It's All Starting to Come Together!

Well it's been a couple weeks since my last update, but for a few of those days, things seemed to be moving slowly. I experienced a couple days that made it seem like we were not going to make our mid-November anticipated move-in. There wasn't a lot of change... just little things or time consuming things...

 For example: tiling our kitchen floor. What started quickly and was exciting to see, turned into a 2 day tile scrubbing project after we grouted. And by "tile scrubbing project" I mean that after we grouted the floor, the remaining grout on the tile did not want to come off, which resulted in me spending about 10 hours sitting on our kitchen floor scrubbing each tile by hand. However, we finally resorted to sanding the tile to get the stubborn grout off and sealed it to be done. (Thank Goodness!!)

Once the kitchen floor was finished things finally started to get moving, and I was seeing everything come together...

We were able to start painting once we got the floor down. (Check out the photo,,,doesn't the floor look great??) As we painted over the Mauve paint and primer, it made the kitchen look so good. I did have to take one last commemorative photo of the Mauve, but then quickly said good bye to the last bit of Mauve in the house. I was also able to get the kitchen cabinets painted bright white so they look nice and clean now. 

One of my husband's projects for the kitchen was a built in wine rack for the additional cabinets. I found a design idea that I loved and after some measuring, cutting, remeasuring, and re-cutting (only a few times) this is how it turned out! (Ignore the paint cans, they are just holding them in place while the wood glue dries).

 We made the unit out of 2 store bought wall cabinets and some oak sheets. The husband built a base for the cabinets and left a space for the wine rack. He then secured the cabinets to the base and measured out the pieces for the middle section. I absolutely love how it turned out, and I'm excited that I will gain counter space with it too!

In addition to the wine rack project, we tackled cutting the countertops for the kitchen. They turned out great, especially since it was a new endeavor. So here is the semi-completed kitchen. There is still work on the countertops (obviously, since there is still no sink...) but the idea of it all looks wonderful!! And look at my green island! The green is the same color as the dining room, which means that this $6 can of mistinted paint has definitely been worth the money. 

Now, the kitchen was not the only room in the house we worked on this weekend (but it is one the must-haves for moving in officially). We also got see our bathroom transformation. Remember the awful single sink vanity and linoleum floor?

Well here is the almost finished product!! And thank goodness for the fact that the toilet is finally out of the bathtub!

The vanity was a combination of 2 craigslist purchases from 2 completely different sellers. And luckily, everything matched up perfectly! We still need to have our mirror cut down to the right size, but I love how it turned out.

Well as your can see the last couple weeks have been full of transformations, but I'm glad I'm finally beginning to see everything coming together. 

Countdown to move-in: 2 weeks

Challenge accepted.

More to come soon! 

XO, J&K

I'm Glad I Didn't Plan on Cooking Anytime Soon

Over the weekend, we were able to get a lot done on the house, and because I didn't have to work, I actually got to see all of it! 

On Saturday, my husband and father-in-law got all the tile laid in the master bathroom, which meant that today we got to grout it. And guess who helped?? Me! I can officially say that I know how to grout tile. Here's how it all turned out...

Doesn't it look so much better than the icky linoleum flooring that was previously there?? Now, it just needs to be sealed then the toilet (which is obviously still in the bathtub) can go back in it's proper place along with our new double vanity! Oh, and we can paint it the correct color (You can't tell in this picture, but the walls look pink next to the tile)

Today, we also starting tearing up the kitchen floor (hence, the title of this post). The linoleum tile came up pretty easily. However, the adhesive under it didn't want to budge. My husband, dad, and father-in-law tried just about everything, ranging from water to mineral spirits to actually torching the concrete slab floor (Yes, they took a hand torch to the floor adhesive in an attempt to burn off the adhesive. It didn't work) So after a few somewhat unsuccessful tries and almost resorting to hand scraping the entire 300 square foot kitchen, we decided to scrape up any debris and lay the tile right over it. Only half of the kitchen is started, but it's a great start!

The tile isn't actually laid down to the floor, but it is spaced out so we could get an idea as to how it was going to lay out across the floor. We also "placed" the island into the kitchen approximately where we wanted it to get an idea about how it would look.

 I absolutely love how it is looking and I can't wait to see the rest of the progress!! More to come soon...

XO, J&K

Changing the Sea of Mint Green

When we first looked at our house, the first impression when you walked in the door wasn't the greatest. It was just a sea of this (not very attractive) Mint Green color. Everywhere. It was in the entryway, down the hallway, and up the stairs. Remember?

Well now, after 5 hours and a team of 6 professional painters, the sea of Mint Green is now a Butter-y Croissant color. (I added the "butter-y" but the color truly is called Croissant). Isn't it beautiful??

The entryway, the downstairs hallway, the stairs, and the upstairs hallways all look absolutely fabulous now!! It has definitely been one of the more drastic changes (because it was sooo mint green/blue). Everything is now beginning to come together and it actually looks like our home!

Next is tiling and painting the master bathroom, along with putting in the vanities and taking the toilet out of the bathtub. Then, we're moving onto the kitchen, which will be a big task to tackle, but it will definitely be worth it!

More to come later. 

XO, J&K

Prime, Trim, Paint, Repeat.

Well as you could probably guess by the title of this post, we've been doing a lot of painting. Even though the last week at work has taken up the majority of my time, we're still working on our to-do list for the house. Over the past few days, we've been able to get the laundry room, the office, the master bedroom, and the master bathroom painted. AND, we're primed the family and painted the ceilings in both the family room and the dining room. (Goodness gracious that is a lot of painting!) But the end results are great!!

BEFORE

AFTER

Remember the before picture of the laundry room,
with the half painted walls and the seashell linoleum
floor? Well that is all gone! We painted the walls a very crisp light  blue to make the room nice and bright (especially with the new light we put in there) AND we also started laying the new tile floor. It's not completely finished because it needs to be grouted and sealed, but it looks so much better!

    

Here is the dining room. We haven't done much to it yet except paint the ceiling because it was already primed. But as you can see, there is tape along the center of the room which is going to be chair rail with two-tone walls.
 

AFTER

BEFORE

 More progress in the family room. It was one of the many Mint Green rooms, but even the primer makes it look better!

AFTER

BEFORE

So I'm excited to say that at least one of the Mauve rooms is gone! The previously Mauve living room is now a bright and sunny yellow. I love how it turned out, and this room gets a lot of natural light so the yellow is perfect. I actually painted a yellow table to put in this room, but more on that later once we start to get furniture in the house!

BEFORE

Here's the "after we primed" and "after we painted" pictures for the office/ my sewing room. I chose a paint that's actually called Ivory Brown, and that is the best description of it. The color is great (especially since it was a $6 mistint from Lowe's) and I've decided to put blue and green accents in the room. 

AFTER

BEFORE

Our beautiful Hot Chocolate bedroom. The Blue/Gray color is now gone and it's a beautiful warm brown. It looks wonderful, and I can't wait to see all of our furniture in it!

AFTER

BEFORE

IN PROGRESS

The previously plain white and completely boring master bathroom has gotten a fresh coat of paint, which is actually one shade lighter than the master bedroom since both rooms are red, brown, and champagne. And if you didn't notice, the toilet is sitting in our bathtub. Not because of a problem, but because my husband and father-in-law started putting down the cement board for the tile. Next, tiling the bathroom!

Well as you can see, we seem to move pretty quickly so check back to see what's going on next as we continue to make it what we want in a home! 

XO, J&K

The Outside Face Lift

So when we bought our house, it was basically a large beige colored box. There wasn't a lot of color on the outside (despite the awful colors on the inside...) Remember this?

Well after some hard work from my husband, my dad, and my father-in-law, it now looks like this!

Doesn't it look fantastic?? I absolutely love it!! (p.s. That garage door closes I promise, I'm just too impatient to wait to take the pictures) There's only a couple of little last minute things to do outside then it's onto the inside work. I can't wait!

More to come soon! XO

Let the Painting Begin...

After we finished priming and painting the trim in the living room, we moved onto the office and the master bedroom. The office is completely primed with the trim painted, but the ceiling needs to be painted. 

That's my parents so graciously helping paint. (I was helping prior to taking this picture, I promise!) But seriously, that blue does not want to be covered as you can see as it is still trying to show through the primer. Luckily, the paint for the office is darker so it should cover it up nicely!

The master bedroom is still in progress, but it's looking good. It needs more primer on the two remaining walls, ceiling paint, and trim paint. It seems like a lot, but for only being in the house for 12 days we've gotten a lot accomplished. 

Even though it's only primer, it is all starting to look so much better!

We're Making Progress

Well, it's been a few days since the last update, but it's also been absolutely crazy at work this past week so I haven't gotten to do much work on the house. However, the rest of our loving family has. We've made quite a bit of progress on the outside of the house (and by "we" I mean my husband, my dad, and my father-in-law) They were able to get some of the wood trim fixed and painted. We also found a nice chocolate brown paint for the shutters and the ones that have been painted look great! 

Right now, they are focusing on the outside of the house before the weather turns cold, so then we can work on the interior painting (lots of interior painting...) While they were working on the outside of the house, my mom worked at getting the closets painted. (I know, you probably think we're crazy for wanting to paint the closets, but it makes a huge difference and makes everything look so clean!) Other than the closets and the living room, there hasn't been a lot of painting inside, but we'll get there. 

Pictures of the progress will be coming soon so stay tuned!! 

Doin' Work!

Well after some investigating, we found out that the leak is coming from a pipe in the bathroom and not the toilet seal. (Bummer because I was kind of hoping for the toilet to be the culprit) Hopefully, it won't be too big of a repair and we'll get it fixed before we move onto the other renovations in the master bathroom.

Despite the unexpected leak and the water being turned off, we were still able to get some work done on Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday, the focus was more cleaning.

But on Thursday we got to dive into more than just cleaning. Josh and I started to scrap off the paint on the outside wooden trim so that we can paint those. We  also tackled some of the unruly landscaping because it was still light outside. After some pulling and trimming, it started to look a little better. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any pictures before Josh took out the ridiculously overgrown and smelly lavender bush and mint plant, but I can guarantee you it looks much better even with only the little work that we did. If it's nice this weekend, we might be able to continue pulling weeds.

We also got to start painting tonight! This is what I'm super excited about because I think a fresh coat of paint can do wonders for a house.

Here are the pictures of stage one of the living room transformation:

Here I am hard at work....

And here is the first coat of primer done! It does however need a second coat because the wall color is going to be yellow, which continues to prove to be hard to cover completely...We will see!

Our First "Joy" of Owning a Home

Just a quick update...unfortunately, we've discovered a slow leak from the master bathroom. (Sad Day!) Hopefully, we'll be able to find the direct source quickly and fix it. On the bright side, we hadn't started any work yet and there wasn't any furniture there either. More updates on this little snag later...

Let the Cleaning Begin!

As I mentioned before, we bought a HUD house, which means it has been empty for a while (not too long though). And of course, this sparks my OCD cleaning nerve because there's dust, cobwebs, dead bugs (some still kind of alive), etc. in nooks and crannies. This meant that our first evening was spent cleaning, as will the following days. 

For tonight, we were able to tackle getting the whole house vacuumed and most areas dusted. We still have to wipe down the walls and wash the doors, but it's definitely getting better. Josh also replaced the toilet seats, with a screwdriver, some gloves, some cleaner, and quite a bit of complaining. However, he definitely survived. (I love you sweetheart!) 

Tomorrow's plan consists of more cleaning and steam cleaning the carpets. But before we do that, we'll spot treat some of the worst areas. Now the spot cleaner we used wasn't some off the shelf bottle of chemicals. We actually made a concoction of 2 parts hydrogen peroxide and 1 part Dawn dishsoap, as I originally found it here at Modern Day Moms (not that I am one, but seriously Moms know how to clean just about ANYTHING, and this woman definitely knew what she was talking about). I have to say, it worked and it was amazing!!

Here is the before picture of one of the stains on the carpet in the bonus room: 

And here is the after:

So I know it's not perfect, but it's definitely a MAJOR improvement! I'm going to treat it one more time before we steam clean it so hopefully it will look even better. 

There are still a few areas to treat, but I'm excited to see how it all looks after. More to come later!

XO

It's Official...We're homeowners!

Well it's finally official. After signing and initialing more documents than I even care to count, we own our own home! Closing on a house was definitely a new experience, but I can say we made it through it without too many bumps in the road, despite the fact that we purchased a HUD home.

Yes, I'm sure you're thinking, "WHAT?! You bought a HUD home?? I've heard awful stories about those..." And yes, some HUD homes are not in the best shape or they can be an extremely long and grueling process. However, with a great realtor and bank to work with, it can actually go pretty well. The only major snag we had was that the appraisal got lost in the shuffle. In a changing of the "guards," the paperwork was misplaced. Luckily, it was finally found and we only had to delay the closing a week.

But now it's signed, sealed, delivered, and IT'S OURS!

Well our journey to redo our new house will begin tomorrow as we cross the last t's and dot the last i's. Hopefully, it all goes smoothly as we move all of our remodel materials to the house and begin our list of projects. More to come soon!