And It’s Week 4! If you’re stopping by for the first time, you’re catching me at the half way point of a Dining Room renovation. I’m participating in the One Room Challenge hosted by Calling it Home, and redecorating a space in just six weeks. If you haven’t checked out the previous progress, get an update here:
Week 2- Why I will Never Stencil A Whole Room Again
Week 3- New Rug and Why I think Rug Pads are Necessary
Week 4 – Replacing the Interior Window Sills and Repairing Trim from Dog Chewing and Destruction (That’s this week!)
So, first, we have the crime. There’s actually 3 of these that look this bad.
Next, we have the suspects.
The one of the left just has guilt written all over his face, doesn’t he? Crash could never stand up to a line-up.
Ok, in all seriousness, Crash came to us with severe anxiety and separation anxiety issues. He had some trouble adjusting to the new home and our poor window sills took the frustration. Who could blame him? We were his 5th home in 3 years. After a whole lot of affection, reassurance, and training, his anxiety is under much better control. I don’t expect any more damage to the window sills.
So this week, we are replacing the window sills and repairing the window trim underneath.
*This post may contain affiliate links to products I used while replacing the window sills.
The first step is always the most worrisome, right? Our main concern was that the window sill would continue beneath the window itself and we would have to remove the window. However, through research and doing it ourselves, we were happy to find that windows aren’t made that way. Of course, when you remove the sill, check for any sign of mold or additional damage and repair before you move on.
Window sills and trim are usually attached to the wall with nails and caulk. First, we ran a cutting blade around all the edges including between the underneath trim and the window sill. Then we used a hammer and banged/popped the sill upwards, being careful to avoid any further damage. We pulled out the rest of the nails that were left behind.
Now to build the new window sill. We ended up replacing all four window sills along the front because we made them an inch shorter than the old ones. We used leftover poplar board for all of them. We used poplar because it is slightly harder than pine and easier to find a piece without knots.
We cut the sides a bit inwards to fit the window and we dry fitted this several times. A simple run across the router to create a bullnose edge was all that was needed.
Now to repair the window trim below it. The window trim had some gouges and dog chewing damage as well. Although, we could have replaced the window trim pretty easily, I elected to fill it because the edge cuts on trim like this are not easy to get perfect. Plus, I am really good at wood filling. I used plastic wood filler for this and thinned it out to get in the smaller areas. I used several thin layers to fill the holes, lightly sanding and cleaning between each layer, until I was able to fill the damage while also following the lines of the trim. For filling this type of wood, I love these sponges because they have edges that I can easily control and get into the ridges.
After the trim was filled and smoothed, I caulked around the edges. Then I primed and painted everything to match the rest of the trim in the house.\
This week, we did replace the window sills in both the front room and the dining room. This may have been a smaller project, but it bugged me so much!
Well, now that’s over, we only have two more weeks to finish up. We are actually not the far off. I am waiting on some of my last purchases to arrive so that I can style the table and decide how to make it inviting, cozy, and beautiful but not too intimidating formal . I need to put in something unexpected, and I am not sure where that will come just yet.
So let’s check out the progress!
Dining Room Makeover Task List:
Make Curtains and HangRepair Window Sills- Create a grid style Gallery Wall
Purchase Dining Room Chairs, Area Rug and Pad, and plenty of table accentsPaint Wine Cabinet (maybe)I decided not!New DishesFind a big pot for my new plant
That list looks more done than I feel that it is. I still don’t have the table even set up and the second chair isn’t here! Until next week! Be sure to check out how the other participants are doing in the One Room Challenge.
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