Category Archives: Renovations

Thrift Store Score–The Floor Lamp is Finished!

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about finding a really cool vintage floor lamp at the thrift store. Here’s a link to that post: https://cathyathomeontheriver.com/2026/01/25/thrift-store-score-a-vintage-wooden-floor-lamp/ The parts that I ordered for the lamp finally came in late last week and I bought some new sockets and cord from Lowe’s. We didn’t have a lotContinue reading “Thrift Store Score–The Floor Lamp is Finished!”

The Ancient Basement–Decisions

Since the holidays, I have been watching a bunch of videos on YouTube from The Potted Boxwood, and Homeworthy to get some ideas about how to design the basement. (If you enjoy home design/decor, these are great channels to watch.) Now that we’ve lived with the stairwell painted for a while, I have been thinkingContinue reading “The Ancient Basement–Decisions”

The Ancient Basement–Projects in Process

Work has continued here, but there isn’t much to show just yet. My husband took the last two weeks of the year off as vacation, which is good, because he worked a crazy number of hours over the prior 4 months. He spent a lot of time in the woodshop until the kids got homeContinue reading “The Ancient Basement–Projects in Process”

The Ancient Basement–the door for the storage room

We bought all the doors for the basement from a guy up near Toledo, OH. Most of them were painted. This is the door that we selected for the storage room. My husband thinks that this is an exterior door (a detail that will be important later on) so it’s thicker. It has a pocketContinue reading “The Ancient Basement–the door for the storage room”

The Ancient Basement–the New Storage Room

When I last posted about the storage room, we had really just started working on it. You can find that post here: https://cathyathomeontheriver.com/2025/10/10/the-ancient-basement-were-back-at-it/ . Basically, we had made an opening for the door; did the rough in for the little bit of electrical that was required; and did the framing. My husband is still workingContinue reading “The Ancient Basement–the New Storage Room”

The Ancient Basement–We’re Back At It!

We have taken a pretty long break from the basement after tackling the ceiling in the “den” portion of the basement. (I stripped the bookshelf, but we haven’t worked on anything big since the ceiling.) My husband’s office in the basement is super depressing and while he could work from home on some days, heContinue reading “The Ancient Basement–We’re Back At It!”

The Ancient Basement–More Progress on the Built In Bookshelf

In my last post about the bookshelf, I left you with the shelves mostly stripped. I had my husband help me move the shelf, so that we could put down a new drop cloth because the one I was using was completely trashed. I put another coat of stripper and plastic on it and scrapedContinue reading “The Ancient Basement–More Progress on the Built In Bookshelf”

The Ancient Basement–A Compendium of Progress Made

I’m going to copy a bunch of the posts about this project in this single post, so if you’re new, or have missed some posts, you’ll be able to catch up on it all. And, it’ll be a walk down memory lane for me. August, 2022: We are starting the process of finishing out ourContinue reading “The Ancient Basement–A Compendium of Progress Made”

The Ancient Basement–A Peek into the Future

After we finished the ceiling, I thought it was silly to have all the furniture and rugs piled up with all our various cabinets, sinks, quarter sawn oak, etc., so I went ahead and cleaned the “den” well and moved everything back in. I put the dropcloths back up because it helps with the illusion.Continue reading “The Ancient Basement–A Peek into the Future”