House Love At First Sight

It was on Memorial Day weekend last year that we saw this house listed for sale on Trulia. It was in a nearby neighborhood we had been "stalking," it was within our price range, it had all our "must-haves," and it had just the right amount of potential. Our Realtor showed it to us later that afternoon. We put in an offer the next day and found out the offer was accepted the day after that. We went from casually browsing to buying a house practically overnight.

We've done a lot of work so far and we have a lot more to go, but I often get so caught up in the urge to fix everything all at once that I forget to take the time to reflect on everything we've accomplished in one short year. It's hardly the same house anymore…and that's a good thing, I think.

Here's a montage of the house as it was listed one year ago and how it stands today.

Exterior changes: Powerwash, new paint (blue, gray, & white), new white steel door, new white vinyl windows downstairs (new windows upstairs coming soon!)

One Year Later

Backyard: Powerwash & new paint, new bay windows, cleared out monkey grass, vines and small trees, repaired broken lattice and play set.

One Year Later

One Year Later

Living Room: Painted walls, trim & mantel, new windows, new curtains, new pot lights, stainless steel outlet plates.

One Year Later

Dining Room: New paint, new windows, curtains and rod, new light fixture, table and chairs.

One Year Later

Kitchen: New windows, custom window seat, new light fixture, primed for paint (next week!) 

One Year Later

Front Hallway: New paint & trim (including banister), new white steel door, new light fixture.

One Year Later

Laundry Room: Painted wall and cabinets, knew knobs, new dryer, custom built folding shelf.

One Year Later

Guest Room: New paint, curtains, art, etc.

One Year Later

Master Bedroom: Removed border, new paint, white outlet covers, curtains (new windows coming soon).

One Year Later

A lot of people think we're joking when we say it will be years before we're done fixing up the house, but it's true.  For every project we've finished, there is an equally daunting project we still have to accomplish (the kitchen, bathrooms, third bedroom, landscaping, etc.). Let's blame HGTV for making us feel as though we can "makeover" an entire house in a short hour-long "episode." Today, though, I will remember this house as it was one year ago when we first saw it, and how far it's come.

Lightening up the Laundry Room

Our laundry room is a small space that shoots off from a small hallway at the side entrance (which we never use).  It's in a part of the house that's often forgotten, even though it gets used on a regular basis.

Before and after

We're slowing making some changes in here.  As you saw from the last post, we now have a shelf for folding (thanks, Dad).  We also painted the inside and the outside of the cabinets white (Valspar white semi-gloss; the same white we use for all the trim). Priming and painting also helped take care of the old dryer sheet smell that seeped into the wood. We also added new shiny silver knobs.

Dark cabinets

White cabinets

To top things off we bought ourselves a new dyer!  It's nothing fancy (it was the cheapest model--Admiral--on sale at Home Depot for $299), but it works better than our old one which had to run for three hours before everything was dry.

When the old dryer was hauled out, we started painting the walls.  I can't tell you the exact color because it was a $3.00 can of "mistake paint" from Lowes, but it's some kind of periwinkle. We still have a couple walls to paint but it's already transforming from a dark cave to a laundry room that doesn't feel so much of a chore to be in anymore.

Folding Space

This is a late project recap from the winter when my dad put up a shelf in our laundry room for folding clothes.  It's already proving to come in handy in the small space where I used to have to fold on top of the dirty machines.

This was another project completed with two-by-fours and plywood. After it was built, I painted it white and applied a couple coats of Safecoat sealant to help with durability.

Eventually, fresh paint will help brighten up the room which is has already improved in function and style with the shelf and other projects we've been working on (more on that later).

Cushion Conundrum

During my journey to find an inexpensive custom window seat cushion for our seat (which is about 82 x 25 inches), I learned that upholstery foam is outrageously expensive, and that only rich people buy anything custom.

Plan B took us to World Market where we noticed 17-inch square chair cushions were 20% off, bringing the $16.99 price to under $14 each.  We could fit four of these yellow chevron patterned cushions along the seat, and figure that we'll fill in the back and sides with accent pillows.

It's not perfect, and it's certainly not custom, but for $54 total, it was the easiest and most affordable solution. Most importantly, Maya doesn't seem to care as long as it's soft.

Simple Project: Pot Lights

If you're looking for an easy house project/home update, we found it…replacing old pot lights.  If your house is over 20 years old, like ours, and has recessed lights (aka pot lights) of any variety in the ceiling, chances are the casing is cracked, dirty, and discolored.

This is a project we put off longer than we should have because we thought it was going to be more difficult than it seemed (as most house projects are), but it probably took a total of 10 minutes to replace four pot lights in two rooms, and it made a huge difference!  It's also not expensive ($7 to $12 per light.)

The eyeball lights in our living room were discolored and the "eyeballs" were coming loose, so fixing them was important.  The recessed lights in our kitchen had black interiors that stood out from the white ceiling and called unnecessary attention to how ugly and dirty they were.  Changing them to white not only better matched the ceiling, but also reflected a lot more light into the kitchen.  It's the small things that make a big difference.

Tommie was so excited about accomplishing an easy house project that it inspired him to stay up all night painting cabinets in the laundry room.  I wish we had more pot lights to fix to get him in the mood!

(New pot light versus old pot light…and one happy camper.)

The Wonderful Window Seat

When we talk about all the things we want/plan to do in the house, the window seat was something that got people really excited.  And bay windows are the perfect spot to build one customized to the home.

We have a bay window in the dining room and one in the eat-in kitchen. I was having trouble choosing the best spot for a window seat…until we had a party and everyone gathered around the kitchen, of course.  Decision made: we were definitely going to need more seating in the eat-in area.

This was a project for my dad.  We helped, but he did most of the sawing, building, and measuring.  I was ready with the paint brush when it was all done.  Here's the frame going up below the windows:

Here it is with the storage hole (over which a hinged cover would go) and the beadboard going up on the face of it.  You could just use plywood on the face (which we used on the top), but we wanted a little extra detail on the front. (When it was complete, we added moulding too.)

Here is the lid with storage underneath for Maya's dog food.  Maya, of course, had no problem being one of the first to test out the new seat which conveniently overlooks squirrels in the backyard and food on the kitchen table (her kind of spot).

We painted the seat and the inside of the window inlet all white; I figure this will allow for more colorful pillow options.  As you can see, we are beginning to work on the walls around it too, but there's a lot of prep work because it's painted wallpaper that is peeling up.

Aside from patching up the walls, the next (and most challenging task) is finding an affordable cushion that will work with a custom-sized bench.

It's great to now have a seat that will accommodate at least three extra people in the room…and it looks so pretty.

(Eat-in Day 1)

(Eat-in Now)

PVC Pipes in the Bay Window

Because I am in love with our large replacement windows in the dining room bay window, I didn't want to cover them up with blinds or heavy curtains.

These light linen (Alton Print) curtains from Bed Bath and Beyond ($35 per 84-inch panel) were exactly what I had in mind, and the contemporary branch-stenciled design is a perfect reflection of our style: natural, contemporary, and light.

When the curtains are closed, they provide just enough privacy while still letting light in, and the branches look like they could be shadows from the trees outside. The grommets are great for this kind of set-up as well; sliding easily and fitting the rod perfectly.

Because I wanted to be able to slide the curtains all the way over and to the small gaps in between the windows (so as not to cover up the prairie grids), the hanging method was tricky to figure out. Thanks to a lot of Googling, we decided to give simple PVC pipes a try. This required a couple ten-foot 3/4-inch PVC pipes (cut to size), two 45-degree angle PVC connectors, two PVC caps, and five curtain brackets.

For the brackets, we chose these circular ones from Allen+Roth at Lowes (about $7 each) into which the pipes just barely squeezed (this was probably the hardest part to figure out).  

The whole contraption was given a couple coats (2 cans) of spray paint with Rust-oleum Metallic in Flat Antique Nickel. There is one curtain panel on each side, and two for the big picture window in the middle.

By strategically placing the brackets, and being able to slide over the little connectors, the curtains can hang in just the right places without blocking the beauty of the windows at all. 

My husband made fun of me for saying that my vision for the dinging room was "elegant, whimsy"…I wasn't sure how to pull it off, but I think the new light fixture and the curtains help a lot.

(Dining room on day 1)

(Dining room today)