back to our roots

Kitchen Sneak Peak

2014-10-21T11:58:00.000-04:00

Construction is underway in the basement. We are going on week two. Most of the sheet rock is up and the mud is drying. Once it's dry, the bathroom can finally get put back together. There's definitely some low ceilings around the bathroom entrance, but that's to be expected in an old house with a basement. Luckily, I'm short so it doesn't matter.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything is finished by Thanksgiving. Here's a sneak peak of our kitchen. I'm definitely going to have to install a backsplash since the countertop backing is a little lower than the old ones, but I'm really pleased with how everything has turned out so far. I had our construction crew install a pendant light over the sink. Who knew a little light could add so much to a space?

Before

During

New windows and paint on the cabinets.

After

New pendant light, dishwasher, fridge (you can see the outline on the right), countertops, faucet, and hardware.

Stay tuned for a final unveiling. :)

Long time, no see

2014-09-24T14:20:00.000-04:00

I bet you can't guess what I'm about to say.

Drum roll, please...

WE ARE STILL NOT FINISHED!

I have so many pictures ready to share, but not ONE room is completely finished. **sigh**

Thankfully, we are meeting with a contractor this weekend. We plan to let him finish the house. I wish we were able to finish the driveway and the exterior of the house, but it's not looking like that's going to happen. Can you say money pit?

At any rate, if we can get the inside finished, I'll be one happy girl. :)

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Furniture!

2014-09-02T09:36:00.001-04:00

Today I may actually feel like this house may eventually be a home. Our furniture is being delivered this afternoon. Thank God! Currently, the only furniture in the house is our bed. It was okay at first, but two weeks of no where to go but the bedroom has worn me out. Even our poor dog is having issues.

We do seem to be moving closer to the finish line. We finally put up our bathroom vanity light and mirror, along with the trim in the living room. The kitchen cabinets are painted, and the kitchen walls have been mudded, sanded, and are ready for paint.

But enough about all that, here are a couple of cool furniture pieces I bought for the living room from Home Decorators.

I can't wait to put these tables together. I just think they are fun with a contemporary, modern touch. I'm going for a homey, but minimalist decor. So the less bulky items, the better.

The garden stool is the perfect height for our daughter. She thinks it's a drum. Because our living area is smaller than our last house, I needed a way to throw in some extra seating if we needed it. This garden stool is my answer. It's a side table and seat all in one. Love it.

I found some really cute accent rugs this weekend at Wal-Mart, of all places. It had all my base colors - beiges, grays, and a hint of ivory and silver. The picture doesn't quite do it justice. I'm going to sit my kitchen table on this larger one. I bought a few smaller ones to put in front of the stove and the back door.

I bought this little lamp at Target. This isn't the actual color. It's more of a grayish taupe. I'm going to sit it on the nesting tables. I also found some really cute accent rugs here as well. I had to refrain from buying more rugs, since I just bought several the day before at Wal-Mart. Oh well. I'll have the basement to decorate at some point. I'll hold out until then. :)

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#homerenonightmare

2014-08-21T13:20:00.003-04:00

Never, ever, ever, will I have anything to do with ANY type of home renovation ever again. That being said, we're moving in this weekend. Are we finished?

No.

We have interior doors that still need to be installed. Bottom line - we ordered the wrong doors. Since we can't return them, we've hired someone to make them work. Oy.

Our exterior doors haven't even been bought yet. I've had them picked out for months, but we've had to deal with so many hot messes that we haven't given them much thought.

The bathroom still needs a mirror and its light fixtures installed. Once we got in there, we noticed the wires were fried. So, there's that.

The kitchen is yet another hot mess. The cabinets are pretty much all painted (notice I said pretty much). The ones that are finished look really nice with the new hardware, though. I'm pleasantly surprised. We still need to mud a couple places before we paint, and we still need to lay the floor. Oh, and order our countertops.

On a positive note, our furniture is ordered. It should arrive in a week or so. Our new appliances are sitting in boxes in the kitchen. The plumber is coming Saturday to install the dishwasher and hook up the stove and fridge (gotta have a working ice maker!). And the living room floor and hallway is finished (with exception to trim).

starting on the living room

already need a break - lol

pretty!

It's definitely not a Property Brothers timeline, but we're getting there. Maybe by Christmas we'll be finished. LOL

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Three months later...

2014-08-13T15:38:00.001-04:00

It's been a month since my last post, and I wish I could say we were finished. ACK! Alas, everything has been moving at a snail's pace. Now that school is back in session, it's moving even slower. It still feels like we are months away from being finished. However, I'm hoping for a couple weeks.

We picked up our hardwood floors on Sunday. LOVE IT! I'll post a picture soon. It's natural hand-scraped acacia. We definitely splurged, but it just caught both our eyes and we had to have it. We hadn't splurged on anything yet, and we didn't need a whole lot, so why not? We're putting it down this weekend. I. Can't. Wait.

Our kitchen cabinets are still a work in progress. My paint color is working beautifully, though. It's called "seal skin" by Sherwin Williams and it looks so pretty against our wood and Wilson Putty walls (our Valspar paint color).

Pictures don't do it justice. It's a dark charcoal with a hint of brown. I can't wait to see the finished product. Our appliances have been ordered (stainless steel) and should be delivered in a couple weeks (insert sad face). Nothing we wanted was in stock. Oh, well. I saved a fortune on them by biding my time, saving coupons and watching for sales. I can wait.

As soon as we're in, we can start on the basement. It's just sitting there, waiting for the sheetrock. We've decided to postpone the exterior renovations and landscaping until next spring/summer. We need to rest and find our sanity. We lost that about a month ago. I just hope it's recoverable. LOL

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Moving and Shaking

2014-07-14T15:05:00.002-04:00

Finally, things are coming together! Our windows are going in today, as is our HVAC unit. Our main floor bathroom should also be finished later this week and carpet is going down on Friday.

We have yet to pick out our hardwood for the rest of the main floor. We plan to do that on Thursday. Hopefully, we'll begin moving our bedroom furniture in this weekend. Pictures to follow! :)

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Bathroom #1 Remodel - Part 1

2014-07-07T09:19:00.002-04:00

Someday I hope to have the bathroom of my dreams, but until then a nice, clean bathroom will have to do. I knew we would have to completely gut the upstairs bathroom. It's the only bathroom on the main floor. (No master. Insert whiny face here.) In reality, the bathroom is about the same size, if not a little bigger, than the bathrooms in our other house, and that's not saying much. However, it was in horrible, horrible shape.

Because the majority of our budget is going towards bigger things (finishing the basement, windows, etc.), we had to be frugal. At one point, I planned to have the shower tiled, but unforeseen budget issues inevitably popped up and we had to reconsider our options. After discussing our options with our plumber, he suggested we purchase a tub/shower surround ensemble. (You can find the Sterling shower surround here and the Sterling tub here.) We also went ahead and bought an in-stock bathroom vanity from Lowes. So far, so good.

Our next headache came with choosing a countertop. Because the niche for the vanity isn't standard, we couldn't go with a standard size vanity. This brought us back to our in-store options. We decided to purchase our sink and a countertop slab and have it cut to fit. I really do like our countertops even though they aren't a fancy granite or marble.

Once our plumber arrived to work on the bathroom, he informed us he wouldn't install the fixtures we had chosen. Apparently, they were quite leaky. He sent us back to find a specific brand that he likes to use. Unfortunately, the satin nickel finish I wanted wasn't available, so we went with my next choice - an oil rubbed bronze. I was worried it would be a little drastic next to the creamy white countertop, but it's actually quite nice. The darker finish really brings out the different colors in the countertop. (Thank Goodness!)

Next up? The floor.

We decided to be all crazy and try something new, especially since we have a little one running around who is just learning to walk and run. We chose a luxury vinyl tile that you can actually grout. It looks great. My pictures of the ongoing bathroom reno were lost once I got my new phone. Oops.

I still need to decide what I'm going to do with the lighting above the mirror. I have some ideas, but I want to wait until the flooring, paint, and vanity are completely installed.

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Kitchen Cabinet Paint Colors: Part 1

2014-06-27T09:00:00.000-04:00

As much as I'd love to have all new kitchen cabinets installed, it's not going to happen. At first, I thought I may buy cabinet doors only. Our cabinets are solid wood and are still in great shape, so why not just update them a little, right? Well, who knew cabinet doors were so pricey? (**sighing in defeat**)

We do have a flea market-esque store here in town called The Peddler's Mall that carries cabinets, doors, trim, etc. I'm keeping my eyes open for what I want because hopefully, at some point, I can find a complete set. It just might take a while.

Until then, we paint.

Originally, I wanted white cabinets. The house is around 2000 square feet, give or take a few once we're done with the reno, but that's divided between two floors. Since it's an older home and the basement stairs are horribly located, we can't take the wall down between the kitchen and living room. Therefore, I need to keep my paint and all decor light and airy because I don't have that open concept anymore. That being said, the paint color we chose for our walls is a little lighter than I expected and I'm afraid the white cabinets and white trim around the walls will be too much. So, I'm leaning towards a dark gray. I've narrowed it down to three choices.

1. Spalding Gray by Sherwin Williams. The walls below are painted in spalding gray.

2. Mink by Sherwin Williams.

3. Sealskin by Sherwin Williams

I'm leaning towards the sealskin. It's a dark charcoal, muted black. I know that's the opposite of light and airy, but with the light walls and white trim and the right accents (maybe some jewel tones or even some glass hardware?), I'm thinking it will work.

I'm going to get samples of all of three and paint a cabinet door. Once I see how it looks next to our wall color, I'll make a final decision. Who knows, maybe I'll scrap all three. Worst case scenario? We just start over. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

What do you think? Any suggestions?

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This Stuff Saved the Day

2014-06-25T12:35:00.002-04:00

First, let me say this is NOT a sponsored post. However, I am highly recommending the following product to anyone remodeling an old house, or any house that has pets.

The past few years, my husband allowed our renters to have pets. I say "my husband" because I did not approve, but it's hard to turn down money in your pocket. Our last renters were university students in the vet program. They seriously had every animal under the sun in our house. Dogs, cats, rabbits, and even lab rats.

Yep. I said it. Lab rats. And before you ask, they were in a cage. (I told you this was going to be one heck of a remodel!)

In their defense, Shannon informed me the rats were cleaner than any of the other animals. I, on the other hand, couldn't help but cringe at the thought.

Anyway, once we pulled up the flooring it was obvious that some of the subfloor would need to be replaced. Thankfully, that's more of a headache than an expense. Despite the new subfloor, the smell remained. I even got down on my hands and knees and sniffed every inch of those floors trying to find a spot we might have missed.

Enter Kilz Primer.

Seriously, this is the best stuff ever. It has a stain blocker in it that seals the smell, be it a pet smell or smoke smell. We painted the subfloor in the worst smelling room (the one with the partially new subfloor) and the smell disappeared! This stuff is the bomb! I couldn't believe it. I told Shannon we were painting the entire house with the stuff. He just rolled his eyes.

Needless to say I am a true believer of this primer. It definitely saved the day.

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Timber!

2014-06-23T09:02:00.000-04:00

Our house is surrounded by trees. A few months ago one of the larger trees was uprooted during a storm. Had it fallen forward instead of sideways, it would have crushed the house. Thankfully, that didn't happen. Here's a peek at our back yard now that the trees have been cut. I wish I had taken a landscape shot, but I completely forgot I could do that with my phone. I may come back later and update once the trees have been removed.

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Between houses

2014-06-21T09:48:00.000-04:00

I won't lie. I went crazy about a week ago, thanks to this renovation. We are between houses and staying wherever our heads may lead us. One night with my parents. Another night with my in-laws. The only one in this family who isn't affected by all this is our daughter. Miss Priss will be 18 months old in a week and she LOVES staying with her grandparents.

At any rate, it's not all bad. My in-laws live on a former working farm, which means there is a lot of land to explore. Because the property backs up to a national forest, there are several fire access roads that the government maintains. Many of these roads cross through their property. This makes for some mean four-wheeler trails. My husband, Shannon, decided he was taking me to the top of the mountain in front of their house. I am not a country girl, despite living in a small town. I was terrified, but I wouldn't be outdone.

Here we go!

We strapped ourselves into the mule and up the hill we went. It wasn't so bad at first, then after a sharp turn, we headed straight up, and I mean straight up the hillside. My pictures are a little blurry, but you can kind of/sort of get the idea.

On our way up the hill.

I'm fairly certain I held my breath the entire time. Just to the left is a sheer drop. Seriously. Terrified. Me.

Once we made it to the top, it was beautiful! If only it didn't take a heart attack to get there... There were also other access roads, but we didn't tackle them just yet. They connect to what locals call the fire trail. The fire trail is a place where several fire access roads intersect so that firefighters have direct access in case of a forest fire. Most people like to hike through the trails, ride four-wheelers, and shoot. There may have even been the occasional party, but I wouldn't know anything about that. LOL

At the top

Going down was worse than the ride up the hill. I couldn't get a picture to do it justice. It felt (and looked) like that moment just before the big drop on a roller coaster.


On our way down the hill.

I'll admit it was fun, but I was sure happy to see flat land!

Finally.

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Beauty in chaos

2014-06-19T09:11:00.000-04:00

We are finally out of our house. I cried the entire time we moved. I already miss that house. It was our first real home together and it held so many memories, both good and bad. Between the two of us, this house saw us through the loss of our first born, cancer, grad school, and eventually our beautiful and feisty daughter. It was truly our HOME. Now, a page has turned and it is time to make a new home.

Demo has started on our new/old house, and we've already hit a few snags. I wouldn't expect anything less. Unfortunately, this means more money and a longer wait to get in the house. **Sigh**

So far we've ripped out the old carpet and all the trim, discovered we need a new subfloor in the master bedroom, realized seven trees (huge, mature trees) are going to have to be cut down, and it seems every bid is coming in at least $1000 higher than we were originally quoted (windows, roof, basement weatherproofing, HVAC, etc.).

Oh, and did I mention how fast you can spend money when you are renovating? YIKES! It's crazy! Thanks to the additional expenses, we've had to make some creative decisions to stay within our budget. At this point it is just a matter of finding a cheaper hardwood/carpet. The flooring we originally chose was a little on the pricey side; so we can definitely save money in that area. However, the way the renovation seems to be pacing, I'd say it's safe to say my little extras will no longer be on the table. Oh well.

Do any of you have renovation tips? Maybe you have a favorite paint color or shower head/bathroom faucet? Let me know!

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In the beginning

2014-06-17T09:09:00.000-04:00

Sometimes it's best to go back to the beginning and start over, don't you think? That's what we've decided to do anyway.

What am I talking about? Well, one night I had this wild idea to sell our house and move into our rental house. I honestly can't believe the thought ever crossed my mind. We lived in a beautiful, new home in a kid-friendly neighborhood with great neighbors. However, the reasons for doing it far surpassed the reasons to stay. That and too many Property Brothers marathons. I was itching for a project.

So what are our reasons to tackle this mountain of a renovation? We owe very little on it, it is slightly bigger (although you'd never know it by looking), there is more privacy, and it has a back deck surrounded by trees at the end of a dead end street. Sounds great, right?

When my husband and I first got married, the rental home was our house. I couldn't wait to leave and get a place of our own. The last few years we've rented it for additional income. Unfortunately, it is in need of some serious tender loving care and a facelift. The house is your typical red brick ranch. It doesn't have fancy ceilings or a two-car garage like our former home, but I think I can get past that for the time being, especially since we plan to completely remodel the house.

New windows. New floors. New paint. New kitchen. New bathrooms. Finished basement. I've already got my "Renovate" Pinterest board full. It should be a great, stress filled time. I'm so happy you are joining me in our big endeavor to head "back to our roots" and make our old house new once again.

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