reveal – A Glimpse Inside

Basement Makeover- The Process

You guys, I have talked about working on our basement for MONTHS and I am so stinking happy that I can actually can start to share it with you today!

This has been a work in progress since end of March, beginning of April. It has been mostly done for quite some time but with Travis’s busy training schedule over the summer it wasn’t fully finished until recently.

Before I get into all the details, let me show you what the room looked like when we bought the house and what it has looked like the past two years.

The room was just dirty from age, faded, dark, painted with yellow walls and ceiling, red floors (hello mustard and ketchup!) and brown accents here or there. It was terrible!

As soon as you walked in the door you had a view of the girl’s trampoline. It was a short, not fully size trampoline so we set it up in the basement for the girls to use during the nasty cold winter months. To the right as you walk in, we moved a large shelving unit that the previous owners left and it was full of items. It wasn’t suppose to live there but we had to move it from the location it was in to fix the floor under it and then once that happened it never went back until now.

As you look to the left, you get to the laundry side of the basement and more storage. We have 3 columns in the center of the room, one original and two were added later probably when the second floor of the house was added in the ’40s, so they line up awkwardly. The giant rug on the floor was left by the previous owners and it was actually in our master bathroom. We definitely didn’t want to use it in there so we drug this ginormous, heavy, wool rug to our basement to hope it would help with warmth in the winters.

Then in the far left corner, was our indoor out house, utility sink, and washer.

The washer and dryer sit on super thick pieces of plywood that sit over the original wood floor that, we assume, the previous owner put down for more strength under the washer and dryer and just stand out again the red painted floor.

As soon as we moved in, I had a plan of exactly what I wanted to do to the basement it was just a matter of time to tackle the huge job. After talking about it forever and after finishing many of the other house projects, it was time to tackle it!

We began by clearing out the room and giving it a good cleaning before we started to paint.

To help get this massive job done, we busted out the Finish Max paint sprayer from Home Right.

This thing was a life saver since we had so many seams between all the wood on the walls and ceiling plus duct work.

With living with the room so dark for so long, I knew I wanted to paint the room bright white! No surprise really, that has been my go to color with this house to make it brighter and I have not regretted it once yet.

Travis would paint the walls and ceiling with a roller and then I would come behind him and go over the area to fill in all the cracks and seams between the wood. So much better than having to use a brush to get between all that!

It was also SOOOOO helpful when it came to spraying all the duct work in the basement!

Once the walls were done it was time to tackle the floor!

Since we painted the walls white, I wanted to add some sort of pattern to the floor for a little whimsy so we primed and painted the floor white then went back and painted large gray stripes. I LOVE IT!

We left three rows white then painted five gray and it was perfect. Plus, we painted the thick plywood under the washer and dryer so it would blend right in now instead of standing out.

I did want to add a tiny bit of color but nothing too bright that it would stand out big time in the room so I used the left over aqua paint from the girl’s bathroom and painted the columns and the trim around the window with it. It was the perfect added touch of color to go with the stripe floor.

After all the was done and we let the floors cure for a week or two, it was time to move stuff in.

Well, it would have been time but that is when Travis’s training started and he was either out of town or working crazy hours so things got a little pushed back. He made sure I had a working washer and dryer and that is about it for the room. I didn’t want to move the heavy stuff alone because I didn’t want to risk scratching the floor so things sat. But I was still able to go down and use this awesome space for laundry and it was amazingly brighter and so much more cheerful!

We made a little progress on the room when he had a small break in July but then he went back to it in August so needless to say this was a long project!

It is done now but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for the full reveal so STAY TUNED! 🙂

September 28, 2017 By Allison

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Kitchen Makeover Reveal

We began our kitchen makeover at the beginning of July.

It was done in phases, mostly because we had to wait for certain things to get complete before we could move on to the next thing, but as of Friday night, our kitchen is complete. YAY!

I am thrilled it is complete!

This is a long, picture heavy post, SORRY, but I wanted to warn you!

This was our kitchen when we moved into our house.

Literally when we moved in- see that giant mess?! lol

Oak cabinets, dark laminate counters, linoleum floors in a faux brown tiles, and yellow, or well mustard walls.

It was all… VERY BROWN and totally lopsided!!

EVERYTHING was on this end of the kitchen and to the left of this photo was nothing at all even though there was room for something.

This area of the kitchen was the only somewhat bright spot with white bead board on the wall where the table sits. I wish the previous owners carried the bead board onto the left side of the kitchen but nope just plain painted yellow walls.

And here is the kitchen now.

Still the oak cabinets and linoleum floor, though I would LOVE to change it, but much brighter and still a big difference. The biggest difference comes to the wall that you don’t see.

But before I show you everything as a whole, let me show you what we did to get to this point.

We began with the walls.

Here is a better shot of the breakfast nook area before.

It has the real wood version of bead board but it was super beat up and really didn’t look that good in person.

Here is a shot of the other side of the room. Totally plain and empty.

So we ripped that all off the wall for a whole new wall treatment plan.

We also painted the upper portion of the walls.

It was then time to install our new wall treatment, board and batten, throughout the whole room.

We began by replacing the base boards back in the nook area and then we placed a piece of 1×2 an inch from the top of the baseboards all the way around the room where we were doing the board and batten.

This was our tricky way of not having to replace the old baseboards.

Then the fun began of doing all the board and batten itself.

We began by installing the top board all the way around at the height we wanted, 70 in. high.

Then we installed a second row of boards down 10 in. from the top board.

And we finished it out with the battens down the wall spaced the 17 3/4 in. apart. Why we picked such a random number I haven’t the faintest at this stage but that is what we did. lol

Once the boards were all attached, it was my turn to take over. I caulked around all the boards and primed them with 2 coats of primer.

Then the whole room got painted with a few coats of ultra white paint to make it nice and bright in the room.

The unified look throughout the room looks so much better and the room isn’t quite so lopsided anymore.

Once the walls were complete, it was time to move on to the lighting.

These were the old pendant lights above the island. There were 3 of them and they weren’t that great.

I knew what I wanted to replace them with , it was just a matter of finding them for the price I wanted.

After searching EVERYWHERE, I finally found this version, of all chrome or nickel or whatever they are and snagged them in a heartbeat. I spent slightly more than I wanted since we had to buy three but still got them for a good deal.

Have you ever had to look for lights for the same room the coordinate and goes with the idea you have in your head? Holy cow, that is a heck of a feat!!

Then I found this handsome fella to go with the pretty ladies for over our table.

The old light was a fake stained glass looking light, it was plastic, and gave off terrible light. I found this light for the best price and ordered immediately!

It has a white bottom on the inside so it gives off much better light and we can actually see our food now, which is good!

Then came cabinet hardware.

The previous owners had these round white knobs on the cabinets.

Their kitchen was decorated VERY country and these knobs went with their decor but NOT mine!

They stood our from the cabinets immediately when you looked at the kitchen and I hated that.

I found these great hexagon nickel knobs at Wal-Mart, yep, Wal-Mart and snatched them up. I needed 42 so I needed a lot for a good price and they are so much better!

Once the walls were complete, knobs were changed and the lights were installed, we had to play the waiting game.

We ordered new counter tops and they weren’t going to be stalled until mid August which meant everything else had to be stalled.

Finally counter install day was here so we took out our old sink and removed the old counters the night before.

So the counter guys arrive, we ordered a white quartz from Home Depot, and as they are bringing them in and they placed the large sink piece in place, the sink hole was cut in the completely wrong place!! AHHHH! So they had to take the entire main part of the counters and recut them.

This was the only section that was installed that day which meant that we were without a sink or a counter in our kitchen for another week.

Thank goodness for a small bar sink in our island.

Here is a super up close shot of our quartz. I can’t remember the name for the life of me but it was in Group A. We wanted to upgrade the counters but didn’t want to pay the price we paid in our old house, especially knowing that we had more counters in this house. We are both really happy with how this one looks in our kitchen.

And a week later, the rest of the kitchen counters and our sink was finally installed, the right way this time.

Next up, giving our island a little makeover to make it different from the rest of the cabinets.

The counter on the island was already actually a nice counter, I think possibly plain white quartz but not sure since the previous owners installed it, so since the top is different then the rest we wanted the island to completely make it different from the rest.

Travis installed bead board to the back side of the island since it was just plain.

We also replaced the old pointy corbels that we would always smack our knees on it these, much smoother corbels.

Then I gave the entire island 2 coats of gray primer. Thank goodness the Olympics were on during this so I had something to watch and listen to in the background during my multiple coats!

Next it got painted 3 times with the dark gray main coat of paint. Turned out great!

And the very last thing we added was we put in a bead board back splash throughout the main kitchen as well as on the island back splash. We bought 2 large pieces of bead board from Home Depot for $30 a piece and we had enough for the back of the island and all of the back splash.

I gave it the a few coats of the same ultra white as the board and batten and it looks fantastic!

I love how it looks and so happy it is complete!

I will say that I would change the floors in a heartbeat but we just don’t have the time, money, and we probably wouldn’t get the money back when selling the house, so that did not get done. All well.

And we had debated on painting all the cabinets but once the back splash was installed we decided it looked good as it so we weren’t going to spend more time on money on that either.

I’m thrilled with how much brighter the room is now and of course less brown!

We kept our old table and chairs and rugs in the space. The table and chairs did get a little messed up on our move here to WI so they may get a makeover as well but we’ll see!

I may change out the rugs at some point as well but that will be if I find something I really like for a good price.

I still enjoy walking in here and taking in the room.

The island turned out great.

The bar stools were left by the previous owner and I hope to redo those at some point. We’ll see if I get to that this winter.

The board and batten helps balance out the room.

We moved our bar over under my vintage plate wall and it made this side of the room really come together.

This bar has been on the makeover list since we bought it 6 yrs ago. Perhaps some day I will get to it! lol

The new lights go so well above the newly painted island.

I love the new counters and the new sink.

The old sink was, well, I have no idea what it was made from, but I hated it! I’m so happy to have a stainless steel sink again.

We even got ourselves a new stove.

Our previous stove had a black faced door and still the coil elements on top which makes it so hard to clean so we found this at Home Depot and decided to bring it home as well.

I even sewed new valances for all the windows.

I found this fabric at my local Wal-Mart and immediately knew I wanted to use it in the kitchen! I love them! 🙂

We probably won’t be in this house much longer but I am so happy this project is complete and we can enjoy it until it is time to move on once again.

September 6, 2016 By Allison

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Our Playroom

Slowly but surely I am sharing house photos with you guys.

The playroom has pretty much been done since we moved in but I literally just got the items on the walls so I thought I’d finally show the room to you guys.

This is the way the room looked like before when we moved in.

Brown walls with stenciled branches and chickadee birds.
On the darker side like much of the rest of the house. The previous owners used this space as their tv room.

And here is the room now.

Here is the room as you enter the door coming up the back stairs by Miss S’s bedroom.

At the top of the stairs you either go left into her bedroom or go right to enter this room.

This room is actually a pass through to the bathroom and other bedrooms on the second floor.

If need be, it could be a bedroom but we didn’t need it as that so we made it a playroom.

I wanted to brighten up the space so we began by painting the room a super light jade/mint color before our furniture even arrived at the house.

We placed our loveseat that was in our formal living room in our old house up in this room. I found the rug at Home Goods like many other rugs in the house. Our old coffee table went up into this space as well. The drawers are filled with color books and crayons. The baskets on the shelves have puzzles and all the food and dishes for the kitchen.

As for the table next to the couch, we just used the stacked drink crates with a piece of glass on top that we’ve used in a few other houses.

Since we do have to walk through this room, we had to keep that in mind while figuring out the set up.

I found this console on Amazon and it worked out perfectly. It was skinny enough to be placed on this wall with the tv on top and then it has drawers and shelves along with the totes full of toys.

I then placed one of the toy baskets in the corner next to it.

And now I am standing in the other doorway.

There is a closet in the corner and with the entrance straight across from it, we just placed our old trunk in this space with is filled with puzzles and games. On top we just placed the toy bins I created using diaper boxes, which are full of books.

Bean bags sit in the corner in front of the closet waiting for use.

On the wall above the trunk, I hung the safari painting that used to be in Miss P’s bedroom. Travis brought this painting home from his deployment in Haiti.

I found this super cute playroom rules canvas at Home Goods and had to get it.

I hung it on the small wall above the table by the couch.

On the only large wall in the room I hung a few different items creating a gallery wall.

The small hot air balloon photo and the large blue frame also used to be in Miss P’s old room.

I hung the string art frame that I created and decorated it with some fun prints and photos, and art from the girls.

Then I framed another print and hung it with it as well. All the prints are from Pen and Paint.

I plan on creating and adding a few other items to this wall just need to figure out what! 🙂

And this is how the room usually looks. Table is always shoved out of the way and normally the floor is covered in either legos, kitchen toys, dress up clothes, you name it!!

I still plan on changing up the window treatments. Currently they are
just beige tie up curtains left over by the previous owners. I want a
fun pattern- just need to decide on what!

We enjoy this room.

Nice to have a room to hide most of the toys!

May 3, 2016 By Allison

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Living Room and Foyer Reveal

I hope you aren’t tired of house posts yet because I have one more for you today.

I already shared our dining room with you and then the construction portion of opening up our downstairs area to the stairs last week but I never shared the full reveal of our foyer and living room so today I am doing just that!

I will back track a little bit first.

This is our living room when we moved into the house. Beige walls, olive green carpet, lace treatments on the windows, and closed up wall.

And this is the other side of the room.
Even though there were a good amount of windows, it felt kinda dark to me in here.

We ripped up the old carpets to find this mess of the original hardwood floors.

So with the help from my parents, we sanded those bad boys down in preparation to refinish them.

Plus, we painted the walls the same white as the dining room because as I mentioned before, white was just calling to me in this house for some reason and I wanted to keep the walls light and airy with all the woodwork throughout the house.

When it came time to finally stain the floors, I had to get creative with the floors that were in the closet that would be opened up to the foyer.
Since the floors ran under the wall that was coming down, I couldn’t just stain the whole floor in there because when it came time to meet the stained area, it would be hard to blend so I taped off certain boards so they wouldn’t get stained and that way everything would blend much better once the wall was torn down and all the floors refinished.

And then it came time to stain the floors.
Luckily, we learned some tricks from redoing to dining room floors. We still had a touch up a few spots before applying the second coat but we got them done!

They are a lot darker than I wanted to go but in order to hide some of the large gaps we had to fill in the dining room, we had to go dark.
They do look good though!

Here you can see what the floors in the entry and my taped off area looked like before they were stained.
I had to sand the foyer floors and then they were ready to stain.

I was super nervous if they would blend in well, especially after how light they looked after the first coat but after the second coat was applied, they blended right in seamlessly! What a relief!

We ripped the carpet off the stairs. Still need to paint the risers and clean up the treads. We are still debating if we are going to add stain to them to darken them a touch.

Remember that vent that was in the wall, the metal was cut down so we could place the vents into the floor. There was a tiny bit of floor missing that was at the edge of the old wall so we had to figure out what to do about that. One of the guys working on our house had this idea to trim down the wood on the long sides of the vent and then frame out the vent to fill the gap. Worked out well!

Again, we got a new front door for the house. We reversed the swing of it so it will be much easier to open and greet guests.
Originally when the construction crew replaced the door, they put the old molding back around the door. It was a light color, and a totally different style than the rest of the molding downstairs since that molding was added when the upstairs was added. We decided to take that molding back down and replace it molding that was around the old closet door that was taken down. We stained it darker to match the finish of the door and it looks so much better now that it matches the rest of the downstairs trim.

We also replaced the old light fixture which was practically just a bulb in the ceiling and then added the little shelf by the door. That also has to get painted out still and then we are going to added a few hooks to it so guests can hang their coats.
And the plan is to restain the trim around the window as well to match better to the rest of the downstairs.

We left the little closet that was inside the old closet. Right now it is as it was but I plan on painting it out white as well to break up so much wood in this small little area.

I am really happy with how the whole project turned out!

Now onto the living room!

Standing at the front door, this is the view of the living room.

And here is a glimpse of the living room if you were coming down the stairs.

When you first walk through the arch, our entertainment center is on the small wall to the right. We mounted our tv on the wall and then I placed out gallery wall above it to help break up the giant black hole that is our tv. Normally the tv is turned into the room for better viewing. And then the toy basket is shoved in the corner by the entertainment center.

This is the angle the tv sits most days.
We sold our old sofa and loveseat before we moved and decided to use the sleeper sofa that was in our loft in our old house as our main sofa. Then Travis just had to get leather chair for himself.
I actually bought another chair to from a cute little store in town that still needs to be redone. That will sit on the other side of the little round table next to his leather chair. I have the fabric for it but it has a TON of tufting and I haven’t decided yet if I am tackling it myself or taking it to upholstery that lives down the street.

I bought gray and white curtain panels online at Target along with the rods and they look great in the space. No more dirty, dusty lace not letting light through!

Here is the view from the couch of the tv corner. The shelf is the faux mantle I had Travis build me to put up for Christmas and well, it is still up even though it wasn’t suppose to be still. lol

Standing next to the Leather chair, there is a view of the whole opposite side of the room plus foyer.

Here is another new rug that again was found at TJ Max/Homegoods. Every rug in this house was bought there or Target! lol We placed our old living room rug in our master bedroom so we needed a new one. When I found this one we both agreed on it and liked the color tones so it came home with us.
I also had to buy a new coffee table. The old yellow one got a little banged up in our move so it got moved up to the playroom and I found this one on Amazon. Looks great!

Just because I really love the way this space is opened up now, you can see this view again.
That cool mirror by the porch door was also a Homegoods find. And the little table under it used to be in our formal living room and was white. I painted it up gray to fit in the space better.

Between the couch and chair is another new little table. Got it at the same shop as the chair that will eventually be in the room. Then hung my “Life’s an adventure” pallet art in the corner.

I am really happy with how the room turned out!

It works well for our little family!

It is definitely a big change!

April 11, 2016 By Allison

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Our Foyer Construction Project

Yesterday I shared our dining room with you guys and you got a couple glimpses of the living room in the background.

Before I jump right into the whole living room reveal, I wanted to share with you the the construction that went on in our foyer area.

So this is the front of our house- front door and then a screened in porch.

The only problem is that the front door wasn’t really the front door. It lead straight upstairs for what was an upstairs apartment in the ’40s.

The previous owners used the screened in porch as their front door and since we were putting in a fence for our dog and kids, we knew we wanted to actually make it so you could access the front door from downstairs.

This is a view of the front door from the top of the stairs. See, just open the door and up you go!!

If you were downstairs, you can see the door to outside, which leads out to the screened in porch and then the door to the left is a closet. On the other side of that closet wall, is the other door.

When you open the closet, there are shelves and hanging space to the right of the closet.

And then to the left, is this built in cabinet.

After talking with the contractor we hired, we came to the conclusion that the wall that you see in the living room, plus the door, was original to the house, and the inner closet wall plus stairs, were added when they created the apartment so this project would be easier than we first thought.

The hardwood floors ran directly under the wall and that was going to save us lots of money!!

So after talking with our contractor and set a start date for work, Travis and I got a little antsy!

We hated not being at access this door especially when people would come knock on it and we had to go on the screened porch and tell them to come around.

So one day we decided to start a little demo ourselves.

I took the first few swings at the wall to see what was inside.

Then continued to bust through to the closet.

I let Travis take over and then he decided to go a little crazy!

We were just going to leave it a little hole between the studs so we could crawl through to use the stairs but he had other plans.

He just kept going which was nice so we could get a better feel of exactly how we wanted them to open this space.

Here is a shot looking into the closet from the living room. This was before Travis cut a stud out of the way so we could easily get through! But it was amazing to see the light shining through.

Seeing this light alone coming through the holes in the wall got me so excited to get this project finished!

When the contractor started, they got to work quickly on opening up the wall.

The inner wall was totally removed then they cut an opening leaving a half wall.

This was the route we were originally going to go. There is a cold air return in the wall and if we removed more of the wall, we would have had to figure out what to do with the vent.

Well after a weekend of living with this, and figuring things out, we decided it would best to get rid of the half wall portion because the space to walk through would be too tight.

So, when they came back to work, it was decided that the half wall would go and it was a great decision!!

Unfortunately, we were left with this vent sticking out of the floor but the plan was to just cut down the box and place the vent covers directly in the floor.

We wanted an arch, to match the other arches in the space, and so the guys built and dry walled it all up.

But it was totally uneven!

If you can see, the left side of the arch is very boxy compared to the right side.

We were told it would get fixed by the plaster finisher so we let it go for the time being.

The plaster guy showed up, started doing his thing, and when we pointed out the mess up he was like “I can’t fix that!” Awesome! So after literally placing in THOUSANDS of nails in the arch and trying to add the metal corner piece with even more nails, he hated how it looked so after working on it for 2 weeks, he literally tore the entire thing apart!! Talk about my anxiety level going a little crazy!

So after he completely rebuilt the arch, re-dry walled, and finally got to mudding the wall it was probably 2 to 3 more weeks since he tore it apart.

We definitely got to know him well since he was here late often. lol

The day he turned it over to the painter was the best day ever!!

The painted came in and got the whole wall and inner area painted out and it was a remarkable sight to see!

After the arch was completed, it was time to finish the stairs.

We had a stud that couldn’t be removed next to the cabinet where we opened the stairs up to so it left everyone a bit puzzled at what to do with it.

We asked that it be cut back and they pretty much messed it up so then it really left everyone wondered what to do with it.

We knew we had to add a newel post and spindles but if we added them to the existing stairs they would be too far in and look strange so I finally came up with this idea.

We built out the stair wall and treads passed the stud which gave us the perfect place for the spindles and newel post.

They also boxed in the stud up the wall to enclose it and tie it in a little bit.

Once they completed everything, they started staining it all and I had to tell them to stop because I had other plans for the space.

So over the weekend I painted the wall boxing in the stud the wall color, then painted the wood below the stairs white and stained the newel post and banister a darker stain then what they were doing.

They were a little surprised when they showed up Monday to see what I did but I am happy with the look.

Our plan is to paint the stair risers white so while I was painting, I started painting that area behind the spindles because at the time, they weren’t installed yet and it was so much easier.

The stairs were officially done and I loved looking over to see them.

The last thing the contractors had to to in this area was install the new front door we had made by an Amish carpenter.

This thing weighs a ton and it so nice!

This job was done, well the contractor portion of this job, and then it was time for Travis and I to take over to finish redoing the floors and a few other small projects.

But that is where I am going to leave off right now!

You will see the full foyer reveal tomorrow when I share the full living room reveal as well!

April 5, 2016 By Allison

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Master Bathroom Reveal Part 1

So do you remember way back in September I mentioned starting construction on our house to turn the once kitchen for a rental unit upstairs into a master bathroom?

If you don’t, I’m not surprised! The project took forever to complete with the construction crew and then we had to wait forever for our final piece to be completed.

The good news?! The final piece got installed this past weekend so I can finally share our bathroom with you! YAHOOOO!!

I’m not going to share the full reveal with you today. I decided to break these posts up because there are so many pictures that the post would be WAY too long so I decided that 2 or 3 posts would be much better, for all of us involved.

So let me refresh your minds on what the room looked like when we bought the house.

This kitchen was built in the 40s along with the rest of the upstairs when it was turned into an apartment during WWII and pretty much was never touched since.

The opposite side of the room is a small broom closet and the previous owners put up rods and a shelf on top to use it as their closet.

Our bedroom is what used to be the old living room when this was an apartment and is adjoined to this space, so since it already had plumbing, it would be a perfect master bath.

We began by measuring out the room and then taking painters tape to figure out the full layout that way if something didn’t work quite like we thought, we could just rip up the tape and try again.

This is looking into the room from the door where we placed the shower straight ahead and then we would build a wall for an actual closet.

To the left of the shower, we figured we had enough room for the toilet and a linen closet in the corner.

Obviously all these cabinets would be removed to make room for the new bathroom fixtures.

The area below the window would be open but we would place a towel rod there because there is no other good spot for it in the room.

Then as we keep circling around to the left, the vanity would be on this wall.

It is the wall the door opens up to so we originally just planned a 60 inch vanity but then realized we could fit a 72 inch vanity and would still room for door clearance.

Standing in front of the windows and looking at the other side of the room, you will see where we planned on building the wall for the closet and putting in a pocket door. We would take down all the current shelves but keep the old broom closet and make it a shoe closet.

So after speaking with a few contractors, we picked one and got to work mid September.

They started by ripping out all the cabinets and then cutting holes in the floor and walls to run all the plumbing to the shower, toilet, and new sinks.

The electrician also came to run new electrical outlets, get rid of a few old ones, and set up new lights and switches.

And they also built the new closet wall including the pocket door frame.

Then this is how our bathroom sat, for WEEKS!!

To say we were frustrated was an understatement.

Thankfully, work downstairs was still happening but when things come to a grinding halt you are bound to get frustrated.

Thankfully, after weeks of trying to figure out who was going to do the plumbing, things finally got going.

They had to run an entire new stack down to the basement and luckily they were able to run it down the wall where an existing vent pipe was so there weren’t any new holes in our walls or extra plumbing running through other rooms in our house.

Then all the new plumbing for the sinks, toilets, and shower were ran along with the water lines.

And to say that I was SOOO excited to see plywood back on the floor was a very exciting day! lol

And to also see dry wall over the holes in the wall I was even more thrilled!

They also had to close up a vent in the wall that was directly where the new wall was built and move it up into the ceiling.

Things kinda slowed down yet again but not too much since they had to prep the room for all the tile work that was going to happen.

They covered the floors with cement board and put mold free drywall on the main shower wall.

Then the new closet wall was also dry walled.

The dry wall guy went up there to make sure all the seams were good to go and that all the old walls were patched up and fixed in preps for paint.

Then an exciting part was finally going to happen- tile and finishing touches!!

And that is where I will pick up next week so stay tuned!!

March 8, 2016 By Allison

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House Tour: Front Porch

I am back sharing another house tour today and I am sharing one of our favorite places in our house, the screened in front porch.

We have a large screened in porch on the front of our house.

We loved it as soon as we saw it knowing that many evenings would be spent out here.

Come this way. I’ll show you around.

Entering the porch from the screen door, you will see that I wanted to add some fun bright colors to this space. The porch definitely needed it since it has original wood white siding, white ceiling and white porch walls with beige linoleum flooring and green accents on the wood holding in the screens and around the windows.

We used the outdoor furniture that used to be on our patio in CO on the porch and then bought two new outdoor red chevron rugs from Target for a big bright punch of color.

What’s nice about this porch, it has a ceiling fan so if it is rather warm and humid out you can flip that one and get the air moving to help cool you off.

The love seat sits in front of the large windows of our living room looking out onto the street. I bought the fabulous pillow fabric at JoAnn’s and sewed those right up to add some color to the couch and chairs.

On the opposite end sit our two chairs. They are near the door that enters the house and luckily they fit there perfectly!

I would still like to find a small table to place between the two chairs but that will come at some point.

The sun sets on this side of the house and the previous owners installed this large roller sun shade to help with the glare as it is going down.

We haven’t used it very often so far but it was because on the other side of the screen is what will finally be the main front door of the house again and there used to be a HUGE vine that grew on the outer side of the porch. This helped block the sun but it was so out of control that is also attacked you if you tried to walk onto the porch so needless to say that got completely taken out a few weekends ago so this screen will be put to good use now I’m sure.

Above one of the chairs, hangs a sea glass wind chime just in case a good breeze comes through the screen. And then just outside the screen on the far column of the porch we hung a red bird feeder so we can sit out on the porch and watch the birds. The girls and the cat love it!

Moving down the porch now for a little more color.

Next to the couch, we placed the coffee table that went with out patio set since it couldn’t sit across from the couch with the size of our porch. I just placed a little lantern and a candle inside it on top for now and will probably throw a little pot with flowers on it next spring summer.

Above the table I hung the ombre wood initial that I created and then on the door I just quickly hung up the cream linen wreath a with welcome sign on the door to the house. And then next to the door, I hung the wire star we have but that was just for something quick so not sure if that will actually stay there.
I was desperate to decorate something since our house is still unfinished inside so I just grab what I could find to hang up. lol

I LOVE our old door! It is so pretty with all it original glass but also makes me nervous with ALL the original glass and two small little ones that like to run around and slam doors! Eek!

Swinging around to the other side you will see the door to the screen porch over on the opposite end of the porch. I hung a hanging planter my uncle made up in the corner with some succulents in it for now.

I also want SOMETHING in the corner over there, like a table or small chair or something but haven’t quite found it yet.

And lastly, we hung up some fun cafe’ lights all around the top of the porch for those fun evenings just hanging out on the porch.

That’s our porch!

We enjoyed it during the summer and don’t see us being back out here too much until spring rolls around unless it is to walk through it to let the dog out but it sure will be a cheerful place to walk through!

October 12, 2015 By Allison

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House Tour: Miss P’s Room

We’ve been in our house since mid June and things are slowly but surely coming together. This is the longest it has ever taken me to unpack after a move but with immediately working on projects, things have gone slower this go around.

I did complete each of the girl’s rooms as quickly as possible to try to make things as normal for them as possible again. This is their first move, with many more to go, and I know they really didn’t understand what was happening so I wanted to get their rooms done quickly.

Today, I thought I would share Miss P’s room with you.

Here is what her room looked like before. This was right after we closed on the house hence the air mattress on the floor. The previous owners used it as a guest room and had the walls painted yellow. Definitely needed a freshening up!

Miss P is to the age where she has an opinion now so she decided what color her room would be and she even picked out her own bedding and she even help me place some things around her room.

She’s a little girl. Her favorite color is pink so of course she picked pink for her new wall color.

We painted her room the day after we closed on our house before all our furniture was here and she was thrilled.

We converted her bed into her full size bed so we had to get all new bedding for her bed.

Took her to Target and let her pick out whatever she wanted and she picked the Circo Travel Comforter set which I was excited about because I saw it online and totally wanted that one for her room. It is really cute with different Parisian scenes on it.

I reused the decorations from her old room just had to buy a couple floating shelves to place them on.

At the foot of her bed, I placed her small chair with her tote of books and then the doll crib my dad made her sits in front of her windows.

Next to her window I placed the shelf that used to be in her room and a lot of the decorations that were in there are still on her shelf.

I again bought some square shelves from Target to hang on the wall above to place some of the more fragile items that I didn’t want her to try to play with. Not having the picture ledge in her room this time threw me and I had to figure out what to do with all these small items but I like the way it all turned out.

Her dresser is on the wall right when you walk in the door and since she is now potty trained, no need to put the changing table back on top of it. I still have a tote on top for pull ups that she wears at night still but other than that, it was nice to put her lamp on it and use it as a normal dresser.

I used the frames from her old room and created a gallery wall above her dresser along with the bunting I had in her old room above her dresser.

We just bought a white fluffy rug for the floor and I had to buy some new curtains for her room since her window is much bigger than her old one and I love the ones I found from Pottery Barn Kids. The aqua embroidery matches the color in her comforter perfectly!

I really like how her room came out and of course she loves it and that is all that matters!

There may be a thing or two I will add or change but right now, it is perfect for her!

September 22, 2015 By Allison

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All About SNAP Storage + GIVEAWAY

Happy Tuesday everyone!

I am so excited to share this post with you today.

Have you heard of SNAP Storage from We R Memory Keepers?

Do you want to know why I am so excited about it?

Beside the fact that it is an awesome storage system for ribbon, washi tape and embellishments, my dear sweet, talented, and handsome hubby CREATED it!!

Yep! He looked at my crazy stash of ribbon and my horrible way of storage and set out to design something for me as a birthday gift.

This is what he came up with and after teaming up with American Crafts and We R Memory Keepers, the SNAP Storage line was born!

How fun is that?!

You can say that I am just a little proud of him, just a little. 😉

So today I just wanted to take the time so share a little bit about SNAP with all of you.

There are a few different ways you can buy SNAP Storage.

There is a starter kit that comes with one bar and ribbon holders in 3 sizes.

The ribbon holders fit small, medium, and large rolls of ribbon. You can easily slip them onto the holder and if you want to take them off, just pull it on off.

You can easily pull the ribbon and cut to the length that you want while on the spool or just take it down if you need more.

You can buy just the bars, which come in a pack of 2.

Screws and wall anchors are included in the kit but you could also use command strips on the back of the bars as well.

There are 3 different size holders for washi tape. And the 3 different sized ribbon holders are also sold like this.

Small, medium, and large holders as well for washi tape.

You can pull the washi tape just like the ribbon and cut the the length that you would like.

And lastly, there are the little storage containers that come 3 to a box.

Perfect for small little embellishments like beads, buttons, brads, clothes pin, whatever!

The lid of the containers just pop open so you can easily fill or get to what is inside.

All items slip over the bar with little brackets on the back so you can easily remove them to rearrange the if you’d like.

TIP:

If you have trouble removing brackets from the bar, such as it is pulling on the bar, take everything off the bar and take the bar off the wall and flip it over. We found that there is one edge of the bar that tends to hold onto the hooks a little more than the other. Don’t want to break the hook piece if you pull to hard!

I currently have the whole system up on the wall in my new craft room, but I will definitely be buying more of the ribbon holders because I have SO MUCH MORE ribbon than washi tape.

If you can’t find these in stores yet, don’t worry, they are coming!!

I know some online craft stores already have them in stock but stores should be receiving their shipments any day now!

And, be sure to check out We R Memories YouTube video all about SNAP storage to see it live in action.

Now, how would you like to win a set of SNAP Storage?!

Enter below and GOOD LUCK!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

allison

August 11, 2015 By Allison

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Our New Wisconsin Home

HELLO!!!! Is anyone still out there?! I do surely hope so!

I am so sorry that I pretty much just fell off the face of the blogging world. I didn’t intend to do that, at all, but things literally got totally crazy for me over the past few months and unfortunately, hasn’t quite slowed down yet.

If you recall, we moved to our next duty station and headed to WI to Fort McCoy the beginning of June. We closed on our CO house on June 9th and then closed on our new WI house on June 15th and we’ve been on the go ever since!

I wanted to pop in today to FINALLY share our new house with all of you.

These pictures are from before all of our furniture arrived and actually, we have been here for a month and it has already dramatically changed with all the work we have already done.

This is picture heavy, so sorry! I just wanted to do a house tour of our new to us, 1905 beauty!

Here is the outside of our lovely new, old home.
I am standing on corner of the street looking toward the house.

Here is a shot of the other side of the house.

We have a pretty awesome screened in porch and it is so nice sitting out there in the evenings. The animals have made this a favorite resting spot as well.

And remember this front door. I have a story about it and will get to that in a few.

Nothing too fancy. Just the back side of the house and back door.

Garage area with patio next to it.

Our large brick patio and little garden shed in the back.

The previous owners loved to garden so behind the garage is a large potting shed which is super cool!

Time to head indoors!

Walking through the back door of the house….

We come to the kitchen.

This was an addition the previous owners added on in 2003 so it is nice to have such a large space since the house is so old.

Eat in area in the kitchen.

This is what we will be turning into a mud room. That door in the background is how you enter the house from the back door so we thought it would be perfect.

This room was actually the ORIGINAL kitchen of the house. Yep, this tiny little room was all that was the kitchen. 2 sets of cabinets with a sink between and then on the other side was the fridge and stove. Thank goodness they expanded!

Here are the original cabinets of the kitchen still there. We will change them slightly, like taking the tin off the fronts that the previous owner added and will paint them white but they will be staying in the mudroom.

Standing in the same doorway as the mudroom and just spinning around, I am now in the dining room with the living room in the background.

View of dining room room from the living room.

You can see the stairs to go upstairs in the back right there. And then the doorway to the right of the stairs heads to the guest room, a bathroom, and my craft room.

Here is the view of the living room from the dining room. Door to porch, a closet, and lots of windows!

Other side of the living room.

Our super fabulous screened in porch.

This will be my craft room. Decent size room with large closet for ALL. MY. CRAP! 😉

Can’t wait to be able to close a door again and not see projects.

Downstairs bathroom.

Previous owners redid this bathroom as well but still kept the original medicine cabinet which I love!

This is the guest room.

And now to head up the super skinny old steps to all the other bedrooms.

Walking up the stairs and if you turn left, you immediately walked into Miss S’s room.

But if you walk up and head to the right, you will enter the playroom which is also a walk through to the rest of the bedrooms.

The upstairs bathroom that needs some help!

But still has that medicine cabinet! 🙂

Here is Miss P’s bedroom.

And lastly, our bedroom.

Other side of our bedroom.

All the doors upstairs have these awesome glass door knobs. SWOON!!!

Oh, and here is a kitchen upstairs.

The second floor was turned into an apartment during the 1940s so the original kitchen is still upstairs. It is directly off our bedroom. Our bedroom would have been the living room for the apartment. We have big plans to turn this room into a master bath.

Stepping out into the hall from our bedroom is a large landing and well, do you remember that door I told you to remember in the beginning on the porch? What looks like the front door of the house?!

Well, there it is!
This door only leads to upstairs!! It was the entrance to the apartment and for some reason no one ever opened this back up the the downstairs even though it was only an apartment for 1 year!
SOOOO, we plan on busting through the coat closet down stairs and opening this stair case back up to make it functional again along with this door.

Now, I’m going to head to the basement, which you get through from the same area as the back door.

The cold/coal room is still in tack in the basement.
That window area was the actual shoot. The door is still on the outside of the house.

When the previous owners added the kitchen, they also dug out in the basement under it and created a big work room. To say Travis is thrilled is an understatement!

The old pantry of the house is down here as well. It is actually pretty large which is good since the kitchen used to be SO tiny!!

Then the large laundry room is down here as well. This is half the room. Still quite a bit of it isn’t pictured to the right.

We do have a unique feature in our basement…

We have an indoor, outhouse!! lol

It’s rather nice inside too. lol

But that’s it!
That is our new house!

We have literally done so much already!
Before we even closed on the house we already had bought paint for the girl’s rooms and then the first night we owned it we bought a ton more paint. We owned 11 cans of paint for a house that we owned less than 24 hours.
We got straight to work since we had to wait for our household items to arrive so pretty much the whole house got painted with the exception of the kitchen, mudroom, downstairs bathroom which isn’t changing, the upstairs bathroom and then the hallways.

Then, we ripped out carpet and have been redoing the original hardwood floors.
We are finishing up the floors in the living room and then we can finally finish putting the downstairs back together!

It’s been a little chaotic up in here!!

So stay tuned for an updated post on the house to see what we’ve already done and what is still yet to come!

Follow me on Instagram for a more behind the scene look and check out what we are working on or see what we’ve already done!

allison

July 21, 2015 By Allison

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