We passed our final inspection on the upstairs remodel last week (!!!!!!!), which means that we spent the weekend knee deep in our next project, naturally. I referred to the now-finished ‘upstairs upgrade’ as the ‘house project of the decade’, but clearly I was wrong because here we are in the same decade and boy, are we about to start a doozie.
Really quick, let’s go back over what we’ve done since moving into this house 3.5 years ago:
Sanded down and re-finished the original wood floors
Removed all radiators, installed a forced air system, new furnace and central AC
Remodeled the ground floor bathroom
Tore out and poured a new cement front walkway
Re-landscaped front yard (which I apparently didn’t blog about. whoops.)
Installed a built-in entertainment center in the living room
Replaced the stairs into the basement
Remodeled the laundry room and basement bathroom
Remodeled the entire second story
What’s next, then?
The porch, breakfast nook, kitchen, mudroom, backyard, garage, patio and driveway. Obviously.
Ok so here’s the deal: we have (had) a three-season porch through which you enter the house from the back yard. We don’t really love that set-up and it is space that doesn’t get used. Also, our backyard and garage are in desperate need of an overhaul and have been since we bought the house (it was vacant/overgrown). Lastly, our kitchen is actually pretty nice – some previous owners installed new, good-quality cabinets some time in the 90s – but the layout is really, really inefficient. Like, can’t fully open the refrigerator door, inefficient. Thus, the math goes something like this:
unused porch + (backyard over haul^patio) x garage + inefficient kitchen = REMODEL ALL THE THINGZ!
First step is the porch. We are integrating it into the house by replacing the windows, insulating behind the walls, and tearing out the wall between it and the breakfast nook (which will eventually let us remodel the kitchen with a more efficient layout).
We have started the gutting process which is no cake walk. When you picture someone taking a hammer to a wall, the hammer goes right through it, right? Makes a big ‘ol hole in the sheetrock with one swing? Well, in 1935 when our house was built, walls weren’t made out of sheetrock. They were made out of wire mesh covered by cement covered by a coat of plaster.
Insert crow bars, sledge hammers, and diamond-tipped saw blades, O MY!
Do not adjust your monitor. The trim really is that shade of blue and has been since we bought the house. We knew the porch would be remodeled, so we never did anything about the heinous trim assuming we’d take care of it along with the rest of the room eventually. (Also, WHO PAINTS TRIM THAT COLOR?!)
While DanO wielded the heavy-duty tools and took on the cement walls, I attacked the blue atrociousness.
And the really, really exciting news about this particular project?
I am not pregnant!
HUZZAH! For the first time ever, we are starting a brand new project and there is no nugget or gummibear in my uterus! There is no 9 month make-it-or-break-it deadline. There is no ‘be gentle with the work load, pregnant lady’. No concern about my placenta while we’re having sheetrock swung over our yard. No cautionary face masks for even the most innocuous of fumes. No sitting on a birthing ball laboring while we install hard wood floors.
It will be a fun experience, learning how to be a home re-modeler not pregnant. I can paint? I can climb ladders? I don’t have to excuse myself every 20 minutes to go to the bathroom?
Well heck! LET’S REMODEL ALL THE THINGZ, THEN!
Our 1920′s house had paint trim that crazy blue too!!
Why O why was that color ever ok?
And also, how skinny is you backside in that last picture! Good work girl!
Um- YES! I saw that picture and was not sure it was you. You look so SKINNY! The hard work is paying off. :)
ThoUght the same thing!
Ladies, ladies! How could you not recognize my tuckus? ;)
my thoughts exactly!!! but I was looking mostly (although not entirely in a not weird way!) at that WAIST line!!!!! you go girl!!!!
Hooray! And you look AMAZING, Skinny Mama! I can’t wait to do projects not pregnant again…we only got about 6 months of working on our house before I got knocked up with Bambino #2. Granted, all the big things are now done (our goal before Baby 2′s birth), but there is still P.L.E.N.T.Y. to do that I definitely need to help my husband with — poor guy has more than carried his fair share of remodel in the past 8 1/2 months…. granted, I’ve carried my fair share of BABY, so…that’s fair, right? :)
My aunt and uncle’s house had that trim AND WALLS TO MATCH when they bought their historic house where they live now… they had the whole house gutted and sadly had to have the trim (they prefer real wood) painted to match the refinished wood and new “replica” wood since they couldn’t strip all the blue off without destroying the shape of the artsman style woodwork. But it looks gorgeous now that the blue is gone! I know yours will too!
Such is the plight of restoring very old homes. It’s sometimes impossible to undo years of dumb people’s work (ThereIsaidIt) and you end up replacing when you really want to restore.
that blue is something! i thought it was painters tape at first. wow. and yay for a remodel! can’t wait to follow along on this one too!
YES. When I first opened the door to the porch when we were being shown the house by our real estate agent, I thought the same exact thing. “O! They didn’t finish painting in here, even left the tape up…”
Nope. It’s PAINTED like that.
First of all you look amazing :) Second of all I thought that was painters tape on there not paint, haha. Thirdly I know the feeling of the never ending project- our house was seriously built in 1770 and when we move in and got things started I was 8 months preggers.
It’s like they took painter’s tape to home depot and were all “I’d like you to color match this pleaseandthankyou.” right?
My take away from this: YOU LOOK SO SKINNY!! Wow, mama. You look amazing. I was all prepared to leave a comment about the remodel and then got to the last picture and was totally distracted. Congrats on the weight loss so far!
Thank you! It has been killer, but you know what else is killer? Not thinking twice before posting a picture of yourself from behind for all the interwebs to see.
you guys need to come and REMODEL ALL THINGZ in our 100+ farmhouse. I feel like ya’ll would be in heaven and hell at the same thing hahaha.
cheers to you and DanO!
oh and can i say i am dying over how the last picture of your skinny self has the caption “O My” ? priceless.
LOL. Sometimes my watermark uploader is glitchy and I’m too lazy to re-import it with the full watermark (o my family). But yes, yes I do think it’s fitting in this situation. ;)
I’m with Kristal! LOL. I’m sure this makes me sound creepy, but your butt looks awesome in those jeans! (That really sounds creepy. Please take it as a compliment from another gal trying to lose weight. I promise I’m not a skeezy old man.)
Well let me take a moment to encourage YOU, then! You can so do this. You have the discipline and self-control and every sweat drop and denied cookie WILL BE WORTH IT. xoxo
Ha ha – I thought the same thing! I’m so glad I’m not the only one who didn’t want to seem like a big creeper. But, seriously, you look AMAZING and you were just the nudge I needed to start focusing on my own health.
You look amazing! Can’t wait to see the progress of this new home project!
You and me both, sister. Hard to see through the demolition dust, but it will be awesome someday. :)
so exciting!!! and a project that you can fully dive into along with everyone else, thats awesome! I too always seem to be pregnant when things get done around here, both good and bad in their own ways, lol.
And I must also say, nice butt mama! all that hard work is really paying off, you look fantastic!
Yep, pregnancy does give a nice sense of urgency to projects, that’s for sure! But it will be so nice to work without the sciatica pain and braxton hicks.
I once dreamed of buying an old house full of history and charm and remodeling the whole thing, while saving all that history and charm. And then I married a general contractor and he was all, “Hello, I’d just like to build you a new house.” And I said, “Well okay.” Because there IS something a little easier about new. That doesn’t mean I don’t see all your project doing and wish a little for the same experience. But only a little, because holy cow, what a lot of work! I bet it’s fun work though. :)
And yes, yes, YES! You look fabulous, even though all we can really see is your butt. But that makes it even better to hear us all say it yes? I mean, I don’t (and imagine you don’t either) generally wake up in the morning and say, “I would love it if someone told me my butt looked amazing today” but um, yes I would love the compliment if it happened to be said! Good for your for all your hard work. :)
The buy land and build from scratch is on our radar, probably not our next house though. I really do enjoy the ability to live here while we do this (which obviously has pros and cons – aka dust on my EVERYTHING), but I imagine building new has some very nice perks.
Don’t take this the wrong way, seeing as we’ve never met in real life and I’m not sure I’ve ever commented before, but…your butt looks great!
::wink::
I must say that when I started reading this, I thought, “but you’re not pregnant…” Anyway, you look amazing!! Congrats on the weight loss.
Right? It’s certainly been a trend around here for a while. Get pregnant! Start a project! Rinse! Repeat!
Girl, you look awesome in those jeans!
And, my! Doesn’t your hair look nice today! ;)
Haha please write a blog post about HOW you get your husband on board with all of these projects!!
My dear hubby is a certified building official, residential contractor, and used to build houses for a living. And I can’t get him to paint a bookcase.
HA! O, friend. I think DanO should guest post about how HE gets ME on board. Mercy, this man is exhausting. I love him dearly, but he out works me 10-to-1.
Going to join in the chorus of the people checking out your butt here… Seriously. You look amazing.
And mad kudos to you for being all remodel-tastic. I barely made it out of someone’s house alive the other day because the wife said that her husband had wanted her to help him with a remodel project and she thought that was ridiculous and ‘not her job’… Stab me.
O, I can often be found whining about the extra hours spent solo parenting while DanO tackles projects; I’m no saint. But up front I’m always filled with optimism and unrealistic expectations. :) Weeeeeeee! Projects!!!!
GoodNESS, you guys are brave & amazing. We can, like, barely wash the dishes with our 2-year-old underfoot, I can’t imagine all this remodeling. Also, did you ever show us the finished bookshelf? I can’t remember… (Finished as in with All The Things on it).
Well… so… about All The Things… We finished the shelves, but I am at a loss for decorating them. We even bought some vintage books for a steal off of ebay, but I don’t know. Siiiiiigh. Maybe I’ll man up and take a picture of them anyway. The shelves are great, the knick-knacks aren’t.
This ladies project was a little more large scale than your shelves but you may be able to get some inspiration from how she accessorized it.
http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2011/11/bookshelves-complete/
Hope you don’t mind links in your comments.
Also…may I join the ranks of people commenting on your butt. You are looking fabulous! The weight loss journey is going well.
Lookin’ good, girl. The blue trim and YOU!! ;) Hope all goes well with the new project(s)!! :D
How wonderful to be able to look back and see how much you’ve accomplished! And congrats on the final inpsection – that’s such a huge deal and SO nerve-wracking. Lol, though reading this post and the one with the squirrel so close together has led me to believe that you disliked the squirrel in your kitchen so much that you demolished it (the kitchen, not the squirrel) :)
How fun!!! Ok, so it might not be all fun with all the work and all, but it’s fun that you can join in and you’re adding extra usable space onto your house! That’s exciting!!!
Yay for passing inspection! And new project! And your skinny backside! :) You’re incredible, mama. I’m excited to see how it turns out! It will be so nice for you guys to have a more workable backyard/parking situation/kitchen/eating area. I’m inspired to work on the million projects we said we’d do when we bought our house… maybe this summer we’ll re-stain the porch/re-build the deck/re-paint the trim/fill in the hole in our yard… :)
I LOVE reading your remodeling posts. The hubby and I are big into remodeling our rambler, so I can commiserate and celebrate with you. Also wanted to know how you guys are budgeting for this since, like you, we’re doing the Dave Ramsey plan. We had hopes of starting something this spring, but no budget. Advice, please! I want to take a sledgehammer to the bathroom this minute.
Holy potatoes! You guys should have you’re own remodeling diy tv show or something. For real.
HA. Hahahaha. Just reading that sentence made me want to take an epic nap. ;)
I can’t wait to see the finished remodel! And way to go with all of your hard work to get fit! You look marvelous!
Whoa! I see I was not the only one to think this…but you look great! I wish I looked that good from the rear!!
Keep on keepin’ on with the weight loss…to be stuck in one spot is a bummer. But you have already made great progress, and you should be so proud!