The office was one of our first home restoration projects before we started Youtube, This room, along with a lot of the house was painted this sage green with grungy carpets; it was in need of updating. We ripped the layers back, exposing the original wood floors and brick chimney.
With a little hard work and basic tools we were able fix this room up extremely cheap, it cost approximately $150.
Once all the furniture was removed we had an empty room to start the renos.
First we pealed the layers back to expose the original wood floors.
Luckily the plywood subfloor was just screwed down and I was able to remove it fairly easy. Also, I was able to salvage the subfloor to be able to use on future projects!
I went around the room and patch all the cracks and holes. You can go deep into the rabbit hole doing this in an old house because there's imperfections everywhere, eventually you have to settle and embrace those imperfections.
After the old floor was removed and the room was primed and painted, I noticed that the wall jut out behind the door had to be the old chimney coming up from the basement. I wanted to expose it so I just went to town with a crow bar and a hammer and smashed all the plaster away. I cleaned the residual plaster with a drill and a steel wire brush attachment then scrubbed it down with vinegar water.
I spray painted the register with multiple light coats of gloss white which came out great. We then prepared to strip the floor of the many layers of paint and finish.
Floor stripper is nasty stuff, it's a super chemical that just peals everything it touches. We poured it out in an even layer onto the floor, waited 15 minutes and then scraped it all up.
We used a belt sander to sand the entire room starting from 50 grit up to 180 grit. Then we used a palm sander at 220 grit to make everything super smooth.
Lastly, we stained the floors with Minwax Puritan Pine stain and sealed it with water based satin poly. Overall, this room was a huge success, with a small budget, a coat of paint, a little hard work and some uncovered hidden treasures, it is now a very comfortable, bright and functional office.
