in the living room. […]

    Reply
  2. The Second Bedroom Makeover | The Vanderveen House says:
    March 16, 2016 at 8:48 am

    […] are a nice dark brown. We chose the colour to match the prefinished hardwood we installed in the living and dining rooms, so the whole house has matching […]

    Reply
  3. The To-Do List | The Vanderveen House says:
    March 16, 2016 at 9:19 am

    […] Living room/dining room […]

    Reply
  4. Moving Day! | The Vanderveen House says:
    August 20, 2016 at 2:57 pm

    […] the greatest picture, but I loved our living room and dining room. We replaced all the dated oak flooring with some new dark hardwood, and painted […]

    Reply
  5. The Second Bedroom Makeover – The Vanderveen House says:
    January 13, 2017 at 2:31 am

    […] are a nice dark brown. We chose the colour to match the prefinished hardwood we installed in the living and dining rooms, so the whole house has matching […]

    Reply
  6. The To-Do List • The Vanderveen House says:
    March 16, 2017 at 12:59 pm

    […] Living room/dining room […]

    Reply
  7. Completed To-Do List For Our Third House • The Vanderveen House says:
    March 16, 2017 at 1:09 pm

    […] Living room/dining room […]

    Reply
  8. Colorful Kid Bedroom • The Vanderveen House says:
    May 26, 2017 at 9:10 pm

    […] Tony stained the floors using Minwax Jacobean stain. This is the same stain he used for the stairs. It was the closest colour match to the prefinished hardwood we installed in the living room. […]

    Reply

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Welcome! My name is Jessica Vanderveen. My husband and I, along with our four kids, are creating the home we love. We want to help you do the same! Read more about our renovation journey...

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