Tommi Orchards by PVII

florida room makeover

February 2005

This room was a disaster. One of the former owners just plunked this room on the back of the house. They used the by gosh & by golly method of construction.

The original windows were the old jealousy windows, crummy looking alumnimum and most of the cranks were broken. They were so drafty in the winter that we could not use the room, even though there was heat back there.

Three of the walls were covered with grim looking paneling and another wall was covered with carpeting. We mostly used the room for storage.

 
The Tommi Melon

florida room makeover

We replaced the windows in 2003 and the draft problem was finally solved. The new windows were gorgeous but the rest of the room was an eyesore.

  • These are the original windows with the awful looking old aluminum frame.
  • Old windows & grim looking paneling
  • New vinyl replacement windows installed
  • Another new window
  • We replaced 3 - 6'x4' windows and 1 smaller window. We also replaced the back door.
 

our dream room

I couldn't wait to get that carpeting off the wall and replace it with something pretty. I don't know how long it had been up there but it was rotting out in my hand as I removed it from the wall. I got to the very last piece. I pulled and it came down - along with a swarm of carpenter ants. Whoopsie, I was wondering where they were coming from. It turns out they were living in the wall. I found a can of Raid and went to work. Then I just closed the door and left the area. I called an exterminator the next day. They came right out and injected something into the wall to kill the nest. Sadly, I had to wait 6 months before I could cover the wall with anything. It takes that long to be sure the ants are dead.

I envisioned a bright, pretty room with a nice ceramic floor that would be filled with plants. Alas, it was not to be.

getting started

Here we are with a room full of lovely windows & a new door, grim paneling, one totally naked wall with black blotches all over it and fugly indoor/outdoor carpeting on the floor.

the wall from hell

The grim looking paneling was easy to deal with. We just painted over it and it came out looking pretty good. The wall that had the carpeting on it was quite another matter. A smart person would have had a couple of sheets of drywall delivered and gone from there. But nooooooo. Nobody wants to deliver 2-3 sheets of drywall and we can't fit it in either of our cars.

Instead, we went to the home improvement store and bought some pressed board that came in nice, convenient 2'x4' pieces. They fit into the car nicely and were easy to maneuver. We painstakingly nailed the panels to the wall, being careful to stagger the joints. Then we put up some pretty wallpaper and went about our business.

Oh my, who knew what happened to pressed board after you apply wet wallpaper to it. Did anyone tell us that it expanded? Hell no. We went it to look at our pretty wall and it looked pregnant. The panels were terribly bowed. Perhaps we should have primed it first but it's a bit late for that now. What did we do? We walked away. We went out to dinner. When we got back the wall had dried and shrunk back to it's original size. All was well.