Guest Bedroom ~ Creekside Mountain Cabin Fixer Upper

While most are in the middle of Christmas decorating and celebrating the season, we are still in the throes of the cabin remodel.  It's coming along well.  There has been so much progress made, both inside and out, but I often find myself not knowing how to reckon all the progress made along with the realization that not one area is finished.  

There are two guest bedrooms and one is larger than the other.  Today I wanted to share some updates in the large guest bedroom.  It was August when we went to Lowe's to purchase the pine boards for an accent wall in this bedroom.  My mister cut them to size and then I got busy.  Each board was sanded, then treated with wood conditioner so the stain would go on evenly, then each board got two coats of stain, and the final step was to apply a clear coat of varnish.  It took several weekends but they turned out just as I hoped they would.  Little did I know it wouldn't be until November before the boards would be installed.

After the electrical work was done and the sheetrock repaired we painted the walls.  The wall we would be installing the pine boards on was originally yellow and we needed it dark so no color would shine through between the boards.  Black paint is expensive and would take a while to apply and dry, so we chose to use landscape paper.  My mister measured the length needed, minus the crown and baseboard, cut each sheet to length and then nailed the paper to the wall.

Working from the bottom up, the pine boards were attached with a pneumatic nail gun and we used nickels as spacers between each board.

The top board couldn't be attached until we finished the ceiling.

It was also in August when I began applying a clear varnish to the tongue and groove boards we would be using for the ceiling.  We purchased packages of tongue and groove from Lowe's.  This was the least expensive way we found to add a wood ceiling, but it proved to be a BIG HEADACHE to install.

Sitting on an empty kitty litter box with a piece of foam for cushion, I coated each board with clear varnish, then moved it to a resting place on the nearby chairs and once several boards were finished I would then move them inside the screened porch to finish drying.

Ellie-Mae is in the window watching me work.

It was time to tackle the ceilings.  We began by removing a few rows of ceiling tiles at a time and installing the tongue and groove in long rows from the left side all the way to the right side.  We couldn't remove too many ceiling tiles or the insulation would fall out.

We were careful to stagger our boards but it was a pain getting the tongue of these boards to fit into the grooves.  This inexpensive wood is thin and the tongue broke and splintered so easily.  We were two days in and only half way through when my mister was wanting to rip it all out and go get better wood.  I had already sealed each of these boards and we had already worked two full days which to me was too much work to rip it out.  So, we kept on and FINALLY finished!

To finish this room, we still need to sand and seal the crown molding and baseboards, install closet doors and a bedroom door.  Nevertheless, I couldn't wait to pull up the construction paper covering the floor, unroll one of the braided rugs and put a bed together!  

When we are finished, this room will be furnished with three twin beds (all currently stored in my living room) and this queen bed will go in the smaller guest bedroom, but it was sure nice seeing a little pretty amidst all the mess.

 I hope you'll follow along to see how she turns out.  Choose any post from the very beginning to the most recent right here!

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