Kicking Up Dust

We spent the first full day at the house, mostly getting things organized and prepping for paint. Aaron took off most of the baseboards and my dad and I primed the kitchen and family room. Mom brought us dinner, and after they left we stayed to finish up and clean. Aaron was trying to replace the leaking kitchen faucet, but due to overtightened bolts and corrosion, we had to take out the whole sink. It took a while and we made a huge mess but we got everything cleaned up by 9pm.

This is how un-white our ceiling was. The previous owners were smokers, and this room was by far the worst. You can tell that the ceiling started out white because the creases of some of the corners are still white. This is the first time I've painted a ceiling, and it went pretty fast. My dad broke his extension pole, but luckily had a spare.

This is my dad's truck, loaded up with carpet to take to the dump tomorrow. We pulled all of this out yesterday, and Aaron carted it outside today. We were glad that all three bedrooms and the family room carpets fit so we only have to make one trip. You can see the horrible brownish discoloration on the top roll. It was all pretty nasty.

We're keeping it classy with our lawn furniture in the dining room. It gives us a much needed extra table, and a place to sit and eat. All of our other furniture will remain tucked away in the storage unit until we are done cleaning, laying flooring, and painting.

Aaron and Dad got all the tools out of our smaller unit today, and I set up or shelves like the were at the old house. "Aww... just like home" said Aaron.
 

Kellye and Aaron's New Place

We closed on our new house yesterday at 4pm. We have already torn out carpet, begun removing baseboards and made many trips to the hardware store. We don't intend to move in until late next week. We are laying new downstairs flooring, painting, and cleaning. We have carpet installers, appliances and miscellaneous servicemen scheduled all through the week. After move-in, we plan to refinish cabinets, bathrooms, and install storage built-ins. I was so excited to rip up the carpet I almost forgot to take before pictures, i'll post them later.

Renovation Ideas from Pinterest

I am now an avid pinterest user and have found many great ideas. Here are a few that I'm determined to use in our next home.

We are a week away from closing, and I have been trying to plan out as much of the renovations as possible. We've decided on many of the flooring and paint colors, but aren't buying anything until we have the keys in hand. In this home, the kitchen is open to the family room, which has a fireplace flush with the wall. I would like to build in some storage and also place the tv on this wall, but was reluctant to hang it ovet the fireplace. Much like the picture below, the fireplace is smaller than the tv. I like the look of these built-ins, which give the appearance of a recessed fireplace. Most fireplaces with built-ins have an interior chimney, leaving space to create built-ins flush with the front of the fireplace. I like the way that the fireplace below has tile extending past the built-ins, since it is close to the ground.

I may or may not have a mantle, as I am considering tiling the fireplace to the ceiling, like in this photo:

Despite never building a ... well, much of anything before, I intend to not only build out the fireplace, but also the dividing walls between the living room and dining room. Three foot walls on either side create a 7 foot opening, in which i would like bookcases facing each other like these:

On the dining room side, I would like small serving counters and storage. On the living room side, I would like laptop desks with storage, like this:

There's no actual pantry in the kitchen, just a pantry cabinet next to the refridgerator. To get the most use out of the space, I am going to build or buy a drawer system, like this one:

It's so easy to search for ideas that it's hard to resist incorporating them all. Another great site to check for inspiration is houzz. A lot of the home images from Pinterest originate from that website. There are thousands of examples for home design and renovation, and are searchable by keywords. You can create idea books as well, which helps to organize your favorites.

Onto the next!

Just a quick (and very tardy) note to say that we sold our house, moved in with parents and found a new place, which we should be closing on next Friday. When we do, I'll take pictures and upload all the before shots, and resume posing about renovations.