Setbacks, Delays and a Little Progress

So we were sooo excited to put in our new floors this weekend but unfortunately it didn't happen for two reasons.

First of all we ended up deciding to go with bamboo flooring for the whole house, after doing some research we decided this was the best compromise between cost, durability and good looks and we are still really happy we decided to go with the bamboo. We had a tough time deciding this though and we waffled on what kind of floors to get right up until the last minute so we weren't able to plan for the installation as much as we would have liked. The thing about bamboo is that it is a fiber and can expand and contract quite a bit depending on the climate it is in. because of this you have to leave a little room around the edges of your room when laying your bamboo floors so that they can grow if they need to. It is also recommended that the flooring sits in the room it will eventually live in for about 3 days before you install it so that it can acclimate to the space (this is supposed to cut down on the amount that it will swell). Well, darn... so we can't put the bamboo in for another 3 days, which basically means we can't put it in until next weekend since we have no time during the week.

The second snag we hit was that our sub floors are crazy. When we first pulled up the carpet we discovered that someone had put down a layer of particle board on top of the plywood that makes up the main sub floor. God knows why, the people who built this house were insane. So as it turns out you can't install bamboo flooring over particle board, ugh! So the poor men, (Eric, Don, My Dad and our friend Adam) spent the whole weekend pulling up all the particle board in the living area. Luckily the bamboo we bought is exactly the same thickness as the particle board so when it goes down the floor will be the same height. It actually works out well too because it gave us a chance to reinforce a lot of the squeaky areas on the floor so it is all for the best but it's frustrating to have the delay when we were so excited.


We did make some progress this weekend however (other than pulling up particle board of course). We painted the two remaining bedrooms so now all that is left to paint is the bathrooms, yay! I'll be excited to check painting off my list, I'm getting kind of sick of it to be honest :-)

So here are some pictures from this weekend just so that Ya'll can see what's going on with the house now:

Our new flooring neatly stacked in boxes and getting acclimated to the space

This is what the floor we chose looks like, we think it will really make the living room and dining room sparkle

Boys tearing up the particle board on top of our sub floors

Guest bedroom all finished being painted, we choose a lovely light gray for this room

Guest bedroom again

Master bedroom-painting finished. The dark gray really modernized this room.

I have to give a great big shout out to Mom, Dad, Logan, Don, Jody, Adam and Joanna for all their help this weekend. We have awesome friends and family! We love you guys! Also an extra special thank you to my parents for cooking everyone an amazing dinner on Saturday night. We had an awesome time drinking wine and just hanging out with everyone after a hard day of work. Looking forward to living in the house and hosting dinners of our own to repay the favor :-)

Homey Touches

 We are once again taking the week off from home repairs so I don't have much to report other than the fact that we are super excited about starting to install our hardwood floors this weekend. It's gonna hurt to spend the money but it will be so worth it in the long run!

So for today I am just posting two leftover pictures from last weekend. You have to idea how hard it is for me not to start decorating this house and putting my little nick knacks all over the place, that's what makes a place feel like home to me. I've really had to stop myself from doing this so that I don't get paint all over everything I own but it's been a struggle. Although we've mostly kept our homey touches at our rental house or packed in boxes in the basement, we couldn't resist putting out a few things that make it seem like this house actually belongs to us.

Valentines Day/Housewarming present from my parents. Having a potted plant around always makes a space feel more inviting.

We moved our wedding sign out this past weekend, now everyone knows the house is ours :-)

That's all for now, we will hopefully have pictures of beautiful, shiny new floors to show very soon.

Craft Services

I just have to do a big thank you post to my parents at this point. In addition to helping with the house they have been supplying all of us with amazing meals to keep us going! It is so awesome that Eric and I both have parents who are so willing and eager to help, we are so lucky! Here are some pictures from today's awesome lunch spread.

Buffet of burger toppings

mmm.. home made burgers

Everyone digging in

Thanks Mom and Dad, I love you!

More Painting

We also did quite a bit more painting this weekend. We finished up the main living area (living room, dining room and loft) as well as doing the hallway and one of the spare bedrooms which will be my studio. I can't wait to get the rest of the house painted, it will be an awesome feeling to get that part of the renovation done and then we can actually start moving things in to these rooms. Here are some pictures from this weekend's painting.

Living room, dining room and loft, done!

Living room after

Living room after

Hall in progress

Hall, done

Studio before, it was a horrible lavender color and obviously used to be a little girls room

Studio in progress

Studio in progress

Studio, you can see the old color in the closet

Studio after, I love how bright and sunny it feels!

Studio after

Studio after, we just have to do a second coat of white in the closet

An interesting fact that we found out from our new neighbor is that the people who lived in this house before us had 6 kids, wow! That totally explains a lot of the problems it has, and why the walls and carpets were totally filthy. This room had tiny, dirty hand prints on the wall all over and crayon scribbles on the baseboards. It feels so good to have a fresh coat of paint and clean new start in here!

Flooring Update

We had another busy weekend of working away on the house. Eric and his dad did a lot of repairs on the sub floor to prepare for our hardwood floor installation (which we will be attempting next weekend). Here are few photos from the process.

Eric in the middle of sub floor repairs. There was quite a bit of water damage near the sliding glass doors so Eric and Don pulled out the whole section and replaced it.

Don drilling the new sub floor in place

We made a trip to Floor and Decor out in Kennesaw this weekend to research flooring. I think we have decided to go with this red oak. 

Another big accomplishment this weekend was shampooing the carpets in the bedrooms and the loft. We can't really afford to put hardwood in the whole house right away and the carpets in some of the rooms are in decent shape so we are leaving them there for a bit. I can't believe what a big difference it made to have the carpets cleaned (thanks Jody!). Here are some pictures of the freshly cleaned carpets.

Master bedroom carpet

It almost looks new! Awesome!

loft carpet

We are so excited to put in our hardwoods next weekend. I think the space will really look amazing after this step, can't wait to share the results with everyone!

More pictures from our first weekend of renovations

We are taking a break from home renovation during the work week to give ourselves a breather and allow our finances recover before next weekend's marathon round of painting, repairs and spending. This post is just so I can show a few of the pictures from the past weekend that didn't make it in to my other two posts. This will probably be my last post until this coming weekend rolls around and I have more improvements to show. I can't believe how much we have accomplished already and how much more we still have to do. One thing's for sure, owning our own place is awesome! We feel such pride and exhilaration every time we make a positive change to the space. We still spend a lot of time talking, planning and thinking about the house when we are not with it. We're really looking forward to the point where we can move in and really make it ours. For now we will just feel happy about all the great changes we've made so far!

Eric working late in to the night on tearing out the yucky carpet. We ended up pulling out all the carpet in the living room and dining room last weekend in preparation for the new hardwood floors we are getting!

We moved the rest of my old furniture out of my condo (where I lived before Eric and I got married) last weekend and brought it to the new house where we will actually have room for it. Here is my old couch that I missed so much. If you imagine that the new floors are installed and the painting is done this almost looks like a real living space!

I love you house!

A shot from above of the general renovation madness that is happening right now. Can't wait to get our new floors installed.

That's it for now. I am excited about getting more done this weekend but i have to say it's nice to take the week off from working on the house. I think this way we will keep ourselves from getting too burned out.

Painting

Finally! The part of the house renovation I am most excited about! I learned a lot this weekend from my painting experience. One is that color can totally transform and revive a room. It was amazing the feeling of satisfaction I got from seeing such a dramatic transformation in the rooms we started painting. Unfortunately a new coat of paint really makes you notice all the other things that need to be updated in a room. The other thing that I learned was that my fine art skills apparently don't translate well to room painting, I kind of suck at it. Fortunately my mother in law, Jody, is a painting machine! She got so much done this weekend and did an amazing job of it, we are super grateful to her for all her help.

So here are some pictures from the painting that went on this weekend. We still have a LONG way to go but it is a great start!

Mom, helping he do some edging before we start painting the kitchen in earnest.

Starting work on the kitchen.

First coat, looking pretty blotchy. Apparently dark colors over light are hard :-(

Sample spots on the wall of the dining room

Jody helping out in the kitchen, I think we are on the second coat at this point.

Jody again, starting work on the dining room

Dining room, living room and loft area. The new color is similar to the old one but a bit darker and warmer.

Living room wall with the shadow of the trees on it. The new color is called almond toast but I prefer to think of it as peanut butter :-)

Corner of the loft (with me looking silly)

Another corner of the loft. The red/orange wall is the only one we aren't painting in the whole house.

Kitchen is done! Yay! Next step in here is to stain the cabinets and get new hardware (and working appliances)

Dining room, mostly done. Just have to go back and do the trim.

Updated fixtures

Eric, my dad and Eric's dad worked super hard this weekend to update many of the lighting fixtures in the house and install a new fan. I am soooo happy with the results. Check out pictures below!

Eric and Dad installing the new light in the dining room. Goodbye outdated chandelier!

New light for the dining room, you may recognize it from a previous post.

Eric with the new lighting fixture he and my dad installed on the back deck. I love the industrial, old timey feel of this one.

View of both of the new lights together.

New ceiling fan installed in the master bedroom. This was apparently really hard, luckily Eric's dad was there to help.

New front porch light, this fixture was also mentioned in my previous post on lighting.

More to come soon, stay tuned!