Let The Projects Begin!

It was such a nice day yesterday ... the high was about 50 degrees (or 10 degrees Celsius for my non-USA friends). SO much nicer than the 20 and 30 degree temps we've had lately! I think my husband had a bit of cabin fever this winter (who hasn't!?), and yesterday, he decided to do a little project outside. A new side entry door for our garage!

It look a little (okay, a lot) of effort on his part to dismantle the old structure, and re-structure for the new door ... evvveeeerrrrrrryyyyything is SO NOT level - both the garage and our house! That's what we get for purchasing a house built in 1909!

But, he kept at it, and now we have a new door! We (okay, HE) still needs to fix the siding above the door and paint and such, but looks good for a little Saturday afternoon project!

Here's a little visual of the BEFORE (taken almost one year ago ... March 29, 2010) ... before we scraped, primed, and painted the whole garage for the fabulous HUD requirements! I'd say that's quite the improvement!

Also to the garage, last fall, we (okay, again HE) installed a new garage door and opener! Upcoming garage projects:

• Fixing the siding on the back of the garage. A previous owner chopped parts of it apart for rabbit cages, and another previous owner decide to patch the "holes" with crappy-looking pieces of wood. Chris is going to repair it so it looks somewhat decent!
• We also have a huge shelf at the back of the garage's interior ... like, a good 5 feet high, and at least 5 feet deep ... he's ripping that out so we have more room in the garage. He's also building a work bench so he can use that space to work on cutting wood, etc for the house interior projects!

Watch for more house updates ... you know I'll be posting them! :-)

Bathroom Reno Inspiration

I'm in renovation dream land. Our upstairs bathroom is in need of some help.

We'll see what happens this new year. Possibly a reno?

The photo below is what the room looked like before we moved in. I'm too lazy right now to take a picture of it's current condition, but the difference now is that the walls are a dark latte color, all the trim has been ripped off, curtain down, flying fish down. We planned to replace the base after painting, but hubby decided not to put fresh trim on because "we're going to just rip it apart anyway." One sentence description it's current state?

--> Not much better, perhaps worse.

No, this room doesn't APPEAR to be in need of a complete re-do. And I agree with that partially...it's not a "must do right now" type of thing. However, I have a few points to make:

• The door you see leads to an upper deck. It's an old door, and if the wind blows hard enough, the door flies open. Not good if we aren't home. To replace the door, we would need to re-frame the door. Behind that wall is plaster. Plaster doesn't come off nicely...so we figure if we're going to make a mess, let's just make a BIG mess at all at once and get this room taken care of for good.
• The tub and surround needs replacing ... again, doesn't look bad in the pic, but its old and the paint is chipping away. The previous owners decided to paint (PAINT!?) the old tub instead of replacing. (Why OH why!?)
• Moving forward, those lights are hideous. Once we take those down, there will have to be lots of repair to that bulkhead, and from what we discovered in regards to the other bathroom's electrical situation, I'd say we have some electrical work to do under there, too.
• More lighting, there is a light/fan unit on the ceiling that you can't see in this picture. Again, from the condition the other bathroom was in, I'm sure this needs full-out replacing as well. I wonder if this one even vents outside? The last one just vented into the ceiling. NICE.
• The floor. After moving in, we found drip pans full of water in the drop ceiling of our kitchen. EEK. Which is directly below this bathroom. So, I'm willing to bet the floor underneath the nasty vinyl is not in very good condition. We wonder if the water came from A) The door blowing open and water getting in and leaking thru the floor, or B) The toilet, which we had a heck of a time getting to work because of leaking issues. Either way, my money is on the floor being just nasty under there.
• Lastly, can a girl just ask for a pretty bathroom? Marble or granite counter? Yes please! Double hung mirrors instead of an out-dated full mirror? YES PLEASE! New plumbing to accommodate double sinks? HECK YES! Open linen closet? Wooo hoo, see below for inspiration!

Hello, Inspiration:

And in case you're at all interested, this is our lower level full bath reno project from this past summer:

Within 107 Days We Have ...

We have owned our house for 107 days.

I got this post idea from Nicole. She posted the items they have accomplished on their home over the last year, and she as well made a list of what they plan to do in the next year. I thought it would be neat to have this post to look back on, at ALL the progress we made in such a short amount of time.

The following is a list of what we have ALREADY done in this short 107 days, and what we PLAN TO DO/STILL NEED TO FINISH.

ALREADY DONE:

Kitchen (also where our laundry area lives):

• Removed wallpaper + border
• Primed + Painted
• Removed cabinets overhead the island
• Switched out all the outlet covers to brushed nickel covers
• Removed old nasty window coverings
• Ripped out the linoleum
• Ripped out the carpet
• Re-did the subfloor
• Leveled the floor
• New flooring
• Removed + replaced all the baseboard
• New storm door
• New door casing
• New washer + dryer
• New fridge
• Some new accessories + counter height table (LOVE)
• New vents

A few more pics:

Downstairs Full Bath:

• Gutted entire bathroom down to the studs (besides shower), which includes removing all the plaster + lathes
• Moved the toilet + plumbing over
• Moved the plumbing to vanity over
• Completely new floor
• Completely new ceiling
• Removed built in cabinet by shower
• Insulation + drywall
• Texturized the walls
• New window + frame + sill
• New flooring
• New vanity + faucet
• New base + casing + molding
• New accessories
• Primed + painted twice
• New bathroom fan/light + work to make it actually vent outside
• New over head vanity lighting
• New vanity mirror
• New widow treatments
• New vent
• Plus all new accessories

Dining Room + Sitting Room Combo Space:

• Removed wall paper + border
• Repaired the damaged walls
• Removed old nasty window coverings
• Primed + painted
• New baseboard + casing
• Removed carpet
• Leveled the floors
• New wood-look laminate flooring
• Removed ugly details from fireplace
• New vents
• New accessories + furniture

Living Room:

• All the same things as the dining room

Entry Way:

• Completely removed the floor + underneath
• Re-structured entire entryway (5 feet under)
• Removed base + casing
• Primed + Painted
• New flooring
• New accessories

Stairway to 2nd Level:

• Removed plaster + lathe on side to repair damage
• New drywall on that side
• Removed carpet
• Re-structured some stairs for support
• Texturized all the walls
• New carpet
• Primed + painted
• Primed baseboard + trim around window

Upstairs Hallway:

• Removed base + casing
• Removed carpet
• Removed top of half wall (this is where staircase comes up, sort of a stair rail...)
• Removed all plaster + lathe from half wall
• Dry walled half wall
• Texturized entire hallway
• New vents
• Primed + painted
• New carpet
• New base + casing

Each of the 3 Bedrooms:

• Removed wall paper
• Removed old nasty window coverings
• Removed carpets
• Removed base + casing + window trim
• Removed wood paneling in 1 room
• New vents
• New carpet
• New base + casing + trim
• Texturized all the walls
• Primed + painted

Upstairs Full Bathroom:

• Removed base + casing
• Primed and painted

Exterior:

• Scraped, primed, + painted 3 decks/porches + garage
• New rock bed w/wood frame around the garage
• Deleted one rock bed from middle of yard (just moved the rocks from there to around garage). See picture below:

Other:

• Actually MOVED IN!
• Hired a plumber to clean out our pipes leading to sewer
• Got a puppy (what the HELL was I thinking?)

This is Maddie, our 3 month old Border Collie/Blue Heeler mix.

LEFT TO DO:

Upstairs Full Bathroom:

For now:

• Finish paint details for a sharper look
• Re-finish the shower/tub (maybe just get a new one...?)
• New interior door
• New storm door (a must before winter)
• New base + molding
• New light fixture

Long Term Goal (after a year or two):

• Completely re-do the bathroom, including:
• New shower/tub
• New vanity + mirror + lighting
• Knock out built in cabinet + build exposed shelving
• New flooring
• Plus everything else that a bathroom re-model would include

Garage:

• New garage door + new steel entry door
• Update electricity out there
• Use new windows found sitting in garage and add some windows to the garage

Exterior of house:

• I'd love to get it re-painted in the next few years. It's aluminum siding and is looking a bit dingy
• Re-vamp the flower/bush beds all around the house ... just make them look cleaner, and well, better
• Shutters
• Re-finish wood on decks/porches (the part you walk on)

Kitchen:

• I'd love new countertops (Quartz...but at $60 sq/ft this will have to wait)
• New garbage disposal
• Window treatments
• (I love that this list is so short!)

Entryway:

• Finish putting on the casing + base
• New storm door
• New entry door (maybe just paint it?)

Stairs:

• Finish painting base + trim
• New top for the half wall (will be made of wood)

Hallway Upstairs:

• Finish top detail on half wall
• New doors (5 all together) + new brushed nickel door handles
• Paint Ceiling
• Paint trim between wall and ceiling
• Re-finish built in cabinet in the hallway + new hardware
• Window treatment

Downstairs Full Bath:

• Fix outlet cover
• Hang towel bar

Bedrooms:

• Window treatments
• Outlet covers
• New molding between walls and ceiling
• Paint Ceilings
• New closet doors + hardware
• Re-finish built in cabinet in 1 bedroom (+ new hardware)

Watch for updates! :-)

A Whole Slew Of Some More Recent Photos...

Are you sick of my house progress yet!?

My plants ... yes, I take pride in my plants! I've been waiting a long time to be able to have my own flowers at my OWN house (hehe) ... the blue flowers are doing great, but the geraniums just won't bloom! Hopefully soon ...

The bedroom "befores" and "durings." They are quite ugly right now!

Ahhhh, my finished sitting room + dining room ... well, obviously not furnished or decorated, but remodel wise -- all done! Same with the living room (not pictured here really).... excuse the dust. We have a lot of it going on right now!

Downstairs bathroom .... in this pic we finally had a floor, walls, ceiling, new window ... the necessities! LOL.

The same space as of last night! Woo hooo, almost done. The window frame in, walls painted, base put in, etc, etc! Now we're working on the final details .... actually attaching the vanity + plumbing + facuet .... installing the toilet .... mirror .... lighting .... fan .... wiring ..... etc, etc, etc! Stay tuned!

Long Time, No Blog

We are now onto bigger projects!

Bathroom:

I wanted to just change out the vanity for a new one, paint, and get new flooring.

Weeeellll, that has quicky evolved into a $3,000+ project! And we are not done yet.

To say the least, the bathroom has been stressful. After pulling out the vanity, and taking down some of the wall paper, we discovered mold. Everywhere. Behind the vanity. Behind the wall paper. Up in the ceiling. Then we discovered the floor was rotted out.

SO ... the entire bathroom (minus the shower + tub) had to be ripped down to the studs. This photo was even BEFORE other things were removed. At one point, there was no floor, no supports, nothing - just the basement when you looked down!

I'm happy to report that the floor has been re-structured, the walls are rebuilt, we got a new window installed, all new electrical, the fan installed PROPERLY (the whole reason for the mold mess to begin with...), and now the drywall is up and has been mudded. All that is left to do is put the texture on the walls, paint, install the flooring, and put everything back in order: toilet, vanity, plumbing hookup, and my favorite part ... DECORATING.

And then we have the other full bath to remodel ... SOMEDAY. ;-)

Moving on....

Kitchen:

I feel like the house has been a constant disaster zone for 1.5 months now. The dust from cutting all the wood.... the dust from leveling the floors and sanding, and just junk everywhere! I hate messes!

This photo of the kitchen is actually HARDLY a mess compared to what it has/had turned into! This was just from wall paper removal, when life was easy and my bank account was full, LOL!

Since the above photo, we have de-wallpapered, painted, gotten new floors, appliances, and new base. You can see the before and "almost" after photo at the bottom of this post ... it's much further along now even than in the "almost" after photo ... I need to take some new ones this week!

Dining/Living Room/Combo:

Again, messes. Everywhere. At. All. Times.

And again, this photo is OLD. See more of an update at the bottom of this post for the "almost" after.

Since "almost" after photo was taken, we've gotten the baseboard in, and also got a new leather chair + ottoman and a cute side table.

Front Entryway:

We were going to put new flooring in the front entry way of our home too (this room is not pictured anywhere). Well, little did we know, the entire structure was rotted wood. The wood was SO BAD that you could pick it up and crumble it like dried out leaves in autumn ... SERIOUSLY - how did we not fall through that!? So, I'm sure it sounds like an easy project ... just re-structuring the entryway ... well not so much folks!

The entry way was not part of the original structure. When it was built, there was no vapor barrier installed at all and no insulation. SO, being that it was pretty much exposed to all the elements, the entire structure was rotting. Under the flooring, the structure went down about 5 feet or so ... so all of that down in there had to be gutted and fixed so it was built properly. That project alone probably cost us $1,000.

Now, the floor is solid (as it very well should be, haha) and I got the walls painted yesterday. Just the floor has to be installed on Monday, and then we can add the base in there. Then that will be done!

Monday will be a very good day!

THEN, it's working on the upstairs ... which has become it's own disaster zone.

More to come on that later! :-)

The "Almost" Afters:

Can't wait to post the NEWER versions of these rooms!

And, hopefully by MONDAY, the bathroom will also be COMPLETE!

Stay Tuned!

Our HOUSE!

It's official - we are homeowners as of today!

As if that wasn't exciting enough for one day, we also picked out flooring today for the entire main level ... and started the remodeling/re-doing process!

Some things we did today:

• Removed cabinetry above kitchen island - what a difference ... its so much more open now!
• Removed wall paper from 1/2 of the kitchen
• Removed the old hardware and knobs from all 36 (YES - 36) kitchen cabinets
• Replaced 8 knobs on the kitchen cabinets (they were our "models" and they passed)
• Removed all the switch plates and outlet covers (will be replaced with brushed nickel covers)
• Removed draperies/window treatments
• Installed new door locks on front and back doors

More tomorrow!

Yesterday was Day 2

Ok, so I'm going to blog about this whole house thing because, of course, it'll be neat to look back at someday.

Yesterday I went between 1st part of work and 2nd part of work to try and ShopVac some of the (million-and-one) paint chips from the lawn, by the garage, by the deck .... and everywhere in between. I had about 45 min of good vacuuming when the thing lost suction. So, I was done doing that. I'm a girl and I'm not cleaning out a dusty dirty grassy nasty clogged ShopVac. ;-)

Went back after work and Chris and Josh were there. Josh was now on vac duty. Chris was beginning to prime the garage. (I will never go back on my word when I say Chris got the easy job of priming .... thanks to our new paint sprayer contraption ... although he'll tell you he had the hard job. No way, buddy). I got the fun job of scraping again .... the deck and some window frames.

Then it was finally time to begin priming the deck. Literally, it was awesome. I could prime any day over scraping!

(BTW .... that sweatshirt is a men's XXL ... which is why I look like a giant marshmallow).

My mom came over and my friend Katelyn was there too and we all worked on priming the deck some more. I'd say we got half done. Today I need to get a shrub scissors thing and trim the shrubs so we can actually finish scraping the deck and priming it. (I hate deck spindles, btw!)

Today, between work, I went over there again and primed a little more of the deck ... and I also got about 1/4 of the front porch primed as well.

Hopefully after we got done tonight, I'll have a lot more progress to share!

We better get this {beep}ing loan .... or all this work and money out of our pockets (which we pay regardless of what happens) will have been a waste....stay tuned.

615

So, we are in the middle of buying a house.

615 is the house number.

For the type of loan we are getting, there is work required before we can even buy it. All work that come out of our own pockets and time. Everything has to be up to code before we can get the loan.

These are the items we must do before it can pass:

• Scrape/Paint exterior of detached garage
• Scrape/Paint exterior basement windows & front windows – wood trim
• Scrape/Paint Front/Rear porches/decks where chipping/peeling paint is present
• make sure all paint chips are not left laying on the ground

Today, after spending $60 on just scraping supplies, we scraped the entire garage. Chris was there for 7 hours straight, I came after work for about 3 hours til it was done. We had a slew of people helping off and on: my mom, our friend Josh, and even our Realtor.

I'm really pleased the garage is done. Now to paint it. That's the easy part. The scraping really sucks, but what sucks even worse, is getting EVERY paint piece off the ground. We just left it for tonight, in the daylight tomorrow I'm going to try to shop vac most of it up. We'll see how that goes.

Here are some pictures from today. Yes, we do plan to get a new door:

Dinner. Hopefully our dinner tomorrow night will be, um, a little more home cooked.

Don't let his smile fool you. This is all for the camera:

These smiles, also fake. And GOOD LORD, is that really what I looked like today?!

More tomorrow!

Top 10 Reasons I Want To Buy A House

1) Garage to park my car (to keep it safe, and to not have to remove snow, scrape ice, etc)

2) To be able to have a washer/dryer that won't wreck my clothes

3) Have whatever I want inside my house (pet-wise)

4) Have my own office space

5) Have space to go when I need time away from my husband

6) Put in kitchen + bathroom floors that don't constantly look dirty even when they're clean

7) A space my kitchen table will actually fit in

8) Being able to spruce a place up all HGTV style

9) Not have to pay rent; our money will actually go back to us (after 30 years anyway!)

10) Having a house will mean: I will have a full time teaching job