Recent House Projects

When we bought our house, the tub in our bathroom was cracked.  We patched it and bought some time, but last summer it was time to replace it.  We decided to install a large shower instead of a shower/tub combo, and we still have one of those in Sarah's bathroom.  Robert did it all by himself, and I'm so impressed! He ripped out the old one, and then, unfortunately, our new shower was back ordered, so we had to share a shower with Sarah for about a month, but it wasn't too bad.  We had to drive about 45 minutes to pick up the shower, so that was an adventure having it strapped to the top of my SUV!  Robert installed the shower, and it looks great!  We ended up painting the bathroom as well.  We couldn't afford a shower door right then, so we just used our old curtain.  For Christmas we got gift cards and money, and we were able to buy a shower door.  I apparently haven't taken any real after pictures, but the before was purple, and the after is green.  In the last picture you can see our new shower door behind the old curtain.

I'm so happy with our lawn this year!  We've worked hard on it, and I feel like this year we are really reaping the rewards.  Year one was the year of not knowing what we were doing, year two was the year of killing weeds, year three was the year of growing grass, and now year four is the year of fine-tuning.  Our mailman commented that he's seen such an improvement since we bought our house, and he asked us what our method was.  A stranger stopped me while she was on a walk and said our grass looked great.  That was such encouraging feedback!

Always good to remember where you came from...

And now!

In May, Robert's fell through our deck while sitting in a patio chair!  We knew it was time to do something about our deck.  He ripped it out and replaced it with a gravel patio.  I love it!  This was a super cheap project and very economical for anyone wanting a patio who can't afford a wood deck or concrete slab.  We bought one scoop of 1/2" limestone gravel for about $35.  We bought three 4"x6"x12' pre-treated boards and nailed them into the ground using nine 2' rebar stakes.  The old deck actually already had old brown gravel under it, so we covered it with weed barrier ($30 for way more than we actually needed), and then filled it up the rest of the way with the gravel.  We had to buy a new hammer because Robert broke ours!!! That was a cost that was unexpected. haha  We paid $20 to take the old wood to the landfill.  We also happened to have an extra concrete step, so we used that by our back door.  Overall, the project cost less than $200, but we had a $50 Lowe's gift card to use, and we also used some of Robert's lawn mowing money, and I sold a few things on Facebook Marketplace to help pay for it.  Where there's a will there's a way! We also bought some used patio furniture (table and six chairs).  Our previous hand me downs served us so well, but the table collapsed this spring after many years of enjoyment.

House Project Dreams

We've owned our house for over two years now.  When we first moved in we did some major things right away: painted the ceiling and walls, installed new flooring, and fixed several small things that the home inspector noticed.  Over the last year we've worked on the yard a lot.  We created some flower beds, planted bushes, removed one tree and planted another, and are working on growing grass.  Our list is almost done other than one things that I don't feel confident about and another thing that is pretty costly.

Unsure - Painting our garage door.  Currently, it matches our window frames perfectly as well as the small portion of vinyl siding that's right above the garage door.  I don't totally love the color.  I would like a richer brown instead of a gray-ish tan, but I like that it matches the windows and vinyl.  So do I just re-paint it the same color.  How do you even find the exact same color 24 years after something was painted?  It needs to be painted.  It's faded and worn.  Any suggestions? Have you ever painted your garage door a new color?

Expensive - Kitchen.  Enough said, right?  When we moved in we had to get our own fridge, and we also needed a microwave, so we decided to mount a micro-hood over the stove.  The previous owners had put in a new dishwasher right before moving, so all of the appliances but the stove were new.  The stove is definitely original to the house.  I think when the house was built it was probably a top of the line, custom type stove.  The counter is built around it, if that makes sense.  There is counter on each of the sides as well as behind the stove, and there's a little lip that goes around the front edge of the stove as well.

When we moved in we noticed that under the drip pans it's totally rusty, and the oven also doesn't heat evenly.  It isn't self-cleaning.  The knobs on the front were tempting for Sarah during her beginning walking stage.  Those are all negatives, but the oven isn't technically broken, so we're definitely hanging on and doing just fine as long as it still works because the replacement of this stove will most likely prompt a major kitchen overhaul.  I forget all the exact types of stoves like drop in, slide in, and free standing, but I do know that the kind that we currently have is seriously twice as much as a normal stove.  However, if we get a normal stove then we would need to remove the back part of the counter in order to slide in the stove all the way back to the back wall.  So then why not get new counters? :)  Then the stove would be pushed back more than it currently is so the floor would have about two inches that is newly exposed, so you'd need new flooring.  And if you're doing a new stove, counter, and flooring, why not go ahead and get a new back splash since we don't like a current one?  See what I mean?  It'd be a a big kitchen remodel.  We really do like our current cabinets and lighting, and they're in good shape.  And then we'd thought that if we're getting new counters in the kitchen we might as well put the same counters in the two bathrooms.  Sounds fun, right? :)

What would you do regarding the stove when it comes time to replace it?

Anybody else like dreaming about house plans? Kinda fun. :)

More House Updates, Winter 2017

When we bought our house so many people told us that our to-do list would be neverending.  I can agree with that, but I will say that the to-do list we made when we bought the house is so close to being finished.  The only thing left to do is for Robert to paint the ceiling in Sarah's bedroom, the guest room, and the kitchen, and we have this scheduled to happen on Saturday.  Then we'll finally just have to-do list items that pop up occasionally, but the big list will be finished.  There's still the "some day" list that would include kitchen and bathroom updates:

• Kitchen
• Stove
• Flooring
• Counters
• Backsplash
• Bathrooms
• Counters (matching with kitchen)
• Tub/tiling for shower

But for now we're so excited to really feel settled in our home.  We're very thankful for our house, and we've truly enjoyed making it our own.  It's so fun to dream about things we could do to it in the future, too!

Like I wrote about several weeks ago, Robert and Pepaw built me an upholstered headboard which we love!

We ordered a new washer and dryer, and it arrived yesterday!  Our old washer and dryer were free hand me downs which we have been very thankful to have for the first five years of our marriage, but the washer stopped spinning very well and would wring out all of the water, and it would shake forward about a foot during the spinning process and was super loud.  Because the dryer wasn't super strong and the laundry was dripping wet the drying process would take 3-4 hours, so I would just end up hanging up as much laundry as I could to let it air dry.  When we started the search for a new washer and dryer Robert asked me what I was looking for in a W/D.  Pretty simple - bigger, faster, quieter.  Bigger so I can stuff in more laundry in a load, faster to save time, and quieter because we can hear the machines quite a bit since they're in a closet in the hallway near our bedrooms.  Besides that, I knew I wanted a traditional top loading washing machine.  We went to Sears and got an incredibly pushy salesperson.  I understand that they need to make commission, but we just weren't connecting with this guy.  We told him the washer and dryer we were interested in from our online research, and he wouldn't show it to us because he didn't think it was great.  Instead he showed us a W/D that was $400 more expensive, and then he said that if we were going to spend that much that we might as well spend another $400 to get this other super duper one, so he was trying to push us to spend $800 more than we had come in to spend.  That's a huge difference!  Then he was really pushing the warranty plan which was $40/year per appliance with a 5 year minimum.  That's another $400!  It was just crazy.  Thankfully, he had to leave for a meal break shortly after we got there so we got to look around and ask questions with another sales person who was more our style, and we ended up purchasing the W/D that we had come in planning to purchase.  Robert got them installed yesterday, and I did one load yesterday. It went great! 

The previous owners had put a very large shower head on our bathroom shower.  I understand the idea was to provide a spa effect, but this was the kind of shower head you should use in a large standalone shower, not a standard shower/tub combo.  It sprayed everywhere, used the hot water too faster, and made a lot of weird noises in the pipes.  Robert was afraid that it would be a huge project, but I suggested we just buy a more standard shower head and see if it improved the situation at all.  It totally did the trick!  It took 30 seconds to replace, and now the water doesn't spray, the hot water lasts for the whole shower, and it doesn't make any unusual noises.  Why didn't we do this sooner???

We also replaced a couple of window screens that were torn up. I'm guessing the old owners' dogs did it.

Finally, we replaced our attic ladder.  When we moved in, the wooden attic ladder was broken.  It had been too long for the ceiling height, but the old owners had used it anyway.  We trimmed several inches off, but the damage was done.  I think they also exceeded the weight limit.  Every time Robert had to go up to the attic he dreaded it.  We got an aluminum attic ladder with a 385 pound limit, so it should last us a long time.  The box said "3 easy steps" for installation.  Uh...no.  Robert and I did it on a weeknight, and Robert ended the project by saying, "I'm only going to say it once, but that's why I don't like doing house projects on weeknights."  So that about sums up our experience, but the more detailed version is that I thought we could totally do it one night after we put Sarah to sleep, he seemed up for it, so he got up in the attic and dismantled the old ladder, and then he came down using a regular ladder.  We got the new attic ladder out of the box, and Robert went back up into the attic.  He attached it to a furniture strap and pulled it up while I pushed it up.  He put in the temporary supports, but the whole time I was thinking that the trim work around the opening was going to be too tight for the ladder to come down, but Robert thought it looked okay from the inside.  It came time for me to pull down the ladder, and sure enough, the trim was in the way.  Robert was stuck in the ladder.  I had to rip off the trim, but it was really secure.  I finally got it off with a crowbar and rescued Robert! :)  We needed to trim off several inches of the ladder since it's made for ceilings between 8-10', and our garage ceiling is 9.5'.  The directions said you could just use a wood saw to cut it off, but it seriously took about half an hour of screeching and sawing to cut them off.  Overall, I think it took about three hours.  Ugh.  Glad it's over and done.

Outdoor Home Projects

We have had outdoor projects galore since we bought our house.  Because we bought our house in December, there wasn't much curb appeal with the trees lacking leaves and the grass being dormant.  Here you go:

Before:

After:

With it being December, we couldn't do a ton in the grass department, but we did plant some seed and raked up old leaves and grass.  It's frustrating, but this is definitely going to be a multi-year process.  I wish we could afford it and had the time to blitz it and do it all at once, but there's no rush, I suppose.  It's just that so many families in our neighborhood have gorgeous yards, that I get envious, but that's a personal problem that I need to work on.  We still need to grade the backyard.  There's a low spot in the middle from where the previous owners had an above ground pool.  It stays really damp there and makes the grass grow incredibly thick.  Robert removed an old stump in our backyard several months ago, and this weekend he removed the gravel that had been around it.  Maybe next year we can aerate the yard, kill out the weeds, and put down seed.

We have a couple of quick and low cost/free projects coming up in the coming weeks.  Pepaw came over to replace the weather stripping on our garage door this week.  We might do a bit of trimming/pruning soon.  I also have some flower bulbs to plant.  I'm excited to see them pop up next spring!

When we were buying the house and got it inspected the inspector said that the gutters needed to be cleaned out, and he was very right.  The previous owners got a new roof a couple of years ago, and we needed to remove a lot of the sandy grains that had come off of the shingles.  The two maple trees had also dropped seeds that were sprouting up all over the place in the gutters.  Our down spouts were incredibly clogged so the water just flowed over the gutters.  Thanks to Robert, they're now in tip top shape and draining properly.

The previous owners also had satellite TV.  We don't, and so we didn't need the satellite on our roof.  Robert removed it and sealed up the holes with tar caulking, and it looks so nice to have it gone.

Two other small projects were re-caulking around the windows and doors and removing some wood scraps that were in the crawl space.

Robert has gotten a bit of experience with electrical work thanks to our new house, and one of his projects was to replace the light on the deck.  The picture doesn't do it justice, but the old light was too tall for the space and was pushing upward into the awning.

Before:

After:

So at some point, a previous owner or builder was obsessed with gravel.  Our River Birch had gravel all around it.  I'm sure it looked good at one point many years ago, but the gravel had gotten spread up and the weed barrier was very ratty, so Robert dug it up in the spring.  It was such back-breaking work, and I don't envy him.  Unfortunately, there is our tree as well as three neighbors' trees that prevent grass from growing well here.  We planted seed, but it really didn't take, so we'll have to try something else.  Like I said, it's a multi-year thing.

So this is what our backyard looked like at the beginning.  The darker soil is where we graded the yard a bit to take care of the low spot from the old pool.

One weekend Robert and my dad power washed the deck, fence, swing, and table.  We didn't stain the fence since it belongs to our three neighbors, but I did stain the swing, table, and deck, and they look so much better now!

Swing - Half power washed, half dirty - Such a big difference even before the new stain!

Clean deck!

Continuing with the theme of tons of gravel, the front bed was full of it.  Robert removed the gravel, we put down some fresh soil, and mulched it.  Some hostas, irises, and a hydrangea randomly popped up which was pretty fun.  We also added a crepe myrtle, viburnum, three fire bushes, three azalea bushes, and two lilies.  See the oxidized pot below?  The former owner was a band director, and that's a timpani drum.  Memaw and Pepaw cleaned it up for us, and now it's shiny copper.  There's one in the front and one in the back.

Stained the table and swing.  Robert moved these pavers from the back to the front to create a bit of a front porch swing feel.

Stained our part of the fence.  Also pulled out this mulberry tree that had started growing right up next to the house.

I don't seem to have an after picture yet, but here's a before for you.  There was a hole in the garage wall that Pepaw helped us patched up.  I'm sure you can imagine what it looks like now that it's been patched.

These zinnias did so well after we planted them from seeds!

We made a little flower bed by our deck, and Memaw gave us some of her daisies.  They ended up doing really well!

Rose of Sharon in the backyard

The door was forest green to begin with, but I wanted it to be brighter, so we used Mom and Dad's leftover paint from their front door and painted ours and put on new hardware.  Robert also made shutters from the front window and used the same paint.

I'm so pleased with this little arrangement!

So like I said, the grass didn't do well back here, but at least we have a nice pot of flowers.  Better luck next year.

Our First House: Before and After

We've owned our house for three months now, so I figured it was time to do a before and after post.  You've all been dying to see it, right? ;)  Okay, maybe not, but Robert and I have worked very hard, and our family and friends have helped us so much, and we're very proud of our first house.  When we bought the house we knew that the first thing to go would be the carpet.  The sellers had three children and two indoor dogs, and holy cow, it smelled like they had at least five dogs!  Eww...  It's amazing what you get used to.  You know, like the fact that we don't smell Mittens' litter box or Sarah's diaper pail!  Anyway, the carpet had to go.  I actually don't hate carpet, but it's so expensive, and I know hard surface floors are in style, so that's what we went with.  I mentioned it earlier, but we were able to purchase the same wood laminate that was in the living room and hallway to use in the bedrooms and closets.  We also painted all of the walls and the ceilings in the living room, bathrooms, and master bedroom.  Let's hit up the nitty gritty details, shall we?

Throughout the House

• Oil rubbed bronze interior and exterior door knobs.  The sellers had a replaced a lot of the brass fixtures like the lighting and faucets, but they hadn't replaced the door knobs yet.  Robert can't function when things aren't matching. I'm glad I'm able to go with the flow so much better. HA!
• Washed the windows inside and outside.  This made a big difference!  I think I'll do it again this spring when it isn't freezing outside.  
• The door knob on the front door knob was installed upside down, so Robert and Pepaw fixed that.
• The light on the back deck was two big for the space where it was installed so the top of it pressed against the roof and was disfiguring it.  Robert replaced it with a smaller and brighter option!
• Some of the windows had wood blinds and others had plastic mini blinds, so we purchased matching wood blinds for the remaining windows.  They look great!

Living Room

• We finally have a hutch to store Robert's Mamaw's china!  I'm excited to no longer have it in storage bins so we can access it more easily.
• The lighting got changed up quite a bit in this room.  We replaced the canisters of the can lights over the fireplace so they're white now instead of brass.  We replaced the brass ceiling fan without lights with an oil rubbed bronze fan with three lights.  And we took down the track light that had three spotlights for artwork and patched the ceiling.  It's so much brighter in here now.
• We're loving our matching new navy couch and love seat!

I love how bright this room is with the French doors looking out onto the deck.  We have to remember to close the curtains in the evening.  I know that if we can see our neighbors watching TV that they can see us, too!  Sarah really enjoyed watching the fire this winter, and it was fun to turn on.  I like that our piano can be out in the open, prompting people to play it regularly.

Kitchen

• Installed a microwave over the stove which really freed up a lot of counter space.  The microwave was one of those projects that turns into a much bigger deal than you ever expected.  The short story is that it was missing a bolt, we returned it, there wasn't a replacement in stock, we ordered a new one, and had success installing it.  The long story is take all of that and add six hours.
• New refrigerator with a fun water and ice cube dispensers.
• Replaced the light over the kitchen sink.  The old light resembled a seashell or something you'd see in a hotel hallway.  Robert didn't even electrocute himself!
• The shelf under the kitchen sink was rotten due to a leak that had been fixed, so we just took the final step and replaced the wood sheet as well.  Hooray for no more rotten wood!

In my dream world we would replace the counter tops and the oven, but there's nothing wrong with the counter tops other than the fact that I got used to having granite in our townhouse and miss being able to chop things and putting hot pans on it directly.  The oven works, but doesn't heat evenly, and you have to adjust the heat and temperature to have success, but if you'll notice, it's a drop in oven vs. a free standing oven, so those suckers cost about twice as much, so it'll have to wait until it explodes one day.  We also really like our little coffee/baby bottle cart.  I love our navy blue accent wall in the kitchen and in our bedroom.  The sellers left two options for our lamp shade over the kitchen table, and we went with the smaller, off-white shades.

Funny conversation with two youth:

Younger brother: What's that box on the wall?

Older brother: You dummy!  That's where they used to plug in the Internet when people had dial up.

Me: No!  It's where people used to plug in land lines.

Both: When was this house built???

Ha!  Now the spice rack covers up the box so we don't have to have that conversation again. 

Guest Bedroom

• The closet has become a bit of our office space.  We have some storage containers, filing cabinet, and office supplies in there.
• We kept the chair from our old living room set and have put it in here to try to give it a bit more of a bed and breakfast vibe for our guests complete with a side table, lamp, and alarm clock. 

This room looks out into our front yard, and it's totally Mittens' room.  Her litter box and blanket are in here.  She spends hours sitting on the bed and looking out the window at the birds and cars.  I know a litter box isn't the most welcoming thing ever, but after we thought about it, it was the best room.  Nobody wants a litter box in the living room, kitchen, or your baby's bedroom, so this was the best choice.  I like to think that most of our guests like Mittens so they'll still visit us even if they do have a litter box visitor at 4:00am.

Hallway

• The accordion doors to the laundry closet were off the tracks and just hanging there, so that's been fixed!
• I love that we've been able to use this artwork everywhere we've lived!  Robert had a friend paint it for me when we were dating.  

The sellers had a cabinet unit where the painting is, and I think the space is a lot more open and maneuverable now.  When you come in the front door you can turn to the right to go down the hallway, and then it splits off.  The master and laundry closet are to the left.  The other two bedrooms and bathroom are to the right.

Guest/Sarah's Bathroom

• Installed shower curtain rod and purchased new shower curtain.  Why they took that rod but not the other one, we may never know.  Where they had ripped out the rod there was some stucco missing, and Robert and I may or may not have gotten taken away picking out it.  Yikes!  We had to stops ourselves eventually and just sanded some of it to make it even and painted over it.  It was like peeling the world's worst sunburn!  

We'll never know why this room and only this room has stucco walls.  Was there water damage and this was there way to repair it?  Was the house built like this?  We affectionately call this the weird bathroom.  All I have to say is, Sarah's a very fortunate little girl to have such a stinking huge bathroom all to herself.

Sarah's Bedroom

• Fixed Sarah's bottom dresser drawer
• Swapped the fan in the guest room and the fan in Sarah's room to match the decor better
• Once we ripped out the carpet I knew that I would want a big rug in Sarah's room so she could play and not worry about falling down and getting hurt so much.  As you probably know, rugs are outrageously expensive.  Since Sarah's room is already purple and vibrant, I was looking for a more neutral rug.  We had great success buying a carpet remnant and having it bound for a fraction of the price of an area rug at Ross's Floor Coverings in Bolivar!

I've projected my love for purple onto Sarah, and I love it!  This was the room with the dog kennels, and it was very dark and brown, so I feel like it had the biggest transformation.  The sellers had fluorescent light bulbs throughout the house, and we've replaced them with LED light bulbs which has helped brighten up the place, but this room also just had very dim light bulbs in general, so the new lights really really helped in here.

Master Bedroom

• Fixed a drawer in our dresser and chest of drawers
• Four of the ceiling fan blades were turned one way, and one was turned the other way, so we fixed that.  How did that not bother anybody before?
• This room also has a navy blue accent wall.  The tray ceiling is nearly black and it is chalkboard paint.  Inspirational quote or Scripture to come.  Suggestions?
• Robert built us a platform bed that we really like.  Upholstered headboard to come!  The bed fits perfectly between the windows.

I love that Robert and I have separate closets!!!  It's amazing!  It's not even that either of us have tons and tons of clothes, but it's just nice to have separate spaces so we can keep our junk how we like it.  I love that we were able to reuse the canvases that Elise painted for our wedding reception by hanging them over our bed.  

Master Bathroom

• Unclogged drains - This included pulling a shoe lace out of the tub drain.  That always helps!
• Our bathroom is the same color as Sarah's bedroom
• New shower curtain - Robert picked it out.  Kidding!  I got to decorate this bathroom, and Robert decorated Sarah's bathroom.

I guess this room probably received the least work, but I think the change from sea foam green to purple was a big deal!  My closet is attached to the bathroom, and Robert's closet is in our bedroom.  My closet has a lot of shelves and organizers in it, and it's awesome!

Now the yard is calling our names!  I can't wait to share those pictures soon.  Give me another three months!