Master Bathroom

When we first moved in, we had one full bathroom and one half bathroom. We closed off the one full bathroom to make a master suite (kind of like a safe haven for us).

To give you an idea of the layout, you had to walk through this hallway to get to the one full bathroom:

Once you arrived, things went from bad to worse...

Let's break this down:

• dark blue wallpaper
• teal carpet-yuck! Carpet should never be in a bathroom. This stuff was quick thick and we probably had a few mushrooms growing under it. Moisture and carpet do not mix. 
• the famous Allison pineapple lights. These light fixtures were quite popular with my friends who came over. However, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Someone bought them from us on Craigslist, which made Jesse and I very happy =). 

Here's what we did:

We peeled off wallpaper and patched up the drywall.

We closed off the door to the bathroom and instead made a new entrance from our bedroom. This made it much more "master suite like." 

We also tore out the carpet (ahhh....)and vanity and instead added tile. 

And here's what our little place of solace looks like now:

So much cleaner and brighter =).

Master Bedroom

I am finally ready to write about our master bedroom! Look at the date from the last time I posted. This lapse in time equals "it takes a while." My advice for anyone thinking of starting a renovation-
1. Figure up the amount of time you think it will be done and the amount of money you think you will spend.
2. Then multiply it by 5.

You'll be much more accurate if you use this little formula. However, after all the waiting, it is definitely worth it. You receive the character and well-structured support that comes with an old house and the "newness" and choice of design that comes with a new house. A win-win! As long as you're patient....

Take a tour with me and see the progress on our master bedroom. We did some changing of spaces (i.e. took out walls) which can sometimes make it hard to see in pictures.
Let's start at the beginning. On the day we moved in, the hallway to the master bedroom looked like this:

If you went to the left, you would enter the bedroom. Straight ahead is the only full bathroom in the house. And... on the right are some built in cabinets. Here is what we decided to do:
1. Take out the built in cabinets (which gave us a much bigger hallway).
2. Build a wall in-between. Now the only full bathroom will be accessed through the bedroom making it a master suite :-)
3.On the end closest to where we are standing would become a little coat closet (since it is close to the front door).

4. On the end closest to the bathroom would become a walk-in closet.

5. Build another full bathroom directly above this bathroom upstairs.

Yikes! Let's get started!

Okay, now that we've established how the space changed, let's go back to the bedroom. Here is what the bedroom looked like the day we moved in. It was complete with all my favorite things :-)
1. Gray paneling
2. Drop ceiling
3. Old teal carpet
4. Dark painted, awkward closet.

Here's a better picture of the closet.

So...we did what is starting to come natural to us: We ripped out everything.

This was about the time that we also ripped out the living room. We had a dumpster at the time so we thought we'd kill two birds with one stone.
You can almost see through the whole house! And...Jesse was doing some duct-work at the time. Can you spy him?

 

 

 

 

Here's me, complete with goggles and work boots, pulling out nails (I've very talented at this job, in case you didn't know).

Looking back at these pictures makes me wonder how I ever survived. A healthy dose of humor will get you through a lot!

Finally, around Christmas, we had drywall put in.

 

And here's the new opening to the bathroom!

Surprise! Guess what we discovered under the old carpet? A beautiful hardwood floor! Jesse and I just love little treasures like this and it continues to be one of my favorite parts in this house. We discovered that this bedroom used to be a living room. If only wood floors could talk! I bet they would have lots of stories to share about the conversations they heard over the last 100 years!

 

Once again, Jesse's mom comes to the rescue and sands down the hardwood.

 

 

And then we stained it a beautiful dark color. 

Isn't it lovely?! Wood is an amazing material. It can be 100+ years old and be made to look as good as new. Don't we all wish our skin could do the same?

Now, we are finally moved in and loving our space-we actually feel like we're in a hotel! I've never had a first floor bedroom but I've discovered it's very convenient, especially having our own little bathroom attached to it.

Thanks for coming along with me!

Half Bathroom

There's something wrong when you feel you are being spied on in your own bathroom. This is how I felt initially in our half bathroom. The wallpaper in the room had hundreds of squirrels and birds-which equals hundreds of eyes....
Before:

There's another thing in this bathroom that, personally, I don't care for: drop ceilings.  I have two problems with them:
1. I just don't like the look of them in my house. Drop ceilings are easy and fine in basements and other buildings-I just don't care for them in the main living parts of my house.
2. I'm leery of what's above them. We torn one down and found a dead bird in-between the ceiling and the drop ceiling. Since then, they've scared me.

So...the wallpaper, floor and drop ceiling had to go.

 Eeewww....I'll admit it-I'm a little embarrassed of this picture. I mean, the floor looks sooo gross. But, that's just what a floor looks like when you remove laminate flooring, I guess. And...we're close, right? So I'll let you into my gross little bathroom :-)

I went completely bold with the color. Usually I prefer whites and very light colors but chose a darker green. I'm liking the result :-)

If you're wondering what the area next to the toilet is, it is a closet. When we dug up the flooring, Jesse discovered that it used to be a shower. We knew we were already building another full bathroom upstairs (and it would be a lot of work for a tiny shower) so decided to keep it a closet.


Finally, we tiled the floor and put in an adorable little pedestal sink and new toilet lid.

Aahhh...now that's more like it. No more eyes.

Christmas

On November 2nd I turned on my Christmas music. It's the year 2012 and I am sooo excited for Christmas! Rewind 1 year.

Christmas 2011. My kitchen was ripped out. No baking...no smells of cookies....no Christmas tree. Christmas was in my heart-yes, but I was still missed the sights and smells of Christmas.

So, this year I determined to celebrate it for an entire 2 months. On Saturday, I baked for 13 hours straight! Yum!

I am also loving finally decorating my house for Christmas. I mean, green shutters and a red door?....This house was meant to be decorated for Christmas!

Yes, Jesse installed some exterior lighting just so my wreaths could be seen at night. Isn't he wonderful?!

We love having people over now. I can just close the door to the rest of the house and can pretend it's finished. 

Here's some pictures of it all fancied up. :-)

I feel so blessed this year that we've made it through this far! I finally have a Christmas tree. If I get nothing else this year, I will be happy!



Thanksgiving

This year we are having both of our families over for dinner. I absolutely love having people over now that I can close the doors to the unfinished parts. I know, I know, families love you anyway but I like having those doors closed :-)

I wanted to do something a little different.
I made some caramel-covered apples....

And...I made a little welcome sign.

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Living Room

I'm late I know. It's been waaay too long since I posted on here. 
Between:
my job at school,
         working privately with a child after school,
                           working on a house
                                   and my other blog,

this little guy has been on the back burner. Thanks for sticking with me.

I'm finally writing about the living room on here. We finished this in June so I'm very behind. If you're wondering what we've been up to since then, I'll tell you. We took a break during the summer and went to Ireland. Then, we started back on the house in September and are currently working on the bathrooms. We're building a bathroom upstairs (directly above our downstairs full bathroom) and closing off the full bathroom downstairs to make it into a master suite :-). Yay!

Now back to the living room. Here are some before pictures. We were hoping we wouldn't have to tear all that plaster down....but....just like most things, we underestimated the task. The plaster was in bad condition and had to go.

In addition, there was a wall that completely blocked the front entrance-yuck! I felt claustrophobic walking into the house.

 

 

The wall had to go. So it did. So did the carpet :-) I like to play "I Spy Toto" with these pictures.



The day finally came. It was time to rip out some nasty plaster. Jesse's flexes his amazing muscles to get ready for the task. And me? Well, I took Toto and left to spend the weekend at my parent's, being the loyal wife I am. I can deal with a lot but I cannot cope with a house full of plaster dust.

How to control plaster dust: you can't. Even taping off areas and covering them with plastic, this stuff has the amazing ability to squeeze itself into areas you never thought possible.

And...drum roll please? Here is the house after the plaster and lathe demo.

Did you know your house probably looks this ugly too? No offense-it's just the way it is. Beauty is only skin wall deep.

Next comes the insulation and (my favorite) drywall. Are you starting to get used to the routine yet?
Demo. Electric. Insulation. Drywall. Finishing. Paint. Flooring.
No? Me either.

Another thanks to some of our amazing friends who came and helped us!

And now for paint! Later, I added in stripes which you can view HERE.

I feel like I skipped a lot there in that last picture. Putting up a picture makes it look easy. However, Jesse had to work hard perfecting those walls by finishing them and sanding the drywall to make it smooth and even. What took me a second to just post, probably in reality took a month to do.


Next up was the flooring. We wanted tile to mark the entryway :-)

And finally-carpet. Ah.....We had not gone barefoot (or with only socks on for that matter) since we had moved in (9 months earlier). We discovered that carpet is quite a luxury and were ecstatic to finally have some we could walk on!
And...we we weren't the only ones....

I love our carpet. It has gorgeous specks of color throughout and hides everything. The name of it is "Cookie dough." I know what you're thinking-no I didn't just pick it for its name. Okay maybe just a little :-)

And...Here is how it looks now coming through the front door.

And a view of the front door. I love the windows :-)

Last, for an added touch of "ourness," we have "Jesse and Nicole's Mission Statement" next to our door as a reminder of our values and blessings when we come and go.

Thanks for stepping into our living room for a while!