Progress feels GOOD!

Ok, so its been a while and I am pleased to say that we have done a good bit of stuff around the house! The wood floors have been installed and refinished.  They still need a final coat of poly but we are going to wait and do that right before we move in since in the humidity it takes a while to dry.  We couldn't do anything in the house for two weeks while the floors were getting done so that was hard, but i think it put us in speed mode once we were able to get in!  We were able to prime some doors with Kilz outside while the floors got refinished so it wasn't all unproductive on our part!

 Here are our lovely primed doors.  I have such a love/hate relationship with those doors.

I have been taking Bower to the church daycare/school where Joby works one day a week so I can get in the house and work for a long period of time and it has been so nice to not only have a break, but just to be alone and feel super productive.  But one day a week is enough...cant stay away from my boy much longer than that :)  

I started priming the walls in the mudroom and kitchen and all the kitchen cabinets.  Here is the progress on that...

BEFORE and AFTER of the mudroom...still deciding on a color for these walls... 

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Here we are leaving the mud room and entering the kitchen.  As you can see on the right is where the nasty rotted wood was....it is cleaned and fixed and covered.

                                 

 Here is the opposite view looking back into the mud room. The part on the left that isn't painted is where we are building a pantry so that is getting torn out and re done...thats why i didn't paint it.  Also you can see one of our tiles on the floor...they are a creamy, whitish, grayish color rectangular vinyl tile that you can grout....a friend of ours used them in her kitchen and I loved it...so I'm being a copy cat on that one.

Remember what it used to look like?

 Below is the BEFORE and AFTER of the island and the floors...we ripped up TWO layers of linoleum nastiness.  We had to rent a machine that scraped it off the floor.  Its all patched and we are ready to install the kitchen tiles this weekend!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

           

Here are our wood floors that are already dusty...but the transition from new to old is seamless.  We are super glad we decided to go with wood...remember, there used to be a wall there and on the kitchen side was linoleum...

BEFORE of above floors....

 Here is the refinished wood in the guest bedroom...still needs another coat of poly...but looks pretty nice!

Another BEFORE and AFTER shot of the kitchen showing the added island, wood floors and paint

BEFORE

AFTER:

Maybe one day we will finish...but until then, we will "just keep swimming"

Slowly but Surely...

Well, Joby and I  took a 2 week hiatus from the house.  We went to the beach for vacation then to Orlando on a trip with the youth group.  While we were gone we expected the contractor to be getting stuff done, but he did nothing. NOTHING. So as you can imagine, that was somewhat annoying to come home to...welcome to the world of contractors.  On the other hand, my mom did some painting and my dad found a guy to refinish our hardwood floors for an amazing price!

This week has been a good one....stuff is getting DONE!  Our washer and dryer were originally set up in the kitchen, like right beside the refridgerator just in open space...no doors to hide them or anything....we decided to move the hook up to one of our storage rooms outside in the garage that eventually we will make part of the inside of the house....not anytime soon.  We knew when we bought the house that there was some damage under the washer under the house and the wood needed to be replaced....so this week our contractor tore up the floor and look what he found...

have you ever in your life seen anything more disgusting?  i cant even bear the thought that that was under the floor.  gag.  basically there has been a leak, like, forever.  AND they had their dryer vent blowing under the house...so all that nasty dust looking stuff is dryer lint/gunk. Nneedless to say all of this is getting cleaned up and replaced with new wood. That project will be finished by the end of this week!  Now i know why old houses smell bad...because they have stuff like this hiding under the floors!

p.s. all of these pics were taken with my phone so they are not the best quality...not that i am a photographer (imagine that, someone has a blog that isnt a photographer).

We finished painting Bowers room, the master bedroom and the hallway.  im having a color crisis in my master bathroom...i dont know what i want to do...

master bedroom is a pale green



 master bath..i thought blue, then gray and now i think its going to be white with a green ceiling (same green as bedroom)

Bower's room is neutral, because is bedding is pretty colorful...

Joby and my dad tore out the flooring in the keeping room to prep it for the new wood to go down so that it will all flow from the living room and you wont even be able to tell on the floor that we took the wall down...

 The flooring guy is going to put the new wood down this weekend as well as refinish all the floors in the house then stain so all will look the same.  Cant wait until that is finished!

 you cant really tell, but my ceiling in here is light blue...goes from kitchen to keeping room and i love it!  im deciding what i want to cover this beam and column up with....saw this below pic on pinterest and love the idea of covering it with old reclaimed wood....would be way easier than drywall and so much cooler!  love the texture!

Also we bought the stock cabinets for our L shaped island....they are not set into the ground yet, but here is the basic layout...

all the cabinets are getting painted so don't stress about them not matching...

thats pretty much all the pics i have to share for now.  after this week our electrical will be updated, wood floors done and that rotted wood fixed!  it feels good to be making progress! 

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

Our "New" House

Well we finally closed on our first house!  Its definitely a fixer upper, but its got great bones and potential...like so much potential...i cant sleep at night because im thinking of all the possibilities.  We got a great deal on the house which left us with some extra money to pour into the house to make it our own.  Unfortunately most of that money is going to things that you cant see...like new plumbing, electrical work, etc.  So,  the process may be slow and you can be sure there will be lots of diy-ing going on...thank goodness my dad is a handyman and he's willing to help us do some of the updates ourselves....Joby and I look forward to learning lots of things throughout this process...
This week we will be getting quotes and deciding who is going to be doing what renovations!

Here are the before pictures of our house...as we finish different rooms I will post after pics!

Here is the outside of our house!

                                                   Walking into the back door from carport

                             Sort of a mud room just to the right of the door when you walk in...              

                Kitchen with W/D hookup...doorway in the back is where the above pic is... we are turning the W/D around and it will be in a storage room in the garage  and i am either going to make a built-in pantry there or just more counter space...

       more kitchen just to the left of the picture you just looked at and to the left is a little den/keeping room with a fireplace...i didnt get a pic of it, sorry. 

   more kitchen...doorway leads to the formal dining room which is open to the formal living room and front door...

Here is the huge 20x20 room that used to be a garage....its our favorite room...by far! 

more of the huge room...love that brick wall... 

here is the formal dining room and living room...the door to the left goes to the kitchen and the door in the back goes to the big room you just saw...

this is the master bedroom...   

another view in master...the door on left goes to master bath... 

master bath...

I'm realizing how many more pics i need to take.  I forgot the other two bedrooms and the guest bathroom, backyard, den/keeping room, and carport...

So, i guess ill take more before pics and post again soon.  Until then.....more sleepless nights thinking of what i will do with all this potential...