Friday, January 3, 2014

It's getting so close!

When we first began our renovation, things were moving so slow. I don't know if it was the heat of the summer or the realization of 'what in the sam kahunas are we doing?' but it never seemed like things were going to get started and come together.

Oh man! Things are definitely coming together now! Since the sheetrock was put up in the house things have been moving at light speed. Items are being checked off our list and our budget is decreasing at light speed.

All that being said, I am so proud of our little farmhouse. Tyler and his dad have done most of the work and I have been able to help some (seriously though, how much help would I be trying to install kitchen cabinets? I'll leave that to the guys who know what they are doing.) Tyler's mom has been such a big help watching our little peanut while we get things done. 

From day one we knew we wanted white cabinets. Well...I knew I wanted white cabinets. It took a little convincing to get everyone on board with my idea but I'm so glad I didn't give up. We researched for a long time trying to find a detailed DIY of how to refinish/how to paint kitchen cabinets. A REAL LONG TIME. Tyler asked a friend from church his thoughts on how we should proceed and he was a ton of help. By a ton of help, I mean he did it for us. No chemicals, no sanding, easy and it's done. He ended up spraying white lacquer and after three coats he was satisfied and so were we. I couldn't be happier with the way they turned out. Let's just say Tyler will have a hard time getting me out of the kitchen!

About a week or two after the cabinets were installed and the white lacquer hardened, Tyler and his dad started on the hardwood floors. I don't remember exactly how long it took them but I'm sure it was only a few days, tops. I was so impressed with how hard they worked and the long days they spent at the house getting it done. Once they finished the appliances were put in their place and then our kitchen started looking like a kitchen, except for the countertops that will be installed in 2-3 weeks. While they were installing the floor in the main living space, I was busy painting the kid's rooms (I know we only have one child but let's get real, the extra bedroom will be our other child's room so we just refer to it as the kid's rooms. Oh, and the bathroom that the kids will share has been called the BOY'S bathroom. Don't know why, it just seems natural to say the boy's bathroom. Again...we are not expecting and jokingly throw around kid's room and the boy's bathroom.) I can't stand painting. Squeaky rollers, sore arms/back, cutting in. That is something I wish we could have hired out but our budget didn't permit. At least it did get me a back massage because hubby was proud of me. Yay me!

Here are the pictures of our updates so far. Look closely at the last one, I laughed so hard I cried once my mother in law sent it to me.
















I have four children in this picture!!! AAAAHHHHH!

Friday, December 6, 2013

Another Reno Update

For a while I felt like our house was just a box with a roof on it. I didn't have the vision to see what parts of the house would actually look like. I mean, it was wood. That's all I could see. But now, OH BOY! Things are really starting to come together. We have insulation! We have sheetrock! The whole house is primed and the ceilings have been painted!

Before we could do sheetrock we had a huge decision to make. What kind of insulation do we put in this house? There is a huge cost difference in spray insulation ($$) and blow in ($.) We chose to go for the spray in kind because eventually it will cut our bills in half. So, spend now, save later. My brother-in-law made the joke that Tyler wants people to pay us instead of us pay our bills :) My husband has been very thrifty with our house budget and I'm so glad he has been in charge. My first instinct was to go to Target and pick out new decor and get the new comforter I've been drooling over from Pottery Barn (so not gonna happen.) Anyway, I digress...insulation...sheetrock...

I don't have many pictures of the finished sheetrock for every room so I'm only going to attach one. My goal is to take pictures as I paint next week! Enjoy!

 Front bedroom
 Jake's room
 Master bedroom ceiling
 Same as above
 Master bath
 Master closet
 Same as above
 Front entry

This will be the kitchen once we finish everything!

Monday, October 7, 2013

Renovation Update

We started demo on our house last Saturday. I'm not sure what expectations I had but I knew if my FIL and husband were involved it was unpredictable what I would find when I finally arrived! They got started on the house early in the morning and my MIL, Jake and I went by to see their progress close to lunch. WHOA! They had taken apart the kitchen cabinets (saving most of them in the process YAY!), removed the appliances that came with the house and taken down the whole wall that separated the front room from the back room.

After Peanut went down for his nap at my in laws house, I joined the boys and we got started on more demo. I have a new found respect for people who do this kind of work every day. That junk is hard! Tearing out sheet rock is tedious and you never know how big of a piece you will pull off; it could be huge, giving you a great sense of accomplishment, or it could be tiny specs of dust flying in your face making you embarrassed that you couldn't do better. The last part never happened to me by the way.

We rented a dumpster and had it on-site at the house. If I took one trip to the dumpster I took 856 trips to it to unload trash. That was probably the worst part of the whole day. It was fun to hammer through the walls (we may have had a little fun throwing the hammer and trying to make it stick in the wall!!) and make a mess but the cleaning up of said mess was not my idea of a fun day.

All in all we had a very productive day. We took out all the sheet rock in what would be our master suite, living room and kitchen. We hired a crew to take care of the rest of the demo and reframing of the house and that's currently where we are today. It is so neat to see a house turn into a shell and then once the framing starts it immediately starts becoming your own. Tyler and I are very excited to see the progress and we may go to the house twice a day to see what's happening. I think the crew could get more work done if we wouldn't show up multiple times a day but whatever!

 Proud new homeowners!
The tree!!!
Kitchen - before
Kitchen - before
Master bedroom - before
Master closet/bathroom - before
Kid's bathroom - before
Kid's bathroom - before
Tiny living room - before (Peanut is just hanging out)
Peanut's room - before
Don't know what this room was, will be our open concept kitchen
Looking from the only bathroom in the house to the living room and master bedroom behind that
 My father in law (the brains behind our whole project!)
 Master closet/laundry area

 Master bedroom
 NO WALLS!
Our empty shell of a house. We have outside walls and a roof, oh and HVAC hanging from the ceiling by a string...literally!

Monday, September 2, 2013

Hello Monday (night!)

Hello to a brand new week!

Hello to Tyler being off Friday, Saturday and Sunday!

Hello to our little peanut saying so many new words! (apple, duck, up, Bailey)

Hello to sewing inspiration!

Hello to OUR BRAND NEW HOUSE! I've been absent lately because Tyler and I have spent every available moment looking at ways to remodel our house. The outside is staying the same but the inside is a total gut job. Yay.... ! I hope to post pictures and updates of our progress. We are ready to make this house our home but the bank is taking forever! Oh well, it will be officially ours one of these days :)

Love27, ash

Monday, August 5, 2013

Hello Monday

Hello brand new week!

Hello Jake's birthday on Wednesday :)

Hello to husband being off two days this week!!

Hello to college football starting in 23 days!!! WAR EAGLE!

Hello to a package with two raglan shirts! (I'm addicted)

Hello to a new week full of blessings!

Love27, ash

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Sneak Peek!


How cute is this little peanut?! 

Yesterday we had the privilege of working with Sandy O'Dell, owner of O'Dell Photography and she is totally amazing! She took some family shots before taking Jake's one year pics and I can't wait to see the results! 
When Peanut first saw his smash cake he was all about it. He all but knocked us over to get to it. Once he realized the icing made his hands dirty...DONE. He was done. Didn't want any part of it anymore. Sandy still managed to capture him smiling with all the cake and icing everywhere making this mama happy!!!
I'll post more pics when we get them!

Thursday, August 1, 2013

6 DAYS

There are only 6 days left until Peanut turns ONE!!! Where has the time gone? I literally blinked and he started crawling. I blinked again and he is walking. Now, he's about to turn one. Whoa!!! Time please slow down so I can savor every little Peanut moment.
Peanut's first picture. Be still my heart!

Love27, ash