Rock This House

Coming Soon...

2013-03-04T16:10:00.000-06:00

We have begun a new round of remodeling projects! If you read The Life Not My Own, you know that I have internet at the house now. So...hopefully I'll be updating you more regularly. Stay-tuned!

Can You Say Curb Appeal?

2012-04-11T11:52:00.001-05:00

So, up until recently, the outside of our house has been something of a mess. It was a mess before we moved in, due to neglect and very dumb landscaping choices, but with all that we were doing inside we never got the chance to work on the outside.

Well, not anymore! We got kind of sick of driving into our drive with our house and yard looking like a construction zone. Plus, I was really wanting Andy to make me a raised garden bed. Really, though, we just got motivated to make it look nice!

It actually started way back in January with some unusually warm weather, and a little inspiration. If you haven’t noticed, our house has lots of rocks in and on it (hence, the blog name). And you know what? There are also lots and lots of rocks around our house…as in all over. Thus is how it began…with rocks that we already had.

Our front porch is rather, well, boring. It just had plain wooden posts and and unstained deck. I was trying to find a good picture of it, but, alas, I it apparently was too plain and ugly for me to even want to take pictures! This is what the house looked like the first time we looked at it:

And here are the posts I’m talking about:

In addition to this really ugly post which was, in fact, blocking the view of the front door.

Everything was just disjointed, and the seams were additions were made were just blatantly obvious. So anyway, we also had some wood we’d bought an an auction last summer just lying around, so we decided to put it to good use.

First, Andy built frames around the top of the posts.

As you can see, he also added trim pieces, redid the wood between the posts, and added wiring so we could put lights on the posts. Then he took the rocks we had lying around, plus a little mortar, to rock around the bottom. Here’s the finished product:

It looks like it was made to be there, right?

Here it is, starting to come together, with Andy and his friend Leo working on the rock.

I’ll add here that another motivation was to get rid of the wasps nest that plagued as last summer, and seal it up so that they’d never come back. Seriously, we were killing two birds with one stone!

Next, Andy had to remove this ugly beam, which was so low people were hitting their heads.

As you can guess, it was a relic of the original (or at least 2nd version of the ) house. Midway through, Andy decided to put a new post in first. Hence, the post in the picture.

Then he finished tearing out the beam (which, thankfully, wasn’t load bearing). As you can tell, it was a pain.

Next, Andy cut out the ugly, iron post. Ta-da!

And then pulled off the old wood, which was rotting slightly (not sure what that piece is called).

He also pulled off the plywood by the door, to make sure there weren’t any wasp’s nests or leaks in there. Turns out someone had put in sheetrock too. Oh, the things you find!

We also stained the wood a reddish color, which I love.

Andy then framed the new post up (and around it).

I love how much more open everything is from the front door!

What was I doing during all of this? Pulling the ivy off the front of the house. I liked the look of it, but it was climbing through the rocks and mortar, and really doing a lot of damage. So, bye-bye!

Next came the garden bed. Andy built me a nice, raised garden bed. I was so excited about it!

We were so thankful to finally be able to find some bulk top soil (after we looked forever-and-ever). It turned out to be way more than enough! It’s a start at least!

We had enough dirt to do the front beds as well!

We so happened to have these giant rocks lining our driveway, so Andy took the backhoe and used them to create a new garden bed around our rosebud tree.

Then we lined the bed with a weed barrier.

Next we filled it up with dirt. The dogs thought it was their own personal pile to play in!

Already looking better!

Then we put some natural mulch over the top.

Andy did the same in front of the living room.

He also rocked in another step (as you can tell, the last post is still not done).

He also mortared along the path, between the rocks.

Finally, we re-seeded with grass seed along the path…

And then planted a few more plants. Isn’t is starting to look great?

Really, this didn’t cost us that much to do, because a lot of the supplies (like the rocks), we already had on hand. And it truly makes such a great difference in making our house feel like a home. Remember that, no matter what your house looks like on the inside, it’s the curb appeal that really counts. And you don’t have to do much! Pull up weeds, reseed with grass, put in a few flower beds, or just keep everything mowed and trimmed. All of this counts to show those who drive by you take pride in your home…and make it that much more appealing to guests.

*As a final note, we only added about an inch of topsoil and mulch around the rose bud tree. If you fill in more than about 2 inches of dirt around any tree, you'll actually kill the tree!

Carpeting is Hard Work!

2012-02-29T16:22:00.000-06:00

Once we’d finished all of the drywall, painting, and trim it was time to put the carpet down. Eventually, we want to put carpet in our bedroom and the family room too, so we’ll probably end up replacing the carpet in the two smaller bedrooms anyway. Still, we needed carpet for the time being…we just didn’t want to spend a bunch. Our solution? We drove to a carpet store and asked if they had any remnants. This is a great way to get a good deal on carpet…especially if you only need a little! We ended up choosing two different remnants, one for each room.

Andy rented a knee kicker and carpet stretcher from one of the local hardware supply stores, and we got cracking. What we didn’t realize was how much hard work it was!

The easy part, however, was putting down the padding and tack strips. Unfortunately, I failed to get pictures. Lame, I know!

Then you have to cut and lay the carpet. This lovely little knee kicker thing helps you get it down right.

Only problem is you actually have to kick it with your knee. Yes, Andy most definitely had sore knees later!

Then you use this crazy stretcher to stretch the carpet and get everything flat.

Overall, we learned that laying carpet is really hard work…but it’s worth the effort.

Doesn’t new carpet just make everything look so much better?

Never Paint a Ceiling Blue

2012-02-16T10:11:00.001-06:00

Once we had all the walls in the new, bigger bedroom framed, it was much easier to picture how it would turn out. Instead of an icky, gross bedroom we just might have a nice, cozy one!

As soon as we had all the walls framed, the exterior walls insulated, and all of the electrical boxes placed and wired, we began working on putting up new drywall.

At the corner by the CH&A unit, we used a lip seam, making a nice, rounded corner. It gave the room a nice, modern look to it!

Andy also finished covering up the old “peak-through” to the living room.

It was a little difficult to get the new drywall and sheetrock to match the old, but Andy used our drywall sprayer over all of the sheetrock. By covering even the old drywall, we were able to blend it much better.

I spent hours and hours painting this room and the ceiling over and over. The ceiling is fairly low, and it took at least three or four coats to cover up the old blue paint. People, for the sake of any people who will own your house after you…do not paint your ceiling blue. It’s absolutely ridiculous to cover up! (Sorry, no pics…this was a project all on my lonesome.)
In early November, my sister Victoria came to visit and she helped us paint the room. We choose to leave most of the walls plain antique white, and paint two of the walls a bright green for an accent.

The room is south facing, so the green color is very cheery and colorful. By the way, these pictures don’t really do the color justice. Stay tuned for some later pictures of how great it looks!

We also replaced the old closet door with a new paneled one (one of several we bought at an auction last summer).

We also painted the door to the small closet containing the CH&A unit and electrical box white as well. We plan to build shelves around it to make it a bit less awkward.

We then added new white trim. I also salvaged and refinished some of the old trim and we used it too. (More abut that later.

Everything was really starting to come together!

Next up, “Carpeting is Hard Work”.

Would You Like One Bedroom or Two?

2012-02-14T10:05:00.002-06:00

Pretty much as soon as we had finished our overwhelming-project-of-a-kitchen, we started work on a new project. If you remember from the pictures, the back of the house held two teeny, tiny bedrooms. And I mean tiny. To make matters worse, one of them had a sliding glass door onto the back porch, making it a terrible place for a bedroom. And the other one? I have no idea what happened to the carpet in there, but I really don’t want to know.

Here’s the first room:

And here’s the other:

These rooms were literally 9’x9’, if that, and very awkwardly arranged. You really couldn’t fit a queen size bed in either. So, we decided to fix that. Instead of a four bedroom house with two tiny box bedrooms, we decided to make it a three bedroom house with good sized rooms and an extra office.
We started by taking out the sliding glass door. All thanks go to Andy for doing that…

We actually found that there were three layers of siding on the house. So, before the house was white, it was plain stained wood:

We then framed in a new door.

We borrowed the door of this little outbuilding we have:

Here’s Andy fitting the door in place:

Once that was done, we pulled up the existing flooring in room. Our plan was to move the wall over a few feet, making this room the office.

What was I doing during all of this, you ask? Painting, of course. That room that the old owners so graciously painted dark blue (including the ceiling) wasn’t exactly working for us. So, I set to the tedious task removing all the molding and then primering the walls and ceiling white. Oh, and ripping up that nasty carpet. Yes, gloves were used.

Meanwhile, Andy worked on framing the new wall in the other room.

Next order of business? Ripping out the old wall. Yes, Andy had a lot of fun with that.

Once he’d knocked out all the drywall, he started taking apart the framing. If you plan on doing this at home, make sure you know what you’re doing. This wasn’t a supporting wall, so it was fine to take out.

Andy used ply wood on the outside of the house where we had extended the wall.

Next came the more challenging part. Our house had a lot of wasted space and weird architectural features. We planned to fix that. If you remember correctly, these two bedrooms came off of this very long hallway:

The bedroom at the end on the right (the one with the blue ceiling) was the one we were expanding. So we decided to make the hallway shorter and the room larger by putting the door in the hallway instead. We would gain a little niche when you first walked in.
So, once we had moved the wall, we started to take out the “useless” wall.

Before Andy took out the framing, though, he had to determine if this wall was load-bearing. Meaning, we could have a big problem on our hands if we tore it out. To do so, he had to crawl into the weird attic. Poor guy!

Thankfully, it wasn’t, so we tore it out There was a little extra wall where the central heating and air vent was, so we took that out too:

Andy then framed in the new doorway.

So here’s all the extra space we gained. On the floor you can see where the old walls were.

Do you think it was worth it? What would you have done?

Next up, “Never Paint a Ceiling Blue”.

The Return of “Rocking”

2012-02-14T10:01:00.002-06:00

Okay, so I know it’s been a LONG time. What can I say? We’ve been busy! We scrambled like mad to finish all of the escrow work before the end of November. And then, once we were done, we took a little break. In addition to the busy Christmas season suddenly upon us, two little pink lines rocked our own world forever.

But, we’re back at this whole “rocking” this house thing, and I decided it was time to update you on all we’ve done. High time. Over the course of the next few weeks, I hope to update you on what we’ve been up to on our house since October. I’m glad you’ve stuck around!

The Long Awaited Kitchen

2011-10-14T08:38:00.001-05:00

Yes, I know, I’ve been slacking. And everyone has been asking to see the completed kitchen. But where to begin?

When I left you last we were working on laying tile and putting in lights.

Next we began working on the concrete countertop. This wasn’t something either of us knew how to do, but, as always, my sweet man learned. we started by laying plywood on the countertops.

Andy cut a hole for the sink…

We tested the sink and faucet to see if it would fit. It did! By the way, this sink we got for less than $100 online (Ebay I believe). I absolutely love it. It’s not the apron-front or undermount I wanted, but it’s brand new and the design is awesome. The right side is extra big and the left side is smaller, which I actually like. It’s so nice to be able to fit my big cookie sheet in the sink without turning it diagonally. Even my 9x13 casserole fits in the bottom (it didn’t at the old house).

Anyways, then Andy cut strips of plywood to put on the front side under the actual plywood (so the countertops wrap around the cabinets, in essence).

Then he cut strips for the sides. What we were doing was making a frame to pour the concrete in.

Have I mentioned my man’s a genius? He used our old flower bed edging to make the frame around the curved sink!

TA-DA!

Finally, we nailed skinny little strips to the back against the wall, to help guide our concrete pouring efforts.

So then we worked on mixing the concrete. Andy’s old concrete mixer tanked (some squirrel made a nest in it!) So we had to mix it in our wheelbarrow by hand.

Andy used some old wire fencing in the middle of the concrete to reinforce it.

Finally, we got it done and started pouring the concrete.

It was kind of hard to get it smooth, but we tried our best!

And here was what the one countertop looked like.

We sanded it, painted it black and then sealed it with polyurethane.

And here it is with the sink! We bought the faucet at Lowe’s.

Andy had to do a lot of plumbing work, since there was no dishwasher before and all the old plumbing was bad.

Next we did the second part of the counter, which was much easier. I think we got the hang of it!

Next we put in the range hood!

Then we worked on laying the rest of the tile.

Done!

Well, almost! We had to cut the tiniest little strips of tiles ever to fit between the countertops and tile.

As a side note, we had a little work buddy who likes to watch us through the window!

Next came the grouting!

Proof that Andy’s not the only one working! Emily asked if I liked green. I do, but my work shirt just happens to be a shirt I’ll never need again. hehe!

Once the grout dries, it wipes off of the tiles really easily.

Doesn’t it look awesome?

Finally, Taylor and Lane came over to help us move our fridge into the kitchen. And guess what? It didn’t fit! The old wall was so bowed that the fridge didn’t quite squeeze in. So, we just left it in the corner. At least it was in the kitchen!

Thankfully it wasn’t for too long! Andy cut into the wall from the other side.

Look how curved the wall was!

So, to fix it, we cut into the bowed stud part of the way…

…and, ahem, pulled the stud back.

And then pushed in a wedge to hold it in place.

Then we added a brace on the wide to screw it in and make it secure.

And, guess what? We fixed it! Look at how level it is now!

And you know what? The fridge fit! We were able to move in the fridge, oven, table, chairs, and all of our other kitchen stuff.

And so…

…without further ado…

…I present to you…

…Are you ready?…

…Oh, but wait!…

….First, let’s take a trip down memory lane and see the before…

And now…

Our BRAND SPANKIN NEW KITCHEN!!!

Lots of counter space! Yes, we still have one outlet to put in.

Our kitchen table looks great in here! And I love the great big window. It more than makes up for not having a window above the sink!

We were going to put the table in this corner, but we liked sitting by the window too much. So, I think a nice baker’s rack is in our future!

I love having an oven back! We’re going to get a stainless one to match eventually, but this white one works great for now!

Oh, and did I mention that I love all the cabinet space I have?

And more…

Andy’s going to take some pictures with the better camera so you can see it better, but until then, I hope these suffice. I can’t believe that this is the same kitchen…and especially the same cabinets!

Can anybody guess what the final cost was?

Of Sinks and Tile

2011-08-26T12:50:00.001-05:00

The past week we’ve putting plodding away at the kitchen. Andy finished building the bask cabinet for the sink…complete with the “borrowed” pillars. What do you think?

We also started putting up the tile backsplash.

We had a hard time finding a pattern we agreed one, but we are quite happy with what we picked.

So far we’ve finished one wall of tile. We also caulked along the windows and crown molding, just to seal everything in.

We moved the dishwasher in.

And Andy finished putting in the light fixture above the sink.

We’ve also been experimenting with the concrete to do the counter tops. That’s our big project this week.

I didn’t take a picture, but Andy also wheeled the oven in so that I could put the self-clean on. I even baked Andy’s bday cake in it! We also bought a new range hood and that should be in soon too.

Makin’ My Dreams Come True

2011-08-15T18:27:00.001-05:00

The past few weeks, my husband has been working tirelessly to finish this kitchen for me. Of course, we’ve had our setbacks. Things we wanted to do didn’t work, and surprise expenses have eaten away at our remodeling budget. Yet, the Lord has been faithful, and our house is slowly coming along.

We finally finished painting the upper cabinets and got them in. Yippee!

And then Andy put the trim on top of the cabinets, as well as up in the raised ceiling.

We got the doors on the cabinets, which I was THRILLED about, because I was able to unpack some of our dishes and what-not!

And then came the flooring. We found a great deal online on a laminate wood floor…only problem was we hadn’t seen it in person. To our relief, we love, love, LOVED it! Plus, it’s a floating floor, so the installation was very quick.

My sister, Hilary, also came to visit…

She helped us paint, as well as a billion different other things. I also took the time to fix up the guest room a bit and get it usable. It’s rough, and needs some work, but it’s nice to have a 2nd bathroom.

I have a vision for it when it’s done, but for now it we’ll just have to settle for the ugliest color walls ever.

Once we got the floor in, we were finally able to finish painting the bottom cabinets and get them in!

We painted the inside of all the cabinets and drawers white to make them easier to clean. I also think it’s a fantastic look!

Using old cabinets, you find weird things. Like the corner cabinet doesn’t go all the way back…

And people cut funny holes so they can reach things…

We experienced a bit of a set-back when we realized that the awesome drawer glides Andy had saved from his cabinet shop would only work on one set of drawers. Apparently the drawer frames aren’t big enough…sad day…

We have since ordered new ones, and should get them in soon!

The cabinet for the sink was pretty much ruined, so Andy’s designed and built a new one.

My ingenious man recycled the columns from the peek-through in the living room. Turns out they are solid oak!

We were also able to get the molding up around the baseboard, window, and door frame. What a difference it makes!

And this takes us through the middle of last week. Since then, we’ve done a lot…and I can’t wait to show you pictures! But…you’ll have to wait a bit. :)

We Live in the Funny House

2011-07-20T09:20:00.001-05:00

The past few weeks have been somewhat crazy. We’ve been working tirelessly on the cabinets. Or, at least when we have time to!

The last I left you, Andy was installing the lights in our kitchen. Here is the finished product!

Seven halogen can lights line the lower part of the ceiling, and in the middle is this awesome light fixture. If it looks familiar, it’s because you may have seen it somewhere else in the house. There were two of these giants hanging above the sinks in the master bathroom. Now there is only one. It still hangs a bit too low for the kitchen, but we’re going to try to pull it up higher.

Then it was on to sanding and painting the cabinets. For the inside’s Andy mixed a white paint with Kilz, in order to prevent mildew and make the surface easier to clean.

For the outside we picked the neatest shade of green. I know green is not the typical color of your kitchen cabinets, but I absolutely LOVE them!

Andy also distressed them by sanding and another process that he wants to keep secret. :)

We’ve been working on them outside in the sweltering heat. The cabinet above was thanks to sweat dripping all over me last Saturday. It was worth the effort though!

Yesterday Andy worked on putting a few of the upper cabinets in.

Can you believe it’s the same kitchen?

We hit a little snag halfway through when we realized that the cabinets did not match up right. Turns out the walls are not exactly level. I know, crazy huh? So, Andy’s going to fix that later…no pictures yet.

I told Andy that the weird angles were making me feel like I was in Grandfather’s Mansion at Silver Dollar City.

He said that we bought Grandfather’s Mansion.

Maybe we did. But I like it!

Back to Business

2011-07-15T14:40:00.000-05:00

This past week Andy and I have been taking a break from the home reno. Our church had Vacation Bible School every night this week, and we've been there from 5-9, leaving us very little time to do any work. Right now we're trying to find some good quality laminate flooring that won't break the bank. I do have some neat pictures to share with you of our painted cabinets. Whoot! So stay tuned!

Work, work, work

2011-07-08T08:58:00.002-05:00

I know, I know…it’s been a week and I haven’t updated you on our progress. What can I say? We’re busy with the house! We’ve been making a lot of progress though!
Last week we were able to finish framing the raised ceiling in the kitchen,

put in the wiring for the new can lights,

put in new insulation,

and put up sheetrock in the raised ceiling (thanks to help from our friends, Taylor and Jamie!).

Then, after a quick weekend trip up to Missouri to visit Andy’s brother and sister-in-law, we got right back to work, putting dry wall mud in the cracks and over the popcorn ceiling and finishing cleaning and sanding the old cabinets.

Look at all those cabinets…phew!

Then Andy sprayed texture on the walls and ceiling. Thankfully, while up in Missouri the guys had visited Harbour Freight, and Andy found a great dry wall texture gun for about $20. He had to cover up the door to spray, hehe!

And this is the result:

And here’s the finished box ceiling!

Today I spent all day painting the ceiling and walls in the kitchen. For the ceiling, we just did a plain old “Antique White”. For the walls we wanted a real pale yellow…almost a cream. We picked a tint called “Early Morning Sun”. It looked good in the can and on one spot, but once I painted the whole wall I realized it was just a tad too bright. This is what it looked like:

So then Andy mixed our yellow with the “Antique White” color we used on the ceiling, and it came out just right.

I love, love, LOVE the new color. You can’t really tell in the pictures, but it’s such a warm and cheery color. It will make our kitchen seem so bright and airy, even in the grey of winter.
As I speak, Andy is putting in our recessed lights in the kitchen. We also ordered a flooring sample of a laminate wood floor that we’re thinking about ordering. Then it’s on to refinishing and painting the cabinets and installing them!
We’re so ready to get this kitchen done. Camping is fun, but I can’t find anything when it’s in boxes stacked in a corner. We’re making memories, though. :)

Day 4: Remodeling is Tiring

2011-06-29T13:08:00.001-05:00

Up until this point, Andy and I have been pretty much running on adrenaline. But then it started to hit us. Yesterday, after waking up early to rain and dashing outside in our pajamas to save the cabinets and sheet rock we had left outside, we fell back asleep for “just a few more minutes” and woke up at 8:45 thoroughly stunned. We must really have been tired!

Last night I decided to take the time to make a real meal (shrimp pasta…yum!) and also some cookies (my mother-in-law let me borrow their toaster oven), just to make everything feel a little more like home. And also, we were sick of the hotdogs and other quick things we’ve been eating to save time. Meanwhile, Andy worked on the framing for the raised ceiling. He had to cut some of the beams out, which made me a little nervous, but he knows what he’s doing. :)

He used regular 2x4s and cut them to size to replace the planks that had been there.

It’s starting to look really good. He makes it look better though. :)

Meanwhile, I’ve been continuing my work cleaning the cabinets. I use bleach where mice might have been, and then straight vinegar on everything else. Vinegar is a great way to clean things and cut through grease without the chemicals.

I’ve also been working on sanding down the doors and drawer fronts with steel wool. Use the 3 gauge to get everything smooth, especially on the cracks and hard-to-reach areas. It’s a great way to get in all the nooks and crannys and get rid of the gunk. Be sure to wear gloves, though, because that steel wool really hurts! For the record, that’s my husband’s arm, not mine…my arms are not that hairy!

It’s a lot of work, but somebody’s got to do it…and since I don’t know much about anything else, that person is me!

Day 3: That’s What Friends are For

2011-06-29T13:03:00.001-05:00

So, I’ve been pretty remiss in keeping everyone up to date. The truth is we were busy most of the weekend and didn’t have much time to work on the house. We had to repaint the living room in our old rent house, and get it all ready to hand back to the landlord. We also managed to squeeze in a trip to Conway to go to dinner and a movie with some friends, as well as a trip to Mountain Home for dinner and a movie with Andy’s parents, as well as a stop at Lowe’s and Home Depot. More about that shopping trip later.

Monday we got back to work, but before we did our friends Joey and Syndal dropped by with a recliner to give us. I think this will quickly become Andy’s “I’m exhausted from working on the house chair”.

After work Andy was planning to work on putting up sheet rock in the kitchen, but first he had to fix some seriously messed up wiring. There were so many fire hazards it’s not even funny. But now they’re fixed and ready to go.

Then Andy and I worked on cutting open the ceiling in the kitchen. We are planning on having a raised ceiling in the middle to open up the room a little more. We used a chalk line to mark our cuts. I’ve never used one of these before, but they’re pretty cool. All you do is hold the string on both ends of where the cuts will go, and then snap the string. It leaves a perfectly straight line to cut on.

For future reference, be careful not to touch your face afterwards or you will end up looking like you have red whiskers. Yes, I know now why my mom always told me to stop touching my face. No, I didn’t take a picture of that. Instead, you get a picture of the lovely lines we made.

Then Andy took this scary looking drywall saw and started cutting up the ceiling.

Then he switched to the powered one, which does the job much quicker.

Next we took down the grimy ceiling fan before it came down with the ceiling. :)

Phew…a lot of work done already! But then we were blessed by Joey and Syndal coming back over (with pizza!) to help us work on the house. While Syndal and I watched the kids (and I got stung by a wasp :( ), Andy and Joey ripped out the flooring and ceiling, and got the sheet rock up.

I’m so thankful for wonderful friends like Joey and Syndal, who give up their time to come help us work on our house. And by others, like Jamie, Taylor, Justin, and my in-laws, who helped us move all of our stuff, even while someone’s wife was waiting for him at the creek with their little boys. :) Yes, we have such amazing friends…and we are so blessed!

Day 2: Every House Has a Story

2011-06-28T12:55:00.000-05:00

As long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to buy an old house. You know…one with a story. I always thought you’d have to find a house that was 100 years old, or at least 70, to get that story, that character that I ached for. Of course, the house would be small and cute and would be in complete shambles.

Little did I know that, when we purchased this home, we would be getting the house with a story that I had always wanted. No, this house isn’t small or cute, and it certainly isn’t in shambles, but it has a story and a character all its own. As Andy and I strip away more and more layers of this kitchen, the story and the mystery starts to take shape.

I had hoped that under the laminate flooring in the house we would find beautiful wood floors. The beautiful kind that only old houses have. When Andy pulled up the floor cabinets yesterday and found no wood floor underneath, I was disappointed. That was, until we started unraveling the story. Under the cabinets against the oven side of the kitchen was old linoleum…obviously original. We also found a second layer of linoleum, probably from the 1970s, that was placed right above the original. And then above that is the present laminate.

Over against the sink wall we discovered even more to the story. Under these cabinets there was no linoleum, only beautiful pine planking, which Andy says was the predecessor to plywood. For being 50 years old it was in amazing shape! We concluded that the original kitchen must have only had cabinets along the wall with the sink.

We discovered even more secrets when we pulled off the strange mirror that was above the sink. (Who wants to look at themselves in the mirror while they do the dishes, anyway?) Behind the mirror was a window casing in beautiful red pine planking…the really high quality stuff that they only used a long time ago. Andy says they probably even had a portable saw mill on site while they were building the house.

On the outside of this planking we found the original wood siding! So, this house not only had been added onto with a garage and a master suite, but also with the third bedroom. That means that originally this was just a teeny little farmhouse, and that those two tiny bedrooms in the back were once the only bedrooms! Boy, how times change. Nowadays, most people would think those rooms were too small for their children, let alone for themselves!

And then the story started to take shape. You could just see the family living here. Building a little home for their family. Living in a rural area, when the road outside probably wasn’t even paved yet. And then a few years passed and they added on and changed the flooring. Other owners came and went, and with them the house changed and grew. And now it’s our turn…our turn to mold this house. Our turn to be a part of the story of this house.

Yes, every house has a story. You just have to find it out.

Day 1: Grossest Kitchen Ever

2011-06-23T07:19:00.000-05:00

Yesterday (Wednesday) was our first real renovation day. We’d already gotten a few things done, like Andy took a backhoe to the drive (which had a giant pothole), and he also weed eated the overgrown grass. However, today we started getting down to business inside the house.

The first order of business was taking down all the cabinets in the kitchen. Since we’re simply repainting them, we had to do this carefully and take them down without ruining any of them. We really weren’t prepared for how nasty the kitchen would be. The layout and cabinets aren’t that bad, but whoever lived here last really had some sanitary issues. We found old candy in drawers that had obviously become a nest for our lovely mouse friends. However, we overcame our gags and just pretended that we were on HGTV. Although gross, it was really quite fun!

If you’re not getting rid of cabinets, or are hoping to sell them later, then you have to be careful how you take them down. First, unscrew all of the doors and take them out.’

Next pull out all the drawers. Once the doors and drawers are out, you can pull off the counter tops. Usually, you will want to use some sort of crow bar to pry them up. Or, if you’re lucky like us and find that the counter was never installed properly, you can simply pick them up!

Next, you will probably want to remove the oven and any appliances. We are saving the oven in our kitchen, which is actually fairly new. However, the range hood is so caked with nasty grease that we aren’t even going to try to clean it. Not to mention it was basically hanging on the wall by a nail. Talk about hanging by a thread!

For the record, there were so many mouse droppings and things that made you barf that I was pretty much pouring bleach on everything. (Bleach is a safe way to remove mouse droppings). I pulled up the contact paper in the drawers while bleaching them. Then I took them outside and sprayed them with straight white vinegar, in order to get some of the grime off.

We discovered that somebody had mudded right over wall paper. Weird. There was also paint under some of the drywall we pulled off. Avocado green. Oh joy!

By the time we finished this, it was time to hit the sack. It looks better already!

Setting up Camp

2011-06-22T07:09:00.000-05:00

Well, the house became ours Monday and the past few days have been quite the experience. It seems like every night we fall into bed exhausted!

Monday we closed at 11 am, took our realtors out to lunch, and then immediately hit the ground running. By 9 pm we had almost everything moved into the new house. Since our first project is redoing the kitchen, we decided to set up a temporary camp in the family room, complete with all our kitchen things, as well as our new fridge. :)

It’s a bit cramped, but it works.

Other than that, our only real useable room is the master suite. Things are starting to take shape in there too.

I’m so excited about having two walk in closets. I love, love, love organized closets, so this is a dream come true.

We’re starting to get some of our personal items and decorations up as well. And yes, I know there’s a big ugly hole…still working on that one.

Slowly but surely it’s starting to feel like home. Now on to the dirty work of renovating. We’ve been a bit delayed in that because there’s been some things that need to get done first. Namely, some serious cleaning, as well as taking care of a mouse problem. Yes, a mouse problem. Since I absolutely detest mice, that’s a HUGE problem. Our first night here, one of the little buggers dared enter my bedroom. In case you didn’t read that, he entered MY BEDROOM! While the light was on and we were standing there talking, no less. The next day I kept hearing them in a back closet of the master suite, and while cleaning I happened to glance over at the jacuzzi bathtub and see another little bugger climbing up the inside of it. So gross! Thankfully Andy was sweet enough to come right over (while I sat precariously on the sink counter). I guess the mouse had been in there all night and I hadn’t noticed because coats had been stacked around the rim.

In our makeshift pantry, it was even worse…there were droppings all over my food cans and they had even nibbled on a pudding packet. So, cleaning up that area was urgent as well. I set a billion traps and caught several little ones, as well as one behemoth in the pantry area. Haven’t seen hide nor hair of them since, so I think we scared the little critters away…at least for now.

So, now it’s down to the nitty gritty. It’s going to be a tiring, long, and sometimes frustrating road. But we are ready. SO ready! Welcome to our home.

Finally Ours and Moving In

2011-06-21T14:57:00.000-05:00

So, we finally closed on the house on Monday! Then we immediately jumped into moving everything from our rent house into our new house. Set up kitchen in the family room while we redo the real kitchen. Getting everything organized and put away. Oh, and are currently dealing with a really bad mouse problem. As in, they keep running around in my bedroom and got in all my food. But more about that later.

Auction Day

2011-06-14T07:11:00.003-05:00

So, I have found a new found love…auctions. About a month and a half ago, Andy told me that there was going to be a big auction the following day in front of the home supply store in town…they had windows, doors, and a lot of things we would be needing for the new house. So Saturday morning we got up early and went over to the new house to measure the windows and doors we needed, as well as make a list of anything else we should look for. Then we drove over to the auction.

Boy was that a new experience! I felt pretty lost, as I desperately tried to figure out the auctioneers were even saying. What exactly did “did-dly-uh” mean? And how were you supposed to know how much your bid was when numbers were flying around like crazy? Andy told me later that “did-dly-uh” didn’t mean anything, it was just something they say. He sure knew a lot more about this whole auction thing than I did. So, I left the bidding to him, who barely nodded his head like a pro. Meanwhile I kept my hands stiffly at my side, afraid to even scratch my nose for fear I would be bidding $100 on a rusty nail.

As the day went on, however, I found myself flung full force into the process of bidding. Andy wanted to bid on some lumber, and a box of drawer pulls that we had been eyeing came up for auction at another auction circle. He told me how high to bid on them and I sauntered over to wait for the drawer pulls to come up. While I waited, I watched all the other bidders to see what they were doing. They all seemed so calm and collected…and all had a straight face. I was just sure that I would never be able to do that…I must have looked like a chicken with its head cut off!

Finally the drawer pulls came up and I jumped in. I honestly have no idea what amount I bid for them…all I know is that the numbers went very high, and I was suddenly out. I was somewhat relieved that I didn’t accidentally pay $500 for some drawer pulls, but kind of bummed that I didn’t get them. So, like a dog with its tail between its legs, I quietly slunk back over to Andy, glad that he was much better at this whole auction business than I was.

We were there almost all day, of which Andy’s bright red skin could attest to. In the end, however, it was very much worth it. Here’s a list of what we got and what we paid:

· 5 white paneled interior doors, $10 a piece or $50 total

· 1 large arch window, $42.50

· 3 regular windows, $27.50 a piece or $82.50 total

· 3 bundles of lumber, $170 total

· Stack of plywood, $95

· Privacy fence rails, $55

· Makita saw, $75

· 2 boxes with door knobs and other random items, $40

· 3 boxes of random items (including can lights!), $4 a piece or $12 total

So the grand total was $622! What a great deal, huh?

If I ever find free time again, I think it would be awesome to buy things at auctions and sell them on ebay or at a flea market. You could seriously make a lot of money! Either that, or get stuck with a strange collection of useless items. On second thoughts, maybe I should leave that to people who actually know what they’re doing!

As a note, Andy and I went to another auction this past weekend. Stay tuned for what happened at that!

Progress

2011-06-14T07:11:00.001-05:00

We might just have a final closing date…next Monday, the 20th! I can’t tell you how excited I am to finally be SO close, and boy am I ready. Back in May when I thought we were going to close, I was nervous…I wasn’t quite ready to leave our little rent house. Now, I am. I’ll miss this dear little place, but I’m ready to move on to the adventure that will be our new home!

A lot of people we know have thought we’re crazy for moving into a house that we’re going to be doing massive renovations on. I say, hey, we’re young with no kids yet. Why not take on a challenge like this? Yes, I’m going to be living without a kitchen for a little while…but I love camping! And while we tear out the nasty old stuff in the house, I’ll be able to soak in a nice jacuzzi bathtub every night. (This house is very eclectic…hehe!) So, bring on the hard work and the sweat, we’re ready to ROCK THIS HOUSE!

Lesson 57 All Over Again

2011-06-02T15:28:00.000-05:00

So, we're not closing tomorrow after all. This time the loan company messed us up, even though they've had two months to figure this whole thing out. Someday...SOMEDAY...we WILL be in this house! Until then, we're camping out at the rent house, with almost everything packed, and mice trying to ruin the last few days we have there.

On a better note, we were able to get a smokin' deal on a brand new refrigerator and dishwasher! The fridge is stainless steel, french door style with a bottom freezer, and water in the door. It's exactly what we wanted, but didn't think we could afford. However, thanks to my wonderful mom, we found this awesome deal. My mom had seen Matt Lauer on The Today Show talk about the different Memorial Day weekend sales going on. At Sears, all of their fridges were 30% off, but one of them was 50% off. Guess which one we got, yeah, the 50% one. :)

We were away on our trip at the time, but while we were in the airport waiting to fly back home Andy called around to different Sears, and finally found one near us that had that fridge in stock. So, Monday morning, after not getting in until 1:30 am, we drove 45 min. to get this fridge and I'm SO glad we did! While we were at it, we got a matching dishwasher to go with it. Yay, yay, YAY!

Now, if only we had a home to put it in...:)

Closing Dates

2011-05-30T16:28:00.001-05:00

This whole home buying process seems to be taking forever. We were supposed to close before we left for our week long anniversary trip. Well, we just got back from that so obviously that didn’t happen. Now, we’re supposed to close Friday.

Lesson #57: Don’t expect to close on time.

Can't wait to be home...

2011-05-19T14:12:00.000-05:00

Note to self: don't buy a HUD home again unless you absolutely find the best deal on the planet. Red tape out the wazoo. Seriously.

So, we were supposed to close yesterday. Then it was moved to tomorrow. Now it's not for another week. I'm bursting at the seams to get into this new house and get going on making it a home! I saw a piece on the news the other day about a woman who started her own staging business. She said that she was inspired by her own mom who, every time the family moved to a new home in a new country (father was a foreign corespondent), had the new place looking and feeling like home within a couple of weeks. That's how I want this house to be...not just a house, but a home. My itching fingers will just have to wait a little bit longer though. :)

Pictures of our New Home!

2011-04-19T17:20:00.000-05:00

Today was our home inspection, which I am pleased to say went very well. A lot of minor repairs, but the foundation, roof, and the big things were all sound. We even got a pleasant surprise when the inspector told us that, from looking under the house, that there are probably hardwood floors under the laminate and vinyl floors they put down. So, we’ll see what happens, but I can’t wait to pull some floor up to see what is underneath!

The more I see this house, the more excited I am to move in and get busy. The house is definitely a fixer-upper, and the layout is a bit of a rat maze, but there is so much potential! One of my favorite things is the lot it sits on, which is just over an acre of land. It’s full of giant trees, pretty grass, and even a spring in one corner of the property. It’s been severely neglected, but with a little work it will be just beautiful.

So, without further ado, here’s a little glimpse of our new little home (or rather our new big home…it’s over 2300 square feet!)

Here it is from the front, on a rather gloomy March day. It’s a one-story ranch style, so it kind of stretches on forever.

This is what you see when you first walk in. The ceilings are rather low, so we are planning on raising the roof into a gable.

Unfortunately the ivy is creeping into this room…Andy says we’ll have the “greenest” house in Stone County!

To the right of this room is the kitchen. Not much to look at now, but you just wait and see what we’ll do! And, yes, that is a mirror and not a window over the sink. The big window makes up for it though, don’t you think?

As a side note, the former occupants left a few things in the drawers, including cookbooks, recipe cards, masking tape, and half-eaten chocolate. I was excited about everything but the chocolate, surprisingly. ;)

Off of the living room is the master bedroom. Prepare yourself, this newer addition is shockingly unlike the rest of the house. Trust me, this will be remedied. :)

There’s a fireplace behind Andy.

Yes, that’s a jacuzzi tub. <3

Now back to the 1960 part of the house. Two itty-bitty bedrooms, one which has a sliding glass door onto a screened in porch.

The second bathroom. There’s a bath/shower…you just can’t see it!

Fourth bedroom. It has this weird ceiling drop down, but Andy and the inspector think we can take it out.

The laundry room

And down to the other add-on, which used to be a garage.

And here are some pictures of the outside.

Front porch. That shop in the distance is probably one of Andy’s favorite parts.

Possible garden spot…

The spring is behind all that brush

And here is Andy’s shop

Sorry there aren’t any pictures of the front yard…I need to take some.

So, there you have it…our new abode! Any suggestions or ideas?