Tear It Down!

Let the renovations begin!  I think its funny how i said in my last post that I would post "after" pics of each room as i finish them....like i would be that organized to finish one room at a time.  if you know me at all you know that i am totally unorganized and scatter brained!  With that being said....we have gotten a lot done, even though it may not look like it.

Just a little bad news...i went over to the house to get started on some painting only to find out that the genius who (before we bought the house) painted all our doors and trim painted latex over oil...if you are the slightest bit familiar with painting of any sort you know this is a disaster!  I literally could take my fingernail and scrape it ever so lightly along my doors and the paint just fell right off...ARE YOU KIDDING ME???  No it was no joke....so now we have to sand down all the painted doors in the house paint them with kilz oil based primer then we can paint them the trim color of choice.  Sooooo, thats what i have been doing...sanding down doors...heavy, beautiful, solid wood doors that I obviously love and consider worth it, otherwise I would just go buy new doors.  

Ok on to some good news....The contractor tore down our wall!  Yay!  We are tearing down the wall that divides our kitchen and keeping room from the formal living and dining room....it will be nice and open when we are all done.  We will have to incorporate some columns since it is a load bearing wall, but I don't have any beef with columns so its all good.  Here is the wall they are taking down...

 this is also the view that i did not include in the "before" pictures...of the keeping room...with the little fireplace, that i love...

 below is the view into the kitchen... we will be building an L shaped island from the end of that doorway then on around where you can kinda see a line on the floor where the carpet used to separate those rooms.  

The only before pic i have of this wall is from the living/dining room...its the wall on the left below:

We also tore out the cooktop, wall oven and dishwasher and took all the cabinet doors off .....so here is my bare kitchen:

we will be putting a range in where the cooktop used to be instead of doing a wall oven and cooktop separate...im not a fan of that and its cheaper to not buy two separate things...same goes for the microwave...we are going to put it above the range instead of buying a microwave plus a new hood, we will just get a microwave that is also a vent/hood.

here is what it used to look like:

 my dad is sanding down all the cabinet doors and adding a simple trim around the edges so they are not flat...and we will be getting new hardware if i can ever decide what i like best.

Here's our new range that my parents bought us as a housewarming gift (as if all the manual labor they are doing around the house isn't enough...they are so awesome)

Ok since i forgot to show you the guest bathroom/bedroom, and Bowers room last time here they are...we have already done some work in them too so i didnt get a pic of the original room.  oops.

Here is Bowers room:

It originally had one of those traditional skinny chair rails along the middle of the wall...i hate those.  So I ripped it off the wall (along with some of the sheetrock, oops) and my options were to either patch the wall and leave it plain or cover it up with something bigger and better....I decided to just put up a flat 1x4 to cover it up....I like it.  I have not decided what to do from here...i night make it look like board and batten...or just put a little picture ledge on one wall for books or leave it like it is...and this paint is what was already there and its not staying that color....im still making up my mind in that department....Although the window trim has been painted, as you can see its a khaki color, spiced vinegar to be exact.

Here is the guest bedroom, which actually now that i think about it is almost finished (thanks to my mom who painted the walls, and ceiling and one window):

 the window on the left is painted, same trim color as bowers room...

 I did paint the closet...nice shiny clean white closet!

Guest bathroom:

the tile is a creamish/yellowish color.  not my favorite, but i can live with it. Hey, at least its not pink, right?  I would like to put a graphic funky wallpaper in here since there isnt much wall space, but have you seen the price of wallpaper?? holy moly...that will be something i do last IF there is enough money left.  Until then, I think Im going to paint the walls the same color as the tile so that it blends in...but who knows, ill probably change my mind again tomorrow. 

Thats all for now!  Bower is waking up so Im off to play with my little man!

Have a blessed day!

-Ry