Say bye, bye, bye to the front porch!

It ain't no lie, baby. Bye, bye, bye! The front porch is gonzo! Paul did 95% of the demo work, but I helped where I could being that I still had to watch Lily. I can't tell you how long I'd been waiting for that day to come. Yeeeaars. It's been a long time coming. I'm so excited to get the front of the house looking the way I want it to look... finally.

This is what the front of the house looked like before.


And this is after.


We have a lot ahead of us. But first, check out the mess we had to clean up.


What a mess! It didn't take long to clean it up though. 10 minutes to be exact. We called someone and had all of it hauled away for free, since they can just take it to a metal buyer and get paid for all of it. We didn't have the patience or time to do it so, we just wanted it gone.

I have big plans for the front of the house. I'll be painting the house again, this time a simple mixture of grays with a happy mint green door. Here are a couple of ideas...

I don't know how dark of gray the one I chose compared to this is, but it's close. I'll be doing a darker gray for the main part of the house and then a lighter gray for the accent and a light gray for the trim.



with this color door



If you scroll back up and look at the house after the porch was removed, you can kind of see an orange trim. That is the original color the house was before I attempted to paint it green and white. I never painted the orange because it all needs to be removed and rebuilt. That's one of the tasks we have ahead of us. As well as extend the portico over the door to the edge of the window, on the left. Then next to that we are building a pergola, like this...



I'd also like to add faux shutters for curb appeal. Then eventually, maybe next year add a white picket fence to the front of the house. We are also adding a new mailbox, maybe a white railing and sprucing up the garden. So many things to do! I can't wait to get started and share our journey along the way. Stay tuned! We're about to get knee deep in home diy!

Progress!

Is there anything better than progress? At the end of my last post I mentioned that we had started on the nursery. Well, I can finally report that the building of the room is completely finished. I have some molding to touch up paint at this point, to be done when Gracie goes in for her nap. But otherwise? Finished! In the next couple of weeks we'll be buying all of the furniture and decor for the room. I also started on the mobile I mentioned I'd be attempting to make and the good news is, so far so good! The next step on that is to sew and stuff the felt elephants and then to hang it. But all in due time! First up, I thought I'd share some of the before pictures of the room as in how it looked when we started the renovations.

As mentioned here, this room was originally supposed to be transformed into a half bathroom/half laundry. But long story short, we got screwed by the guy who was supposed to do it so it sat this way for years. I knew in the back of my head I'd want it to be a nursery if baby came before a bathroom and now that it's finished, it's exactly how I imagined it. My dad & I did such a great job on it! Anywho, here we go...

(right mouse click view image for larger views)

This is the far side of the room. As mentioned here the room is very tiny. The walls were so ugly and dirty and just ugh. Pipes exposed. Not cool, man!

This is the opposite side of the room, of the images you see above. The washer/dryer area. Another ugly eye sore.

This is the window wall. After we started to frame out the wall & then add in the insulation. Because the room is so small it's kinda hard to share exact to scale images.

Same wall, you get the idea. Adding sheet rock. Goodbye yucky walls!

After we got the walls up it was time to spackle the seems and make everything look smooth! And this second image is of the frame (sorta) that we built for the washer/dryer to go into. So you wouldn't see it anymore!

After we added the sheet rock to the frame around the washer/dryer. We didn't get a full shot. Epic fail. And the door that covers it all up! Looks like a closet.

And lastly, this is the floor we put in. I'm so happy with it!

I'm not going to share complete after pictures until I have all of the furniture in and decor on the walls. Only a couple more weeks and I promise as soon as I'm done I'll make a post! Stay turned. Oh and pssst, new layout! :)

Bathroom progress!

Phew, I have been so busy this week I never got to post about the bathroom remodel. I'm not completely done yet. I still need to finish painting the final color, hang the mirror, towel hooks & shower curtain. I also need to scrub the floor and shower walls. Still a little ways to go, but we're getting closer and closer to being finished! I'll have everything done today. :)

Eventually, within the next couple months I plan on putting in new flooring. But, that can always wait, my current floor is ok & still kinda matches pretty well, so I'm in no rush to change it. All good things come to those who wait. :)

Here are some photos to catch you up, some befores & a few afters. Still not completely done, keep that in mind. Just some pictures along the way.

This was where the sink & toilet were. The wall just fell apart. Not good. But we fixed it!

The old mirror was a built in and I haaated it. So glad to see it gone. This is the carnage left behind.

And with it filled in with sheet rock.

New beadboard walls! Sink area.

AAAAND NEW SINK! Yay!

New sink and toilet!

The new light! lovelovelove!

The main wall.

Beadboard on tub & view from hallway.

View from the hallway.

Ceiling color.

Ceiling before.

Ceiling after! Love it!

Beadboard painted!

Main wall painted!

Tub painted!

Welp, that's it for now! I'll be back soon with complete after pictures! Stay tuned! I'd love to hear what you think so far in the comments! Don't be shy! :)

Demo-riffic!

I started demoing the bathroom yesterday. Taking tiles down one by one with my chizzle & hammer. It was definitely anything but an easy process because every single tile came down in pieces. I think I got maybe 3 tiles to come down in once piece. Needless to say my bathroom floor was a mess. As well as my hands & leg, where the pieces of tile cut me several times. Stupid tile! So happy to see it go! Here are a few images of my work along the way...

This is what I started with, to refresh your memory.

This is about 3 rows in. See. All pieces. No full size tiles. Blah.

The beginning of the mess.

After knocking a few tiles down, my leg started to hurt. I looked down & BAM first battle wound of the project. I currently have added about 6 more wounds to myself. My hands are not happy campers.

Then half way through finishing, the wall caves in. Awesome. So, I just knocked all of that piece of the wall out. I'll replace it with more sheet rock when I finish taking down the rest of the tiles.

One wall done, One and a half to go!

My handy man/contractor/dad (haha!) came today to check everything out & give me a few tips. We determined that we're going to have to replace the sink & toilet since the previous contractor built the tiled walls first & then installed everything else, meaning everything is connected or attached in some way. What a mess! But, lucky for me, I have a deep deep hate for the current sink & toilet in there so I'll be happy to see both of those go as well. I've always wanted a sink & cabinet in there since day one, so looks like I'll actually get my way. Hubs on the other hand? He's not too thrilled, since he's the one footing the bill. Ahh well, it had to go at some point right? ;)

Today I'll be working on the rest of the walls & working on removing the old mirror/cabinet. Let's hope we don't come across anymore snags along the way!