Cue the Insanity

Home remodels are WORK. Let's be honest. But home remodels in the middle of school, work, baseball practice, football practice, softball practice, and life in general? That's insanity.

 

We have a couple different projects going on right now, all in various stages. We have painting going on, in the entry way, living room, dining room, and kitchen.......walls, ceiling, and some trim. We also have flooring removal going on to set up for tile and carpet. The tile fun starts today, and the carpet goes in in a couple of weeks.

 

Our house was built in 1989, so that means that the majority of the stuff in the house dates back that far. Especially the old wood trim and doors. It's the typical 80's coloring. Most of the stuff around the windows is in great shape, so we are simply painting that stuff a bright white. The floor trim was totally destroyed by the previous owners, so we decided to just rip all of that out and start over. The living room has six awesome windows that are excellent for diffused, north-facing light.

 

 

 

 

 

All the walls inside the house are being painted. We did the upstairs right when we moved in, so that section of the house is totally complete, as is the family room. Now we are tackling the remainder of the downstairs. The kids LOVE to paint, so I always include them in the first coat.

 

Side Note: I'm not sure what the hell the previous owners did in this house, but the walls have a crazy amount of dents, nail holes, etc. and I have spent more time and money on spackling and texture spray just to bring these walls back to looking 100%.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also ripped out all of the old flooring that covered the entry way, into the dining room, and the kitchen. I really dislike anything cherry wood colored, so I knew the second I saw this house that the flooring would be one of the first things to go. So we had Dana and Veronica (and boys) over to rip out the flooring. It was a faux wood, floating floor, so a project that we figured would take a couple hours ended up taking 9 minutes. Score! So we sat around eating pizza and having a few drinks for the rest of the night.

 

 

 

 

 

The last thing we did to clear the floor for the tile was scrape out the old vinyl flooring that was in the downstairs bathroom and kitchen area, and get rid of the blue underlayment (??) that was under the wood flooring. All of the tile is being picked up and delivered today (thanks Dad!!) and we'll do a preliminary layout (or two) to determine how this tile is going to go. Very exciting, and so thankful to have family that doesn't mind jumping in and getting their hands dirty to help out.

 

 

The Family Room Remodel

This project took quite a bit longer than the other projects in the house, mainly because of the holidays and my surgery. But we finally finished it - except for the new TV/accessories that will arrive in a couple weeks. Otherwise, the room is now totally functional.

 

I didn't get a complete before picture, but the accent wall the former owners had done was this ugly maroon color. WHY they picked that color is beyond me. There were also 5 poorly installed can lights up in the ceiling that I wanted to get rid of, so we pulled those out, patched the holes, re-textured as much as we possibly could on the ceiling AND walls, and repainted the entire room.  Still saving up for the carpet adventure, so that'll be the last update throughout the entire house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the ceiling painted, my dad was able to put in the new fan I got for the room, and I added two new floor lamps for additional lighting. With that old maroon wall, the room really felt like a dungeon because it was so dark. The lighter paint really changed up the feel of the room.

 

 

I wanted to try a textured paint for my accent wall, so I got a brushed suede from Lowe's. I have to say, it didn't turn out like I thought it would. Though I do like the color, I don't get any textured "look" when I stare at the wall. I could have saved myself two hours of doing countless X's to get that texture and just rolled the stupid paint on. ;) Lesson learned with this one.

 

 

 

 

 

Can't wait to get the new carpet and trim in to really finish out the look of the room!

 

Again, thanks mom and dad for all of your help!

My Plank Wall

I picked out this project pretty much the minute I bought my house. I didn't know where it would go in the house, but I just knew it needed to be done. And we finally got it done this weekend.

 

When we painted the master bedroom, we purposely left off one wall, knowing this was going to be THE wall.  Random painting on the wall courtesy of my dad. ;)

 

 

 

Last week, I went and picked out the paint colors (milk paint is NOT the cheapest option, just FYI, but definitely gave this the exact look I wanted), and then Friday evening, we all met up to get the lumber needed for the job. We started in with cutting down the strips, and then I spent the remainder of Friday evening/Saturday morning doing the painting.

 

 

 

Each strip had several layers of paint/stain, and I was thrilled with how they turned out.  There were seven color combinations total. 

 

Sunday morning was the beginning of installation and I think it ended up taking roughly six hours, with some breaks here and there.

 

My little helpers arrived mid-project, and this is the ONLY time this is allowed to happen. ;)

 

 

Making progress!  We had a really good system set up as far as two people down on the saw, and two upstairs doing the install and picking out colors and measurements for the next row. It was quite the strategy session at times! I think our relay system resulted in almost 40 calls back and forth from upstairs to the garage.

 

 

The finished wall! I need to get some better pictures with the big camera, to show more of the detail, but OMG are we absolutely in love with this wall. We put the bed back last night and that wall really makes the room. I have one more project to complete before the room is done, and that's a custom headboard. The 1950's five-panel door is already sitting in my garage, waiting for sanding/painting. I can't wait to see this room 100% finished!

 

 

The building team - photo cred: Carter

 



Bathroom Remodel #2

My parents recently remodeled their front bathroom. At the end of 2011, they began the remodel on their back bathroom. They are nearly done.....I think they just need to finish the glass block window and then it can be considered "complete". Oh wait, I lied. They need to finish the door, too. A door for a bathroom is important, yes?

I have somewhat kept up with the process via photos, though not as much I had anticipated. I never got a "before" photo....same as the first remodel. Somehow this slips through the cracks. This bathroom had dark blue wallpaper with a dainty floral design. The tile in the shower was pink. Ask my parents why.....I have no explanation. ;)  The cabinets were dark brown, the countertop was cream, and the vanity was a tri-fold mirror. 1980s, folks. An update was REQUIRED.

Here are the photos I got:

Carter helping his Papa....he even got to go down in the crawlspace!

 Some of the tile work done.

 And the (mostly) finished room....shower

 Vanity

 My parents put a niche in the front bathroom and really loved it.....so this bathroom got one too!

 The shower floor