Where Are They Now?

This weekend marked our first house-iversary here.  So I thought it’d be fun to take a side by side then and now tour.  Think of this as a child celeb where are they now special E! special.  Everyone loves those, right?  If you don’t, think of this as an updated house tour.

Let’s start at the front door.  Here’s the entry on move in day:

New-House-Entry April 13 2012

Add a rug, small table, a few prints, and here we are today:

Entry-One-Year-Later

The living and dining rooms one year ago:

New-House-Living-and-Dining-April-13-2012

And now:

Living-Room-to-Dining-One-Year-Later

Our furniture makes a big difference.  The rocker has to go back down stairs, but my dad needs his rocker when they visit.

Living-Room-One-Year-Later

Other than moving furniture in, painting over the red accent wall (which might change-see the swatches?), and building an entertainment center, this room hasn’t gotten much attention.

Entertainment-Center-One-Year-Later

Same goes for the dining room.  Here it is before:

Dining-Room-After-Move-In-April-30

And now:

Dining-Room-One-Year-Later

Yes, that’s a folding table in there, but it’s better than nothing.  We’ve got plans that could change the flow of the room, so we’re waiting to buy/build a table to decide the size and shape.

One big change has happened in the kitchen.  Check out how it looked then:

New-House-Kitchen-from-Breakfast-Nook-April-13-2012

Now, the dark wall paper is gone.  Soon, I plan to finish the walls and paint.

Kitchen-and-BN-One-Year-Later

Of course we still want to rework the kitchen.

Breakfast-Nook-One-Year-Later

The dark wallpaper wrapped around to my office, too:

New-House-Office-April-13

It’s amazing how much brighter the room is without the dark walls.

Office-One-Year-Later

One of the rooms we’re nearly finished with is the family room.  On move in day, it was a blank canvas with a 70’s moss rock fireplace.

New-House-Family-Room-April-13-2012

The previous owner added some too traditional for our liking elements, like the sconces and arches.

Square-Pattern-Rug-in-Family-Room

Here’s the room after covering the fireplace, adding a bar/wood storage, painting the walls, re-arranging furniture, and squaring the arched doors:

Family-Room-Fireplace-One-Year-Later

Clearly the ceiling isn’t finished.  We’re fixing a few small cracks.  It’s on my to do list this week.  But the room itself is nearly complete, just have to shop around for furniture we like.

Family-Room-One-Year-Later

Along with the arches, the previous owner updated the main bathroom:

New-House-Main-Bathroom April 13 2012

Main-Bathroom-Sink-Before

Despite being the most recently finished room in the house, it was the first we remodeled.  More storage and a shower were necessary for our family.  And here it is now:

Main-Bathroom-Finished-from-Door

Light walls, a colored vanity, and coral accents make us smile.

Main-Bathroom-Finished-Vanity

The smallest bedroom, our guest/Handy Sammy’s room just got a make over, too.  Here it is on closing day:

New-House-Guest-Bedroom April 13 2012

Today the room is bright and sunny thanks to a larger window and happy yellow paint:

Guest-Bedroom-Painted-Safari-Overall

Reconfigured bookshelves allow more floor space while giving the bed a cozy nook.

Guest-Room-Headboard-One-Year-Later

Guest-Room-Closet-Side-One-Year-Later

Guest-Room-Door-Side-One-Year-Later

Our boys share the second bedroom, which was a plain box before:

New-House-Boys-Bedroom-April-13-2012

New-House-Boys-Bedroom-to-Hall-April-13-2012

And it still kind of is:

Boys'-Bedroom-One-Year-Later

Before we can do much else, the popcorn ceiling has to come down.  Then we can add trim and paint the walls.  Until then, we’re living with swatches on the walls.

Boys'-Bedroom-Door-Side-One-Year-Later

Same story in our bedroom.  Popcorn ceilings are preventing us from working on the room.  I can’t wait to paint over the cobalt blue walls:

New-House-Master-Bedroom-Front-April-13-2012

New-House-Master-Bedroom-April-13-2012

We have built a bed (though it’s not finished) and added art:

Master-Bedroom-from-Door-One-Year-Later

I guess that’s something.  Ha!

Master-Bedroom-One-Year-Later

Before, our master bath was a burgundy cave:

New-House-Master-Bathroom-Toilet-April-13-2012

A coat of green paint lightened things up, but we want to remodel this bath to include the claw foot tub we removed from the other bathroom.

Master-Bath-One-Year-Later

Most of the basement is unchanged, so I’ll just share the laundry room.  Ben pulled pet stained carpet out right after signing the papers:

New-House-Laundry-Room-April-13-2012

For now we’ve got an old rug in place:

Laundry-Room-from-Door

Gotta make things work, at least until we can really tackle each room.  So there it is, our house one year ago versus our house today.  It’s nice to take a look back, because sometimes it feels like we’ve barely scratched the surface of this remodel project we call home.  But, we’ve actually got three finished (or allllmost finished) rooms with lots of changes in others.  Slowly but surely, we’re making progress.  One day, weekend, and project at a time.

After the Dust Settles

Yesterday was Ben’s birthday.  His gift?  No more kitchen tile.  Pretty awesome of me, right?  Actually, it was his idea.  I was going to take him out to dinner; he insisted on removing the floor.  Before the floor could come out, we had to tear out the cabinets.  Yeah, our kitchen is no longer usable.

Ben unhooked the sink plumbing and faucet.  Vincent helped.

Buh bye, backsplash!  You and your swollen middle will not be missed.

After unscrewing the cabinets, Ben started hauling everything out.  His dad wants the cabinets for his shop.

To keep the kitchen as usable as possible, we rotated the stove to the other side and put an old cabinet next to it.  We’ve down graded from a full kitchen suite to a kitchenette.

Then the real demo work began.  The tiles came up rather easily, but the cement board did not.  And we have to tear the floor down to the subfloor.

Ben pulled up part of the plywood floor to see how difficult it would be.  Turns out, one of the boards below had a small hole.

 

Then, Ben went back to tearing up the floor.  What a mess.  But it has to get worse before it can get better.

To tear out the tile, Ben used a pick axe.  Pick axe plus muscle equals mega damage.  In the best way possible, too.

Here’s what everything looked like after four hours.  Tile anilihated.  Mission accomplished.

And, things are looking up.  Literally.  Here’s what the ceiling looks like with three coats of mud.

Obviously I took these pictures before the demo began.  Sanding still to come.

Do I get the best birthday giving award?  I thought so.  Now we have another long day of demo and work.