It was about time for another post, don't ya think?

So it's been since then end of January since my last post, but I can't begin to share with anyone how busy we have been around our house.  With spring finally here, I have been able to open the windows on the sunny days and do a little cleaning.  The worst part about this experience so far would be that we are trying to live day to day (laundry, cooking, cleaning) in a big ole mess!  It doesn't matter how much I sweep or mop, there is always dust and trash on the floor, and I can't seem to keep enough energy to participate in the laundry duties (but somehow we always have clean undies! So I must be doin alright)

So here are some during the remodel pics... mind you we are living in the house during all of this!

This is the kitchen... being taken apart.  The door that you see in the background is no longer there. We thought it would give us more kitchen space if we enclosed that doorway. (It was a GREAT idea!)

As you can see, the cabinets had rotted and the house was previously a roach habitat.  Needless to say, everything including the sheetrock HAD to go!

See what I mean,  Ugh!  Ewwww!

I like to think that he is saying, " I have no idea what happend in here." Haha

( In the back of the photo, you can see where we busted out the sheetrock, that is because me, myself and I thought it was a fabulous idea to have an indoor entrance into our laundry room.  This would require the hubby to re-route all of the water pipes (he was so excited! Sense the sarcasm).  But either because he loves me or rather he didn't want me going into the garage everytime I needed to wash clothes, he was delighted to make the changes!)

 Ta Da!! 

See, much more functional!

And now for some sheetrock.  Disregard the hidious light fixture.

And this is Austin.  He wasn't so keen on hanging sheetrock, so Nate put him on demo which I must say he does rather well.

See what I mean???

After all the sheetrock was hung in the kitchen, the carport door was enclosed, it was time to tile!!!

Hooray!!! Look how pretty! He did such a great job!

 Cabinets are next!

The staining part was actually fun.  See, I was in charge of all painting and staining in this lovely home.  It was a small price to pay for all of the other work that was required of the hubby.

My new stove!  A girl can be really happy about this!

It is coming together! Just wait, there will re better lighting soon, I promise!

Most of the staining is complete.

And then there were doors!

I hope this has shown a little bit of progress.  The house is coming along, and we are sure to be wrapping things up soon.  I will post more pics when I have a few minutes another day.

Until then, happy restoring!

One step at a time...

 You have seen the before photos...now, here are some photos of us making our house a lot worse before it can get better!

This is my hubby taking down the hidious wooden beams that hung on our ceiling.

What do you think of the pink paneling??? Cute, right?!?!?!

 This is the aftermath of the demo in my living room.... Impressed? :)

And again, around the fireplace.

Finally, sheetrock is going up! Please disregard the nasty ceilings, they were painted shortly after this picture was taken, thankfully.

The fire place was in the process of being primed when my ladder became to wabbly and I requested the assistance of the only 6'4 person in my house to help me. :)

After the sheetrock was hung, it had to be mudded, then sanded, sanded, sanded.

(Notice the ceiling is sorta painted... almost.)

This is me and my dear friend Katie, who came to help us one Saturday.  Isn't she the best??? And don't we look productive??? Haha

Thanks for stopping by, and until the next post... Happy Restoring!



Ok, so like I said before... this renovation was going to be a doozie.

These are the photos of the house prior to any updates... the smell of the carpet was too gross to describe, so I will spare you the details.

The house has 5 bedrooms!  Three bedrooms are original and at some point the former owners added an additional 2 more bedrooms to the end of the house (Still not quite sure what the extra bedrooms were for, possibly a mother-in-law suite)

So here goes.... please try not to judge us just yet.

When you first walk in the front door, you can see straight into the dining room/kitchen and also the living room with a fireplace to the left.

Dont' you just love the pink?!?!?!  I think it is technically mauve or rose... but pink works.

As you can see, the living room had potential, minus the book shelves.  I love books but not on these shelves.  The living room had all paneling (Eeeeek!) The walls had of course obsorbed the odors of the house, so we would be totally replacing the paneling with new sheetrock.

The condition of the carpet, well.... lets just say I wasn't going to be taking my shoes off and staying a while... for a while. (Hah!)

(Gross, I know.)

And the kitchen... it left MUCH to be desired, for sure.  I tried to reassure myself that with a LOT of primer and paint this kitchen would look good as new.  (Then again, maybe not.  More to come on this later.) However, I must point out a few things before moving on.  

 Notice the wood beam running across the ceiling?  This was originally a wall that separated the laundry area from the kitchen.  Someone thought it would be a great idea to add a few feet of space to the kitchen and put the washer and dryer in the storage room (in the garage). Because the water pipes were still on the same wall... the storage room was a super solution...but it meant you had to go outside into the garage to do your clothes... hmmm, yeah that was NOT going to work. As I said, more on this to come later.

Few more shots of the kitchen here :

(The fridge goes in this area... notice the door to the garage on the right... that won't be there later.  Just wait and see!)

This was to show the gross, gross, nasty, gross floor.  I don't think the 5 second rule applies here. Ew!

Here you will notice the dishwasher (I won't lie, I was afraid to open it). 

There is no amount of Mr. Clean, Clorox, or Magic Erasers that could help this sink... you will be glad to know that it is gone now!

Now, how would you like this for your guest bath???

Oh, com'on... you know you love it!  Oh wait, maybe we loathe it!  UGH!

But I kinda liked the built in storage....

See, its not so bad... definate potential. Plus, I love hidden storage!  My husband calls me his hoarder, clearly he has never seen the show.  But I only keep the things I really love... does that make me a hoarder??? Absolutely not!!! 

I'm going to run through the next few pics pretty quickly so I can show you everything..but I'm ready to show you the good stuff!

Bedroom #1  ( A few holes to patch)

Master Bedroom

Master Bath and Closet

Bedroom #2 (This room was great, very little to fix, just needed lots of paint)

Bedroom #3: My Hubby's soon to be Man Cave

(Notice the two-toned blue room and GREEN scored concrete floors!) 

Bedroom #4 : NO PICS... sorry, but its going to be my Crafty/Sewing room!

Wait for it, its going to be awesome!

The Storage Room /Laundry Facility

Lots of storage, you know...for all my so-called hoarding.

That is it for now... but when you come back, you will see some serious work in progress!

So excited to show you! :) Have a great weekend everyone!  And happy restoring!

The Ultimate Restoration Project--- The Journey Begins...

My husband and I had been looking for a home for several months, when we quickly realized that all of the new homes were ridiculously out of our budget.  I mean, sure we could have purchased a home way out of our price range, but what good would that do us in the long run?  I want the american dream... you know, to OWN your own home. Yeah, that right... I want to own it, not rent it.  After renting for 4 years it was time for something new... or so I thought.

We ran across several foreclosed homes that seemed to have great potential, so that made us want to investigate the possibilities.  Our real estate agent agreed to show us a house we had spotted while out driving one Sunday afternoon. 

This is it!!! 

(I love the shaded lot with all the trees!)

And then my husband saw what would become, "His SHOP!"  Yes, the one and only location for all of his manly belongings...the 88' Toyota, his bass boat, his 4-wheeler (oh wait, he doesn't have that yet, but it makes the list anyhoo). 

(That is my car in the driveway, doesn't it look right at home!)

He was totally in love with this wired shop and was encouraged to place an offer for the property.

So without a second thought, we put an offer down, and it was .... rejected.  Thats right, even on a foreclosure they seemingly want a specific amount or its a no-go.

Before we had time to reach a decision on another offer, the home went to auction.

Long story short, my husband went to this auction...and he WON! 

Thats right, we obtained our first home through a grueling auction process, but ultimately spent what we had originally set out to spend... little did we know, the exhaustive efforts we would experience during the renovation process.

You have seen on my previous posts my crafty furniture items and curtain stuffs... but now it is time to show you some real genuine renovations that I hope will knock your socks off.

More to come...

The DVD Shelf...

I really like this little shelf.  It has served multiple purposes, including : a utility shelf for my laundry room, a bookshelf during college, and now I have painted it a lovely red shade and transformed it to comfortably contain my DVDs and my family photo albums.

But as you can see, it is not the prettiest sight you ever did see.  Clutter is a huge pet peeve of mine, and I had to create a solution to this bothersome sight. 

Using some left over fabric from the Kitchen Island curtains, I was able to sew together just one simple piece to hang over the front of the shelf to completely camouflage the junk!  Wa hoo!  Problem solved!!!  On to more important projects!  Until next time, happy restoring!