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,...

Let's talk for a second. You and me. I found something a few days ago that made me weak in the knees. Made my heart pound with excitement and my cheeks flush with the idea of the gloriousness that I just discovered. Guys? I found the most AMAZING website. :) I dunno, maybe I'm just late to the game...maybe everyone else on the entire planet has already discovered these guys...maybe...but I still hafta share. (Ain't no paid advertisement...) Rustica Hardware. OH. EM. GEE. Ohmigosh. I can't even. (That was for you, Julie.) As I've mentioned before, we're planning on doing a "barn door" for the door to our mudroom. Enter in my idea of door opening widths, bullheadedness, and lack of proper research, however...and now we're looking at a custom door. UGH. See...I INSISTED on having a 36" opening for the mudroom/diningroom entrance. IN. SISTED. Only thing is, standard doors don't come any larger than 36" and having a door that...

It's been 12 days since my last post...TWELVE!! (There once was a time in the history of this blog that that would've been a sin! Blasphemy! TWELVE DAYS WITHOUT A POST?! Gah.) And guys...this project is really coming together!! Our flooring is (mostly) in...thanks to the help of some amazing friends who persisted in asking us if we needed help (we did) and more amazing friends who showed up day after day to see this through. We are blessed and thankful for these people in our lives (and NOT just because they help us...they are all incredible friends that we cherish!). Part of my purpose in blogging this is so that we can look back and remember the pain and agony we went through if we ever decide to do any major renovation again. Which, I'll be honest, there's not a whole lot left in our house to renovate! (We sorta did it all with this one!) The last time we "talked" I had left you with some before and "during" photos...and while we aren't ...

I have officially and ferociously reached the "GET THIS DAMN PROJECT DONE!!!!" part of our remodel.  I'm tired of having plywood floors and drywall walls.  I'm tired of having a rouge oven in the middle of my kitchen. I'm tired of my washer and dryer being in the middle of my dining room. I'm tired of the dust. This isn't moving fast enough. I just want it done...like, yesterday. In the spirit of seeing forward progress, let me share with you a few before and after pics...more for my own mental health than anything else. Here we go: Before: View from Living Room: During: Same View Still During: Same View: Before: View from end of stairs: During: View from end of stairs. Whoa: Okay...that helped. I now see the forward progress...but HOT DAMN let's hurry up!!

There's a little four letter word that I hate. Oops. I just used it. Yes, the word "hate" is not on my favorite list...and I use it way more than I like to, b ut you know what? Sometimes, a situation calls for the use of four letter words. Like HATE. As in, "I HATE (loathe, despise, dread) HATE HATE HATE removing wallpaper.". See? Totally justifiable, no? I know I totally need to do a remodel update for y'all, but for now...just lemme vent. The entire time we've lived here, I've always assumed that the previous owners (not the original owners) updated the wall paper in this house. Well, when we removed the cabinets, we discovered the wallpaper went BEHIND the cabinets, which leads one to believe it was original wallpaper, no? And 40 year old wallpaper shouldn't be THAT hard to remove...right? Wrong. (If you look closely, you can see some of the wallpaper ...thankfully, most of this was removed with demolition...crazy to me already, ...

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,...

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.  ...

Let me tell you a little story...sit back and grab a cup of coffee, or a diet coke, or a plain coke if that's more your style, or a glass of milk... Once upon a time, a handsome young man and his (younger, I just have to add) bride sold the first home they lived in together as a couple. They had no home to buy, just a grand vision of somewhere in the country in which to raise their kids. He wanted acres and acres of land. She wanted a nice, clean, new house. Their two visions were non-existent in one property, so they settled. The both of them. He for 8 "measly" acres, she for a clean, older home with her "bare minimum requirements" (three main floor bedrooms and main floor laundry). She always hated the bathrooms and what she dubbed as "campground showers" (I kid you not...plastic shower stalls, like what you find in campgrounds) and her goal was to tackle those first. Well, *insert pregnancy* and *insert pregnancy* and *insert raising a houseful of s...