My Little Life

If you happen to enjoy my mishmash of photos on Instagram ( @mama_m ) then you've likely already seen this news. However, for those of you that don't peruse Instagram...boy, have I got a treat for you in this blog post! The remodel. Yes, I'm working on a "Before and After" post...I'm dragging my feet a bit because there are a few things we still need to do, but I think I'll do it anyway and hope that maybe you won't notice our missing backsplash or lack of appropriate floor transitions. However, in the meantime, there IS something I want to show you (missing floor transition and all)...remember the barn door plans I talked about? Well, it was something I tucked away on a wish list when we realized we had worked ourselves into a custom door. But then, we need more wood work stuff done and we decided, what the heck. Let's just do it. And it was like Christmas ALL. OVER. for me! When I came home from work the day this beauty was installed,...

We had Dr. J and her awesome family over this weekend, and as we were getting ready for them, I decided to decorate my mantle for fall. Dubya hauled up my Rubbermaid tote full of fall decor for me and we began to set things out, feeling content and happy as I sprinkled my house with hues of orange, red, and yellow. Prior to our remodel project, our fireplace was something I tolerated. Put up with. The Mr. and I had spoken, now and then, about refacing it with stone or some other kind of brick but it was my dad that spoke these wise words, "Just wait until you're done with your project...you might change your mind about it.". Never. I NEVER thought I'd change my mind about our fireplace being something other than an object that I just put up with. I never thought that I could actually APPRECIATE our fireplace...but then? Something magical happened. As things came together with the remodel project, I began to realize that our fireplace was starting to shine. I w...

My Gram wanted to see updated pictures of our house, so she turned to my blog and GUESS WHAT???? No recent pictures...see, I'm struggling. We've reached the point where I could show you pictures of the almost  finished project...BUT, the little things that are left are things that make me want to wait until it is ALL done. You know, "Look! Here's my beautiful kitchen without trim and backsplash and doors!"...and then, when those things are done, while they'll definitely make it "finished" there won't be a whole lot of "WOW!!" factor involved, it'd be more like "Here's our project BEFORE trim and LOOK! Here it is after." and y'all'd be like, "Huh?" cuz I'm not sure it'll make THAT MUCH of a difference in pictures.  Yikes. I'm totally rambling. All this to say...hang tight. "After" photos are coming!! We're finishing up my pantry shelving (yay!!!!!) and then we'll be ...

So...the kitchen? It's usable!!! I'd say we're 75% done with the kitchen...BUT the most exciting thing is that I CAN COOK AGAIN!! AND I HAVE RUNNING WATER!!! AND A FUNCTIONING DISHWASHER!! Do you get a sense of my excitement? I'm giddy. Excited to cook. And not wash dishes by hand (although, I'll be totally honest...we contributed our fair share to the landfill in the form of paper plates. Sorry Mother Earth!) in a sink that was perched on the edge of our deck and where a person was likely to get eaten alive by mosquitos as they tried to wash the dishes. Classy class. I am in love and in awe with our kitchen. It makes me so happy! And proud! And content! We do still have a fair amount of work to do, however, until we can lay this beast to rest! Staining doors and trim, installing aforementioned doors and trim, finishing dining room, installing heat mats and flooring in mudroom, finishing up painting, tiling backsplash and (and here's wher...

Well...all throughout this remodel plan (even whilst in the planning stages) we kept hearing about the bumps along the way, the "issues" that crop up when you start tearing apart on older home. Behind every ripped off piece of drywall, I expected to see termites, rotting boards, leaking ceilings, alien creatures destroying our home from the inside out...you know, all THAT stuff. All we found, however, was just a whole bunch (like, a whole, WHOLE bunch) of cobwebs. Until last night. We had a piece of paint that had been peeling on one of our walls and I kind of ignored it for a long time. Like, years. Then, as we're tearing apart everything else, a little one tugged a bit on the paint and GAH. Mold. And a rusty screw. Well, we decided to rip off that piece of drywall, figuring we'd replace it AND make it easier for the plumber as well, and wouldn't you know...mold on the other side too. (Please ignore the cobwebs...it's hard to dust inside your walls......

Well, we've "officially" started!! Saturday brought forth some major progress...hubs bowed out on an invite to Dr. J's, citing electrical work that needed to be done and I was a bit annoyed, until I came home and saw THIS: Crikey! Hard to be annoyed any longer when I saw the surprise he had up his sleeve!! Our good friend stayed to help the hubs tear stuff apart! Walls, sheetrock, lights...WOW!!  Here's a "before" from the same angle: Sunday afternoon we went to Menards to price doors and windows and GAH. Holy moly they're expensive. As we were walking out if Menards I said, "Well, I guess I could pick up a few shifts at the hospital?"...to which my hubby agreed that yes, that would probably be a fantastic idea. So, guess what I did Monday? Hospital shift it was! Truly, I am grateful that I have the option of making some extra money when we need it!  Now, gotta finish getting the ceiling scraped, then patched,...

When you're remodeling an older home, you never really know what you're going to find when you start digging in. As my dreams were blossoming in my mind about our "new" kitchen (which, let's face it, our remodel is more of an "upper level" remodel than a kitchen remodel!) with a sleek, modern open floor concept, everything suddenly came to a screeching halt when our carpenter mentioned that we should probably hold off on tearing out the walls until he could get someone to look at it. The walls we are removing are, essentially, part of one big wall (with some walkway openings) that runs down the center of our home.  We had always been a smidge leery about removing this wall,  with its nearly continuous central location, because we weren't certain if it was important or not. (Forgive the mess, we're, you know, remodeling.) "Important" as in "load bearing". "Load bearing" as in "roof collapsing". ...

Have I mentioned we're remodeling ? ;) Oh, I have? Silly me...I wasn't sure . Anyway, you know how they say "If a marriage can survive a home remodel, it can survive ANYTHING."? I'm starting to see glimpses of where that saying came from. The other night, we were DEEP in the throes of ripping stuff out. I was all "full speed ahead" and let's just get everything ripped out...while my hubby, bless his heart, would put in a 12-14 hour day at work then come home to me, bouncing off the walls, wanting to "TEAR OUT ALL THE THINGS!!!!"...and he'd oblige and rip something out. So, one night, we (and by "we" I mean "he") was working out getting a cabinet out of our laundry area. This cabinet was deep, with only one door, and he had to climb into it to unscrew the counter from the cabinet.  While in said cabinet, he asked Dubya to "Grab me a Phillips screw driver." Dubya quickly ran over to this pile of scre...

You didn't think I forgot about the Kitchen Remodel, did you? Psh, OF COURSE not!! I was simply sidetracked by being on the emotional roller coaster of watching my biggest baby graduate from high school. That's all. Back to the remodel. T minus 7 days and we will be tearing into this project! We've got the appliances ordered, a bazillion ideas swimming in our heads, and a crazy plan of flying by the seat of our pants with "relocating" during the project. I mean, do we REALLY need a plan? Can't we just be all "Oh, okay, we don't have stairs and there's a big gaping hole between our living area and our bedrooms...let's just sleep downstairs."? That's my kind of plan. I've discovered that the best laid plans are only subject to changing...so why have a plan? SPONTANEITY AT ITS FINEST. I am the queen of "flying by the seat of your pants". I should've majored in "crunch time decisions" in college.  ...

Had some good tips, insights and words of wisdom from last week's post (thank you, Aunt Gloria!)...still not totally set on some things, but REALLY wanting to make sure we "do it right". This is gonna be a "one shot deal"...no remodeling in the future, this is it! That's a lotta pressure on a girl. Anyway, needing some more thoughts. We have one bid from a custom cabinet guy that we've worked with before and LOVE his work. We're 90% sure we're going to go with him, but just to cover our bases, we decided to take our layout to Home Depot and see how comparable prices/features were. Just yesterday, we received the mock-up of our new kitchen and guys? I nearly died. I am SO excited to see this come to fruition, I can hardly stand it! I am totally consumed with "remodeling" thoughts and I'm pretty sure EVERYONE around me is getting sick of me asking them for their input. (Sorry family!) Here's what we're contemplati...