The End Is Here!

The end of my house remodeling series, that is. With a few strokes of my paint brush, everything, even the touch-up work, was finished yesterday. The last room I have to show you is our kitchen. This is the room that wasn't just remodeled... it was RE-remodeled. If you have read Not to Us or Back on Track, you know the story, so without further ado...

BEFORE

We have a portable dishwasher and could never find a place for it to stay when not in use. The built-in table in the forground of this picture took up a lot of room and generally served as a catch-all.

This was the last window to be replaced. It had to be special ordered and took a few months to get. Once again you can see how the built-in and dishwasher take up too much space.



Our laundry area is in the kitchen. The shelving over the washer was falling apart.



AFTER


The built-in is gone, and there is so much more room!


The cabinets are now solid white, and we redid the back splash in peach. I added a decorative border with peach flowers and nuthatches... a true birders kitchen.


We have a new back door and added new cabinets above the washer. We moved the washing machine to make room for the dishwasher. It is still portable but has a good, out-of-the-way spot for when it is not in use.


My father-in-law installed this new window and molding between the cabinets. You can see my honeysuckle bushes and tall pines outside... also a birders delight.

I am thankful for everyone who helped us with this HUGE undertaking.  I am thankful for all of you who prayed for us, too. Thank you. We ask for your prayers again as we intend to sell this house and will be listing it on Monday. We thank the Lord for how he has provided for this remodel and trust him to bring a buyer in his time.

Blessings,
Dawn

Back on Track

For those of you who have been reading about the house remodel and wondered why the before and after pictures suddenly stopped, it was because we had a set back. If you read my post Not to Us, then you know the hot water heater leaked and ruined about a third of our kitchen flooring. When this happened, I had to turn my attention back to house work and had to put the blog series on the back burner.

Two weeks ago, my parents-in-law visited, and my FIL fixed the flooring and put in one last special-order window we had been waiting on. Now the re-remodeling is finished, and I have two more rooms to share with you.

This is the living room before.

I had already begun packing, so it's pretty much a mess. Orville was fighting croup so he's still in his p.j.'s camped out on the couch. The vacuum cleaner did not normally sit in the fireplace. I guess I was so busy that I didn't notice it was there. :)

Wilbur was fighting croup, too. He didn't have the strength to get up on the couch but opted for the floor. It was movie day, obviously, and this shot lets you see our sad little t.v. stand and old, worn carpet.

Our old front door was heavy and hard to open. It was also hard to keep clean.

This is a close-up of the old wall paint and wallpaper border. This was the one thing I was reluctant to change, but since part of the exterior wall had to be replaced, the entire room had to be painted.

The space in the background of this picture is intended to be a formal dining room. We use it as our office. You can also see the stack of new doors since our living room was serving as a storage area for the remodel.

Are you ready for the results?

This is our new living room. Notice the new front door, the refinished hardwoods, new windows, and new ceiling fan.

The couch, loveseat, and entertainment center are "new". My parents bought a new living room suit and passed their old furniture to us. I think it fits perfectly in the room. I love that the entertainment center hides cords, has bookshelves and drawers, and the t.v. cubby closes so that the television is not always in view. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

You can see in this picture how the new door and windows let in so much light. Even though I did not want to paint, the new color (Glidden's Barrister White) reflects the light and makes the room seem much larger.

This is the remodeled office space. I think the hardwood looks awesome. I turned the desks outward which made room for a music corner. You can see my boxes and stacks of new school supplies in the back. It is that time of year when there is much to organize. If I wait for this room to be perfectly clean to post, you would probably never see it! :)

Here's a close-up of my music corner. In my dreams, I am a concert cellist. I studied during high school but have since not had the time to practice and progress. Michael and I joke that I'm no Yo-Yo Ma, but am more of a Yo Ma-Ma! I am hoping that with the nice place to practice, I will do so more often.

Here you can see the great job the men did on the hardwood floors. I really love how they look, and they are so easy to clean. I bought this runner at Dollar General for $6! What a great deal!! I posted it in honor of my DG friends... you know who you are.

I have one more room to share in my final remodeling post... my kitchen. It is getting some touch-up paint and a few other finishing touches on Monday. Look for before and after shots of it soon.

Blessings,

Dawn

The Cubby Hole

The next remodeled room I would like to reveal is the one we affectionately refer to as the "cubby hole". It is the smallest room in our house... perhaps in the USA. Surprisingly, we have been able to cram a lot into it.

Before the remodel it served as our classroom. You can see in the picture below how I used every spare millimeter of this room.



While planning for the remodel, we decided that since everything had to be moved anyway, we would switch the boys' bedroom and the classroom. We needed the bigger space for school, and all the boys do in their bedroom is sleep. Why give such a large portion of our square footage to that?

After two new windows, a new ceiling fan, refinished floors, and a new coat of paint (Color Place "Country White"), the cubby hole is a nice cozy place for two sleepy boys to get some shut eye.

The Room of Many Colors

The room we now use as a dining room has undergone a number of changes over the years. When we moved into our house almost five years ago, we used the dining room as the classroom. The boys were almost four and five and completing pre-school and Kindergarten. I divided the room into sections and set up a center in each area. I painted a picture on the wall above each center that depicted the subject area of study and the coloring coding of that center.

This is our pre-school/Kindergarten classroom. The lines on the floor were made with different-colored electrical tape, and furniture was turned to divide off areas. There was a meeting area and a center for math, reading, science, social studies and music.

The electrical tape on the floor established the color-coding. You can see in this picture how I extended this to the paintings, the storage baskets and the trim work in the room.

This is a close-up of the painting in the science center. I chose to use a lot of green in it because that was our color code for science. There are also signs on the wall which have instructions for the center and a Bible verse that directs our goals for the study of science. I had these in each center.

This blurry but cute little guy is a four-year-old Wilbur enjoying the Social Studies center.

As the boys got older, our classroom needs changed, and we moved school to another room. We decided to use the dining room for its actual purpose... eating. I painted over the art work. Yes, I did cry and got a little sick to my stomach. I painted the room the first time with plain, old white. After some time, the ceiling, covered in tiles, began to sag. There was no water damage; it was a product of age. I am not sure what kind of tiles they were or what they are called, but they were hung with an adhesive that was losing its stickiness.

We tried to find replacement tiles but couldn't, so I had another one of those "What Was I Thinking?!?!" moments and decided to paint the ceiling a dark color with the hope of camouflaging the sagging tiles. I chose really dark grey for the ceiling and a lighter grey for the walls. I also covered over the old, worn-out linoleum with peel-and-stick tiles. The tiles on the floor did not match the over-all grey theme of the room, and they lost their stick after a year and started sliding and chipping... not good.

A Grey Room with a Brown Floor!

The Saggy Ceiling

The final remodel of the room of many colors is now complete. Tonight we ate dinner at our table for the first time in weeks. I enjoyed the new floor, ceiling, ceiling fan, windows and peach-colored walls. I am a peachy girl, after all! Most of all, I enjoyed eating with my dh and our olive plants gathered round about our table. To celebrate the completion of one more room, I made our favorite meal... a "breakfast dinner" of pancakes, sausage and scrambled eggs.

View of Dining Room from the Kitchen

I framed and hung the boys' art work on either side of the wreath.

A New Sag-free Ceiling!

Happy Men Enjoying Their "Breakfast Dinner"!

What Was I Thinking?!?!

Occasionally it happens. I make a change, thinking I am exercising good judgment, but it just turns out wrong. What was supposed to be the styling choice of the century, ends up being awful, and all I can do is step back, look at the mess, and exclaim, "What was I thinking?!?!"

Like the time I got this perm...

The braces had just been put on, and I thought I needed a new look to match.

However, the spiral perm did not turn out as well as I had imagined it would.

Then there was the time I chose this dress for my senior picture...

Wow! Not my most stylish moment.

But, the doozie of all my doozies was this bathroom...

Yes, I actually did pick out that shower curtain!

Then, I chose the horrible chocolate brown paint to match.

I can't really explain why. Temporary insanity, maybe. Perhaps, I thought it would hide dirt.

Fortunately, hair styles grow out.

This is what the perm looked like after it relaxed and I learned how to use hot rollers (oh, and after the braces came off)...

Likewise, fashions change.

I came to my senses around my high school graduation and toned things down a little...

How glad I am that there are no gigantic flowers on my cap and gown!

Likewise, ugly paint can be painted over.

Here is the newly remodeled bathroom...

Much better, isn't it?

I am so thankful for second chances. Sometimes I have to get it wrong before I can get it right. As I (and others) worked so hard to correct my mistakes, I could not help but reflect on God's grace and patience with me. How thankful I am that God is Love, and Love is Patient. I pray that I will in turn exhibit Christ-like patience towards others.

For more on God's grace and Christ-like patience, visit again soon for "Magic Erasers".

Blessings!

Dawn

P.S. This is a list of the changes made to the bathroom, for those of you who are interested.

The ceiling was replaced with a mold/mildew resistant dry wall, and new lights and fan were installed. It was painted with Kilz Colors "French Bistro". New cabinets, wains coating and chair railing were installed as was new linoleum. I added a border bought at Wal Mart for the finishing touch.

Drum Roll Please...

The first room to be picture ready is our classroom. We used this room as the boys' bedroom before the remodel. Here are a few pictures of what it looked like then.

Pretty bad, huh?! Granted this was after I had begun packing and realized I had not taken before pictures. Normally, the beds were made and the room had a little more life to it.

A lot of work was done to this room. The window was replaced, and the wall beneath was replaced as it was crumbling from water damage. The carpet was removed, and the hardwood floors underneath were refinished. The old ceiling fan was much too large for the room, and so we replaced it with a much smaller one. I painted over the drab aqua blue with primer and Wal Mart's Color Place "Salmon White". It is a pretty peach, my favorite and signature color.

Here is how the room looks now:

What a difference!

I have added some elements to my classroom now that I have a little more space than before and will post about them later, but first, be on the look out for "What Was I Thinking?!?!"