The 1st floor of the house was not on the priority list early on when we moved into the house in 2016. We started with the master suite then moved to the 3rd floor. After that was done I wanted to focus on the decks and some other exterior projects. And then there was the need to create a laundry room. The existing “laundry room” consisted of the washer and dryer in the 1st floor kitchen with the dryer venting into a plastic tub half filled with water. It was inconceivable to me that this house was built without a proper dryer venting to the outside.

But this house had so many issues it was hard to stay focused on just one project or space. I remember one night Cindy had a friend over and she was showing her around. I heard a lot of laughing and talking (nothing unusual) and when I went to join in I saw them both peeling wallpaper off the walls of one of the more “needy” rooms. I was thinking, well, here goes another project.

Our basic plan with the 1st floor was to create a large studio space where the previous owners had removed two former bedrooms. Cindy and I are both musicians and in a previous life I was a studio engineer/musician. I ended up moving many minor things around but the basic shape remained the same.

Here was our 1st floor plan priority list:

Paint the walls. This was basically a short term plan to make the space somewhat decent. The multiple wall paper and borders just had to go. We tackled each room fairly quickly with paint.
Renovate the kitchen. By far the ugliest space in the house, we needed this space to be more functional. As you can see in the videos, it was also not a safe space with mold and structural issues lurking just underneath the ugly facade.
Demo the acoustic/grid ceilings and Install sheetrock ceilings at 10 feet. The 1st floor walls are actually 10 feet tall but the drop ceiling was installed in every room at 8 feet height. This was going to be a massive undertaking that involved relocating wiring and plumbing and a lot of framing/sheetrock.
Redo the flooring. The original floor was tile and carpet. The previous owners had demoed two of the 4 bedrooms to create a “man cave”. Unfortunately they ran out of money and never finished the floor so there where concrete sections where walls and carpet used to be. Not to mention the original tile was not laid very well and was just not attractive.
Add closets. One of the two bedrooms had no closet! Plus there was only one other storage closet on the 1st floor. We planned to add several more.
Add a 3rd bedroom. We wanted to create a large studio space in the 1st floor and we needed a room to record in. This room would double as a 3rd bedroom (5 total).
Renovate the utility room. This was not a huge priority but the old wooden shelving smelled terrible after 40+ years and the space was crying out for help. Of course, a water main leak in June of 2021 would change all our “priorities”.