From 78 to 30

Last weekend was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! It was in the high 70's and I had the windows open all weekend long. I somewhat regretted not having screen doors (I took the olds ones off when I bought the house cause they were UGLY and haven't got new ones on yet). Then in the middle of the week the temp started dropping, I enjoyed last weekends weather much better.

I've been painting in the kitchen/dining room all day - I'll share pictures of what I've been up to either later today or tomorrow. Mom bought me a new gadget today and brought it over. A red tea infuser to match my red themed kitchen, isn't it cute!
Earlier today the sky was rumbling with thunderstorms (didn't rain much just made a lot of noise). A little after noon this is what I walked out to when I headed out to feed the cat my lunch leftovers......a lovely sleet/snow mixture. Mother nature is a little confused, she must have forgot that it's spring now.
After going out in the snow/sleet mix I decided to carry in a several armloads of wood and get a fire going, put on a pot of tea and rest for a few minutes.
My new tea infuser made a wonderful cup of tea - actually it made three cups before I got back to doing something. I was just so cozy with my blueberry vanilla tea sitting in front of the fire typing out this post that I didn't want to get back to physical labor.

While I should be getting going again on painting, it'll have to have to wait until tomorrow. A friend just called and I now have dinner plans with several high school friends. We're heading to a Japenese bar & grill (we'll sit at the grill enjoying old friendships while they cook our dinner for us), should be fun and my home improvement projects will be waiting here for me tomorrow - they always are.

I'm BACK!

Hello Maude, it's me again! I know I've been a terrible blogger recently, I just been so busy.....this is going to be a long post. I'll get pictures up soon of my progress and a recap of sports I've been shooting.

After Christmas it felt like I was at a basketball game 3-4 times a week, wait a minute I WAS at basketball games 3-4 times a week. I made custom storyboards in different sizes for each of the 8th grade boys that their parents presented them on the last home game. I also made an album for the coach that the boys presented to him that same night. Once junior high ball ended I was at the high school games and then volleyball began. Volleyball ended last night, track practice started yesterday with the first meet in 2 weeks - it never ends!

One weekend toward the end of basketball I had a 3 hour session with the junior high cheerleaders, it was a lot of fun. The junior high boys won regional and competed in state (didn't place but we're still proud of them) and the junior high cheerleaders also competed at their state (6th place but deserved 2nd at the very least in my opinion). I had a fun weekend in Springfield watching the cheerleaders, reliving high school memories.

I was hired by a couple other schools to shoot some of their sporting events - that's exciting! I didn't intend to become a sports photographer but always loved participating and attending sporting events of all types plus I understand the rules and flow of the events for the most part which I think is necessary to capture good sports pictures.

In addition I've done several newborns, toddlers and a few family sessions. I've also shot 2 birthday parties (80 & 90 year old folks) with extended family group pic's. So that's what I've been up to the last 2-3 months.......sports and pictures.

On the house renovation:

I'm having a love/hate relationship with red paint. I can't get it on without showing brush strokes and I've painted many a room, inexperience isn't the issue. I purchased an additive a few days ago on a friends recommendation that's suppose to reduce/eliminate brush strokes from showing. Repainting again this weekend and will let you know.

I'm 75% done with my kitchen/dining room ceiling! WooHoo!! I only restarted it 5 times, Sunday I tore half of what I had done down and kept going until I was done with that part of it (my neck and shoulders weren't happy with me Monday morning). Tonight I'm going to buy the cabinets & supplies necessary to build my kitchen island. Tomorrow Michael is coming over to move my light (it's about a foot off from being centered over the island which will bug the heck out of me if I don't get moved). Once he moves the light I can do the last step of the ceiling and it will be DONE.

I'm also purchasing the crown molding tonight. Hope to find time this weekend to at least get it painted and maybe hung next week if I get the red paint to cooperate.

Once the ceiling & walls are done and the island is semi built, I can finally lay my kitchen floor. Am I ever ready to have an actual floor and not a wood sub-floor. The only major thing remaining in the kitchen/dining room is the deck door (it's a window right now). I still have to find the one I want at a price I'm willing to pay. It'll be a May/June project.

I still need to remove the bottom cabinet doors (again), sand them this time and repaint them. I also need to paint the shadow box area by the ceiling - I'll have to show you a picture to explain it. I think I've narrowed down my fabric for curtains.

Hopefully by Easter I can start to decorate this area - hopefully.
I think that's enough of a 'catching-up' post for now.

Snow, Fireplace and Christmas Decorations

Well it doesn't show signs of stoppin'
and I brought some corn for poppin'
and since we've no place to go (tadada)
Let it Snow
Let it Snow
LET IT SNOW

Sunday morning here in SoIL and we finally have our first SNOW! I love the snow!
I really need to be at work today since I have a board meeting tomorrow in which I was given the shortest amount of time possible to get the financials done and then on top of it have to forecast the rest of the year to determine bonus checks. But instead I think I'll sit at home in front of my fireplace and enjoy the scenery. Big thanks to Dad for getting firewood out of the woods out back and starting a fire yesterday while I was at a photo session.

My thermostat is set on 60 and didn't kick on until around 6:30 this morning. Of course I didn't carry wood in last night and had to treck out in the snow early this morning to keep the fire going - well worth it though, I love the feel and smell of wood burning.

Oh forgot to mention, I am officially living in my house now!!

Moved in the day my first house guests arrived (day before Thanksgiving), well truth be told I had to pack an overnight bag with clothes in it after my house guests were here because I only had enough moved for it to be liveable (didn't get around to clothes) and it rained that entire week.

My first Christmas tree.

I'm not ready to show you pictures yet as NO room in my house is done. I've been super duper busy this fall with pictures and have worked 60 hours plus the last two weeks and expect about that many hours this week too so 'things' at the house have been put off. But on a good note, come Thursday afternoon......I'm on vacation until the new year! That vacation isn't going to be a relaxing time but rather a "I'm getting stuff done at the house" vacation. I"ll relax some, but I'm ready to get a few projects marked off as complete. I won't really be able to relax until I get things done.

On the agenda for Christmas break:
*build kitchen island
*faux tin tile ceiling in kitchen
*molding on kitchen shadow boxes
*lay flooring in kitchen
*seal basement floor
*paint basement walls
*maybe build a few shelves in basement
*do a funky treatment on north wall in living room (knocking it out in spring so as of right now it's totally unfinished and ugly - have an idea on cheap treatment to mask look until remodel)
*hang blinds and window treatments in bedrooms and kitchen
*fix paint on kitchen cabinet doors
*hopefully get my handy-men to finish the tile in my bathroom, run electrical hookups to rest of outlets and move my satelitte connection
*re-arrange living room

*lay flooring in closet
*get bed set-up and bedroom put together (matress is on the floor right now), the room is painted but that's about all I can say about it
*maybe if I have time and weather permits, get crown molding installed in two bathrooms

I think that sounds like enough work for a vacation. Here are a few of my Christmas ornaments......well, it's time for me to design a few photo albums and then start working on company financials spreadsheets so I don't have to go into work at 3am tomorrow morning to get them done in time!

Quick Update....

Just a quick post to let you'll know where things are.....the drywall is getting finished this weekend!!! I can't explain how excited I am - this means that next week I can start to:

Clean, clean, CLEAN
Prime and Paint - the entire house
Install my fridge, microwave and stove
Apply the back splash in the kitchen
Get all the light fixtures installed
Tile the shower in both bathrooms
Install the stool and sink cabinets in both bathrooms
Install the kitchen/dining room ceiling - excited about this can't wait to share pics
Clean, clean, CLEAN some more
Wash all my dishes and put them in the cabinets
Remove the last of the carpeting and try to clean the hard wood (sanding it in the spring) - any suggests to remove carpet/padding marks without sanding are appreciated
Clean out the fireplace and haul a couple loads of wood - starting to get cool here
and then start MOVING IN!!

Time left before my first house guest arrives: 20 days
In that time I also have to get 5 more sessions already shot edited (one of which is a wedding with LOTS of pictures), attend and take a few pic's of a friends wedding next week, 7 photo sessions to shoot(which of course all need to be edited for possible Christmas gifts) and I'm decorating a wedding Nov 20th with fresh flower arrangements- only 40 tables, no biggie! Plus basketball has begun so I 'have' to attempt to attend as many games as possible every Tuesday and Thursday night.

This post isn't meant as a complaint in any way, shape or form - I'm LOVING life!

Ceiling Work!

When I purchased my home, it had these ever so lovely acoustical 12" spongy ceiling tiles in the entire house. If you've driven by my house you've probably seen these tiles neatly stacked up at the end of the driveway waiting for the trash man to pick up. You wouldn't believe how many 'locals' have commented on the neat piles of the ceiling tiles (that would be my father who neatly stacked them up).

The only room that still has these tiles is the mudroom. It's a winter/cold weather day project so they'll stay up there for a few months or so. I need to get the actual living space in working condition before I tackle this room.

As of Monday night, most of my ceiling looks like this (below)......drywall!! I'm not entirely sure what type of treatment I want in the living room so in the beginning it'll be flat white paint - exciting, I know. The kitchen is getting a faux metal tile application. Hopefully I can start on that next week sometime.

The two bedrooms have pine tongue & groove boards in excellent condition. I was hoping the entire house would have these, but no such luck. Let me rephrase that, it has tongue & groove boards but they're covered in felt and layers of wallpaper. I'm going to leave the natural wood in the two bedrooms. I have to caulk the cracks so the insulation will stop falling down and then I'm either going to varnish or white-wash them. May start with varnish and then white-wash if I decide the wood is too dark (rooms are only about 12x12).

Johnathon just LOVED taking the nails out of the ceiling! Can't you tell?

I've received some strange looks and comments on leaving the ceiling the natural wood and not covering it up. I think it'll give it a rustic look. I may hate it in the long run but want to give it a try and besides, what's it going to hurt to put a layer of varnish on my ceiling?

Bathroom Tile

I've been having issues determining what I want to do for the tub/shower surround in my bathroom. I made a trip to Lowes and purchased this tile (looks a little darker in real life). I was happy with my purchase and had convinced myself this was what I wanted.

Then my brother informed my that a tile that heavy (these are stone tiles) has to have a backer hung, it can't be hung on the sheet rock. So they'll have to tear out the sheet rock they just installed.

I stopped that quickly and decided to take the tile back (actually it's still sitting in my bedroom - that stuff is HEAVY, need to get it back to Lowe's soon). Now once again I need to decide what to do in my bathroom!

If you know me very well and have been in my bathroom at different times through the year you know that I typically change my bathroom 2-3 times a year. So I'm thinking to keep it as simple as possible I'll just put up white 4" ceramic tiles. My sink/vanity is white and the tub is white so white tiles on the tub surround will fit in nicely. As an added bonus I can change the wall color and accessories in the room to just about any color I desire and my tile won't clash with it!! Isn't what I originally thought about doing but the more I think about it the more I come back to white tiles..........

I'm not sure I'll have time to tile the bathroom next week but everything else should be complete. Before and after pictures of this room coming soon.

House Update: Week 22

So it's been a while since I gave you updates from the house. I decorated way too many weddings/events this summer and any free time I may have had was spent at ballgames - seriously, they're never ending and basketball starts Saturday! As is with most old home fixer-upers one thing has lead to another and then another......my thoughts of simply tearing down a wall and building a bathroom and closet have morphed into pretty much gutting the ENTIRE house.

Good News! I hired my Uncle yesterday to help my brother/dad with the remodel - upgrade. My cousin called and told me she's definitely coming for Thanksgiving so I now have a deadline to be in a 'live-able' home with house guests! Figured an extra set of hands was needed to achieve this new goal.

So here's where we're at:

1) Most demolition has been completed.

2) My new bathroom has walls, electrical ran, plumbing installed, light fixture installed, tub installed, pocket door installed, walls mudded and waiting to be sanded. My sink, vanity and stool are there ready to be installed as soon as the walls are sanded and I get to prime & paint. I need to purchase tile for my tub surround and get that tiled. Then I'll just need to 'decorate' it - woo hoo it's almost done.

3) My new closet has walls with sheet rock on the inside, walls are mudded waiting to be sanded. Electrical is ran along with a light fixture. Once the room is sanded I'll prime & paint it. We still need to hang the door and install hardwood flooring which I still need to pick up.

4) Guest room closet has the 2x4 frame but no sheet rock. I need to determine what kind and size door I want on this and go get it.

5) Two bedrooms need sheetrock on the hall between them and the doors hung. Both rooms need the cracks in the ceiling filled with caulk, lightly sanded and varnished - leaving them the pine wood. Both also need a couple coats of new paint, floors sanded and sealed, and window treatments.

6) Demolition of the existing bathroom is 'in progress'. Cast iron tub should be moved to it's new home in the guest bathroom today! Guest bathroom has had nothing done yet. So it still needs the framing, sheetrock, electrical, plumbing, painting, and fixtures - it's just an empty space in the living room right now.

7) Kitchen: I've painted the cabinets, they're pretty much ready to go. Old bedroom wall has been removed along with the ugly ceiling tiles. New outlets have been installed along with a gas line for my stove. Carpet should be coming up & out of there early next week - YAY. We have to lay a thin subfloor over the existing tile before I can install the new flooring. A new back door has been cut, the old doorway needs to be framed out then we can sheetrock the walls and ceiling, mud, sand, prime, paint, install laminate floor, and move in the appliances! I've purchased new cabinets for between the stove and fridge but need to still get a few more for my island. I want to replace the dining room window with a door that will eventually lead to a back deck too.

8) Living Room: not much has happened here. It'll kind of be in limbo, don't want to put much into it until next spring when the front door gets moved. The ugly ceiling tiles have been removed though and the carpet in this room will also come out sometime next week! This room has beautiful oak hardwood floors hiding under the carpet. The ceiling and south wall will have sheet rock hung, mudded and sanded soon too.

9) Utility Room is where the existing bathroom is, so it's waiting for bathroom demolition to happen. A washer and dryer were left in the house and are hooked up somewhere else so the utility room can technically wait until after the holidays.

10) Mudroom: nothing has been done. It'll be a project for the cold winter months with nothing to do. Plan to paint the existing paneling and paint the cement floor, new window treatments and maybe a few shelving units and some cool hooks.

11) Basement: nothing has been done (except for me piling up loads of 'stuff'). Need to get everything out that I've carried down there and seal the floors (course in reality I'll just move it to one side, paint, and then move it to the other side). I hope to get lots of electrical boxes ran down here soon cause I NEED them! I'm going to paint the walls (probably different colors in different areas) and partition off areas of the basement: photo area, scrapbooking area, wedding prep area, and general storage. Too bad there's a monster furnace in the middle of the room! Eventually I'll get some type of storage going - shelves and/or cabinets. Also need to move the light switch and build the stairwell wall up to the ceiling - kind of has more to do more with the mudroom.

12) Doesn't have anything to do with the remodel but I need to get firewood gathered from the woods. Sounds like a good job for Johnathon and I! Temps have started falling into the 40's at night so here real soon I'll have to get a gas tank too :)


My dad and brother were making steady progress, but I think an extra knowledgeable person will make a huge difference. Excited to see what was accomplished today when I go home tonight!

House Update: Week 7

It's been 7 weeks now since I signed on my house. The past couple of weeks haven't really had much progress to speak about.....sorry.

I learned the hard way that I 'DID' need to sand my base cabinets. When we put the doors back on, one stuck and when I opened it paint peeled off. So the cabinet doors are once again off and we've started peeling off paint and sanding the bases. It was kind of one step forward, two steps back. Better to find out now before the cabinets are full and everything else is done in the kitchen - less mess this way.

My bathroom & closets are waiting on plumbing, electrical work and sheet rock. Unfortunately it's been way too hot to climb into the attic to do electrical work and my brother and I have both been too busy to help dad with the plumbing/sheet rock.

Thankfully baseball/softball for the summer has ended! I've done about 10 photo sessions since the end of ball season with about that many booked in the near future. I've also decorated a several weddings and have one more wedding this month along with a 55th anniversary party. This past weekend I did floral arrangements for 30 tables (with 6-8 candles on each table too) along with 14 bouquets & 2 corsages and delivered it all to the Chase Park Plaza in St. Louis. That was the first wedding which I traveled that far to. It went great - of course I didn't get pictures to prove it! Side note, I had to rent a cargo van to get everything there and am very thankful that I did - Arielle and I would have never got all that stuff into two cars.

This week we're to have record temps, in the 3 digits with heat index's of 115 to 120 degrees and I HAVE to get pictures edited. Those two factors mean that not much will get accomplished this week on the house. By September the temps should be decent again and once we get started on what's left it should go pretty quickly. Still shooting to be in by Halloween!

But why can't I sand it.....

Conversation from last night with my cousin Danny (the contractor/our remodel advisor)......so, Danny meets Dad & I at my house to answer a technical question or two dad needs clarification on before tackling the next project.


Dad had started tearing out the shelf unit between the living room and kitchen that I want to be an open area - no walls / no shelf unit / no beams. When he had most of it torn down he realized that the beam the framed the doorway was a support beam - bad news for me - and that the beam/joice it's supporting in the ceiling is bowing - more bad news for me. After Danny explained to dad how to build a support, jack wall and replace the joice I asked him about the ceiling.

Dad had removed the ugly tiles in the kitchen & dining room per my request. I was happy to find that there was an old slat ceiling in there but unfortunately they'd covered it with felt and layers of wallpaper (yeah for me, more wall paper!!)


and into our conversation.....

Me: Any suggestions on the best way to get the wallpaper off the ceiling and lightly sand the slats?

Danny: You don't

Me: Yah, I want to sand the slats and whitewash them - it'll look cool - I saw it on a blog

Danny: Then put up new slats

Me: Don't want to buy new ones, how do I clean these

Danny: You don't, either buy new slats or put up sheet rock

Me: Don't want to do that, what's wrong with these?

Danny: By the looks of them they're from the original house

Me: I know, that's what I like about them

Danny: Understand, but you don't know what's on them. You don't know what they treated them with a hundred years ago or what they used to put up the felt or what type of adhesive was used for the paper. Good chance there's something up there you don't want to stir up. I understand the concept of what you want to do and if you want painted slats you need to put new wood slats on top of the existing.

Me: Seriously. Well that's not the answer I was looking for.


So, now I have a ceiling without ugly white tile but with felt and wallpaper half attached in most places on old dark brown slats (that would look sooooo cool whitewashed by the way) that I'm told I can't touch and need to cover with something........any suggestions? Since I did ask his professional opinion I guess I'll listen to the advice and leave the old stuff up there alone (secretly protesting that decision though). I'm thinking I'll probably go back to the tin tile ceiling look for the kitchen & dining room.


On a good note - Dad started framing out my bathroom yesterday! Isn't that wallpaper lovely. It's one of the 4 layers on the slat boards that was under the sheet rock I/dad knocked down.

House Update: Week 3 & 4 combined

As of today I've owned my home for 4 weeks - can't believe it's been that long. In that time I've come to a realization (after another, after another!), the more you do to the home......the more you find to do to the home. Once we started tearing this and that out, the more I wanted to tear out. Which isn't speeding up my timeline to move in....

So as of right now - nothing is complete and more has been destroyed (intentionally of course). So here's where I'm at:

1) The wall & closet between the kitchen and what I'm making into a dining room has been torn down thanks to dad. You can see the wall behind the custom build shelf unit between the kitchen and living room (this shelf will be coming down in the near future too). I was surprised to find dry wall under the paneling - why would you put up that green paneling?? Anyway, that's the wall that was removed as you'll see the progress in the next two pics.

As you can see above the wall is GONE!!

2.) The walls in the old bedroom (that you can see in the picture above have wallpaper on them - no big deal, right? Wrong, after who knows how many hours and use of a professional steamer......I knocked down one of the walls! It will be so much cheaper and easier to just put up new sheet rock. Why I wasted so many hours trying to remove the 4 layers of old, old paper is beyond me. The back wall shown above now has a door cut out - part of this room will be the master bath and the other half will be the dining room. The window you see will eventually become a door leading onto a deck out back.

The hole in the wall is where the door was later cut out.

3.) My cabinets are almost completely painted. I've trimmed one side (didn't have enough to get the other side completely done). Once I get the other side trimmed, I'll paint the trim and then work on the back splash. My new drawer pulls came in Saturday, so installing them and putting the cabinets 'back together' will complete that part of the remodel. Below is a pic before the trim.

.....and here it is with the trim on it and the top cubby hole with a coat of paint (several more will be required).

4.) I've determined that I really don't like the ceiling tiles currently in the house and have found that the entire house has the old slat ceiling. Pretty sure the tiles will be removed and the slats sanded and white washed. Can't wait to start on that - should be a huge improvement.

5.) My closet (which use to be a 1/2 bath and double closet between the two bedrooms) is down to 2x4's now. Still have to deal with the plumbing from the old bathroom and then we'll be able to start the dry wall! The before picture:and an in-process picture. The tiles, stool and sink are now gone (just don't have a picture).

Dad also took the top boards off the built in shelf between the living room and kitchen to make sure the post wasn't load-bearing and it's not!! So I'll be able to have that 12 foot area between the two rooms open.

I've decided that several of the things that I was going to wait and do once I moved in I'll probably go ahead and do now. Since everything's all tore up I might as well do it all at once instead of starting a project and leaving 1 or 2 things undone until a later date and then making a huge mess once furniture and my belongs are in place.

My move in goal is Halloween.....we'll see how it goes!

Left to do in the kitchen / dining room:
1.) Finish trim, finish painting cabinets and top cubby hole.
2.) Install hardware and re-hang doors
3.) Backsplash - faux silver tin
4.) Finish the removal of the custom built shelf between living room & kitchen
5.) Remove ceiling tiles, sand & white wash planks
6.) Remove carpet in kitchen
7.) Hope to remove floor tiles under kitchen carpet glued directly onto oak hardwood floors
8.) Frame and dry wall my bathroom (1/2 floor space of old bedroom/dining room area)
9.) Remove window and cut frame for patio door
10.) Cut frame for new back door (leading to mudroom/basement)
11.) Fill in old backdoor with dry wall
12.) Mud & sand all dry wall
13.) Paint
14.) Have floors sanded and refinished
15.) Install new floor and wall cabinets between stove & fridge
16.) Build/install kitchen island
17.) Hang new lighting in the kitchen & dining room
18.) Install all floor & ceiling trim
19.) Move in kitchen 'stuff'

To tile or paint?

Hopefully we'll get to start on my bathroom next week (when the ball games are wrapping up for the summer season). I'm pretty good at visualizing a room as I want it to be, not as it is (or in the case hasn't even been constructed yet).

But I'll admit I'm having issues deciding what to do in my bathroom and the guest bathroom. I think my biggest problem is that currently I change my bathroom about every 4-5 months - have to admit, it's the cheapest room in the house to redecorate. My two bathrooms will only be about 9x6 so my options on placement of tub, toilet and vanity are a bit limited and I'm not sure I want to mess with tile. But of course if I do want to do tile, it'll be so much easier doing it before the other stuff is put in there....decisions, decisions.

I think I'd possibly like to use slate in the guest bathroom or a grey toned glass tile mosaic, both are shown below. I'm using the existing tub that was present when I purchased the house. Question is what to do to enclose it for a shower??? Tile or a tub/shower fiberglass style enclosure......

.....I'm thinking this will be the sink/vanity in the guest bathroom. The slate tile would look great with this - don't you think?

My only concern is that it will be too dark for such a small space. I'd thought about painting the walls a pale yellow and only using the tile around the tub and maybe some type of back splash for the vanity.

I have an addiction to the look of metal right now and found this tile below. It's a combination of glass, natural stone and polished metal. I think either the copper or the darker pattern with pewter would also go great with the vanity.

And if I paint the walls yellow these tiles would look great. I love the tile pattern with the different sizes & shades of browns. Of course the black vanity will still look great in there!

Or a white one like this will also look great with the walls painted a pale yellow or light tan.

This just looks like a bathroom that belongs in a country home.....don't you think? I'm not all that hip for the tile though and both bathrooms already have oak hardwood flooring that will stay put. But I love the wainscoting in the bathroom.

Love the teal/turquoise tile wall but does this look like it goes in a country home?

This tile could be used for a similar look - just worried that in a few years I won't be as hip to brown & blue combo and then what? Replace the tile? And how will I decorate the bathroom at Christmas if it's blue & brown? I know it can be done - just involves a little more effort in finding just the right accessories to color coordinate with the tile.
While I'm using the existing tub for the guest bathroom, do I want to get a tub for my bathroom or just do the ever popular tile shower stall? I haven't taken a 'bath' in years so do I really need a bathtub? I can always use the guest bathroom if I so desire and/or find the time to soak in a hot tub. Next issue is that I love shower curtains. Will a shower curtain look stupid on the custom tile shower stalls?

Oh the decisions......

House Update: Week 1

In the first week of home ownership, this is what's been accomplished:

1) carpet removed from bedroom/future dining room
2) closet & wall between kitchen and bedroom is GONE (Dad did this - he's decided he's good at tearing things up!)
3) kitchen cabinets have 1+ coats of paint (still working on the doors & drawers - ran out of paint)
4) sliding glass door between the sun room/entry and living room is gone - very odd spot for a door, not sure why they had it there
5) garage was sprayed out with the power washer (needs done again at least once - still a strong smell of oil - previous owner worked on garden tractors/lawn mowers and wasn't real neat about spillage of oil)
6) closet and 1/2 bathroom between 2 bedrooms has been demolished down to the studs
7) new kitchen faucet installed
8) new fridge made it safely inside the house

I know I should have pictures but they're at home and I'm not! I'll try to get a Part 2 to this post tonight with pictures of the progress. Plus we still have 2 & 1/2 weeks left of summer ball. I have tons of pictures to get edited & posted from ball season this year and a wedding to decorate and photograph this weekend, plus four other sessions to get edited......UGH, I think I need a vacation!

Since every post 'should' have a picture, here are a few from a bridal shower I shoot several weeks back. You can see more on my PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG!.

Super cute favors - note pads and pink or orange Sharpies


Part of the foods spread (all prepared by her parents)

First mishap

So I ordered this fridge........it's nothing elaborate, just a stainless side-by-side.

I was excited this morning because it's getting delivered to my new house today. Well, my father just called (he met the delivery guy for me since I'm @ work) and I found out the first issue with this home that I'm going to have to FIX and fix soon.

Both my front and back doors are only 32" wide - my cute new stainless fridge is 35" wide.....oops! The width of a door has never been an issue before and it crossed my mind for a fleeting moment, but then I skipped over it and ordered the fridge anyway.

So tomorrow I'm going to visit Home Depot and get a 36" or 42" door! Hopefully I can get the brother or cousin to install it quickly.

I'm sure this is the first of many mishaps to come.

On a good note, dad & I started tearing down the closet in the bedroom that I'm turning into a dining room and we pulled up the carpet (hard wood floors under there!!!! yeah!). So the only room in the house that doesn't have hardwood floors is the kitchen - which to me is the most logical room to have them. Where I want to move the kitchen door runs directly into the existing closet, this door move will also have to be completed before the fridge can be moved in. Guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend - DEMOLITION!

Kitchen inspiration

So as you just read in the previous post (or will read in a second), I just purchased a house! Bad news - it's almost 100 years old and in need of some serious TLC.

One of the first rooms I plan to tackle is the kitchen. What cabinets are in the house are a dark wood and there's CARPET in the kitchen! While I would love to gut the kitchen and start from scratch, that's not in the budget at this moment. Below is a picture of the kitchen (with all cabinets/drawers open thanks to my nephew. Notice the pretty green paper on the door backs - don't you just love that!

So my plans include at the moment:

1.) Paint the existing cabinets white (undecided if top cabinets will get doors put back on - doubt it)

2.) Remove nasty carpet and 'hope' hardwood floor underneath is in decent shape, if not it'll get painted in a checked or striped pattern. Okay when I started this post a few days ago until yesterday when I finally took possession of the home and riped up one corner of the carpet I thought there were old tongue & groove hardwood floors in the kitchen. I still think that floor is there (I can see it in the basement - know it's there), unfortunately when I pulled back the carpet I found old tile that my brother thinks were installed with a glue that's been since banned and will require full haz-mat suits to remove......so the kitchen floor is in limbo - something will have to be put on TOP of the tile floor because the carpet will be going real soon.

3.) A refrigerator & stove are a must since the house doesn't have either and I'll probably get a microwave too, although I rarely use one, but my nephew (Johnathon) is worried that I won't be able to make popcorn if I don't have a microwave! Silly boy doesn't realize you can make popcorn on the stove top.

4.) Knock down a wall and make current bedroom into dining room

5.) Move current back door over 5 to 6 feet so it lines up with the stairs and gives me more wall space in the kitchen.

6.) Remove green colored paneling and replace with sheet rock

7.) Add a few floor and wall cabinets by stove and fridge. I hope to have enough room to do a floor to ceiling pantry style cabinet on outside of fridge, not sure I'll have room though.

8.) Remove facing above cabinets and make into a shelf to store baskets and such. This is not going to be what I'd once thought either - not as much room as I thought I'd have when I finally got the house and starting 'poking' around - still going to try it though.

9.) Install floor & wall cabinets on far wall in the new dining room.

10.) Replace window in new dining area with 15-lite patio door that will eventually lead to a back deck that I'm going to build (hopefully sometime next year, which may been when the window becomes a door too!)

11.) Cover ceiling in tin tiles. This may have to wait a bit but will happen at some point, I love, love, love tin ceiling tiles in a kitchen.

12.) New light fixtures throughout kitchen and new dining room

13.) Install outlets - there is only ONE outlet in the whole kitchen - Ugh, that won't work

14.) Kitchen Island - this may also wait a bit but I hope not since my new floor plan is kind of built around it. Don't think it should be too terribly expensive to make, it's just a few cabinets and a counter top with electricity ran to it - how hard can that be?

15.) Eventually I'd like to replace the counter top with either stainless steel or butcher block - most likely a combination of the two. Unfortunately the existing counter top is in good shape so I can't warrant replacing it right now, but one of these days....

16.) Food disposal and new faucet - stainless or brushed nickel

17.) One day I'd like to get a farmhouse sink also, but that's definitely one that will have to wait - have you looked at the price of those.

The primary color in the kitchen will be white. As of right now I plan to paint the dining room/kitchen walls a dark red and accent with yellow. Of course I hold the right to change my mind about that at any given point in time!! And going back and proof reading this post I realize after reading my to-do list for the kitchen that in the end I'll pretty much gut the kitchen with the exception of a few existing cabinets & the counter top, hmmmmm.

Below is a little inspiration for the kitchen design floating around in my head.......please realize if you come visit me I expect to be working on my kitchen/dining area for quite some time. Upgrade/remodel could likely take me about a year to complete. I'd love to have it done in a month but don't plan to hire a contractor to do it which means it'll be on the slow track (basically I'll get done what I can and then wait for help from brother & Dad). While I want to do as much of the work as I can, I'll admit now that I'll need help - somethings I won't be able to do by myself and other things I don't know how to do - yet anyway. To slow things down a bit more, we're in the middle of baseball season - 3 young one's (two of my brother's who's helping with improvements and he's the coach!) and they don't understand when you have to miss one of their games.

Love this island, but I think I'd like one that's bi-level with bar stools and butcher block top

Clean & Crisp - black, white & stainless - can't go wrong

French country kitchen - love just about everything in this kitchen
Love, love, love this look.....don't know about you, but I'm liking the look of the open cabinets, and once again white & stainless!

Pantry organized in jars with a chalk board door - how cool is that!

I've been downloading pictures from the internet for several months now while waiting to close on my home and failed to write down the website or link as to where I got the pictures. If any of these belong to you or you know where I got them please feel free to contact me and I'll get proper credit posted under the pictures.