It’s been 2 weeks since we closed and work has already begun. We’re spending a few hours a day over at the house several times a week and things are looking a little different already.
It’s no secret that I’m part of Lowe’s Creative Bloggers team and let me tell you, I’m sure glad of that. This month’s challenge was a before and after project and I had the perfect one in mind. I got in the fixer-upper house just in time to do this project. I had already decided that I was going to add tall board and batten in the dining room, so after I explained what it was to my Dad, he was all on board for putting it up. I took my Lowes giftcard to the store and we picked up all the supplies needed to start this project. We’re not completely finished, but I got one wall completed to show you all how we did it. Caulking and painting it out will come later.
We picked up 2 sheets of 1/2” MDF, just the perfect material for cutting board and batten. There are a zillion tutorials out in blogland on how to do this. This one will be basic and I’ll explain how we did it as I move down the pics. You won’t get to see the really pretty “after” yet, but that will come later. I can’t wait to get to the pretty stage, most of what we are doing now is just grunt work. Hard and dirty work getting ready to paint.
Now, I have to tell you a thing or two about my dad, Al. He’s old school. Extremely. If you know an old-school guy, I can assure you, there is no one more old-school than Al.
We almost got in a head butting contest over this kick-butt nail gun. With my Lowes giftcard, I picked up this wonderfully versatile rockin’ tool, the Hitachi nailgun. It’s a finishing nail gun and works with a compressor and saves a TON of time. My dad didn’t think we needed one, but I sure did! So we had discussions over the nail gun. I won and the nail gun came home with us, courtesy of Lowes. We were able to buy all of our materials, including paint and the nail gun from Lowes. Thanks, Lowes!
He is so used to nailing nails and couldn’t see that having a nail gun will save us so much time, but it totally will.
Another thing about my dad. He’s cheap. It has served him well. I can be cheap too, but getting MDF cut at the home store would probably been a time saver since they cut on those BIG OLE’ saws they have. But no, we can cut our boards at home and that won’t cost a dime. If there is even a hint of having to pay for cuts, nope that won’t do. Out came the table saw and we ripped those boards ourselves. I helped and we got ‘er done! 🙂
We ripped 6” boards and 2” boards for the battens.
Here’s our wall, waiting for a makeover. I decided that I wanted the board and batten to be tall, so I opted for 65” up the wall. My ceilings in this house are 8’ tall, so that seemed a good height to go. I also decided that I wanted to do 2 rows of boards and fill in with battens for a nice paneled look. You’ll see!
I started by painting out the bottom of the wall (below 65”) in white primer. This will help when I have to paint that wall with all white trim paint.
Primer completed.
We brought over my dad’s compressor, he does have some great tools, we just need to use them. He’s got most of the good ones: table saw, miter saw, jigsaw, and more. This one is perfect for the new Hitachi nail gun.
I went ahead and painted above the board and batten a gray color, Rockport Gray mixed in Valspar Paint and Primer in one. It covered wonderfully! I think the one quart I bought will cover all the walls I need to paint in here.
I’m really liking the gray color. I have some drapery fabric already bought that I’m using in here. It has pretty tones of gray, gold, green, brown and cream and I think will look super with my dining chairs and all this white board and batten.
Wanna see?
Some of you might remember that I picked up this fabric not too long before I moved from Birmingham back to Atlanta. I had planned to use it in my old house, but guess what? It’s going in the new one and I couldn’t be happier to have a dining room to use it in!
Can you see it coming together with my dining table and chairs? Yeah, me too!
So, we measured and leveled our 6” boards, nailing them into the wall studs. Another thing about my dad. He’s completely obsessed with nailing boards in studs. He overkills every piece of wood that gets nailed up. It HAS. TO. BE. IN.A. STUD in my dad’s carpentry book. SO, we found the studs. Sometimes I have to give in to his wishes and let him do it his way. Not always, I can assure you. There will be much head-butting getting this house done. We have gone through it before, it is nothing new for daughter and dad to see things 2 different ways. I see pretty, he sees strong and not going to go anywhere.
I totally think you can do both!
Back to the board and batten, I placed the 2nd board 12” down below the first row and now we are ready for the 2” battens to be installed.
We mitered the ends so that they would butt up against the baseboards and then I got the nailgun out and really had a ball.
This thing totally ROCKS my world! I’m going to be in love with my new nail gun. I popped nails in all those battens and loved it. The best thing, no countersinking. The gun does it for you!
We added battens in the corners and will wrap them to the next wall too. That next one from the right over to the left, we had to move it over a bit further than the others to jump the wall outlet. I read a lot of tutorials and most everyone said to do that. Jump the outlets and avoid them and you’ll never really notice the different spacing once it is all painted out. We spaced about 14 inches apart. Don’t hold us to that, we fudged a bit here and there.
Here’s that angled bottom piece, cut on a 45° angle on the miter saw. See how it rests on the existing baseboard and just makes it look better than keeping it straight across the bottom. I love this little touch.
So, one by one we added those battens. A few of the top boards didn’t get nailed in the studs, so we used Liquid Nails on the back (just a bit) as well as nails in the bottom part which did hit a stud to secure them all. They won’t be going anywhere. We used a level horizontally on the battens to keep them straight as we nailed.
It looks awesome to me! I’m so excited to get just this little start to pretty going on. We’ll continue around the room and finish this up and I’ll go ahead and paint above and this space will be on it’s way to being transformed. I’m planning to add more board and batten in the little foyer and going up the stairs. It just adds SO much architectural interest to an otherwise plain space, don’t you think?
Of course, the real fun will be when I caulk and paint it all trim white in Semi-Gloss. It will be gorgeous! It might be awhile before I get to that part, but you’ll be the first to see it all done.
UPDATE: Here’s the AFTER, with new floors installed.
And my dad is really proud of what we did. He mentioned how great it looks several times!
Here’s a little more progress for you. My sweet and tireless mama worked at getting up some of the tack strips from the carpet that we are ripping out while me and Dad worked on the board and batten. She is amazing.
Dad walled up the doorway going into the kitchen and this wall from the living room can now have furniture on it if I need to do that. It will make all the difference in the kitchen space and adding more cabinets on that wall that is not a door anymore.
Oh! And the ceilings all got a nice coat of spray paint last week, thanks to a family friend retired painter who we hired just for that reason.
Long view to the door that is now GONE. Can’t wait to paint those walls, that alone is going to make such a huge difference. After we paint the trim and walls, our next project tackled will be new floors in this living room. As of now, I do believe we are going to buy a floor nailer and put down unfinished oak flooring, then hire a refinisher to do the sanding, staining, and finishing of the floors. That will save us some money, even though it will be a lot of work. We can take our time and get it done.
Mom and I have finally stripped all the wallpaper off the walls. That was a happy day too.
These 2 people are the loves of my life. They are such hard workers and I couldn’t do this without them. We’ve had many picnics on the porch already during our renovation days at the house.
And that’s pretty sweet!
Disclosure: I received a giftcard to buy supplies from Lowes for this project.
Oh, where do I begin? I need to remove wallpaper in the bathroom, why did I ever put it up? Living room floor needs refinishing, and kitchen cabinets need something, maybe paint? I am loving your renovations, love seeing the beauty unfold.
I love your blog. You are so fortunate to have parents who can still physically help you. As you are getting back on your feet you are helping them and they in turn are able to help you. I never as an adult lived close to family until two years ago. Unfortunately my parents had died by that time. I am glad you have the support and love of all of your family. I can’t wait to see each room. My husband and I have practically been camping at Lowes as we redo a fireplace in our 90 year old home.
Rhoda! Your house is coming together so quickly! How wonderful! Your mama and daddy and you and God make one amazing team! I know we all can use some goodies from Lowe’s. We lost a lot of plants and grass last year due to our drought here in Texas. My once beautiful back yard is pretty bare and now that we have had some rain, I am so wanting to replant our shrubs and some pretty plants and flowers so I can look out my kitchen and back windows on something pretty and green again. All in His time!
Love to hear stories of your folks at work..they remind me of my Mom (who rehabed houses in New Orleans in the 70’s) and said “You can learn everything you need to know in a book”. Now I am reminded of my husband and myself and I say “You can learn everything you need to know in a Blog”…and I would buy a nail gun too- I’ve been dying to get my hands on one for years!
Hello Rhoda! I’ve been reading your blog since way back when. I’m so happy you have a new home and I love the energy you are giving to this project. But what most impresses me is your parents! You are certainly blessed.
Lots of hard work ahead for you but very satisfying I am sure. It is awsome that you have your parents to help. Please get your dad a chair that isn’t falling apart. LOL. You don’t want him falling to the floor in that thing. I look forward to seeing your progress. I have been rooting for you since your move back to Atlanta. I know several women in this position including myself. Good luck.
What special memories you will have of this time spent with your parents working on something you love. I lost my mom this past year (at 96) and she above all people taught me ” get busy and get it done”! I always have some kind of project going on, but now remodeling kitchen and bathrooms – on a budget of course!
I enjoy reading your blog – this tutorial was great!
Love your board and batten, and your parents remind me of my husband and I. We’re in the process of helping both our daughters with newly built homes, one here and one in Colo. ( We’ll be heading there in June to help move them in! ) We’re diehard do it yourselfers and my hubs probably has the same skillset as your dad! I’d love to do the board and batten in our home, just need to decide where! But next on the list is adding Crown Molding to our open floor plan home! Good luck with the new house and I can’t wait to see the progression!
I enjoy seeing the progress on your house. Your dining room is going to look amazing! We have plenty of projects to do in our house. The one I’m most anxious to get finished is replacing the carpet with hardwood.
Wow, Rhoda! You guys make a great team! You’re moving right along and it’s looking fabulous!
I love your new house! I know it will look amazing!
Rhoda, I am so happy for you! You’re house is going to be awesome! And you are so blessed to have such wonderful parents. I would use the gift card for plywood and moulding to add above two of my windows.
I’m so excited for you and love getting the progress reports. I can tell that the dining room is going to be gorgeous. I’ve recently decided to put board and batten in my dining room. Haven’t done it yet…..a Lowe’s gift card would come in handy for that. I’m also wanting to add some architectural elements to my kitchen cabinets, like feet for the bottom of the island to give it a furniture feel. I could go on and on about what I want do. 🙂 Can’t wait to see your dining room finishes.
Sharon @ mrs. hines class
I’m so excited to see your progress in this home! Love that Daddy/daughter difference of opinions; my dad’s the same way. 🙂 I’d love to add a window in our dining room to get some morning sun!
Rhoda
So excited for you! This is going to be a great project house-for all of us!!
So excited for you, Rhonda, for closing on your new home and beginning on the renovations; can’t wait to see the end product! After looking at the pics of your previous home I know it’s going to be beautiful! It’s great that your parents are able and willing to help you fix up your new place. My husband and I are seniors as well and are raising our granddaughter and have been since infancy; so she’s more like our daughter. She’s now 13 and wants a room make over as she feels she has outgrown her Disney furniture, “candy pink & white” stripe wall paper and “ribbons and bows” matching border. I think she can make do with her furniture a few more years, (it’s more cottage/shabby chic style than Disney; no Disney charectors on it) but I agree that as a teen she has ourgrown her “little girl” wall paper. There are many more projects that are “on the list” but being on a fixed income and raising a child we have to make do with what we have until we can manage something on the list. The kitchen floor is so old that I can no longer clean it although I do try; some of the stains are “sealed in concrete” it seems and that really bothers me as I like a clean and tidy home. I’d love to be able to get a linoleum that looks like wood since we can’t afford real wood flooring in there. Our yard is crying out for help; would love to feed it good, reseed it, plant some annuals, and place some rocks around the trees in the front yard where only weeds will grow to match the rocks we have in front of the house. Another dream is enclosing the patio so we can have a room we can all enjoy year round but as much as I long for that other things are much more needed. The enclosure is a “want” not a “need” and needs must come first. We have the same carpet we had 22 years ago when we bought the home which is a tired, worn, and outdated mauve color. Best of luck with your home; love stopping by for a “visit” to see how you are doing and what neat finds you and others have discovered. (I love thrifting too!) So until tomorrow blessings to you and your family~
Aren’t parents great?! I’d love to spend the gift card on making a sewing/cutting table for my craft room. I found an easy design on Pinterest: two 9 cube cubbies from Lowe’s and a hollow core door painted white and some “L” brackets. Sounds like something I can even do myself.
we are adding a 1/2 bath to our house so this gift card would sure come in handy! Your parents rock! You are a lucky girl. 🙂
I’m fixing up the back yard – looking for something the rabbits won’t eat!
Of all the board and batten tutorials I’ve poured over before doing my own, I wish I would have seen yours first! Mine looks like yours, but I cut every single one of those darn boards to go in between the battens on the 2nd row. It would have made more sense (and been easier) to do 2 solid rows across the top instead of one, like you did! Totally kicking myself and all the work I did with putty and spackle filling all those darn joints not to mention trying to level each piece and keeping them level across the wall. Blargh!!!
Your’s looks really great! I can’t wait to see if finished!