A Fresh Coat

Of Paint!

Hi! Sorry, kind of fell off the map for a while.

We've been hard at work with home renovations and life happenings in general. After struggling to find a local painter, we finally signed a contract with someone and got the mint green beast prettied up a bit!

What a difference a coat of paint (that's NOT mint green) and some new shutters will make!

We had a painter do the siding and trim, and then my husband put up the new shutters. It's like a whole new house! The mailbox also got a new home (a different post about that later) and all of the old, dead, overgrown landscaping was ripped out - which was a HUGE pain by the way. New landscaping will happen in spring, and I can not wait!

So, here it is!

The Playroom Transformation

The room with the cat poo yellow carpet went from, well, ugly...

... to toy paradise!

Once that nasty carpet was gone, it really made a huge difference! New laminate wood flooring, paint and some bright, fun curtains made the space new and just perfect for the (way too many) toys.

Bonus of having a toy room? I don't NEED to clean it up, I can just close the door and deal with it later :)

The Return of the Bathroom

*peeks out from behind rock* Uh, hi? I've really sucked at keeping up with all this new house transformation business.

But anyway, the bathroom is DONE! (mostly)

You may remember that it looked like this when we bought the house:

Well, now it looks like this!

  It took a bit longer than anticipated and it's still not 100% complete - the above toilet cabinet we bought we previously purchased and returned by someone else, therefore missing parts when we bought it (nice job with your product inspection, "big orange box store"), so that's not up yet.

I also need to purchase some decor for the bare walls and some coordinating towels. I could easily use towels we already own - but they are green and brown, the matchy-matchy color freak in me would go absolutely bonkers about the green towel hanging in the blue and grey bathroom! Darn OCD tendencies!

We got our first experience laying tile floor. It went ok, considering we had no idea what we were doing! It's certainly not perfect, but it's functional and looks pretty nice.

We had a vanity purchased, but then there was a plumbing placement problem and we had to return the one we already bought and get a different (and more expensive.. *sigh*) one. But it's in now and looks great! Design standards have apparently changed since our last bathroom remodel, because the vanity is now at kitchen cabinet height. That seemed REALLY tall at first, but the more I stand by it, the more I like it.

  ANOTHER snag we ran into was the mirror. We purchased a mirror that ended up to be too large, so we returned that (are you sensing a theme here?). Bonus is that I snagged a nice decorative mirror from Target on clearance and I like it was better than what we originally bought anyway!

  Pretty much the only thing we did NOT return was the toilet. Hence the probably not so clever title of this post, "The Return of the Bathroom"... get it? Huh? Not funny? Oh well, I tried.

Bathroom Progress

The bathroom is moving right along. This bathroom before was just a toilet, vanity and a closet. So it seemed like a good place to put a bath tub! It was decided that we should flip-flop the vanity and toilet positions (the toilet was nearest the door before), so that added a little more work. But I think that layout change makes the most sense for the space.

This is pretty much what it looks like right now:

As I type this, my husband is there framing in the area for the tub and putting OSB down on the floor. The electrician should be there tomorrow to move the wiring for the vanity light and install a new vent fan.

We have a vanity:

A vanity top and tile (we went with the darker tile):

I'm unsure of the wall color, but I'm going to try to use paint we already have because I don't want to buy another gallon of paint for one small room!

We're really aiming to have this bathroom done before we move in - otherwise we'll be field tripping to Grandmas house for bath time! Although, I'm sure Charlie wouldn't mind that one bit!

Bye Gross Carpet! Hello Pretty Walls!

The bedrooms are a work in progress at this point, but are coming along nicely!

We need to have all of the painting done and old carpet removed by March 26th, since that is when the new carpet will be installed.

Painting is all taken care of and carpet isn't far behind!

Here is Charlie's room painted, but with the red carpet still intact:

And without the red carpet:

Walls are Dutch Boy 'Big Sky Blue'

Here's the master - this photo was taken before the carpet was ripped out:

Walls are Dutch Boy 'Head for the Hills' and Dutch Boy 'Basketweave'

And good riddance to the cat-poop yellow carpet in the playroom!

Walls are Dutch Boy 'Honey Bear'

Just in case you were wondering, painting is messy. At least it is when I do it.

The Setback & The Fireplace

I'd been planning on keeping up with post about the house, but life happened. And it happened hard.

My older brother was involved in a freak accident on March 5th. He was hit with a falling tree and suffered a traumatic brain injury. For a full week he was in a medically induced coma, then this past Wednesday they decided to move him to a hospital 3+ hours from where we live.

He has made leaps and bounds in improvements since the accident, but he has a long road ahead. We're all pretty confident at this point that he'll make a recovery. Now, how he is after said recovery remains to be seen.

All I know is that if I never hear "I'm honestly shocked he's alive" from another Doctor or Nurse again, that will be just fine with me.

SO. With that happening, I haven't been working on the house stuff as much as originally planned. We're still on a deadline though, and since sleep is over-rated anyway, the show must go on.

On to the fireplace... you may remember this ugly wood paneling:

*POOF* no more wood paneling. I ripped it off myself, it was oddly therapeutic!

Jamie took care of the drywall:

And they we FINALLY got to paint the living room! I've been looking forward the getting my perfect blue-gray (Dutch Boy 'Boardwalk Blue') wall painted since we bought the house :)

The paint is wet in that photo - but once it dried... gah.. I LOVE IT. It really makes the fireplace pop out. I'm fairly certain it will look even better once the green carpet is gone!

I don't think I've posted a photo of this yet. There is a built-in next to the fireplace - I'm not really sure what to do with it...

What would you use this for?
Books? Photos? Booze? Something else?

The Grand Tour

It's time now for the "grand tour" of the new house!

*WARNING* Long and Photo Heavy!

A little history on the house: it has been on the market for well over three years. It was an estate managed by the older couples several children. It's a large home with a lot of potential, but no one seemed to want to step up to the challenge.

Well, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED :)

While shopping for a new home, we looked at several in the area; but it seemed like we always came back to this one or compared the other houses to this one. We put in an offer on this one in November and now it's ours - 1970's decor and all. As I said, the potential is there... you just need to look past the ugly!

We've had a home inspection done and 92% of the problems with this place are cosmetic, lucky for us!

Ok, onto the photos...
These are all realtor listing photos - all the stuff (well, most of it) went with the previous owners.

You've already seen the front in my previous post, so here's the back! The house sits on a double corner lot, so it's an above average sized yard as well as fairly deep. You can't see it in the photo, but there are patio doors behind that giant pine tree that lead out to a covered, paved patio.

The plan for the outside: Paint the siding and trim, new shutters, landscaping, new garage door

The Bedrooms (there are four):

Master Bedroom
There are double closets and an attached "bathroom" << I put that in quotations because that bathroom is seriously a joke. I'll address that another time.

The plan: New carpet, paint, new window treatments, new ceiling fan

Guest Bedroom
This is actually the largest bedroom, but for now will be a guest bedroom. Don't worry, they took that amazing bedspread with them!

The plan: New carpet, new window treatments, new ceiling fan

Charlie's Bedroom
This will be Charlie's room for now. It's the perfect size for him. It looks a little circus like right now because of the red carpet and the new paint (which isn't pictured). Charlie has requested "BLUE!!!" for the walls, so blue they shall be!

The plan: New carpet, paint, new window treatments, new ceiling fan

Bedroom #4 aka: The Toy Room
This is technically a bedroom, but we're turning it into a toy room for now in hopes to contain the mass of toys our child has accumulated into one area of the house. I know they'll spill out, but at least I can try!

The plan: New vinyl/laminate flooring, new paint, new window treatments, new ceiling fan

Bathroom #1
This bathroom is located down by the bedrooms. Yes, that is carpet. In a bathroom. I don't think I've mentioned it, but there are technically four bathrooms in this house - BUT, there's no bathtub! Crazy, right?

The plan: Unfortunately, there's not much of a plan for this bathroom right now. Other than to get rid of the fish curtains, those need to go away. In the future - I'm hoping in the next 3ish years, we'd like to combine this bathroom and the "bathroom" that connects to the master bedroom (they share the wall that the toilet and vanity are on) and make a giant "super bathroom".

Bathroom #2 - No Photo
Currently this is a half bath - toilet and a vanity, that's it. There is a giant closet that isn't really necessary.

The plan: This is where the bath tub will go! We're doing a full remodel of this bathroom before we move in. New everything, with the exception of the walls!

Bathroom #3 and Bathroom #4 are both a bit of a joke. I don't even want to talk about it.. haha

The Living Room/Family Room
I'm sorry if the carpet triggers your gag reflex!

This realllllly loooonnngg room (28 feet to be exact) is technically a living room and a dining room, as you can see below. I wish these photos showed the windows, because those are really the highlight of the whole room - floor to ceiling! There are a lot of nice built-ins too that you can't really see.

We're actually going to flip-flop the spaces. The part with the fireplace is going to be a small "adult" seating area. Just a few comfy chairs and a table - a place to sit in front of the fire (once we fix the fireplace anyway) and read a book or something.

What is currently the dining room will become the living room space.

The plan: New carpet, paint, new lighting, new window treatments, get rid of the wood paneling above the fireplace

The Kitchen & Breakfast Nook

I'm especially looking forward to this space. The kitchen is approximately 5 times the size of our current kitchen! And that's not even counting the breakfast nook - which is the reason we don't need the formal dining room. The windows and patio door overlook the backyard, and the patio doors open up to a covered patio.

The cabinets may be ugly, but they are solid, in a great layout and have surprisingly modern features - such as pull out shelving in several spots and pan dividers. There's also 3 built-in cutting boards.

I seriously don't even know what I'm going to fill all the cabinets with - there's a whole other wall that you can't even see that features a built-in desk.

The plan: This won't happen right away, but I'm pushing to at least get started this year... new flooring, refinish the cabinets (or replace the doors/hardware), new lighting, new countertops, new window treatments, new paint

The Laundry Room/Mudroom

First floor laundry-- woohoo!! There's also a large closet and tons of cabinetry. The door on the left opens to the garage and the bathroom that we're currently remodeling is also down on this end of the house.

The plan: At this point, not much. New flooring hopefully sooner rather than later, new lighting. We'll likely refinish the cabinets when we do the kitchen ones since they currently match.

The Office/Entry

A weird thing about this house - it has two front doors. One of them opens into what we will be using as our office space. The man who built this house was a realtor way back when, so he built it with two entries to keep his business and home a little separate. This room connects through the laundry room.

The plan: New flooring, new lighting, get rid of or paint the paneling, new curtains

The Basement/1970's "Love Den"

Again, sorry about the gag reflex ;)

The basement is large and partially finished. There is another fireplace down here and also a bar (not pictured). The storage space is unbelievable (there are 3 areas like the third photo) and if we ever run out of space we seriously belong on an episode of 'Hoarders'.

The plan: For now, the finished are will (unfortunately) stay like it is. We're going to focus our time, money and effort on the upstairs first - so until that's done, the "Love Den" will remain in tact.

So, that's that. What do you think of our new 1970's castle?

Are we in over our heads? Probably.

We've already started on quite a few of the projects I've mentioned. New carpet is being installed in the bedrooms and living room at the end of the month - thank goodness.

Well, Hey There...

Hello strangers! Long time no blog!

I've admittedly been horrible about blogging over the last year. Beyond horrible actually. Life happened, work happened - blah, blah, blah, right?

Anyways.

Guess what? My husband and I bought a new home! A gigantic, probably way-more-space-than-we-can-fill HOME!!

We had been working on this process since early September, and just closed on the place on February 28th. Our current home is for sale and we're hoping to get that taken care of soon - I can't go into too much detail on that though.

Those who know me or have followed this blog for a while are probably wondering --- "Didn't you JUST remodel your house? Kitchen? Bathroom? All those things?"

Answer: Yes.

... now we get to do it ALL OVER AGAIN. *somewhat sarcastic yay*

You may also be wondering... "Why on Earth would you want to do that?"

Answer: While we love the home we created, it's small. We were simply out of space. The new place was such a great deal that we literally only spent about $3,000 to double our square footage.

Here's the new house from the outside - a more picture heavy post and plan of attack to follow.

Photo Courtesy of Town & Country Real Estate

(Think the green is ugly? Wait until you see the straight up 70's interior...)

I'd like to chronicle the progress of the new house here, so be on the look out for some semi-regular blog posts :) We're DIY'ing the majority of everything again - actually we've already started, so there should be a lot to show!

Stay tuned folks - I'm calling this the "What The Heck Did We Get Ourselves Into" project.

Gel Cling Storage

You know those gel window clings that have become so popular in the last few years?

I like them and think they're cute, but they're a pain to store. I came up with a quick and easy solution!

You will need:

• Wax Paper
• Gallon Plastic Bag
• Marker
• Scissors

Rip off 2 sheets, roughly the size of your plastic bag, of wax paper.

Trace the outline of the bag with the marker & cut. I cut in about 1/4" from the line so it would be easier to get into the bag.

Stick your clings to one of the wax paper sheets, then cover it with the second wax paper sheet to sandwich the clings between the two.

Slide into the bag, you're done!

Bonus is that you can store multiple sheets of clings in one bag. I have three in a bag right now, but I'd say that I could fit maybe 3 or 4 more on top of that.

The Kitchen: After

After a few months of construction and a messy house (well, that 2nd part is still valid... but I digress. I'm working on it...) we have a functional kitchen!

I love it and it's pretty. I may actually have to learn to cook now! There are still some finishing touches in the works, like doors and such, but that's minor in the grand scheme of things.

You wanna see? Here's some pictures!

Hallway Before:

 Hallway After:

Kitchen facing East Before:

Kitchen facing East After:

Before:

 After:

North wall Before:

 North wall After:

It's come a long way, that's for sure! We have a much more functional layout now, and the counter space..... there's SO MUCH MORE!

I love how it came out, it was worth the wait. I'll post details and product information in a later post, so watch for that.

Thank you to my awesome, talented husband for all of his hard work. He did almost everything on his own and he did a great job!