The Door to Happiness

The entire point of this renovation is to improve the livability of our house, not just make it nice and pretty.  We have a 5 person family along with a giant dog (Happy Birthday Louie, 1 year this month!) and a grumpy cat (Gumbo).

Outside space was a big part of our family in our old home and we intend to keep that up in the new home.  The main obstacle we had at this home was that there was no direct access to the new fenced in yard from inside the house.  This might not seem like a big deal to some people, but imagine being in the middle of your favorite show at 9:30 at night and the dog begins to fuss....he has to go outside.  Ok, let's go get a leash, and walk him outside, around the house, and then stand there until he finishes.  Keep in mind he's still young so he may run around for the fun of it for several minutes.  No use going back inside because by the time you get back in he'll bark to come back in and you have to go back outside again and walk around the house again.  NOT COOL. Or imagine two little boys who just want to go outside and shoot their new wooden "crossbow" (don't worry, not building a militia, the crossbow is powered by a rubber band and the tip of the "arrow" is a pencil eraser). Either way, I don't want wooden dowels with erasers flying through the air in the living room while I'm holding an infant.

So, here we are, feeling like Chip and JoAnna and we're adding some french doors!! These doors will actually be in our dining room, directly next to the kitchen leading outside to the side yard.  Here is a view from the outside of the window we're tearing out. This was a picture from the first few days we moved in back in December. We had to move this gas meter to accommodate the door, as well as get it outside of our new fence, so that is gone. But this gives you a good idea of the window we're taking out.

Thankfully, the window was wide enough and it's standard size across for a double door.  However, we do have to break apart the brick below the window for the door, and the window opening goes a good bit higher than the standard door.  We decided to add a transom window to the door which will work perfect in this space, and will look great in this historic home.  It also wasn't much more expensive so it was a great call.

 Additionally, since we put in this door, we had to have steps that go outside.  As much fun as my kids would have jumping 18-inches in and out everyday, I could see this getting old real quick, and maybe breaking a bone or two.  We decided to add a small deck the would lead outside.  We decided to go with a small one as we're not 100% sure what we are doing on this side.  We're planning to add a courtyard of some sort on this side yard to be more of an adult space.  Not sure if we are going to go for an outdoor dining vibe or a casual lounging/firepit type scene.  Either way, our grill will live over here.  The side yard will be a huuuuge project on it's own, but to give you an idea of what we're doing and our rationale for putting the doors here.  Our side yard is about 15-20 feet so it's a good size for door to open to.  Great long flat area, perfect for kids playing catch or passing a soccer ball right outside the door.

When you're standing outside on the future cool patio area you'll look directly inside through the dining room and into the kitchen.

We think this will be great in the fall and spring on nice days and we can keep doors open and really have an indoor/outdoor living area feel.  This will be great for entertaining.

Professional Painters are Awesome...

Normally I'm all for painting myself, really.  I'm that crazy person that actually ENJOYS painting rooms.  However, when my contractor suggested having his guy do the painting I jumped at the opportunity.  Thankfully, we're under budget at this point (HOW BOUT THEM APPLES?!?!) so I was all in.  Little Eileen has taken up a lot of time (which she should...) and the chaos that ensues everyday is absolutely amazing with no kitchen and everyone living upstairs. I am so looking forward to my family having a set routine again. I'm dying over here.

They came in and painted the kitchen walls and all of the new trim in the kitchen, the new door opening, and the baby's room.  I will never get over the feeling of joy I receive from seeing trim go from bare wood to white, or more impressively, from poop green to white.  I had every intention to snap these photos, but you know, life.  You get the idea though.

Here is the before and after as far as the trim change in Eileen's room.  Big improvement, not horrible, but come on, it's a baby girl's room.  Let's jazz this up.

Now let's talk about some paint colors.  

I elected to paint her room myself because that's the easy part.  Moldings and windows are 10x more tedious.  When I was trying to pick a color for her room I wanted something that said "baby girl", but not too obnoxious.  Her bedding has a good bit of colors (corals, teals, yellows, etc.) but I really wanted a super light color that felt pretty neutral.  I decided I wanted to look in the corals for a color.  That is a lot harder than I initially thought.  There are VERY few options for a really faint coral color.  In fact, at our local Sherwin Williams, they didn't have ANY that were super light.  These were the 4 options I picked out.

Some of the colors I LOVE, but wow, too bright and dark.

The new fresh white paint also really helped make the colors pop as well.  I ended up choosing the lightest color.  When I first put it on the wall it looked almost white, but then next to the new bright white paint, it was PERFECT.  Yep, going with that.

I love the new color and I can't wait to actually put her room together (spoiler, she's been in it since August but I'm just putting this up because life...).  Eileen will only be in this room while she's a little baby.  Once she's over one (or when we feel comfortable with it), we'll be moving her upstairs to the now guest room, and moving the guest room down here.  Either way, even though we chopped a solid 4 feet out of this room to enlarge the kitchen, it's still a great size for a nursery or guest room.  Babies don't need a ton of space, and we don't want guests to get TOO comfortable...(sorry mom and dad). So far Eileen is love it! :)

Kitchen is almost done!!!

This kitchen seems like it's taken FOREVER.  Oh wait, it has.  Literally 3 months.  I know this because my daughter is 3 months old TODAY!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY EILEEN!!

Poor little girl has no idea what a real routine is like.  I guess I should feel more sorry for her daycare that she started on Monday though...sorry, I really tried to get a routine, but with all of us living upstairs in 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom with no kitchen, that's a lot easier said that done.

Anyway, WOW, like just wait for these pictures.  The cabinets were the biggest wrench in our plan.  They arrived on June 14th, but with 1 cabinet missing, as well as all the trimming and filler pieces, we had to wait.  Unfortunately, it took another 6 weeks for the replacements to come in.....  I will say that this was not so much the fault of the cabinet company, but more the shipping company.  But, I'm not gonna get all fussy and angry right now (I might save that for an entire post) because I have a kitchen and I'm on cloud nine.  So far, we LOVE our cabinets.  We went with a white shaker cabinet because it's a classic design. You can see bits of them in the photos below.

For our hardware we went with drawer pull and handles that were a brushed nickel.  We went to Simply Home here in Starkville (it's a home design place) to get options and found knobs that we loved, but actually found pulls that we liked from LOWES!  And they look great together!

Our countertops are fab.  We went with a white quartz countertop that has a grey vein through it.  We thought about doing marble, but we do have half a brain.  There won't be any spilled red wine on them (we're not that classy), but there would definitely be some red-mio-mixed kids drinks on them, or large amounts of food coloring for our next birthday party that I'm sure I'll spend way to much time planning.  We have real kids that make real messes.  I'm still baffled by my friends that have spotless homes with small kids.  Surely they have a closet chocked full of junk and drawers jam packed with stuff.... Sorry, I digress.  Anyway, the countertops look great.

Next we have our new backsplash.  This was a tough decision for me.  With white cabinets and basically white countertops, we needed something different.  I needed some color.   George and I are fun people and we wanted something fun that made us happy as we sing and dance making dinner in our kitchen (what, you mean you don't sing and dance when you prepare your meals?!). We decided to go with a glass subway tile in a light green color.  Think, those old glass coke bottles, that green/aqua color.  It's literally the EXACT SAME COLOR.  It adds just enough color and update to the room to make it look like it's a real family kitchen.  We're actually doing a super cool feature wall that will be nothing BUT backsplash that is going to be awesome, but for now, you get to see what just the tile looks like.

Let's also not forget our awesome sink.  No really, it is.  We got a HUGE farm sink that I'm pretty much in love with.  Like, why don't we just have a set of twins just so I can prove I can bath BOTH of them in this sink at the same time. Let it be known, it's ridiculous how much most farm sinks cost.  If you haven't checked out their prices, they average between $800-$ 1,200. Ha, yeah, no thanks. This sucker came from IKEA on a sale at $250.  And this thing is solid.  When I told my contractor where it was from, he bent down thinking it would be easy to pick up, nope, sorry you almost pulled your back out... "Wow, that's heavy", why yes, yes it is.

The kitchen is not 100% done yet so I don't want to do a full reveal just yet, but man, we are getting close!! With looking at these items listed you can get a sense of what we're doing.

Fast Forward a LOT

As with the last post, I have been less than diligent of posting updates on house renovations.  But again, they have been happening.  But this time, they have not so much been at our hands, but at HIRED hands, which makes them a lot more exciting.  I'm talking tearing down walls and knocking holes in floors type stuff.  For the past 6-7 weeks we haven't even lived in our house and have been without internet.  That's been a major factor, and oh yeah, we had a baby.  Say hello to Lelia "Eileen" Dunn, making us a family of 5!  Major reno started when she was only 7 days old so I suppose she'll be a fixer upper pro when she grows up...

As sweet and adorable as she may seem, she's not as fond of sitting in coffee shops taking advantage of free internet as I'd hoped (However she is sleeping nicely in 929 as I type).

That is kind of the theme of this renovation.  She sleeps through the entire thing.  It's not uncommon for a car to drive past my house to see 5 trucks parked in my yard and a carseat on the front porch because I don't want to bring a sleeping infant into a dust filled home.

Quick recap of things that have happened to bring you up to speed:

• We spent lots of money on a fence (that is worth every penny)
• We had a bouncing baby girl on May 3rd
• We moved out of our house the evening of May 9th and demo began May 10th (Thankfully this was MUCH easier and CHEAPER than most. We were lucky enough to have in-laws that share a home with some friends that they use for football games and weekends in Starkville.  We owe them HUGE for letting us squat at their place for so long!!!!)
• CONSTRUCTION!!!!  (I'm going to try and break this down with pictures) Shall we begin??

Day 1: 

6:25am  the crew arrives and begins demo.  Here are some before pictures to refresh your memory.

 

liiittle bitty...

By the time I pull out of the driveway at 6:35 half of our kitchen is already gone.  Granted, it's not like it was a huge kitchen to begin with, and half the cabinets weren't even attached to the wall....so not that big of a deal. 

11:30am  Lunch break!  Let's go look at progress of the house, should be fun.  Turning the corner into the kitch....

 WHOA!!  Oh, ok, yeah, you guys really do move fast.  Eek, that as hiding behind my walls, and under my floors? And WOW!  That staircase was taking up way too much room.  Good decision to get rid of that. 

5:30pm  Let's go back and check on the house now the the crews are gone.  They did so much early I doubt much has been done this afternoon.  Wrong again....

Well, that's the ground, like, hello dirt, open to critters.  Speaking of critters, hello sparrow that is now inside my house and has entered the 2nd floor kids area through the new hole in the ceiling from removing the HVAC. He also pooped on one of George's shirts.  Sorry we didn't get any pictures of that.  Pretty sure those pipes have been there since the house was built in 1929.  Not all antiques should be saved. 

Day 2: 

They put in all new floor joists and subfloor in the kitchen.

 This may sound scary but we completely 100% expected this so its as budgeted for.  And actually it's wasn't as bad as we expected.  We were prepared to potentially pay for a new footing or 2.  Also, the crew framed the entire room.  Pretty awesome!  New wall up between the new kitchen footprint and the baby's new smaller bedroom. You can really see in the picture above how much space we gained. Everything to the right of the window was gained from the staircase and the bedroom. 

Day 3: 

All plumbing is installed in the new kitchen space. 

Day 4: 

All electrical is installed in the new kitchen space.

Long story short, these guys worked FAST the first few days and got a lot of work done really quickly.  

Over the next few weeks we had all drywall put up, mudded and sanded.  Lots of trim and moldings put in and the space started to actually make sense and look, well, like a real room!

The most recent items were the kitchen cabinets and the floors.  I'm going to write a whole post on our kitchen cabinets once they are completely installed so I can really give an honest review, but so far I'm VERY happy with them.  Only hiccup, the less than brilliant delivery men that brought the cabinets somehow lost 2 boxes.  2 very important boxes.  Talking like, one of the largest lower cabinets, and the box that held all of the little pieces like the filler pieces and what not.  Pretty difficult to assemble a kitchen without these items.  Fun fact, I don't mind calling them less than brilliant because this is what they did while at my house.

That's right, you are seeing correctly, they got their truck COMPLETELY stuck in our driveway, blocking Louisville St. (for those not familiar, this street is pretty busy...)and during a dreary summer shower as well.  Really added to the mood of hopelessness.  

Also, another very exciting development, the floors!!!  When choosing our floors we really wanted it to go with the house.  Newer style tiles, though we like them a lot, really just didn't go well.  They looked out of place next to our 90-year-old hard wood floors, so something a little more historic was necessary.  Brick it is.

 And if I'm going to put brick in my kitchen, let's choose a cool pattern than will look legit.

Boom, herringbone brick floors.  I'm kiiiind of in love, and they go AMAZING with the brick chimney that we uncovered as well.

We're at a bit of a stand still at the moment while we wait on the missing cabinet and box of pieces to arrive, so the crew is working on something else while we wait.  I'll tell you guys about it tomorrow! Until then, I'll leave you with a picture of where we are right now in the kitchen.

Overall, SUPER excited about the progress so far!!!  

We've been busy??

So, I'm more than aware how long it has been since my last post.  Really, I am.  BUT, that does not mean we've just been sitting around watching TV for the past two months (however, Blind Spot, Fixer Upper, & The People vs. OJ has consumed several evenings...).  Far from it!  Like I've said in some previous posts, one of the largest parts of a blog that make them entertaining are the photos that accompany the updates.  Very rarely am I home during the sunniest part of the day for pretty pictures, and for the weekends that we're actually in town that are nice we take advantage of the wonderful weather and have been outside cutting down the FOREST that was in our backyard.  Oh yeah, and picking up the many beer cans, beer bottles, broken bottles, cigarette butts and anything else that maybe doesn't' belong in the backyard of a family with 2.5 small kids.  On a brighter side, we also have a large barrel in our back yard that looks as though was used for fires for a while.  So pretty much it looks like a squatter lived at the back of the property, that's cool, gives it some personality (as if our house needs anymore).  We'll name the squatter Benny, I'm sure he was nice. I contemplated more than once of just throwing everything in the back yard into said barrel and setting it ablaze.  However "city regulations" are all mean and say you shouldn't do this.  I guess I'll be a rule follower for at least the first year I live in this neighborhood. Nobody wants to be "those" neighbors, especially if we're the new kids on the block.

However, I have taken pictures lately!  A lot!  In fact, my i phone has stopped backing up my information because it's out of space! And instead of just posting everything at once I will release them over a few posts.  Everything from a HUGE amount of yard work to completed painting upstairs, more art being hung, more painting downstairs, gas meters being moved, beautiful fences being installed, wasp nests in boys room :D, my belly growing a LOT bigger (t-minus 4 weeks guys...) and happy plants and animals outside.  We've been busy!  So, get ready soon!

Oh yeah, and speaking of t-minus for weeks, guess what else starts at the same time little ba-ba joins the fam?  The BIG RENOVATION.  It's gonna be a busy summer for sure! 

-Laura

Let's take this outside

Now that you’ve had a tour and have a good idea of the inside of the house, it’s time to take a look outside.  Be prepared to be unimpressed people.  Most people would look at our lot and think “why would a family buy this?  There’s no real yard”.  I can see how you would think this, but we see it differently. VISION, people.  

Lets start by looking at the front of the house.  You’ve seen the big picture of the outside, but closer up we have a good sized porch on the front of the house that we’ve thrown some colorful furniture on for the time being.  Don't mind the dead poinsettias hiding behind a column from street view. 

   

  

We plan to repaint the front door.  It’s currently black, which isn’t bad, but we want to give it a little more life.  Several colors have been thrown out but we’ll do a post when we get to that so you’ll be able to see the decision process unfold. Also, other little things like replacing the crooked house numbers and getting a larger/prettier mailbox is on our list. It is also early February so any porch plants are pretty much nonexistent. But we do imagine this adorable little bench to house some flowers and other items

All the landscaping at the front of the house is sad.  Forgotten little holly bushes, lots of leaves from the giant trees, and some uneven ground because the city came and dug up old pipes a couple years back.

 

The driveway is on the left side of the house.  Slightly treacherous but thankfully we own large vehicles that can handle the slope.  For now the driveway is gravel, but that will one day change.  Priorities, keep this in mind.

When you head up the driveway toward the back of the house you notice some lovely empty lots where homes were torn down fairly recently on the left. That is where the infamous coffin house used to be.  

 

Thankfully, a very well known builder in Starkville has bought this property and will be building two homes next door to us in a similar historic style to match the neighborhood.  

 

As ugly as this little walk is, there is hope as we see the beginning of spring and some budding daffodils. They run the entire driveway and are particularly plentiful in the back left corner.  This will be pretty very shortly!  

The driveway empties into a pretty large parking area.  Because this house was a rental for so many years, just imagine the amount of college kid cars that were stored back here.  Made perfect sense.  Well, we don’t really need all this parking space.  Sure, it makes it nice because I can turn around back here easily without having to back out onto a busy street, but still, we don’t need THIS much gravel parking space.  

 

At the back of the property lives this little red barn.  Our dismembered play set is sitting here until the new fence goes up so we can place it accordingly.  It’s too cold for the kiddos to play on it anyway.  When we were looking at the house the previous renters actually had a rooster back here.  A small part of me actually hoped they would leave it.  He was cute and pretty funny.  Can you imagine adding a rooster to our mix?  It would make good blog material if nothing else. Again, George does not agree.

Behind the shed is the rest of the yard that slopes down a little but we will build that up a bit.  It’s pretty shady because there are a lot of trees, but some of them will be coming out.  My dad is a forester and that’s pretty handy when you have this many scary looking trees on your property.  We’ve mentally mapped out what trees will be going and what will be staying.

Turning around facing the back of the house you’ll notice the outside addition that was added maybe 40 years ago?  We’ll eventually be replacing the outside of this with another material (or completely tearing it down and rebuilding to our liking…). Notice that there is a little covered area and door to get into the house, but unfortunately that goes to the sitting room and the "master bath".  So if we enter that door our whole family (and any guest we let follow us), will have to walk through the sitting room and our master bathroom before entering the rest of the house.  Not ideal.  Also, living in the sitting room and master is our grumpy cat, Gumbo, and he does not like to be disturbed. 

Walking around to the other side of the house is a pretty sizeable side yard.  It measures about 15 feet wide.  If you look closely you’ll notice a LOT of vines.  

 

 Some are pretty thick and scary.  These aren’t your run of the mill vines, we pretty much have a wisteria factory of this side of our house.  At least it will be beautiful come spring!  We will be chopping out a lot of it. 

On this side of the house this is where we plan to put the French doors.  This will be our main access outside for the kids as well as the dog.  This will all be fenced in so there is no fear of kids or dog running into the street.   

 

Unfortunately, fence can’t go in yet because we have to have this stinkin' gas meter moved for the doors to be put in place of these windows.  On a bright note, these windows are probably the worst windows in the house so it's pretty exciting we have a good reason to completely rip them out to put in a set of insulated french doors. 

Gas companies don’t actually read the meters like they used to, but they do need to have access to them if there is a problem, so they’d like it to be on the outside of the fence, even if we weren't doing the doors and deck. This will require us to actually move the meter about 8 feet toward the front of the house so we can get it out from behind the imaginary fence that will go up sometime at the end of February. 

We’ll be adding a ton of grass, landscaping, fencing, and yard work. This will be a pretty slow process though as the inside is much more a priority for the short term!