Progress is being made!

It's so exciting to see how far we've come, and to be able to actually see some ideas coming together!  Remember the entry?

 

You can see Brad standing between the old wall and the new, and the closet in the background.

 

 

And now...

The big eyesore/water heater closet is gone!  The entry is so much more open!  It was a much bigger job than I thought it would be when I asked to have it removed, so I'm especially thankful to have it gone.  Also the living room wall is now 2 feet from where it started out, making it nice and even with the wall across from it.  I love it!  I'm tossing around an idea for the hall.  We'll see:)

 

Looking pretty nice, right?  Uh Oh.  Slam on the brakes!  The ceiling was very saggy, and we had been assuming it could be repaired easily.  Either that or we were just ignoring it and hoping it would go away.  Reality hit and it was all removed yesterday.  Yikes!  How far behind schedule will this put us?  There is a nice, bright silver lining.....it will be much easier to replace all the lighting from below instead of my 6'5" man having to do it on his belly in the attic:)

 

Moving on.  The next big change is the former master bedroom and bath. Looking from the bedroom into the vanity area and the closet beyond as work began.  In the picture on the right below, there is a closet straight ahead, and also one barely visible on the right side of the picture.  (And even further to the right is where the toilet and tub are.)

 

 

 

Now the closet is gone and there's a door to the bedroom beyond.  It's ready for a coat of paint and then we can install 2 cute little vanities I found at Lowes.

 

And there was the cramped tub/toilet area with it's lovely green tile flecked with gold:)

 

 

We removed the closet that was on the left wall and moved the entry to the shower area back some to give more space to that little room.  The new tub is installed and it's all ready for me to make tile decisions!  And the rest of the area where the closet used to be is a perfect spot for a cute little antique chest or something, with a mirror above and a lamp and and and....:) 

 

I can't wait to get the 'back half' of the house cleaned up!  I took the vacuum over this morning but the tape and bed/texture guy was finishing up and making quite a mess so it will just have to wait until tomorrow.  Hopefully I can start painting some bedrooms next week! 

 

 

 



During....

Now for the fun stuff!

We said goodbye to the laminate flooring. 

 

And the wallpaper in the hall is coming down. Slooowwwwly but surely:)



 

 

We knocked off all the bricks that were sticking out, and dismantled the mantle.

 

 

This is the living room wall that we're moving over 2 ft into the new laundry room.  It doesn't look like much, but getting the walls to match in the entry once the large closet is moved back is going to look a lot nicer I think.

 

 

The closet is almost ready for sheetrock!  I'm so happy to have that bulky thing out of the entry.  It was just an eyesore!

 

 

 

Progress in the kitchen, too!  We'll leave one side standing so we will have a space for all our lists and the coffee maker.  And we really need the sink for now as well.

 

 

Duke claimed an electrical box as his new toy:)

 

 

Here's the little closet that housed a stacked washer/dryer.  It will soon be home to the water heater, and a lot of storage space.  I'm giddy!

 

Remember the little green bathroom in the hall?  Here she is today.  Oh the possibilities!

 

These are the bedrooms.  We have removed all the popcorn from the ceilings throughout the entire house.  Who in the world decided that popcorn was a good idea?

 

Still working on the wallpaper in this one.

 

And this is the bedroom that will now have access to the former master bath.

Here is the vanity area of the bath that will be shared by the bedroom and laundry room.  We've removed the wall to the closet and opened it up all the way from one room to another.  One day there will be a vanity with 2 sinks on this wall.  I can't wait!

 

Thanks for stopping by!





Week 1 More "befores"

Now let's take a look at the kitchen.  What are all those little 'architectural details' between the cabinet doors?  And the paint color?  Not my style at all.  I'm just so incredibly thankful that we are replacing everything and I don't have to spend days (weeks!) scrubbing off all the grease!

 

 

 

 

And our favorite feature - the Gothic arch!  I ripped out most of this sucker myself!  I guess the room on the other side is technically the dining room, but it's too small, so we'll be using the space on the other end of that room instead.  This area will become part of the kitchen.  I can't tell you how nice it will be to have kitchen space again!

This is the breakfast nook on the other end of the kitchen.  I love all the light that the bay window provides!

This is the garage that was enclosed for an additional living area.  It's what will become our new master bedroom!  Can you picture it?  I know, it's a little hard right now:)

 

The brown wall hides a bunch of shelves full of paint and stuff.  Yep, we're gutting this room also.

 

 

The bathroom is through the tiny door to the left.  That will become my closet and the bathroom will be sort of in place of the storage area behind the brown walls.  The hubbster's closet will be on the other side.

 

 

This is a fun little sitting area.  Picture some comfy chairs, french doors, and a pergola outside!

 

Last but not least, the backyard.  I've never had any desire to have a pool!  We have one at one of the properties we own and it has often been a challenge, so I just didn't think we would want to add that to our workload at home.  But here it is, and I have to say I've already enjoyed it.  It provides a nice calming sound as we sit outside to plan all the To-Do lists.

 

 

Looking from the back porch toward what was called The Bath House.  Oh my goodness.  There are no words.  It's ok.  We have many ideas for the space, but won't tackle it until after Christmas. 

 

 Coming up soon.....the bare bones!

 

 

 

Week 1

Ok, I'm jumping into this blog thing feeling completely clueless!  But, I want to be able to share the enormous joy, fear, and sometimes utter panic I feel as we tackle this huge project, so here we go! 

What started out as a little minor remodeling, plus gutting the kitchen, has turned into an almost completely-down-to-the-studs renovation.  It's crazy!  Every little project has led deeper and deeper into the bowels of the house.  I'm excited when I can picture the finished project, but also a little afraid that we'll never move in!  Here are the "Before's"...
Front of house. So much to do I can hardly stand it, but inside is definitely the priority right now.

What an un-lovely little entry!  But we have a few ideas.  First, lose the wallpaper!  And let's take the water heater out of the a/c closet behind the wall on the left and move it down the hall.  Then we can move the wall back even with the coat closet and have a little bit larger entry.  Oh, and change the door.  Of course!

And here's the living room.  Not too bad, but I Can't. Stand. Brick.  Not outside, and not inside.  So we will cover it up with something much more 'me':)  This was their staging furniture.  I'm glad I snapped a few 'before' pictures while we were inside with the realtor.  Everything went so fast once we took possession that I didn't have time to get more pictures before the demolition began!  You can sort of see the laminate floors, which we have pulled up and will upcycle into some of the property we own when it's time to replace carpet. It will be much nicer for the apartments, and will save us money along the way. Always a good thing:)


Looking from the fireplace to entry and dining room.

 And here's the lonnnnng hallway. It has a bajillion doors! Ok, just 10. More wallpaper to remove, and more laminate to be pulled up.  And lots of doors to paint.

I can't believe I don't have a picture of the former master bedroom!  But this is the master bath.  Oh my!  It will have a hole cut in the wall in the closet you can see to the right (through the decorative little posts.  haha) and it will then be accessible from the back bedroom.  The master bedroom has become the new laundry/craft room, while giving up about 2 feet so we could expand the living room a little and make the walls even with the new entry walls.  It has a door to the back yard, and pool, so this will also serve as the mud room for sopping wet little grandbabies.  I'm sure Duke will be happy to share his  new doggy shower if we need to hose anyone down!

There are 3 bedrooms in this end of the house, after losing the master.  They will be able to use this bathroom, or the one in the hall.

And here is the hall bath. We were going to leave as-is except for the paint, but after I removed all the baseboards and trim and got a really good look at the tile job I just felt a change was in order. Fortunately the DH agrees, and big changes are in the works!

I hope you enjoyed this little house tour.  I'll be posting photos of the kitchen (be prepared - it's hideous!), designated master bedroom and back yard soon.  Hope you'll come back for more!

Oh, and please bear with me as I learn how to actually set up a blog!!  Thank you:)