31 Days to a Complete Home Renovation: Day 20

Update (August 2018) -- Hi y'all!  I have created a new + easier to navigate website: www.elitafriesen.com  Come visit me over there to see our most recent renovation!

Who's ready for more "after" pictures?!?

Yesterday I shared our updates to the entrance of the house and the main living area.  Today I'll focus on the rest of the upstairs except the kitchen.  No worries...tomorrow I will dedicate my whole post to the kitchen.  

Here goes!

This was the hallway before:

And here she is now:

The hallway looks shorter because it is shorter.  We changed the floor plan of the upstairs to give us a large master bedroom.  Behind that closed door at the end of the hallway is the master.  But first let's look at the guest bathroom.  Here's what it looked like before:

At this point keep in mind that we completely changed the floor plan.   We opted to create a small guest bathroom so that we could incorporate a larger master bathroom.  Here's the {smaller} guest bath that we now have:

I am definitely no photographer so taking pictures of that guest bath was really tricky!  Not only is that space is small, it also has a crazy light in it that I love but is hard to photograph.  Well, it's hard for me anyway, and I guess that's not saying much. 

On to the master bedroom!  Before:

And now after.  By the way, I have A LOT I still want to do in this room, including painting.  But here it is as it sits today:

When we found out we were pregnant with baby #4, we needed to free up a bedroom.  So we moved the office into our master, which wasn't my first choice, but I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  It's a perfect use for that space:

Behind that door is our walk-in closet.  And as much as I'd love to show you, it ain't happening. Some messes should stay sacred.

And now the master bathroom.  Before:

And now:

You may notice that we have a shower curtain hanging up.  That's because we ran out of money at the end of the renovation for a glass shower door.  Just keepin' it real, people.  However! Even after we'd saved the money after a couple of months, I decided that I really liked our funky little white Target shower curtain.  That cost $30. The glass door would ((obviously)) have cost more, but we also found out upon living here that the water is really hard.  "Hard water" means that it leaves calcium deposits/water spots, almost regardless of how much you clean.  I think it would've been awful to get a beautiful, clean, expensive new glass door only to have it be full of limescale and water deposits.  I'd never let anyone in my bathroom. So the white shower curtain stays.  And in 2 years, the next homeowner can install their own glass door. 

Well, this is a little anti-climatic, but in keeping it real, I have to show you the other upstairs bedroom.  It was the office, but now it's turning into the nursery.  Note the word "turning."  Nothing has happened yet, which means that it has become my worst nightmare: a purposeless, catch-all room.  

Here's the room before:

And, sadly, it doesn't look much better today:

Ok, maybe the white walls over the old red ones are an improvement.   Maybe.  Stay tuned on that one: it'll turn into a cute little nursery by March 2015!

Well, that's it for today.  Tomorrow: the kitchen!!!

xo,

E

31 Days to a Complete Home Renovation: Day 19

Update (August 2018): I have created a new + easier to navigate website: www.elitafriesen.com  Come visit me over there, y'all!  

After 28 days of renovating, working into all hours of the night (including quite a few 5 am mornings and installing the floors the night before we moved in), we did it.  Or actually, Ryan did it.  He had tons of help along the way from friends and family.  But I am massively proud of him and I love living in something we dreamt of together and he created.

On to the pictures! {Today we'll focus on the main living area.}  

Remember the lovely entrance to the dump? 

Here she is now.  Come on in y'all!

Let's have a look back at that lovely entry-way:

And now:

This was the layout of the kitchen, dining room, and living room before:

Standing in the same spot, here's the new view of our open-concept living/dining/kitchen area:

The living room before:

And then mid-way through construction:

And the living room after:

And finally, the living room looking into the dining "room" … but really it's more like a dining area.

We bought this map from Ikea after looking at it for a little over 2 years.  This giant wall seemed like a perfect fit for the map and we absolutely love it.  It's completely changed our dinner conversations with the kids. Each week we take turns picking out a country and then we study it for the week.  It's been so fun learning new things about countries like Iraq (liquorice is one of their main plants!), Turkey (it's larger than the state of Texas!),  and the Kerguelen Islands ("the Ker-what" you ask?  Oh, it's a real place. It takes 6 days on a fishing boat to get there from Madagascar. We can thank my 4 year old for picking that one out).  We do powerpoint presentations and then by the end of the week we learn how to pray for that specific country.  Oh!  I love it, I tell ya.  And so do the boys. Apparently I miss homeschooling.  

Well, I hope you're just as thrilled with how it's looking as I am.  There are things we still have on our list to do.  But for now, we are settled and oh so happy!  Come back tomorrow for more after pictures of our kitchen and the rest of the upstairs! 

Happy Wednesday Y'all!

E

31 Days to a Complete Home Renovation: Day 18

Today's the last day we will look at the before pictures of the house!  Let's wrap this bad boy up!


We (ok, Ryan, not me) added a covered entrance to the front door area:

 In fairness, I have to say that the siding was the last thing we worried about.  It didn't get completely finished until February.  The inside was our main concern so we could moved in by our 28 day time-frame.

 So here is the house in February after the last of the siding was completed:

That soft gray color is just how the siding comes when it's primed.   Which I didn't mind at all.  In an effort to save money I suggested to my husband (who owns a construction company, mind you) that we just leave it that primed color and save money on paint.  If he were one to give dirty looks, then that was the time he did it.   Because you can't very well leave a house only primed with nail holes showing.  Duh.  So we obviously got around to painting it. 

Now take a look down and you'll see the back of the house (and 2 of my 3 kiddos) before the deck and siding was done.  Notice that the storage area there is yellow?  That's because I decided I wanted a yellow house.  So we bought tons of yellow paint.  And then I changed my mind and we went with gray.  It was about a $300 mistake.  But that was ok in the long run because a) we love it and b) we love it. 

On top of that yellow storage area is our deck (prior to having the railing put up).  And the stairs were also (obviously) under construction.   

Also, please note that no kids feet were burned during the renovating of this house.  Thanks. 

And that's it for the before pictures friends!  Tomorrow I will start a walk through of the house and all of the after pictures!!!!!

xo,
E

31 Days to a Complete Home Renovation: Day 17

Today we're gonna look at the inside of the house again in the last phase of construction.  Tomorrow we'll look at the outside of the house one last time. And after that….the big reveal will begin. Woo hoo!

So here she is in the last week or so before we moved in.  I tell ya, we had all sorts of people (friends, tradesmen, etc.) that were coming over saying "there's no way.  You can't move in this fast.  The house won't be done."  As it so happens, Ryan and I like to prove people wrong.  Not in a rub-it-in-your-face kind of way.  More in a subtle watch-and-learn kind of way.  Sorta like our marriage.  "Getting married so young?  Why? Don't do it!"  Almost 12 years, 2 countries, and 3.5 kids later, we are subtly proving those nay-sayers wrong.  (Or else I have issues and can't let go of certain things?) 

But I digress!

On to the house…

I had a vision of what  I wanted our mantle/fireplace area to look like. Ryan took that vision and instead applied it to the entrance of the house.  Which I was totally fine with!  Here it is underway:

These panelled walls are definitely the shining star of the house.  We love them. They're easy to clean (magic eraser, anyone?), and they make for a great statement.

Here's my (hairy and very,very tired) man. Yep…he's awesome. 

We also had the kitchen and all of the bathroom cabinetry delivered the week before we moved in.  It was one of the last things we had done.  Seeing my father-in-law's company truck pull up to deliver these cabinets was one of my very FAVORITE days!!!

Here's the boys downstairs bathroom cabinets mid-installation  (and the toilet was just hanging out there…it wasn't actually staying in that spot. In case you're wondering if we like weird floor plans).  

And here's our master bathroom:

Oh!  So close to showing you the afters.  Seeing as how I was sick for so long and it took me a good 2 weeks to get back at blogging, I figure it's only fair to wrap things up early.  I'll be eliminating some of our DIY projects, but that's ok.  We're all in this for one thing…the after pictures. 

See y'all tomorrow!

E