Hey ya'll! I'm back! I've kinda been a hot mess lately, crammed in a bedroom with two cats who think they're mini-buffaloes, living off Papa John's, and struggling to form a coherent thought amidst the dust and noise. So, thank you for bearing with me during this weird-house-limbo-time. Despite the dust, I'm so excited, and we're finally making progress. So, I've got some fun things to share with you today. Cats + pepperoni pizza + dust = life. If you watched last week's video of Jesse smashing his way through the wall, you probably knew what was coming. We started by knocking down the wall between the kitchen and dining room, and then somehow ended up knocking down another wall, too. So, let's start with the dining room wall first. You may remember that this wall has had several different looks. It started out with ugly orange trim all over it when we first moved in. I painted that trim as fast as I could. This little dining room was the first room I ever painted in this house, and it was so exciting to see the orange trim disappear under white paint. This room marks the beginning of my descent into paint-everything-white-madness. On the opposite side of that wall, in the kitchen, I painted a chalkboard surround and some thrift store stools. I also painted the outdated tile on the countertop, which was a huge improvement from the 1970's colors of yesteryear it previously sported. Later on (seen here), I painted the trim around the look-through white and spray painted those same stools silver. It looked much so better, but if I'm being totally honest, I still didn't love it. It was a cute little area, but totally not functional for our life. Whenever we have people over, I usually end up sitting on my kitchen countertops with 10 people crammed into this little kitchen space, all probably annoyed with me that there's nowhere to sit. Hostess with the mostest. Crowned five years and running. That's a lie. Awhile back, a good friend was over and we were sitting at this uncomfortable little bar area and she looked at me and said, 'You know...you should knock down this wall.' I looked at her like she had absolutely lost her mind. I mean, who do you think I am? A Fraggle Rock Doozer? But, Margaret totally planted a seed in my head that never went away, and for nearly a year now I've wanted to karate chop this wall straight to the ground. When it came time to rip up the floors, I knew that if I was going to remove the wall, now was the time. Especially since we were putting the hardwood floor through the kitchen. So, late one night, Jesse and I began to take down the wall. We started by removing the trim off of the door and the look-through. The trim was pretty easy to remove, but the countertop removal basically turned into an archaeological dig, and Jesse had to smash a bunch of tile to get to the 800 screws someone fastened this thing with. The #1 question I got after painting that tile countertop was about whether or not it was durable. Well, since the paint is still intact after getting sledgehammered, yes, it has proven to be very durable indeed. If you have some old 1970's tile stinking up the aesthetics of your house somewhere, I still highly recommend that epoxy paint. Totally works. So, Jesse removed the countertop with some manly force. I mostly stood there with a camera, entertaining Jesse with song, dance, and moral support. Once the trim and countertop were gone, we left the rest of the wall for our contractor to finish. By the next day, the wall was mostly gone. There was a big beam (not structural) and some wiring to be dealt with, so the wall stayed partially cut out like this for a little while. Take a quick moment to notice the 1970's linoleum we found underneath the tile. Not that I want that on my kitchen floor, but it kinda reminded me of backsplash tile. You've come full circle, little linoleum. So, in the below picture, I drew some arrows to show you how much farther we took the wall out. In a perfect world, I would gut the ceiling in the kitchen and vault it like the rest of the house, but that's a project for someone who isn't me. So, my next best option was to remove the electrical stuff and the beams and make the wall flush with the ceiling and side of the house. So, eventually last week, that finally happened. And I've basically spent my week running back and forth, leaping and celebrating. It completely changed the way this space feels, and I will finally be able to comfortably fit a table in the dining room. I've not had a dining room table for over 2 years, so the day that finally happens, we're going to celebrate. You and me...so get ready. We still have to trim it out, and paint it, and all sorts of other stuff, but you get the idea. The stair rail has also been partially removed, leaving a nice hole in the middle of my house. The new one should be getting started soon, but no updates on that just yet. Just for perspective, here's that same area when we first moved in. And here's the current condition, with a bit of flooring finally installed. Sidenote: I'm pretty sure I'm going to whitewash the stone fireplace. I'm going to wait until after the floors are done, so that I can see how everything looks together, but my gut tells me that that 1970's rock has GOT to go. I know half of you are going to freak, and half of you are going to celebrate, but I'm pushing forward. I also have no idea if it will even work, but let's gamble, shall we? I also want to replace the last of the outdated forrest green light fixtures in the living room. They each hold approximately 400 dead bugs at all times. You can climb a ladder, clean them out, and there will be 400 new bug corpses by Friday. Sometimes I'm pretty sure someone is putting them in there just to mess with me. Here are a few more pics for perspective. Here's a view from the opposite way, from when we first moved in. And then sometime last year. And now today, with a hint of new flooring. This is actual hardwood, rather than engineered flooring, so it's just raw wood right now and doesn't have any stain on it yet. I am having quite the situation over picking out a stain color. It's a big commitment, and frankly, I just want to run away and never return. I'm staining some samples this week and will share my thoughts in my next post. I've decided I don't want to go super dark anymore (thanks to all of your wise suggestions and stories of lint and dust), and part of me kinda likes the natural wood. Totally didn't see that coming. So, obviously, I'm kinda all over the place with my decision. To be continued on that one. Jesse totally doesn't understand my mania over choosing a stain color, and his usual input involves something like 'Yeah, sounds good to me. I like all of the colors.' The below picture, taken at Señor Taco (home of the best burritos ever), probably does an accurate job of depicting how I look at him every time he tells me he likes ALL the colors. Anyways, we'll cross that stain bridge when we get there. For now, let's move on to the next wall that got knocked down. See that little doorway? There used to be a very old, very dysfunctional pocket door there, and it leads into the hallway. It's insanely narrow and drives us both crazy. Here's another view of it after we took the carpet up. Still narrow and still annoying. Once we took the dining room wall down, the tiny hallway door seemed even more awkward. So, we decided to remove a big chunk of wall there, too, and open up that little doorway. And it's awesome. It makes the whole space feel different. It also completely opens up the hallway and will make my laundry situation a little less cramped. This hallway leads to the guest bedroom (at the end of the hall), the office (to the left of the guest bedroom), the laundry space, the striped guest bathroom (to my immediate left), and then behind me, the master bedroom. Just to give you some perspective, here is a crazy picture of what this hallway looked like when we first moved in. This below picture is taken from the same angle as the picture above. I apologize if you have nightmares about this hallway of horrors. I know I did. So, as you can tell, it's really come a long way since we moved in. Thank goodness. Here are a couple more views of this area today. Again, we still have to trim everything out, and paint everything, so squint your eyes. There's still so much to be done, but I'm so excited now that I can kind of tell what it will all look like when it's all done. It truly feels like a different house. And my brain is going crazy with ideas. I'm basically starting over with most of the rooms because my taste has totally changed since I decorated our rooms the first time around. A few good things will remain, but tons will change. So it's going to be really fun, and there's going to be so much to blog about. We'll all look back fondly upon this time as 'The Great Blogging Drought of 2014'. Before I go, since my last post, many of you have sent Tootie your love, wishing her a quick recovery from her cat depression. She thanks you, and wishes to tell you that she is kinda enjoying living in the master bedroom, napping next to me on the human bed while I blog. She occasionally still gets depressed over her inability to freely roam the house, but she's doing her best to keep a positive attitude. I'll be holding her tiny paw until it's all over, don't you worry. Cheese has no comment. That's all for today, ya'll. I've still got another week or two of chaos ahead of me, so thank you for being patient with me. I love ya for it. 'Til next time. P.S. The other posts in the House Makeover series can be found here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10 Follow my blog with Follow my blog on or or Subscribe to LiveLoveDIY with email! Enter your email address: -->
After four years of living in the Airstream, the ol’ girl was looking a little rough around the edges. We knew it was time to do a little Airstream remodel and refresh. (You can see pictures of what it looked like when we first remodeled it here and the first before and afters here.) The […]
Beginning Our Laundry Room Renovation | Young House Love
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I have a crush On an American Dream... Of getting in my Airstream... And living free untethered - unplugged completely off the grid. I want to start with an old one and restore it with some personality. Make it fit me, a little bit dignified, a little bit playful, a little bit fierce Living space, studio space... Free as a bird Completely alone in a aluminum cocoon (Well... perhaps with the company of a good dog!) where anything is possible owning little beyond the travel trailer and the truck that hauls it. but living a rich full life. A life that is full of laughter and wonder. I wanna live that life where I can put aside their expectations... and reach for something deeper, more honest, more real. I just can't wait to get on the road again! Happy Trails, -Carmen Rose
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Hi!!! Welcome to our home! Think of this as a virtual open house and you are invited! So come on in, grab some imaginary cheese wedges and punch, and take a look around! After 6 months of a hard core renovation, our home is starting to look more put together. Many of our rooms are still in progress but we will be updating things as we go. Please, have a look around. December 2013 marked the "end" to a major renovation on our home. We tackled A LOT during that time. Exterior. Our most recent project. We tore down the single care garage and built a mudroom and 3 car garage. Plus we added a space above the garage to build an in-law suite should we need it in the future. Plus Plus we built a wrap around porch!!!! Which is basically the best thing ever (you know, other than Jesus, my husband, and my child.) The Plan: We still need to do a lot of landscaping... or any at all. We plan to build a rock retaining wall in the front due to our rather steep front yard. We'd love to have a fire pit area and a play set area in the back. Foyer. We added an overhead light and upgraded the trim. We added hooks for coats. We also switched out the front door and the door to the upstairs. The Plan: -Eventually, knock the wall down to reveal the stairs, install beautiful railing. Living Room. We removed the window to the left of the fireplace. Added trim to mantel and installed a beefy wood mantel. We knocked down the wall to the kitchen and then widened the opening into entryway. We upgraded the window and the opening trim. We removed the carpet and refinished the floors throughout the house. Full disclosure: this is what our everyday living room looks like. But for the purposes of this home tour, I cleaned up for ya'll. We love our view of the river! The Plan: -Built-in bookshelves around fireplace -Crown molding Dining Room. We upgraded the trim and light fixture. The wall between the dining room and kitchen is gone. We added beadboard wainscoting to tie the two rooms together. We upgraded the door that leads to the garage. The Plan: -Paint Door -Replace some of the more rickety chairs Kitchen. The kitchen was closed off from the rest of the house so we opened up two walls. We nixed the soffit and the door leading to the outside. We closed off the doorway to the hall in order to make room for the refrigerator. We added hardwood to the kitchen to create a better flow from room to room. Added an island. The appliance layout was basically kept the same. Taken from the exact same angle this pictures shows what a difference taking down two walls can make! The Plan: -Nothing. Its perfect, I'm never going to change it. ever. The Hallway This hallway had 8 doorways. 8. And it was not a very big hallway. We got it down to 4 doors. We closed off the entrance into the kitchen, bathroom, and two closets. We upgraded the trim and doors. I also think that this picture most clearly shows difference between the floor before it was refinished and then after. Goodbye orange, hello chocolate! (Technically it is called jacobean, if you are interested). The Plan: -Paint -Add art to the wall Nursery. This room was originally the master bedroom. And it was a pretty good size. But it was not connected to the bathroom and we decided that it was more important for us to have a master suite on the first floor than it was to maintain the current layout. So we stole part of this room for our master closet and created a new closet for this room. It has drastically decreased the size of the room but it is still a great size for our future nursery. Plus the view from the front window is pretty awesome--lucky babies. Here is the room after we renovated it down to it's current, smaller size. And now that the nursery is done. update: He seems to like it! The Plan: All done for now! For now it's an outdoorsy, camping theme... for future babies... we'll see! Master Bedroom. Originally this was the smaller of the two existing bedrooms but we widened it by absorbing some inefficient closets from the old master bedroom, hallway and bathroom. We added a door from the bathroom to the new master bedroom and we added a master closet. The Plan: -Art work, personalize it. Master Closet. We created the master closet from scratch by taking some space from the old master bedroom. The closet organization system is from IKEA and then my uncle built shelves for boot storage. Who's got two thumbs and is one lucky girl?... ... This girl!!! The Plan: -Touch up paint -Paint trim -Add a more exciting mirror -Figure out some way to store jewelry Master Bath. The master bath got reconfigured from the vanity being on the south wall to being on the western wall. We absorbed more inefficient closets (this house had a large amount of small closets in a concentrated area) to create a larger bathroom. We utilized that extra space to add a clawfoot tub (remember our tub that we scored on craigslist and that we christened Harriet?) and a walk in shower. The Plan: -Possibly add some sort of window treatment Well ladies and gentlemen, that brings us to the end of all the Phase One projects. Although, I didn't mention that we tore off all the old plaster walls, put in all new insulation, added new drywall and new trim everywhere, upgraded/reworked the plumbing, and added a geothermal unit for heating and cooling. Here is the rest of the areas of the house that we have not gotten to yet. Garage. The Plan: -Convert current garage into 1/2 bath and mudroom -Build new garage off of old garage -Pave driveway Basement. Previously the basement was "finished" but we demo'd it since it was in such gross shape. We grinded the floors and painted it with Kilz to get rid of a bad, bad pet smell. The Plan: -Finish it. -Movie/Media room: Add big sectional, storage around fireplace, -Laundry room: tile, add cabinets and counter for folding clothes, storage shelves -Bathroom: complete gut job, possibly change tub shower into standing shower -Pool table room: light fixture, some boilermaker pride (of course) -Area around walkout basement: tile, build in storage for crafting supplies and toys, large table for crafting/ parties, cabinets and mini fridge for parties and convenience Walk out Patio. The Plan: -Build porch over top -String twinkle lights underneath -Possibly add an outdoor ceiling fan underneath -Add fire pit nearby Attic. The Plan: -Finish it. -Two Bedrooms -One bath -Possible open area for computers/studying -Plenty of built in storage to optimize use of knee walls Also See our Christmas Tour here. Thanks for stopping by our virtual open house! We are so happy to have had you! What was your favorite part of the tour? Was it the imaginary cheese? My favorite before and after might be the hallway... surprisingly. I just love those new floors! Michael's favorite is the view from the living room into the kitchen without the walls - so open! Don't miss a beat. {Follow this blog on Bloglovin'}
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