Monday, July 29, 2013

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

I laugh typing that title because one part of me is furiously nodding and the other part is just furious. The past couple weeks have been full of painting. We've painted the entire house (again) excluding the four seasons room. And last week we moved onto painting the kitchen cabinets (I'm a sucker for white cabinets as you all know). We just finished priming/painting. I literally mean just finished - I may be getting white paint on the keyboard as I type.
 

Here's the visual updates so far. I've put the paint colors we used by each picture. We ended up using all the same colors as the last house since we had a lot left over (apparently we were nervous about running out; so nervous that we had multiple untouched gallons).

(SW: Diverse Beige)
 
Don't mind all the crap in the living room. The only thing in it's right place is the TV. We have a new sectional couch on order and the blue chairs against the back wall will find a another home problem in the sunroom. Of course, wall art will be coming soon once things are more in order.
 
 
I need to find a new light fixture ASAP. We're also painting on the trim/base white. I can't wait for it too look fresh and clean! Clean in general is probably more like it. See below for where all our paint clutter is sitting.
 
 
 
Well, here and in the sunroom. But see here! These are the last round of cabinet doors we needed to paint. And that, my friends, is the final coat drying tonight!
 
 
 
Here is the kitchen as of now. The first round of doors we painted are hung. We're waiting on our hardware. I'll post a tutorial for that once we get there!
 
 
(Kitchen Cabinet paint: Zinser's primer, Benjamin Moore's Cloud Cover White)
 
We tried a new method for painting the cabinets. See our tutorial from our first house here where we sanded all the cabinets down before deglossing, priming and painting three coats of paint. Instead of sanding, this time we used Zinser's Paint Deglosser and Zinser's Strip Fast. After a coat of each (make sure to follow the directions for drying time), we went straight into priming. We ended up doing three coats of paint after the primer to get the coverage we wanted.
 
 
Anyway, back to the two week tour of the house. Here's the guest bathroom:
 
 
(SW: Monorail Silver)
 
I'm side tracking on the tutor to show you what some metallic spray paint and 3 new $7 glass bulbs (from Menard's) can do! The "before" light picture is from our master bathroom and the "after" is clearly in our guest bathroom. But the light fixtures were the same in both, so it works right?
 
 
 
And here are the two guestrooms (sorry for the different angles):
 
(SW: Sandbar)
 
 
(SW: Evening Shadow)
 
Finally, here's the master bedroom. The pink blinds still give me shivers. Yuck. And I have no master bathroom picture because absolutely nothing has been done to it. Besides putting our stuff in it!
 
(SW: Monorail Silver)
 
Well, that's the short tutor. More to come!


Thursday, July 25, 2013

Welcome to our new home!

I know you've been waiting... so here are the pictures of our new house!
 
 

 
Unfortunately, those bushes around the large bush in the front didn't survive? Truth: I didn't take this picture because I forgot to take one when we first moved in. This is from the original listing so we think the bushes must have died between the time this picture was taken and when we moved in. Or they were stolen. I'll give the old owners the benefit of the doubt though.
 
When coming in through the front door, you walk into the family room. Don't be afraid of the Pepto-Bismol pink. It's clearly going away. We're also planning on painting all the trim white again.
 
 
 
The sad part about the color of this room is that they paid to have it painted only a year ago. I would feel bad if it didn't look so pink. The beams of sunlight on the ceiling are two skylights. They're awesome! I love all the natural light and the way they're positioned on the lofted ceiling.
 
And yes, the carpet has a blue-ish tint. That's also going because we want to do a seamless wood floor across the whole upper level (right now it's split between blue shaggy carpet and vinyl wood). The only benefit of the carpet is that it's quite nice to the bare foot!
 
Now here's the view of the front door you've just virtually walked through:
 
 
Yes, of course there's more pink! I know you're also jealous of the carpet runways next to the tile. Odd. Thankfully, like I said, we're ripping it up. The light fixture will be replaced as well. Besides it being brassy, it hangs too low for the space. Some of our taller friends aren't even able to stand there!
 
Anyways, turning back around, you may (or may not) have noticed the fireplace in the family room. It actually separates the family room and kitchen spaces.
 
 
 
 
 
Maybe we'll take the tile off and put on brick. We're not sure yet. But clearly the pink will be going in the meantime. The doors you see there go out to the four seasons room.
 
  
 
 
 
 We're planning on painting the wood white along with the trim. Did I mention we're painting all the trim in the house white? But I am going to leave the doors dark; it'll be my house of mixed woods! An experience and a challenge! I like it.
 
The doors to get into the sunroom lead both to the family room and the kitchen. Here's the kitchen:
 
 
 
 
 
We're painting the cabinets white, taking down the pendant lights, and hopefully replacing the appliances. The big news about the kitchen is that we're going to add an island! New project! Originally, we were worried that the kitchen would feel cramped but replacing the two floorings with one will remove the visible barrier between the rooms.
 
Here's a quick view of the garage door off the kitchen along with the laundry room (the door on the right; the door on the left goes to the basement). Say it with me. FIRST. FLOOR. LAUNDRY. I'm so excited! After having to walk up three flights of (half) stairs in our old house, I'm jazzed to have no stairs now!
 
 
If you walk across the kitchen, through the family room to grandmother's house we'll go you'll be walking down the hallway to the bedrooms and bathrooms.
 
 
We're planning on ripping down the carpet in the hallway as well. The first door on the left is the bathroom that all our guests will use.
 
 


 
 
We're planning on replacing the flooring, painting the walls and replacing all the brass fixtures.
 
The two doors on the right are the guestrooms. One was a sea-foam green and the other was a dark (almost navy) blue. A theme around the house is that all the blinds matched the room colors (apparently this was the cool thing to do when the house was built). So clearly we'll be replacing the blinds as well.
 
Guestroom #1
 
Guestroom #1 from inside the room
 
Guestroom #2
 
 
Guestroom #2 from inside the room
 
Finally, at the end of the hallway, is the master bedroom. Thankfully, in all the bedrooms the carpet is a normal tan color that we can keep.
 
(Yes, the blind is broken.)
 
 
The picture above the view from the bathroom. Speaking of the bathroom...

 
 
 
We're planning on making the cabinets dark, replacing the flooring and expanding the shower. This will really be the new project of the house because we've never taken on a bathroom remodel.

I know this is a crazy amount of pictures but there's two more parts of the house. The basement:

 
 
 
Yes, Mike got that pool table for $1. It was his conquest and we've actually played on it multiple times so I would say he did good. The basement is shaped like a U-shape with a storage room in the middle.
 
Here's one side...

...and here's the other.
 
Okay, one more part to show you. Off the sunroom you saw earlier is the deck.
 
 
And my favorite part - the view from the deck. It's beautiful and looks over the entire surrounding neighborhoods. I think it may have been the feature of the house that got me the most. We've already viewed stunning sunsets from here and look forward to more. Personally, I can't wait until the first snow and I can see all the snow-covered trees! Ah!
 
  
Well that's the original house tour. Stay tuned for our updates! We've already been in the house for almost two weeks. So knowing us, you know we've made significant headway (because we're crazy people).

Monday, July 22, 2013

Listing Photos

I told you I'd be back! I thought I'd post the pictures that were taken of our home by Obeo. Our photographer did an absolutely fabulous job. I firmly believe that his photography skills helped sell the house so quickly - so all credit goes to him. Take a look!

 







Front
 
 
Back

 Backyard
 
Deck
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Front Living Room
 
 
 
 
Kitchen
 
 
 
 
Family Room
 
 
 
 
Downstairs Guestroom
 
Downstairs Bathroom
 
 
Upstairs Guestroom
 
Upstairs Bathroom (attached to Master)
 
Master Bedroom
 
 
These pictures make our house look so wonderful. It's amazing to see the transformation captured. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we do! Next post? NEW HOUSE.