The BEFORE & AFTER

Well, I've decided to finally post some before and after pictures of our renovation.  I took the after pictures a couple weeks ago when we still had our Christmas decorations up so I had to move a couple things around.  I didn't even get a picture of the great room because of our ginormous Christmas tree.  Maybe I'll add those later (or maybe not given how infrequently I update this blog).  Ok, so here's what I do have.

MASTER BATH
Ahh...the master bath.  Notice the gold everything in the Before Picture..  That was so the style in the early 90's when mom and dad built this house.  Although, the glass blocks between the shower and tub almost scream 80's Miami Vice to me.  Mike, our handy-man, ended up taking the jetted tub and gave it to his ex-wife.  It's nice to know some of this stuff is being re-used.  Also, the HUGE mirror was removed in one piece and I listed it on craigslist for free.  Some guy came and got it and is using it in his basement for a dance studio.  Used http://www.vintagetub.com to order my claw-foot tub.  Free shipping!  If you Alpharetta/Roswell people are thinking of renovating your kitchen or bath, go to Ferguson's to pick out what you want, but then order it from vintage tub.  You will save SO much money! 

Master Bath Before

Master Bath After - soap stand is actually antique ash tray, crystal chandelier was a wedding present

Master Bath Before

Master Bath After - notice our sweet dog in the background on her bed

MASTER BEDROOM
The Master Bedroom only needed some hardwood floors, new windows, trim-work on the ceiling, and, of course, our barn door (again, found someone on craigslist to make the door for me).  Mike hung it for us - something he's never done before but did a great job.  The hardware that came with the door was wimpy so I raced off to Tractor Supply Co. and bought the hardware pictured.  The rustic piece of wood holding the door is from a tree in lower pasture.  The lamps are Jamey's grandmother's (Helen), and the sconces came from Pottery Barn.

Master Bedroom Before

Master Bedroom After

KITCHEN
The Kitchen ended-up taking longer than it should have.  A must-have for me was the same farmhouse sink we had in our old house.   Again, I ordered it through Vintage Tub and Bath and saved a fortune (an additional 8% off if you also go through Ebates.com first).  So with the sink, we had to have the granite re-cut.  That proved being more difficult than you would think.  They ended up using granite from the desk area to make it work out.  What that meant for us, was weeks of no counter top and using a hose outside to wash pots and pans.  NOT fun.  The cook-top, fridge, and dishwasher are new.  We kept the ovens and under-counter microwave.  We also ended-up keeping the cabinets and just panting them.  I want to switch-out the pendants but as of yet, I still haven't found the perfect ones....still on the look-out!

Kitchen Before

Kitchen AFter

MUDROOM
 The mudroom is probably my favorite change to the house.  It used to be a laundry room and a hallway.  We removed the walls so when you walk in, it's just one big room (well...not big but bigger room).  The laundry room we moved to a 2nd half-bath over by the Master Bedroom.  The thing I like most about the mud-room is the rustic wood we had put on the back wall.  Years ago my dad had an oak tree taken down in the lower pasture and this is the wood from that tree.  Dad had it planed out thinking he would one day make a table or something out of it. Well, it sat in the basement for 10 years so when we bought the house, I asked that the wood be included with the sale.  Originally I thought it might go in the study but, because we didn't have enough, we used it in the mud room.  The other thing I like is the sink I had made out of a copper pot I bought at Queen of Hearts.  I also got the sink stand at Q of H.  My plumber, Terry, kept asking if I was sure I wanted him to cut into the antique dresser for the drain and plumbing pipes.  "Cut Away!" I said.  Terry did a great job.  The cowboy on the horse painting was actually painted by one of my father-in-laws best friends, Dave Barrett.  Love it!

Laundry room Before

Mudroom After - The chicken pictures were a wedding present (thanks Becky Conners Neece)

Laundry Room and Hallway Before

Mudroom After

Desk Area

Since we used the granite from the desk in the kitchen to go around the farmhouse sink, we had to put a new counter top.  We decided to raise it up, do away with the desk area, and add drawers for storage (Jamey still has not added the hardware to the new drawers - I don't expect he ever will).  We had a lady come paint the cabinets to look like wood.  You can barely see the rope chandelier over the kitchen table in the after picture.  It's actually the first thing I bought for the house (and yep, I bought it at Queen of Hearts).  Also notice the wall paper.  There were TWO layers I personally removed through out the whole kitchen.  My fingernails suffered greatly from that (as did my spirit).

Desk Area Before

Desk Area After (we call it the Bar now)

THE STUDY

The study (or TV room as the kids call it) was by far the easiest room.  All we did was paint the walls, put in hardwoods, and add glass french doors.  DONE.

Study Before (I should say during...this is where we hid while work was going on in the rest of the house)

 

The Study After

That's all I have for now.  Like I said, no current pictures of the Great Room.  I guess I could go downstairs and take one now (since the Christmas Tree is gone) but that would involve removing laundry from the couch and I'm just not feeling up to it.  I equate living through a renovation to giving birth.  It's extremely painful but once you are holding the beautiful results in your arms, you almost forget how hard it was to get there (almost).  The difference is, I would give birth again (and did!) but I pray that I will NEVER live through another renovation!! (especially with 2 young children).

Hope you enjoyed!

Let's celebrate!

Well, I didn't do a very good job of keeping up with this blog.  I guess it's because I've been super busy with the renovations/end of school/etc. and couldn't find the time.  Enough excuses.  Here's my best attempt at doing a recap of the last couple months.  Let me start with this post about last night and then work my way backwards.  We had a big house-warming party to celebrate everything being done.  It was so great seeing everyone and finally being able to entertain.  Our new cook-top was installed Friday, and the party was Saturday....talk about waiting until the last minute! 

Here are some pictures from the party.  Unfortunately I was so wrapped up with enjoying everyone's company that I completely forgot to take pictures until nearly half our guests had left.  Oh well.  But here are a few of the shots I did get:

 

Lance, Brian, and Jamey.  Two of our groomsmen from our wedding and Jamey's good friends from college.  Thanks guys for making the drive to come see us!  It really means a lot!

Nothing like a good game of corn-hole.  Nice toss Zach! (p.s. love the pants)

Sorry this photo is out of focus but I had to put Hannah in here.  Hannah is our babysitter and next door neighbor.  She was such a big help last night helping look after the kids.  Thank you!

 

 

 Uncle Mike, Jada, Dad, and cousin Kevin.

 The Bausanos and the Tanners

 Kids, Kids, Kids!!

 Reagan enjoying the back deck

 My party life-savers!  Aunt Mary Anne and my Momma.  Thanks ladies for all your hosting help!

 The Bagwells aka best beach buddies ever!

 Me and Jamey

 The Brothers - Dad and Uncle Mike

 The Hudsons and Jay

 Kevin and Helen

 

 Sarah, Dave, and Ava

It's not a party until the Crenshaws are there

Me and Jenny doing a sorority pose

Thank you so much to everyone for helping us break-in the "new" house.  It has been a long rode since we closed on the property in February.  I had my fair share of a few tears with the stress of it all.  Now that it's done, I can say it was definitely worth it.  However, I hope to never do it again.  Just having workers in my house all the time was enough to drive me crazy but then add to it the effort of keeping a 3 and 6 year old out of their way while also having to eat out every night, doing laundry at my in-laws house, not having any furniture to sit on, the fridge in the garage, no kitchen sink for a month, yadda, yadda, yadda.  I'm getting stressed all over just thinking about it.  Last night was such a great time simply because we are DONE and I could let out a big sigh and just relax.  Whew!  Now what?  Well, my brother and his 4 kids are coming on Tuesday and we can't wait!  Right now I need to go clean up the house from last night and get ready for our house guests.  When I do get it cleaned up again, I'll be sure to take some pictures and post the finished product.  I'm not making any promises that it will be any time soon though!

~Kelly

BUSY day!

Today is crazy at the house.  I had a tennis match this morning and when I got back to the house around 11am it was full of people.  This is definitely a good thing!  At one point we had Michael & Jason, tile guys, painters, granite guys, electrician, and window guys all at the same time.

 

  

The cabinet guys are still a no-show.  They have been holding us up for weeks now.  It's very frustrating.  Every time I'm outside rinsing out a pot with the hose I am silently cursing the cabinet guys (I've been trying to work on any type of cussing for Lent but does it count when you do it in your head??).  We can't hook up the kitchen sink until the granite is set and we couldn't template the granite until the cabinet guys set the end panel to the fridge (which they did on Wed. which is why the granite guys are here today doing the template).  But my painters are here today and will be back tomorrow but they can't paint the cabinets until they are installed by my no-show cabinet guys.   ARRGGH!!

On a positive note, my ever faithful plumber, Terry, was here today and it looks like I may be able to take my long anticipated bath in my claw-foot tub!!  woot! woot!

We finally have a surround to our fireplace!  Things are starting to come together!

 The majority of the house is now painted, including the foyer!

 Mudroom is certainly coming together.  Notice the space not painted?  Yep, waiting on the cabinet guys to put in our built-in cubbies.

I got the feeling from my parents that they were sad by all my negative posts about the house.  (think back to rotted wood, rusted-out electrical boxes, leaking doors and showers, etc.)  I tried to explain this is a blog about the "hardships" of renovating as well as the joys.  So the majority of this post has been about the joys.  Here's one negative: ANTS!  Two of the windows the guys replaced today were full of ants.  GROSS!  (sorry mom and dad - love you and LOVE the house but had to put this picture in here)

A Quorum

We have a quorum! There is nothing better (during a renovation) than looking out my new window at 9am and seeing several work trucks. It tells me work is being done today and we are that much closer to being done!!

 Here's how I spend most of my spare time...removing wallpaper.  I've become quite the expert!  It just takes a ton of time and a LOT of patience.  It's actually become therapeutic for me - I get the music turned on and with each piece going in the garbage I see progress.  We are keeping some of my mom's wallpaper - in the dining room and half bath.  But the rest is coming down - and it's my job to do it!

 Yesterday they moved my tub into the bathroom to dry-fit the pipes.  This took 3 guys to do and I'm sure their backs are hurting this morning.  I'm so excited to see that it fits well (good thing b/c I don't think the company I bought from in Canada takes returns....plus I can't imagine the shipping cost for this).  It was exciting to see it in there - although now it's on the back deck serving as a large birdbath until such time as it makes it's final move.

 The guys came to remove our granite on Wednesday.  We are keeping the granite but it needs to be re-cut to accommodate my farmhouse sink.  The 2 gentlemen pictured below were in rapid-fire Spanish as to how to move this nearly 300lb slab.  Finally I asked if they wanted me to get Michael and Jason from off the roof (where they were fixing the rotted wood of our dormer windows).  "Yes, Please!" was their response.  So 4 men were able to move it to the truck.  Good thing Jason and Mike were here!

 No kitchen sink makes for an added inconvenience.  Luckily we still  have a sink in the half bath that works (although not right now because the plumber has the water turned off).

I came up with the ingenious idea of using one of our old doors as a counter top.  It fits perfectly and even has the added ornamentation of a door handle.  I'm thinking this door counter-thing may take off and be the next hot thing!

When Helen saw we had no counter top this is what she said:

Helen:  Mommy, where'd the table go

Me:  It's called a counter top and we are getting a new one

Helen:  Are we getting a batman one or a princess one?

Me:  Umm...neither.

Though my parents built this house out of mahogany (which is a super strong hardwood), we've decided to go back with hardi-plank on the dormers because they are along the roof and are constantly exposed to water.  Although you can't tell in this picture, the new boards are not touching the roof line.  There is also flashing running underneath it.  Hopefully we won't have anymore issues with rotting wood here.

 This is what all the boards looked like - rotten.  None of the boards were sealed on the ends that had been cut and were exposed to water.

A smidge of progress...

Well, there's been a smidge of progress this week.  The most exciting thing (for me anyway) is my rustic wall in our new mud room.  These boards came from an oak tree that fell in Jiggy's pasture (our beloved horse that passed away when I was in college) many years ago.  My dad had a guy come out and plane out the boards.  They've been sitting in the basement ever since.  So I had Michael and Jason (our handymen) put them on the wall.  LOVE it!  He made the window sill wide enough for my future herb garden.

 The plumber has been here too.  I thought it would be so easy to move the laundry to a half bath.  Sure, why not?  There's already water lines in the wall...piece of cake!  Well, there's also water lines for the two sinks to the master on the other side in the same wall (which makes limited room for the lines for my washer).  Somehow Terry the Plumber made it work.  Also, moving the laundry involved running a new dryer vent to the outside, widening the doors to the bathroom to fit the washer/dryer, and moving/installing appropriate electrical.  I hope having my mudroom was worth all this effort (and expense!!)

 Michael and Jason also added trim work to the master ceiling.  We are having it painted white but you can get the idea from the picture below.  This is nice because the trim pieces cover up all the dry-wall tape that was peeling at all the seams in the ceiling. 

I thought I'd throw in a picture of our "dining" table.  It's an outdoor table covered with a blanket.  This is where jamey and i have our meals.  the kids sit at the island in the kitchen.  Notice the fireplace with the ripped out marble surround...nice.