DIY Projects

Six Big Impact Projects With One Gallon of Paint

Hello, friends! I thought it would be fun today to show you a few things around the house that are seemingly random but all have one major thing in common.

So, everybody knows about the power of paint in transforming a space, yada yada yada. You hear diy lovers everywhere talk about it. Well, that’s because it’s true. Paint can make something totally blah look totally fabulous.

So, let’s back up a little bit. A few weeks after our son was born, I decided to paint the stairs in our house. As one does mere weeks after giving birth. Obviously. So, I went to Home Depot (this is not sponsored by the way, I just only shop there), and picked up a gallon of Behr’s Totally Black in a latex semi-gloss finish. I wasn’t sure how much I would use, or if one gallon would be enough, but I decided to stick with one and if I needed more, I would go get more.

So, the black staircase was born. This is the view from the front door, by the way. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the paint covered the stairs (I did two coats), and how little paint I had actually used. So then, while still on maternity leave, I decided to paint the fireplace. Because, well, I already had some paint I could use, so why not? Hence, the black fireplace joined the party.

Now, in this picture, you may notice a sneak peek of another project. Hold on, I’ll get to that. Seeing that I still had some leftover paint in the bucket, I decided to go ahead and paint my back door. Now, this one comes with a warning. The back door is in the kitchen which is completely unrenovated and honestly just ugly. The quality of this photo is terrible. I’m sharing just to show you yet another thing I did with this single bucket of paint. So here we go.

The door is awful. It was more awful before. That’s pretty much all I have to say about that. Moving on.

Some months later, the paint can had found a home in the garage awaiting some eventual use. That use came when on a random day in which work was unexpectedly cancelled (I work in a school, and the water had been turned off due to some road construction so school was cancelled). Finding myself with some extra free time, I decided to build a coffee table. A perfectly stable and precise coffee table it is not, but I built it alone and with items I had completely in my garage spending zero dollars. I’m sure you can guess where this is going…I painted the legs to the coffee table with more of the black paint.

Time goes on. On a whim one day browsing Pinterest, I decide to paint some faux-dalmation wallpaper on a passthrough area between my living room and dining room. Good golly this one was a good one. In a few hours time with the trusty bucket of black paint and a step ladder, I had done this.

The dalmatian wall is my faaaaaaavorite. It adds so much personality to the space and I love it. It was one of the most popular projects I have ever posted about on Instagram as well. And why not? At this point, it wasn’t costing me any more money and wowza it packs a punch.

So that brings us around to the final project, the one that you’ve now possibly spotted twice already in these photos. You guessed it. The dining room chairs. By this time, I’ve already completed five other projects with this gallon of paint, but I still have more so why not? I did use a paint sprayer with these chairs, which means I had to add water to my mixture to make it thin enough for my sprayer. So, full disclosure, I stretched a bit here.

This is the most recent project, and they aren’t completely finished yet. I’m looking for the right fabric to recover the chairs, but I haven’t found what I’m looking for at the right price point just yet.

So there you have it. Six things I did with one silly gallon of paint that cost me less than $30. Insane, right? Would you believe I still have some left? Yep. Now, I probably won’t do any new projects with it, as I’d like to have some left just for touch ups. And with all these things, it’s likely I’ll have things to touch up over time.

So, a couple of takeaways here. Number one: paint is freaking awesome. You can cover a lot of ground for a little money. Number two: doing these different projects in different spaces throughout the house makes things feel more cohesive. The fireplace is the same color as the front stairs which makes it feel less random and more like they belong together even though they are in completely different spaces. It helps the house flow visually, I think. All that to say; I hope this inspires you. Get out there and paint something!

That’s all for today, friends. Have a fabulous day!

October 14, 2019 by
DIY Projects, Furniture Makeover, House Progress

Plans for the Backyard + An Outdoor Chair Makeover

Hi friends! I wanted to share with y’all what we’ve been working on this week, even though we aren’t finished. Just about everything is a work in progress around here, but I figured I’d share some of the progress and our plans in real time.

So, on Monday morning I happened to stumble upon a neighbor’s trash pile with a stack of outdoor Adirondack chairs. I don’t normally go garbage picker, but if the shoe fits… I grabbed the chairs, brought them home, and then started dreaming about what our backyard could look like with a little bit of work.

So, these chairs were in great condition, but….the brown was just not gonna work. Thankfully there was an easy solution to that. With a quick couple of coats of outdoor spray paint, they were looking better already. I used Krylon outdoor spray paint in a high gloss finish.

You wouldn’t think such a subtle change would make all that much of a difference, but it makes them look brand new! But then I had these great chairs, and all of a sudden, I was inspired to start some projects in the backyard. So….we started digging. But first, let me show you what our yard looked like before.

Yikes, right? This space had some old rosebushes in them before we moved in, but they were terrible and awkwardly located, so we tore them out a while back. Then my brother built this in-ground fire pit while he was staying with us for a few weeks using some rocks from around our property. But other than that, it was just looking super sad.

So I thought, man, wouldn’t it be great to have an area covered in pea gravel surrounding the firepit, to put these chairs on and round out the space? So, Ethan and I got to work. We rounded up some bricks from behind the garage and under the porch (old house problems or old house perks?) and dug a trench perimeter for the area we were thinking about.

We buried the bricks halfway into the ground, just kind of winging it, and then we started digging. And digging, and digging, and digging. We wanted an area about two inches below the surface. Which, two inches doesn’t seem like a lot, but when it’s a large surface area, it freaking suuuuucks. Ethan did most of the work, but I did enough to make my body hate me, don’t worry.

And that leads us to where we are now. We’ve finished digging, and the next step is laying down a barrier and then pea gravel!

As for the swing, I think we’re going to take it down, build a solid cover on top, and then put our grill there. I’d like to paint it as well, but I’m not sure what color. I want to do something that goes along with what the house will be eventually, which is white with black trim. But we aren’t sure what exact white, and what exact black, so I don’t want to do something that will eventually clash with the house. So I’m currently undecided.

It’s not finished, but I can see the end result in my head and I can’t wait!

So, in the spirit of celebrating progress instead of just completed projects, that’s where we are. Aching backs, and spruced up old chairs. And if you think that I’m not going to enjoy some summer s’mores just because we aren’t done yet, you’d be wrong. 🙂

That’s all for today, friends. Have a fabulous day!

June 13, 2019 by
Uncategorized

Dining Room Progress + A Fun Furniture Makeover!

Hello there! Today I’m sharing some progress in our dining room that has me all kinds of excited. Of course, this room is no where close to being done (we don’t even have chairs yet), but I did some work this week, and I am loving the direction it’s heading in.

So, first, let me tell you about this dresser. I painted it several years ago for a vintage market, it never sold, and it’s been in our storage room ever since. We haven’t been using it other than to store random things, and it definitely wasn’t part of any “design,” it was just kind of there. Here is it in a display at a booth a few years ago.

So, the other night, I was up in our unfinished room, and I suddenly had an idea. I had some extra green paint left over from a bathroom cabinet project, and I needed a project to work on. So, within a few minutes, I started painting this dresser.

I painted it in Behr Sparkling Emerald, the same color I painted our bathroom cabinets. I spray painted the handles with some Krylon metallic gold paint I had in the garage. This was a complete whim of a project, but I am absolutely obsessed with the way it came out.

It’s just the addition to the dining room that I needed. Of course, we still have yet to purchase a rug, light fixture, chairs, art for the mantle wall, etc. But! This is helping me to see the vision I have for this room start to come to life.

In our previous house, I was strictly the ever trendy modern-farmhouse style in my decorating. In this house, I’m embracing somewhat of a traditional/classic/New England-esque style with blues and greens as the colors I’m using throughout the house.

The table was a thrift store find for $80. It’s massive, with two leaves, it can seat up to ten. It’s traditional and such a statement. It fits this house so well.

The plate wall has been coming along slowly. Although it’s not quite finished, it’s a combination of thrift store finds (from different states), neighborhood estate sales, flea markets, and even a couple from Hobby Lobby. I’m looking for a couple specific things to finish it out, but I love the look of a classic blue-and-white plate wall.

So, that’s all the progress for now. Lots and lots more to do in here, but I’m pleased with how it’s beginning to some to come to life.

When it comes to this old house, there’s a lot of things to juggle when it comes to making this place ours. Typically, you come into a new home and bring in furnishings to make the place feel like your own. Here, we have so many large scale projects to focus our time, energy, and money on, that it’s hard to prioritize what to do first. We’re so proud of the work we have done, but we still have so many plans for this place. So, what do you think?A bit different than something I would have done before, that’s for sure. That’s all for today, friends. Have a fabulous day!

June 7, 2019 by
DIY Projects, House Progress

House Progress – Our Front Stairs

Hi guys! Today I wanted to share a quick update on a section of our house that isn’t finished yet, but looks waaaaayyyyyy better than it did before, and I’m happy to live with it as-is for a while.

Our front staircase is one of the original features from 1895. It is tight, narrow, and has a very abrupt turn which makes moving furniture upstairs quite tricky. Just as a reminder, this is what it looked like when we moved in:

Looking at that photo is absolutely crazy to me because it looks nothing like this anymore! Within the first few days, we pulled out the carpet, and a few weeks later while we were working daily, we painted the walls. But for a couple months, we hadn’t done anything with the stairs themselves. And then our son was born, and we were a little slow to getting things done, so it took a while before I got around to painting.

I decided to paint the stairs, back in December, I believe, but I never really shared the full details. 

And now they’re black and white and I’m totally in love! They make the space feel so much bigger and brighter, even though it really is a tiny staircase.

Pardon the glaringly bright sun, I was just too excited to wait to take these pictures!

The color is Behr’s Totally Black, with Ultra Pure White (the color you get without any mixing – straight from the can) trim, and Polar Bear on the walls. We painted the staircase with a semigloss finish, which I would not normally recommend on a high traffic area, but we do plan on adding a runner down the stairs for comfort, so they will not be getting much foot traffic at all once the runner is installed.

Here you can see an unedited look (nope, I didn’t clean up for y’all) at the stairway into the rest of the house. So aside from the runner, we do plan on doing a few other things. The light fixture will be changed, of course, but we’re also thinking about a fun statement tile to replace the parquet flooring. For now though, it’s a small makeover to tide us over until we get to the real thing!

So, if you can pardon my photography skills, that’s the latest little update. Projects are going pretty slowly around here, but as soon as we get back at it, I’ll keep y’all updated. 🙂

That’s all for today, friends. Have a fabulous day!

 

March 18, 2019 by
DIY Projects, House Progress

Status Update: End of 2018

Hi friends! I’m so glad you’re here! If you’ve been following along on our house progress on Instagram then you probably have seen lots of little projects we’ve been working on as we’ve been doing them. These days, it’s a bit easier for me to do a quick update there than on here, just because life with a newborn is busy! In case you haven’t been following along, here’s the deal with this post. My  Status Updates (Check out the first one here or the second one here) are a series of unedited, real life photos rounding up the entire process of what we’ve accomplished thus far.

At the time of my last update, we had not yet moved into the house. We have since moved, had a baby, and continued working. To say things are a bit crazy would be an understatement. We are definitely still in “fixer upper mode,” when looking at any room in the house, there are at least five undone projects that come to mind. So, bearing all of that in mind, let’s have a look at what our house looks like right now.

The Foyer 

We lived with completely undone stairs for a little while before I went ahead and painted the stairs. This is the view from our front door, and it’s a very tight space. Painting the stairs and the walls made it look a little bit more open though. Still to do in this space: replace the light fixture, add trim along the ceiling going up the stairs, add a runner up the stairs, do something about the floors (we aren’t sure what the plan is…there are no original hardwoods, so we might lay a statement tile. We are still in the very early planning stages on that particular project), and lay a transition piece between this an the living room floor.

The Living Room

This room is mostly “done” with the exception of the transitions on the floor from one section to the next, and replacing the light fixture (we haven’t done that in any area of the house yet). If you look closely in the first picture, you can see a thin cable running along the floor. It’s something for the internet that needs to be run underneath the house. I also want to replace 99% of the furniture here, but that’s not necessarily considered a project.

The Dining Room

The dining room is the most embarrassing in its current state. It took me a month to clear the moving boxes from here, we had no table for two months, and Ethan still has a makeshift desk sitting in the corner (the room that will be the office upstairs is completely undone). We don’t have chairs or any other dining room furniture, but it’ll get there. The fireplace has been painted, and everything else is complete, with the exception of caulking along the ceiling trim.

The Bedroom

Our room has a ways to go, but since our son is still sleeping in here in the bassinet (not pictured), everything is temporarily out of place. The rocker will eventually go back into the nursery once he starts sleeping through the night, and once the extra furniture is out of there, I’ll feel more inspired to decorate and finish things in here. We need to add some trim pieces in here, and add a light fixture. This room doesn’t have an overhead fixture at all, so it’ll be a bit more labor intensive than fixtures in the other rooms.

The Bathroom 

The bathroom is small and hard to photograph, but the only thing completed in here is the cabinetry has been painted this emerald green color. As you can see, we need to replace the light switch box, which we will do in the entire house all at once. We replaced the outlets, but we haven’t done the light switches yet.

The Nursery 

I did a whole post about our son’s room, because it’s the only room that’s “done.” It actually still needs a new light fixture and light switch box, but other than that it is done. If you missed that post, you can check out more photos of it here.

We haven’t done anything else on the outside just yet, but we do have some major plans for that yellow house. (Hint – it won’t be yellow forever). We’re at a point now where we have to slowly plan things out. In part, because we spent all the money we had earmarked for house projects when we bought the house, but also because things move at a much slower pace with a newborn around. When I was 8 months pregnant, I was working 12 hour days in the house, and people thought that was crazy. It may have been, but now I can only work in one or two hour increments during naptime. So, in 2019, we’ll be moving a bit slower. Anywho, that’s the update for today. This house has come a looooooong way since our closing date, but she still has a long way to go before she is everything we envision. That’s all for today, friends. Have a fabulous day!

December 27, 2018 by
Home Decor, Room Tours

Our Baby Boy’s Nursery Reveal!

Hi, friends! I am so glad you’re here today! I am so excited to share this with you guys… I’ve been planning this post for months (nine months to be exact 🙂 ). I have been pretty ambiguous about nursery planning and baby stuff in general on social media. We didn’t even share the gender on social media until he was born! But now that our baby boy is finally here, I want to share the nursery details with you all!

This was a fun room for me, because it’s the first room I’ve ever designed completely before even starting. Toward the beginning of my pregnancy, we were still house hunting, so I had a mood board of what I was planning, but no idea what the room itself would actually look like! I couldn’t buy anything, because I had no idea how many windows to buy curtains for, how big of a rug to purchase, etc. I had to be incredibly patient, which was hard.

And then we bought the house at the end of July, but there was way more severe work to complete before I could even begin setting up the nursery. We basically purchased everything and set it up completely in one weekend, which was new for us. Every other room in our home has evolved over time, mostly as budget as allowed. This time, I spent months planning ahead of time, and then it all came together at once. Which was a pretty fun experience, in my opinion.

So anyway, I’m sure you want to see the nursery. I knew I wanted to use navy instead of the typical baby blue color, and I didn’t want a “theme.” The walls are the same color as the rest of our house, Polar Bear, by Behr. I wanted everything to have a neutral palette, with just touches of navy here and there.

I knew I wanted a white Jenny Lind crib long before I was ever pregnant. I just think it’s super classic, and I’ve always loved the look of them. The bedding is from Target, and the bedskirt is from IKEA. I love the crispness of all the white, I think it’s just timeless. The navy accent pillows are from Target, but don’t worry, it’s only in these photos for contrast. It doesn’t actually stay in there!

The art work was one of those moments the flea market gods are smiling down at you. I knew what I was looking for, and generally when you have something to specific in mind, you can never find it. We were shopping at my favorite flea market in Canton, TX when I spotted it. I usually will walk up to an item with a maximum budget of how much I’m willing to spend before I even inquire about the price. In my head, I knew I would be willing to spend about $50 on the piece, and when I asked the vendor how much she wanted for it, she offhandedly said, “oh, twenty bucks.” I could not get out of there fast enough! I practically grabbed the thing and ran! It had an old gaudy frame on it, which I removed and added a stained 1×2 wooded frame. It took me about fifteen minutes to make the frame, with supplies I had on hand in the garage.

The glider isn’t sold anymore, because it was a line sold at Babies’r’Us (RIP). We were able to get it for 50% off during their going-out-of-business sale.

I scored the accent table at the Canton flea market, from my favorite vendor, Canton Bill. He’s a precious elderly man with the best junk and the best prices. I snagged this table for $10, and I didn’t even have to haggle!

The dresser was mine as a child. I’ll be sharing more details about it in a later post, but the hardware is just from IKEA. The ottoman is from IKEA as well.

 

I made the curtain panels from fabric I found at Hobby Lobby, which is definitely the statement of the room. I always joke and say that my sewing skills are incredibly basic, the only thing I know how to make is curtains. 🙂 I only paid about $60 for the fabric to make four panels, and we have some pretty high ceilings in this 120 year old house!

 

This sweet rocking horse was a garage sale find. I snagged it from our old next door neighbors during a neighborhood wide garage sale. It was wooden with rainbow ribbon and beady eyes. I took everything off, sanded it down, and painted it with Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in the color Aviary. The rug is from Rugs USA, which I got on super sale, just how I roll.

Overall, I was going for a classic and timeless nursery, with lots of white, and touches of natural woods and navy gingham. I think nurseries can be so much more than an over simplified “zoo animal” or “nautical” theme. I didn’t want anything overly cartoon-ish, or baby-ish. I know that sounds silly because it is, after all, a baby’s room, but I also wanted a room that felt cohesive with the rest of our house, and somewhere I would enjoy spending time. I love the peaceful and relaxing feel this room has, and it is my favorite room in the house now!

So, what do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts! That’s all for today, friends. Have a fabulous day!

November 5, 2018 by
House Progress

Status Update – One Month In

Hi guys! So glad you’re here! I have been so busy just about every day I haven’t had a chance to sit here and tell you all how things are going at the house. It has been just about a month since we closed on the house, and in that time, school has started back up for me, so my schedule looks something like this: go to school (work), come home and eat a quick dinner, head to the house to work on projects, and then come home late just in time to quickly shower and collapse into bed. On the weekends, Ethan’s family has been helping us, and we are putting in twelve hour work days each weekend. Oh, and I am now what one would consider…. very pregnant. So, things are pretty crazy around here. We originally planned on moving in at the end of August despite the progress we were at, but we extended our lease on our rental for another month, so if all goes according to plan, we’ll be moving at the end of this month. And we’re really hoping things do go according plan, because my due date is looming closer and closer!

 

So, without further ado, let me show you all the things we’ve been working on! If you didn’t see the before pictures or our first status update, you may want to see those first. And, please remember, these photos are all iPhone photos taken mid-project and therefore not staged at all! There is some serious mess happening here.

So let me show you room by room. These projects are not necessarily in any order of completion, just by room.

 

Exterior 

Outside, we have powerwashed the front and side (the other side is covered in paint supplies and power tools and an old water heater so we haven’t powerwashed it yet). Basically powerwashing is my new favorite thing. We also did some major tree trimming, pulling out of weeds, hedge trimming, weed eating, edging, and mowing. The lot is pretty large and has a lot of trees, so this was a lot of work.

She looks a bit better from the front, now that the grass isn’t a foot tall, and tree branches aren’t blocking the view from the street. 🙂

I also took some hemp oil to the front door which was super dry and tired-looking. It was a super quick project (literally 20 minutes) that made a huge difference! Here’s the before:

And the after!

Again, no staged professional photos here. 🙂

The Front Bedroom 

As you know, one of the main projects was closing in the archway off the bedroom onto the weird carpeted porch. We (and by we, I mean Ethan, his dad, and brother) opened the wall, straightened the archway, added french doors. This room has been primed and ready for paint as well.

On the outside of the doors, the guys added a completely new porch. The existing sun porch was about six inches higher than the floor in the bedroom, and was just rotten plywood under the carpet. Gross, I know. The tore the entire thing out, put in new support beams on the ground, lowered the floor to the same height at the bedroom floor, and laid new deck boards.

Right now, it’s covered in excess materials from in the house, but you get the idea of what it will look like once it’s all cleaned, painted, the door has hardware, and cute rocking chairs on it.

This is the side of the house, and directly off the master bedroom, so I’m super excited about this spot.

The Living Room 

In the living room, the sub floor has been completely removed, the walls have been sheetrocked, and the ceilings have been painstakingly smoothed out after tearing down all the wallpaper.

The trim that belongs in this room has been de-nailed (which took forever), powerwashed (it smelled like cats still), primed, and painted in the garage. Once the floors are done and the walls are textured and painted, the trim will all be put back in place.

The Foyer 

The foyer was upholstered, so we took all of that down, and took what was probably 1,000 staples out of the shiplap. The shiplap has been sanded and primed, ready for paint. This is the only shiplap in the house that we will be leaving exposed. We also primed some of the the trim in this room as well. There is more painting to be done on the stairs (not all of it, don’t worry), but some of the stair treads need to be repaired first.

The Dining Room

This room has been exhaustingly spackled, the drywall repaired (by my mother-in-law and myself, I might add), textured, and primed. The ceiling has also been smoothed after the insane amount of wallpaper residue that was left. It is ready for paint! 🙂

The Kitchen 

In this room, we’ve primed the walls, ceiling, and trim. There were also some cracks that had to be repaired beforehand.

We are also eventually going to build out a portion of this room into a mudroom, so we are relocating all the plumbing (washer, dryer, and hot water heater) into the corner of the kitchen. This has been a huge ordeal for my father-in-law, Ethan, and his brothers. It involves a ton of crawling under the house to move plumbing hoses, and lots of things that I don’t fully understand. We are moving the washroom basically across the entire house, which has been a job. But, it has given me what is my favorite picture of Ethan ever taken.

There are still some finishing touches to be done before we can officially check this off the list, but this is where the eventual laundry room will go.

Also… a sneak peek at another project I’ve worked on! If you follow me on Instagram, you may have watched my stories documenting this project. I’m not ready to talk about it yet….because I’m still a little bitter and it may go down in history as a massive fail. I will keep you guys updated in a separate post on the outcome!

The First Floor Bathroom 

This room may just have a lighbulb dangling from the fixture hookup, but it has been primed and painted! Since it it the smallest room we will be painting, we did some experimenting with the paint color over the primer to test the coverage. So this is the only room that has actual paint! Exciting times, friends, exciting times! (It does need some touch ups, but let’s not talk about that.)

 

I don’t have a picture, but we’ve also prepped the upstairs nursery by sanding the spikey textured walls, filled in a ton of holes, and primed it for paint. Lots more to do, my friends, but so much has been done. It’s crazy to look at the progress we’ve made so far, but also I’m constantly freaking out about finishing in time. It’s a roller coaster of emotions! Everything takes so much longer than you think it will, and things are constantly coming up that we didn’t anticipate. Still though, this is one of the most exciting times for us. We can’t wait to move in!

I’ll keep you guys posted over the next few weeks about what we’re up to next. That’s all for today, friends. Have a fabulous day!

September 3, 2018 by
House Progress

Status Update: The First Weekend

Hey y’all! Thanks for stopping by! I’m starting a new series called “Status Update” today. The point of this series is going to be to recap the small things we’ve accomplished over a period of time. This isn’t going to be one tutorial or reveal, it’s not going to be for decorated rooms, it’s just going to be a gauge of progress on the house, and all the random things we’ve worked on.

If you haven’t seen the before pictures, you may want to start here because it has come a long way already. This was our first weekend in the house, so all of what we’ve done so far has been accomplished within a few days. We’re anxiously trying to get things done, as we’re under pretty tight time constraints (we plan to move in at the end of the month, so there are several projects that need to be done ASAP).

We closed on the house on Tuesday, and got to work on Wednesday. We started in the living room, which looked like this:

The carpets were infested with the smell of cat urine (#nevergettingacat). We rolled them up and got them out, which was a sweaty and incredibly stinky task.

We then started pulling down the upholstery on the walls, which also smelled of cat urine. It was stapled to the wall behind the trim and baseboards, so we ended up having to remove all the trim. By the end of Friday night, we had all the wall upholstery down, and pulled out the staples in the wall, which wasn’t easy.

Saturday we got up bright and early ready for a long work day. Ethan wanted to start with some plumbing issues, so while he replaced a pipe on the exterior of the house and a piece on the inside of the toilet, I started tearing down the textured wallpaper on the ceiling of the dining room.

The wallpaper on the ceiling in the living room and dining room both needed to come down, but it was so difficult. It actually still isn’t 100% done. We tried several different methods, including water and vinegar with a scraper, scoring the ceiling with a knife and pulling it off dry, and sanding it off with a sander. Eventually, we ended up getting a heavy duty wallpaper remover, applied it with a pesticide sprayer, and peeling it off. It was time consuming and took the majority of the day with one or both of us working on it.

(This was taken after about 12 hours of working on the house. Which explains the look of death on our faces. 🙂 )

Sunday morning we arrived to this, which is all the paper we had scraped from the ceiling. We cleaned it and turned our attention to the floor. So far we had removed the carpet and carpet pad, and planned to scrape the linoleum. The original parts of the house have the original hardwood beneath them, so we assumed they were beneath the linoleum. We (and by we, I mean Ethan. This was all him.) started scraping, but we couldn’t tell what the condition of the wood was because there was so much glue on it. I took a hand sander to it just to test it out, and we realized it was just a large sheet of plywood under the linoleum. Subfloor.

We were super bummed because we really wanted hardwood, and we didn’t have it. We made a plan to put in carpet until we could afford traditional hardwoods at a later date. I started researching wall to wall carpeting, and we planned on scrubbing the floor and painting a layer of Kilz over the linoleum to mask any remaining odor before having carpet installed. I did not like this plan, but I knew it was one of those things we were going to have to compromise on in the short term.

So we are prepping the floor to start painting, and Ethan sees along the edge where we removed the baseboards something that he thinks might be hardwood under the subfloor. So then this happens: 

So before we know it, we’re pulling up the plywood to find the original hardwood underneath. Praise the Lord. In modern homebuilding, a plywood subfloor goes below where you would lay hardwoods. But, this house has had 123 years of different owners and different repairs and additions made, so there’s no telling who did what and when they did it. Ethan kept asking me when I was going to stop asking questions…because when it comes to this house, nothing makes sense! Our current plan is to refinish the hardwood in this room, as well as the other rooms that have the same wood.

So this is where we ended the weekend. The plywood came up without too much difficulty, but Ethan is going out of town for work this week, so we had to call it quits early. Overall, we did a lot more destruction than construction, which makes you feel like you haven’t really done anything but make a mess. Overall though, we got a lot done. Now we just have to start putting it back together. No pressure.

Next weekend Ethan’s family will be in town to help with some projects, so we’re hoping to knock out a few things. We’re currently in a race to get things moving so we can get this place as livable as possible before we have to move in. There is so much to do, but I am optimistic that we will be able to get done the top priority things. Everything else can be done after we move in, and we will be working on this house for the next few years, but for now, we’ve got our work cut out for us. Stay tuned for the next status update. That’s all for today, friends. Have a fabulous day!

August 5, 2018 by
House Progress, Room Tours

The New House: The Before

Alrighty, friends, I shared the other day that we just bought a house, and we are so so excited about it! If you didn’t read that post, you can check out the entire story here.

Today I wanted to share some of the pictures of the house as it is, and talk about our plans for some things. Be forewarned though – these are rough! The rest of this post is going to be a whole lot of ugly, so scroll through at your own risk.

The Exterior 

Let’s start with the exterior. It needs a bit of work, I don’t love the color, and the yard is a mess. But, of course it is so charming with all the gingerbread trim, and so it’s not hard to envision what it could look like with some love. It’s a historic home on our city’s register of historic buildings, which means there are some regulations about what we are able to do to the house. The interior is basically fair game, but the exterior facade has to remain the same for the most part. Thankfully, this does not include paint color.

 

The Foyer 

When you walk in the front door, you walk into this small foyer with a stairway to the second floor. It’s teeny tiny, and definitely over a century old because the stairway doesn’t have much headroom, but it does have some gorgeous craftsmanship.

The Master Bedroom

The master is the only bedroom on the first floor, and it is what was once the original parlor of the house. It needs some serious work, as you can see there is an archway that leads out onto a porch here. The porch has a plexiglass cover, but it is definitely not a permanent solution (although I believe it’s been that way for about 30 years). We plan on putting in a functioning door, and walling in the arch. Then we’ll remove the plexiglass on the porch and have a porch off the master bedroom.

The Living Room 

The living room is eerily quiet when you walk in. That’s because it’s one of the few rooms that has carpet, and the walls are upholstered. From my understanding, upholstered walls are period appropriate for the era of the house, but this was a reproduction done in the 80’s or 90’s. Under the carpet is linoleum, and hopefully below that is the same gorgeous hardwood that’s in the master bedroom. Pulling up the linoleum is going to be a pretty serious job though, so we’ll see how that goes.

The Dining Room 

The dining room and kitchen were actually added to the house later on, they are at the far back of the house. I’m not sure when this portion of the house was added, but none of the features are original. The family that lived here from the 1980’s to the mid 2000’s did add the fireplace, and they definitely chose thoughtfully something that would work well with the original portion of the house.

The Kitchen 

The final room downstairs is the kitchen. Like I said, this is not original to the house, and is a true homage to the 1980’s.  This is where the back door leads, and it is actually a very large kitchen. We aren’t sure exactly how we want to use the space yet, but we plan on doing a “Phase One” cosmetic remodel to the kitchen, before doing a full gut job and reconfiguration of the space. Some thoughts we have may be to build out a laundry room/pantry/mudroom, and to eventually add a traditional stairway here to replace the spiral staircase. Since these things require some serious construction, it’ll probably be a few years before that happens.

The Upstairs Bedrooms 

Upstairs, there are three bedrooms and a creepy little carpeted bathroom. The bedrooms all have hardwood, which is original to the home, but in need of some TLC. The layout is a bit wonky, but what old house isn’t? The bedroom that is currently painted blue will be used as the nursery, although it may not be finished before baby gets here. Which is just what my planning personality can handle. 😉 The other two bedrooms will serve as guestroom and office, until we have need of more bedrooms. Thankfully, all the rooms have closets, pretty doors and hardware.

We’ve started doing some of the work already, so these photos are already outdated. We have been waiting for such a long time to start a project like this, it is so incredibly exciting for us. I’m sure it will be stressful and frustrating at times, and things will be dragged out far longer than we anticipate. As of right now, we plan to get as much of the “top priority” work done this month, and move in at the end of the month. We haven’t done much to prepare for baby’s arrival this fall, because we’re going to be moving! God sure has a sense of humor when it comes to timing!  The entire project will take several years, but we are going to do things at the rate of the cash we have to spend, and so we know it’ll take a while. It’s going to be a long lesson in patience, contentment, and hard work to say the least!

Thanks for checking out the before pictures. Make sure you check back as we continue the process! That’s all for today, friends. Have a fabulous day!

 

August 2, 2018 by
Personal

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

Yup. You read that right. If you’ve been here for any amount of time, you know that for the last several years, we’ve been renting. We’ve always wanted to buy a house that needs work, and work on making improvements on it together. For four years since we’ve been married, we’ve saved money, paid off tons of debt, and waited patiently for this dream to become a reality. Being patient hasn’t always been easy, and we’ve been super frustrated in our rental homes.

But now, finally, we have our own house! I’ll be sharing some interior before pictures soon, but I wanted to share with you guys the story of this house with you guys. Our original plan was to purchase a “starter home,” make improvements to it, and sell it within a few years. We ended up finding this house that we thought we might be looking for in about ten years. It’s on a historic street where we live, with lots of beautiful homes. Picture the kind of street you drive down when you go look at Christmas lights. It’s actually the street that the local Christmas and 4th of July parade go down. It’s a little slice of americana, if you will. Many of the homes on this street have been re-done already (read: expensive), and this is one of the last ones that still need work. It was built in 1895 if you can believe it!

There was no way we should have been able to get this house. When it first came on the market, it was well out of our price range. We noticed it when it came on the market, but didn’t want to go look at it because it was just too high for us. It sat for a while, slowly dropping in price, but still beyond what we wanted to pay. Finally, it dropped in price again, this time somewhere in the range of where we were thinking, but still just a bit more than we were hoping to spend.

We called our realtor and asked about going to look at it and possibly putting in a low offer. He obliged us, even though we may have been crazy for wanting to put in a lower offer. We looked at it, absolutely loved it, but weren’t sure if the sellers would consider a lower offer, especially after having lowered the price already. We didn’t want to get our hopes up, but we really loved it, so that was difficult to say the least. Our realtor contacted the listing agent and asked if they would be willing to consider the amount we were hoping to get it for. They came back with a number that was still higher than we were hoping, so we thought it was going to be over.

But then, the next day, the listing agent called back and said that the sellers agreed to come all the way down to the price we were wanting! There is absolutely no way that should have happened. It was totally a God thing.

But if that wasn’t enough, we had another crazy God moment when we went to the 4th of July parade. On the 4th, we had already put in an offer and it had been accepted. We decided to go to the parade (remember, the parade route goes right down the street this house sits on), and set up our chairs in front of the house that we would soon be buying. We noticed that there was a family sitting on the front steps, and I curiously wondered if they were the owners (the house was empty when we looked at it). I decided to introduce myself just because and ask them if they were the owners. It turns out that they weren’t, but they had lived in it for over twenty years from the 80’s until the mid 2000’s. They had done many updates and knew a ton of historic information about it. They were so kind and so excited that we were going to be purchasing the house.

They were so sweet they even insisted we take this picture which is such a treasure! We met Paula, and her daughter, who grew up in the house. They had such fond memories of their time in this house, and we’re excited to honor this historic home and continue the long legacy it has.

I know this post has been incredibly lengthy already, so I’ll wrap it up. We are so excited to roll up our sleeves and get to work on this thing! And obviously there will be lots to share here, so stay tuned. That’s all for today, friends. Have a fabulous day!

 

July 31, 2018 by