Floor Galore...

So one of the biggest changes we were determined to make was the flooring. As you have seen in earlier posts the floors, for the most part, are way out dated, ugly and smelly. This was the biggest portion of our rennovation budget, but one of the most important. Two of the bedrooms upstairs had the ugly green carpet and when they pulled it up...you can only imagine what was under there...after 30 years. The 3rd bedroom had white carpet...who on earth puts white carpet in a house. Well, it didn't look so bad until we moved furniture. Under the furniture it was not white...it was yellow and smelled like it was yellow too. Yuck! The flooring part of this rennovation was a big change, but so far it is probably the grossest we have done too. I won't even get into the bathroom flooring yet.

So all three bedrooms got new carpet and we matched it to the old carpet as best as possible. They look amazing! And the carpet is so soft and CLEAN! The rooms are still a mess, but look at the floor!!!!!!!!!!


Then we also had my "craft room", the formal dining room and the kitchen re-tiled! That means the ugly indoor/outdoor green carpet ripped up, the brown parkay floor, and the fancy brown linoleum. Here are some photos of those long 3 days of installing tile...



Now it looks beautiful. It has really helped update the main floor. Soon we will have my craft room done, the dining room is down the road a little and next week we get new counters in the kitchen so the kitchen is going to look brand new. I can't wait to show you those pictures. Bye for now...gotta do a lot more work so we can invite you all over to party!!!!!!!!!!

The Pantry is now a walk in…

This was our first real demolition and remodel project. The Pantry. Originally the house had a small pantry that backed up to a small hall closet. The hall closet was next to another closet and then there were to more closets by the front door so we really didn’t need the 4 closet. Our goal was to wall up the hall closet and tear down the interior wall between the closet and the pantry, doubling the size of the pantry. First, we need to demo all the pantry and closet before we can wall it up and we need to demo the side of the pantry so we can move the pantry door.



So we got all the walls down and started working on putting up new drywall and moving the pantry door. Then we find out that the corner is load bearing so where we wanted to move the pantry door, we can’t.


So we wall all that back up too. We put up all new drywall, mudded it, sanded it, primed it, and painted it. During the process we made a mess of the kitchen and everything was covered in drywall dust. Yuck. Then we made shelves for the back wall of the pantry, painted and installed those. The left wall is very narrow and not big enough for shelves so we put up one huge spice rack. Then we are going to put shelves up the right side wall as well.


As I mentioned we originally wanted to move the pantry door and the reason for this was every time you opened the pantry door it ran into the oven. So to fix this we decided to put up to ½ doors that open out to the kitchen. This way the door is smaller and doesn’t run into the oven as much. We have not installed the doors yet, we had to wait until all the tile flooring was done. We also still need to install a light in the pantry, but it is 95% done and operational, which was the ultimate goal.

As far as the renovations go, we have finished the majority of the things that had to be done to be operational and had timelines. Now our plan is to take it one room at a time. Finishing the kitchen will be at the top of that list as our new counters, backsplash, and drop down sink will be installed next week. Just a little paint and the finishing of the pantry and we will have one room COMPLETELY done in the house! What an accomplishment!

Welcome to the Jungle!

A jungle with trees, moss, algae, bugs, animals, and everything else you think of when you hear jungle. That was our pool area. The previous owners had stopped using the pool so 5 years ago they turned the equipment off and covered it with a tarp...never to be seen again. The pool itself could be a hidden gem, it just needs some work...a 30,000 gallon pool with a 9 foot deep end and diving board.

Until now!




We checked into several pool companies and finally decided to hire a friend of ours (member at my club) to do the work. He came out to give us the bid and do the contract and was surprised that the pool appeared to be in as good of shape as it was. We could see cracks in the pool and the light clearly didn't work, but overall the pool had held up pretty well. His main two concerns were that the cracks weren't structural and that the pool wasn't so old that is had copper piping running to the pool. We signed the contract and they began pumping. Something you should know about our house is it is built higher than the next door neighbors and therefor the emptying of the pool would be flowing into other neighbors yards. He warned us of this and made every atempt to get it to flow down the street. Bryan and I waited to hear complaints from the neighbors, but none came. Instead...they all came out to thank us for doing the work to the pool and making it look nice and getting rid of the mosquitos! We have quickly become the new favorite neighbors! They like a lot of things we are doing, but this was sort of the first run in. It took several days to empty the pool and several more days to clean it, fill cracks, etc. They literally pulled out a snake, frogs and turtles. And everyone that spent more than 30 minutes by the pool area looked like they had chicken pox from all the mosquito bites.
What a difference just emptying the pool made...


You can see a little water left in the bottom...yuck! And it smelled like a sewer.
Then came the tile...and we started to get excited.


After the tile and all the storms passed they plastered. Instead of just a white plaster they added blue quartz to make the pool shimmer a beautiful tropical blue. The pool is now finished and although this picture doesn't show it, it is full of water and being used regularly. It took almost 2 full days to fill the pool...I can't wait for our water bill. :( We learned a lot about taking care of a pool after replastering. Bryan and I were up every morning and evening brushing the pool and pushing the additional plaster down to the drain and then working out the chemical balance. We weren't allowed to use a polaris for 2 weeks so we had to do it all manually. We are still working on all the chemicals, but it is in use. We are alsostill working on the surrounding of the pool, the white rock wall, the trees, the bushes, cleaning, the fence, etc. so I will post more pictures when the entire oasis is finished. Until then...we'll be sitting in the oasis, escaping the heat, sippin on margaritas! Come join us if you like!

Our new and improved half bath...

Longhorn style...minus the nasty bright green fern wallpaper. This is what it looked like originally. But this look is a little outdated and would not match our Texas Longhorn theme of the downstairs gameroom and bathroom. So it must all come down and be redone!



First we peeled off all the wallpaper and scraped the ceilings so it is now free of popcorn too!

Then we repaired all the drywall that came down with the wallpaper and primed the entire bathroom and ceiling.

The gold mirror that was up originally was hideous and just would not do in our new bathroom so I took my scrapbooking skills and paints and painted the mirror burnt orange and white to go along with the Longhorn theme.

We also changed out the 1970's lighting for beautiful silver side lights. They look so much better. Here is a picture of the new light on both sides of the mirror.

We still need to paint the bathroom, but there is some debate on what it should be painted. All burnt orange...a little burnt orange and a little white...or should we mix in some navy blue or black. Painting will come soon.

We also had plans to replace the sink in the bathroom and get rid of the yellow and green, however those are very expensive so that was a little further down the road...until our neighbors had a garage sale and GAVE us a white marble bathroom sink with silver and golf faucet. Soooo much better than the yellow and green and FREE! We'll take it. Even though it isn't new...it will look so much better than before. It is a little too long so Bryan is going to have to cut it down some to fit in the bathroom, but with his fancy new remodeling tools he shouldn't have any problems. Below is Bryan and his dad bringing the sink home...:)

There is much more still to come for this bathroom...

First things first...

Let me show you what a walk through the 70's really looks like...(All of these photos were taken when the previous owner was living there.)

This is our living room...really this room wasn't too bad. The carpet was newer and with a fresh coat of paint and some newer furniture it wouldn't look too bad.

Our formal dining room, customized with a gorgeous chandelier, beautiful dark brown parkay flooring, and a pink and teel rug. Oh yeah, anyone who wants the chandelier...it is yours, free of charge! No takers...I can't imagine why not!


Through a glass door and three steps up from the formal dining is what will be my craft room. For those of you wondering...yes, that is indoor/outdoor turf grass carpeting. It even holds a wonderful outdoorsy smell to it. And for those of you who love your decor to match...the curtains on those windows do match the floor. Creamy white with bright green plaid print.



Through to the kitchen you'll notice they didn't hold back in the 70's...they wanted the top of the line flooring. Linoleum with embossed details to make it look like tile...all dark brown, well light brown where it had faded. The kitchen cabinets overall are nice...they just desperately need new counters. And as for the oven...yes, that is a 1970's Magic Chef Double Oven. Did you know that timers on ovens in the 70's weren't for timing food while it cooked like they are now? They were set so you could set the timer before you left for work in the morning to turn on and cook the food an hour before you arrived home in the evening so the food was cooked and done for dinner time. Kind of a cool concept and a great way to burn your house down! :) Obviously we are not using that feature. (Funny/Cool story to come on the oven and learning to use it.)

The house is a tri-level house. The above photos are the main floor, bedrooms upstairs and gameroom downstairs.

The guest bathroom upstairs...through the hideaway door on the right is a shower with yellow tile and a restroom.


Three bedrooms (one not pictured).

The Master Bedroom with a Juliet balcony and vaulted ceiling.

The Master Bath...again with only the best...shiny lime green and silver wallpaper!

And if you couldn't see in the pictures...high end sculptured puke green carpet...literally from 1970 something.
On to the downstairs...


Our 1/2 bath with bright green fern wallpaper and dark brown wood paneling.

Our utility room with authentic yellow and gold linolium floor and pink bookshelves lining the wall. Oh and don't miss the avocado green washer and dryer..again which are for sale!


And our gameroom...or future gameroom with wet bar (yes it is a wet bar...it is somewhere under there, I promise!) Don't open that fridge though...whatever you do, don't open it. I promise you don't want to see what is in there.

One of the coolest things was this extensive workbench in the garage! And the pool, well the pool wasn't exciting when we moved in, but we are loving it now. (The transformation in another post).

Down these steps you will find our oasis...

The pool guy referred to our oasis as a frog pond. There were actually frogs, snakes and turtles living in the pool along with millions of mosquitos. Yuck!


And the backyard. Besides the clearing in the above picture, the entire front and back yard were a jungle! Including cedar...


So that is the house...or what it looked like when we bought it. Hopefully that has given you a brief, but good idea of what we got ourselves into. Now on to the DIY and what has happened since we got our hands on the place!