We finally found a contractor to take on some of our projects. First up is the guest bathroom in the hallway. As I have mentioned before, the people who built this house decide to divorce during the build and so whereas the framing, etc. is pretty good quality, the bathrooms are definitely builder grade. We’reContinue reading “The Guest Bathroom–A Warm-up for the Basement Bathroom”
Category Archives: Renovations
The Ancient Basement–the Cupboard under the Stairs (sort of)
We are getting ready to start getting the quartersawn oak treads and risers in place so we decided that if there ever was a time to finish the closet under the stairs, this was it. I mentioned in a recent post about what we’ve been working on, that my husband had planed the pine stairContinue reading “The Ancient Basement–the Cupboard under the Stairs (sort of)”
A Few Tweaks to the Primary Bedroom
You might recall, that I repainted our bedroom and bathroom last Spring. It looks so much more like us now, and I was generally really happy with it. However, I wanted to get all the pictures that we had stored in the basement hung up, so that spurred some minor redecoration. The gallery wall aboveContinue reading “A Few Tweaks to the Primary Bedroom”
Shed Refresh
Our shed has been a workhorse for 10 years now and the stained siding had really started to oxidize, so I went to Sherwin Williams and had them color match a solid stain to the color of the vinyl shingle siding. To get started, I had to take down the irrigation that is attached toContinue reading “Shed Refresh”
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!”
Cathy At Home on the River 