6 Months Progress

So, we bought our new house and moved in the first week of May. We had a long, very long, list of projects we wanted to do to the house. We knew this house would be a work in progress for months and years to come. But we set a goal for October 16th, our first party at the new house! We wanted to have a good portion of the projects to the main floor and gameroom done for this party and give a good representation of what the house would be transformed into when we were done. We accomplished our goal and the house looked great for our first party. The below pictures are the house as of October 16th. Keep in mind that not every room is done and completed with ever project we want to accomplish, but considering where we started 5 1/2 months ago, we are very proud of where we have come. Now that the party is over we are on leave...vacation...siesta for a few weeks. We will begin working on the house again after a few days of rest. When we do begin to work on the house again, we will focus on one room at a time and slowly move through the house. Once the weather changes, the outside and attic projects will begin. A huge thank you also goes out to Mom and Dad. They worked their tails off helping us get everything done and did a fantastic job. Thank you both.

New sod in the front yard. Bryan spent most of Saturday morning tearing out an abundance of jasmine vine that was not only growing up and around the trees in the front yard, but it was grown across the yard. The jasmine was taking over. We had already ripped out all of the overgrown cedar, but the jasmine had to go as well. Bryan pulled roots that were huge out of the ground. He did a lot of work. Then he cut every piece of sod and he and daddy sodded the front yard where there was no grass and about half the backyard. We will need one more pallet of sod to complete the backyard.





The Entry...
This entry has had all the wallpaper stripped off and the walls completely remudded. This project...the remudding took a few weeks. It was not as easy as we had thought it would be and it took three of us to do it. Mom and Dad scraped the popcorn off the ceiling as well. We painted the walls a warm beige for the base coat and will add the 2nd and 3rd coats now that the party is over. The room will have 2 additional, darker shades of brown hues.

We also stained the closet doors a cherry wood stain rather than painting them. They look so rich and will be beautiful in the finished entry.

This is the landing on the main floor. We carried the mudding effect from the entry into this area and put the base coat on it as well.

No more brown panneling on the stairwell. We painted the brown paneling, the brown doors and the door frames. Mom and Dad get credit for most of this painting. I helped start the project, but white doesn't cover brown very easily so it took several coats. Mom and Dad kept painting till it was white. Except the gameroom door which is a nice brown. We will probably restain the door at some point. Daddy also couldn't let us show off the beautiful new stair well without touching up the paint ont he stair rail. It is iron, but most of the paint was chipping. He painted the entire stair railing both heading upstairs and downstairs and did a beautiful job.


The Living Room...
The 100 inch projector screen tv is up, mounted and fully functional. Bryan and Daddy even framed the screen with brown wood trim to match our furniture. It looks great and finished. We decorated some in the living room and until we begin further projects...the room is done. Further projects to include scraping ceiling, removing remainder of paneling, painting, and changing the lighting somewhat.



The Dining Room...
This room still has quite a bit of things we want to do. We plan to scrape the ceiling, paint, add a chair rail and define the ending of the dining room and the beginning of the living room, do some sort of stained art in the glass door way leadign to the scrap room, and add a cornice board/drapes to match the dining rom set. For now it is clean, functional and ready to entertain.



The Kitchen...
Well as you have seen the kitchen is probably our most dramatic rennovation so far. And it has been 90% complete for some time now. The last remaining projects were adding pantry doors, finishing trim/moulding and reinstalling a window sill. Below is my new window sill, trimmed to perfection, painted and ready for use. Bryan did all the cuts, measuring and installation himself.

Here are my new pantry doors and moulding to match the window sill. Instead of replacing the door with a full size walk in door to the pantry like what was there before, we decided to put two 1/2 doors in. This cuts down on the doors getting in the way of the oven while cooking and make it easy to get in and out of the pantry. Bryan had to custom make the door frame to fit the 1/2 size doors and then mounted the doors with a ball latch so they would stay closed and open easily. He then did the custom moulding around the door frame to hide the framing material and match the window sill. It looks gorgeous and very professional. Great job baby.


The Gameroom...
Well we didn't do a lot of changes to this room. Bryan wants to keep the effects of his man cave, but Daddy and I did install a shelf to showcase our footballs, he and I hung all the pictures on the wall and put the room back together after the flood. I even finished the Roy Williams jersey and it is now hung up on the wall. It looks great and is perfect for playing pool, and watching the game. Eventually this room will get a substantial makeover with a new bar area, but that is yet to come.



The final...last minute project...
This is our downstairs, longhorn decorated, guest bathroom. This bathroom has been finished for awhile except for the tile around our newly installed countertop. A friend of Bryan's cut beautiful tile with steel longhorns for our backsplash around the sink. He did a beautiful job with the cut outs and helped us envision a finshed "Longhorn" bathroom. Bryan picked up the tiles on Wednesday before the party and was so busy finishing other projects he didn't get to work on the tile in the bathroom. On Friday night, before the party, he installed the tile with thinset, put a fan on the bathroom and waited till morning. On Saturday, the day of the party, he grouted the tile, and Daddy and I painted around the tile/grout and finished the bathroom. A fan was on the tile until minutes before the guests started arriving at 2PM. He did a beautiful job and everyone loved the detailed tiles and custom look.



Party Time...the house was all decorated in orange and white for our first game watching party at our house. All four of us worked very hard cleaning up and finishing all the projects and the house looked great. It is amazing to look back at the original photos and see the changes that we have made. It is also starting to take shape and showing us signs of what the house will look like after our last project is done. The party was a huge success and Texas beat Nebraska. Overall a great day.