Let’s Get Into Our Sunroom Renovation

Ooof, I’ll be honest: it is hard to dive back into this blog when I have such a backlog of updates to share with you! When I let things pile up like this, it creates a daunting hurdle. This is a champagne problem, however, because the good news is our sunroom and window renovation is FINISHED.

I’m relieved to report that everything went as smoothly as one could hope for such a big, complicated project – thanks in large part to our contractor’s hard work (Mizener Construction). As a reminder, I detailed my window decisions and budget back in March. Here’s where we started:

We chose to postpone the start of our project until Chicago entered Phase 3 of our COVID-19 reopening plan. It was go-time in June. A few days before the crew I arrived, I got to work on DIY demo. Emptying the sunroom reminded me how terribly proportioned the windows were for the space.

Demoing the paneling reminded me of our home inspector’s mantra: “You’re not allowed to ask ‘Why?’” I discovered the whole room was covered in two layers of paneling, seemingly installed at the same time.

I expected the ceiling tiles to put up a fight, but they came down with the slightest touch.

I chose not to attempt to salvage the original beadboard ceiling: it was full of nails and covered in construction adhesive.

Here’s the state of the room when I handed it over to Chris (our GC) and his crew on June 10.

I’m going to break up the subsequent phases into separate posts, to keep them manageable for me and digestible for you. I’m sharing my bloggin’ plan so it keeps me accountable for sticking with it. We’re going to start by focusing on the sunroom. This week I hope to share four more posts (one a day, whoa), covering:

• Our general contractor’s work
• The painting and floor finishing work that came next
• The DIY work I did to take the sunroom over the finish line
• And, finally, the finished room!

Then I’ll circle back and share details on things you’ll see in the reveal post, including a plant bench I built, wall sconces I hacked, and solar shades I spent one million dollars on. After that, we’ll travel to the dining room and our bedroom, which also have new windows and lots of other new things since you’ve seen them last.

So, we’re looking at 8-10 posts over the next month or so! I hope I don’t pull a muscle, or get a stress fracture like that one time in 2018 I tried jogging…

In closing, here’s a sneak peek of where we’re headed.