While we were looking for homes in San Diego. I saw this house and decided, it wasn’t for me and rejected it. But my husband was adamant he wants this house because of the huge backyard and convinced me that the land value matters in real estate. So we decided to go with it, but I gave him a huge list of items that required renovating and at the very top of the list is “Sunroom”. I saw this room, all I could see was ugly wood panel, torn plastic Windows, dusty shades and finally that big ugly old fireplace. Its a hazard for sure for my kids. So we decided to renovate but it was too expensive for our budget especially right after buying a home in California. (Its like buying home in center of Adyar in Chennai)

So if you guys know me, I decided to do it by myself. I always start off with the list of items to do. So here goes my list to renovate this Sunroom to Make It Livable!!!!.

• REMOVE FIREPLACE (caps is intentional)
• Change Window and Patio Door.
• Fill the gaps between wood panel (because hubby is scared of bugs starting a family in there and I liked the idea because it would look more like a drywall (Very bad decision you will know WHY??? soon))
• Prime and Paint

Now lets go transform this 1970’s wood paneled wall in to the drywall with just caulk and paint.

Ill show you the step by step instructions and also you can go check out my reels, shorts, tiktok, YouTube and IGTV videos. Ill also include the list of Materials used along with its links. Cost Division and finally my learnings.

Materials Required

Prepping material

• Deglosser – Klean Strip
• Sander (sanding paper 120 & 220)
• paint brush
• roller sleeve
• caulk / wood putty – DAP – Alex Fast Dry

Primer:

White Oil Based Primer

Paint Color:

Ultra Pure White by Behr Paints

Flooring

Vinyl flooring matching the rest of the room. No link available since I bought it in the local Hardware store.

Wind Turbine

Galvanized Steel Internally Braced Whirlybird Wind Turbine

Lets get this project started.

I have always dreamed of having a light and airy sunroom. The moment we signed on this house, I decided I will turn this room into an area where all of my family members enjoy this space after all this is approx. 320 sq room (Its soo huge for California as it is the half of the sqft of some apartment in California). So in order to achieve that, I need to make this room livable.

I started off by removing the shades and cleaning my ass off. It was soo dirty after all I couldn’t blame the previous owner as he was dead long before. Yes this house was locked in and never lived on for more than a couple of months before we moved in. So it was too obvious that dust and dirt settled on and some of my enemy took refuge in (If you want to know abt my war with the garden Lizard let me know, Ill post it as story in my Instagram).

So it took me a day to completely clean the room including the roof. There were some glue gummy solid thing stuck to the ceiling beam took me soo much time to clean. But finally I was done by the end of the day.

Prep Work

De-glossing

After Cleaning the room, I removed all the outlets and switch panels so that I could apply the Liquid sandpaper/ De-glosser to the wood panel. This de-glosser will remove the shiny, glossy look from the wood panel and along with it, once we sand it will create a texture in the wood panel which helps the primer and paint to grip on easily. Second we put protective cover so that I can protect my brand new flooring.

How to apply the De-glosser/ Liquid Sandpaper.

You need to apply it in single circular motion which means never overlap much in the same spot. Apply pressure and just make a circular motion that’s it. So now repeat this step for the entire wall surface of the room. Fun!! isn’t it.

Caulk the Gaps

This felt like the stupidest decision ever to make, because it took me like 3 days to fill it even with the help of my father in law and Raju. It was soo tedious. So let me tell you how to do and also related videos are below. So you can reference them.

1. Fill the gaps with the caulk.
2. Smoothen it with the drywall spatula.
3. Remove the excess and use it to fill other areas.
4. Now repeat step 1,2 & 3 for entire room.
5. Also make sure do 2 coat.

Now do you remember how I told you, my room was 320 sqft. its pretty Big but by the end of finishing this task, it felt like 2000 sqft room. I am not exaggerating here.

Sanding

Final step in prep work. I used orbital sander to sand the entire wall. It would be a complete lie to tell if I said, I did the sanding. No it was a weekend and so my Hubby (Raju- remember the name he is going to come up a lot) Raju did the complete sanding before even I got the chance to get up. So it took half a day to sand the entire room and making sure the filling and the wall is smooth and no rough patches.

Prime the wall!!!

Once Sanding is complete, I just touched the surface to make sure the wall and the caulk feels smooth but at the same time has some texture to help paint and primer adhere. You will be able to feel a slight texture here. That’s a sign you should stop sanding. Then I cleaned the room again to remove the dust with wet cloth. Once it is dry, We started off with priming the wall.

I used the white oil based primer, because they are very versatile, weather resistant and best for the wood paneling because it adheres well with any surface. We used primer to avoid any color seeping into the paint from wood panel. So this oil based primer will help you seal in the colors and so the finished end result would be much perfect.

Apply primer similar to painting. I started off by painting the corner and groves with the paint brush and my husband rolled in the bigger surfaces. We gave 2 coats to make sure it is completely sealed. Just after the primer even though it wasn’t even, it looked soo much better.

Paint, Paint, Paint away!!!

We used ultra Pure white from Behr. One of the purest form of white for Sunroom. I wasn’t kidding when I told, I want bright and airy room. Just with one coat of paint it looked soo much better but we gave 2 coats of paint, it was just wow with the plastic torn window. So I couldn’t even believe how good it would be if the windows are changed.

I didn’t do the window trim as were going to change the window and for some reason thought my contractor would do it. But he just installed the windows. So I had to touch up the window trim and Door after the window installation. Now finally I was able to feel the room. It looked soo beautiful. My new neighbor came in and told me, this was the ugliest room in this house but I have change it to his most favorite room in the house. So now that’s something right?

Hope you enjoyed this journey of transforming this room from 1970 to 2020. I loved every single moment even though it was so tedious repetitive process, I enjoyed the wow reflected in everyone’s eyes who have seen the before and after. I take a pride you know. Now Behold the power of Paint!!!!

Oops completely forgot about the price breakdown. Before we jump into my spending let me tell you how much contractors quote me for this painting project, $1200. With that in mind let me tell you, how much it costed me.

• Paint – $25.98
• Paint Brush – $20
• Primer – $39
• Caulk – $15
• De-glosser – $8
• Flooring – $166
• Wind Turbine – $34

*Window cost weren’t included because that needed expert installation.

So In total the cost comes to $307.98. so my total savings is $892.

Anyway, if you would like to see it as video, I have it uploaded in Instagram Reels, IGTV, shorts and YouTube. Please check it out in your favorite social media platform and let me know in comments if you have any questions or just say “Hi” to let me know you were here.!!!

Notes:

• I hired a contractor to install the window and he installed the vinyl flooring too.
• He helped me remove chimney and installed the Wind Turbine.