Okay friends. Now that we are on the flip side of our house repairs, I figured I’d show you some before and afters of my home office renovation. If you are new around here, my husband and I bought our first house back in September. We were fairly close to getting everything unpacked and put together when Winter Storm Uri hit Texas in February earlier this year. We had some pipes break, causing some fairly extensive damage to my home office and my husbands home office. You can read all about that fiasco here.
Long story short, we decided to completely repipe our house (since it already had holes in it) with Pex piping, and we finally had our repairs completed earlier this month. So, I thought I would give the lowdown on what all we did in my home office – and show you what it looks like today.
The initial damage
Here is what my home office looked like before it was damaged in the storm. The second photo above was taken right around the holidays. And, while I had a few boxes left to unpack, it was mostly finished.
Then, we had the freeze in February. There was a slow drip that began at the air vent. The slow drip turned into a steady drip – and turned into a full on problem as the day progressed. Because Texas was in a such a crisis, the plumbers were dealing with their own problems in their own homes. And, while we got a call in right away, they were so backlogged, that it took them a couple of days before they could get to our house. So, we began the insurance claim process – and (I) tried not to panic.
My husband was calm the entire time – I mean, one of us needed to be. But, he ended up drilling some holes so we didn’t have a ceiling collapse. We knew the plumber was going to have to get up there, so we moved all my stuff out and into other places in the house.
The aftermath
These are the holes our plumber had to cut to get up into the ceiling. Side note: our plumber was incredible. He was patient, kind and he knew exactly what he was doing. I was so thankful to have him come get our house back together.
Our insurance began the water mitigation process as fast as they could. So, a team came out to cut out the rest of the ceiling, check for any additional water damages (the baseboard under that window had a bit) and to dry out the areas. And that photo right there is what my ceiling/office looked like up until the the beginning of June.
Home office renovation
If you are taking stock, we needed some new sheetrock, paint, insulation and baseboards. When Rigo, our contractor, came in, they began with my office ceiling. After one day, they had my ceiling back in. A couple of days after the ceiling was back in, our contractor came back in to do all new insulation in our house. His crew painted the ceiling, and patched up and painted my grey walls.
We went with agreeable grey, which was the original color. We also had them redo the baseboard that was problematic under that window. I purchased a new light fixture since my old one was a freeze casualty, and he had the electrician come and install.
The After: home office renovation
And, about a week after they began, my office was completely done, and I was able to move my stuff back in. I could not have been more thrilled with the outcome. It feels light, and airy and everything feels like it’s back where it should be.
I hope you enjoyed my before and after home office renovation. I’ll share what we’ve done to our other rooms as well. It feels like a whole new house, friends.
