Happy Memorial Day!

We hope everyone has enjoyed this Memorial Day Weekend! We have been quite busy over the last week and have decided to take the evening off to finally relax for a bit. The kitchen and the main room are finally starting to come together and we are past a lot of the demo phase.

Remember the wood paneling behind the drywall in the main room? We had to cut it out around the entire main room, which sounds a lot easier than it actually was. We also decided to cut out parts of the ceiling around the fireplace because the drywall had some water damage from before we bought the house. Luckily it was minor damage and we were able to borrow Sara's dad's truck for the week so that we could take a few loads over to the dump. We also painted all of the trim and the kitchen cabinet frames white using Benjamin Moore's Satin Impervo Paint. Note to anyone that uses oil based paint for the first time, make sure that you have plenty of air flow throughout the house and open up all the windows. Also, keep your pets at a friend's or relative's house because as the fumes are really strong for humans, they are three times worse for animals. Tequila wasn't in the house much, but he still had some trouble when he came in to check on the progress so he got to have a sleepover with Uncle Mat while the fumes died down overnight. Here are a few pics from our progress...

The bar...we took off the counter top and painted the frame

Check out the remaining blue shag carpet that used to flow throughout the house (hot)

This is the area that had some water damage from before, but we sealed up everything, cleaned it and repaired any damages

Had to take it down to the studs here to remove the old porch fan and to even out the wall going into the kitchen

We used a drywall patch to cover the hole in the sun room so we will finally have a complete wall :)

After we got two coats of primer and one coat of the BM Satin Impervo paint on the kitchen cabinet frames, we noticed a lot of cosmetic problems that weren't noticeable before so we went ahead and repaired and patched what we could to make the space a little more seamless. Big thank you to Lori Howarter for guiding us and giving us tips to make this project a bit easier. We completely trust her since she did a fabulous job with Sara's parent's remodel and she has been kind enough to offer advice and help us pick out some important pieces to our renovation.

Since we were tearing up the kitchen we also decided to remove all of the old ceramic tile back splash. Here are some of the kitchen updates:

My cute husband making a mess...I mean taking down the tile :)

Check out the gap in the right corner...we didn't notice it until we painted it white. The cabinets are level...the ceiling, not so much

Another shot of the cabinets

We added a trim piece to the top, but it still needs painting some caulk to seal the edges

The trim still needs paint, but it sealed up quite nicely

With all of the trim and cabinets painted white, our house is already looking so much lighter and our room looks so much bigger. We are working on the cabinet doors and drawers, but decided to take a break from those this weekend to tackle the drywall. Sara's parents came back from Maui on Saturday and we unfortunately managed to put my dad to work right away when he decided to ride along with us to Home Depot to pick up some drywall. We did have some drywall pieces left over from when we had to redo the sun room ceiling so we patched what we could before we bought more. The biggest problem we faced with the main room was the difference between the depths of the drywall. Since the previous owners decided to put drywall on top of the wood paneling, we had to buy two different types of drywall and have to try to smooth out the seams and angles with the mud. The most challenging area was the ceiling between the fireplace and the skylight, but we finally got all of the drywall hung. Check out what a difference the drywall has already made:

Main room with the drywall up

Most challenging area...but worth it. There's so much more light now!

The bar area with drywall

A look into the kitchen

Sara cut out the electrical box on the first try...boom!

Our next phase will be finishing the drywall, painting the ceilings and finishing the drawers and cabinets. We have a couple details that we are keeping as a surprise until the end, so stay tuned for more updates. We can't wait to get our kitchen back in working condition, but for now we will take some aspirin and try to relax for the rest of our long weekend.

XOXO,

Sara, Brian & Tequila

Four and a half years in the making

Since we moved into our house almost 5 years ago we have wanted to lighten up the house. Anyone that has been in our house has noticed the wonderful railroad ties that have adorned the entry way, kitchen and completely enclosed the main room in our house. At first, we tried working with what we had and went for a bold look with a dark teal wall color in the main room and pretty much left the kitchen alone, wallpaper and gold-flecked popcorn ceiling and all. Both rooms are large but are separated by a large built in bookshelf with the same hideous railroad tie finish. Here is what we are working with...

Brian showing off the lovely wallpaper

View of our kitchen...don't mind the mess, we live here

Here's the view of the main room...don't you love those railroad ties?

We have enjoyed the size of the kitchen because it has allowed us to host several parties and holiday dinners, however there is very little counter space and we've had to bring in a fold up table every time we made meals with more than a couple of ingredients. Sara has dreamed of a large kitchen island for years, but we knew that before we could install something we would need to figure out what to do with the bookshelf room divider. 

Lot of space....little countertops

Another view...look at that trim :)

The first thing to come down was the wallpaper. We hate wallpaper and will never put the stuff up in our house, however if you need to get it down, the best trick is to spray some vinegar and water (1/2 and 1/2) on the paper and it comes right off (Thanks Pinterest!). Now for all the railroad ties. After our first run with the railroad ties in our front room entryway, we knew the beams weren't too heavy and we could take down the ones in between the kitchen and main room. It's kind of like a reverse jigsaw puzzle because they are wedged in pretty tight and have more nails in them than necessary, so you have to find the best place to start and work you're way back. This took quite a while because we had to disassemble the bookshelf so we could save some of the wood for another project (which we'll reveal on a later post). It came down pretty fast and without too much damage.

Look at how open it is now!

I'm pretty sure that Brian thought that I would be happy with just getting this piece done, but since it was my birthday weekend we decided to go for it and take down all of the beams in the main room (Best Birthday Present Ever!). Check out the main room now...

I already love it!

Oh yeah, did I mention we scraped the popcorn ceiling?

It's a little hard to see the difference between the before and afters right now because we quickly discovered that the previous owners had dark wood paneling behind the walls that they decided to cover with drywall and then add the railroad ties. But one of my favorite updates is that we scraped all of the gold sparkly popcorn ceiling off in both the kitchen and main room. It was super dusty and tiring, but well worth it!

We have so much more work to do, including lots of drywall and painting, but at least the demo is done. I can't wait to show off our progress over the next few weeks. A huge thank you to Sara's parents for letting us borrow their truck and tools while they are lounging in Maui this week (so jealous). And another big thank you to these two handsome men for making this birthday weekend one to remember...

Safety is important...even for the little ones :)

Stay tuned for more updates and photos!

XOXO,

Sara, Brian & Tequila