Home Reno Part 3 - The Lower Level/Basement

On to the basement.  This will be more long term projects, we did some painting and are waiting on the capet.

 Stairwell

Take a walk down the panel stairway...

 To Do:

• Rip out paneling (done)
• Get rid of iron rail (done)
• Rip out carpet on stairs
• Replace stair carpet (ordered)
• Fix sheetrock
• Paint

The Rec Room (Not sure what we are doing with this space yet

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  View from stairs to right.  Door to garage -straight Door to outside -left

  
  

  

  View back up the stairs

  

  Lovely closet

  
  
  

  

  View into family room

  
  
  
  
  
  
   

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
To do SHORT TERM:
Paint paneling (done)
Rip out carpet (done) The carpet is orignal - 40 years old.  ick.
Paint window trim (done)
Remove window treatments (done)
Make some sort of mud room/open closet next to garage door
New carpet (ordered) - match carpet on floor and stairs
 
To do LONG TERM:
Decide whether to replace paneling or just mud the paneling
Rip out the wall seperating rec room from family room
Replace closet doors
Fix closet with insulation showing
Put tile in place of linoleum
Replace all trim
Rip out ceiling panels
Put in recessed lights
Sheetrock ceiling
 

Family Room:

View to right of entrance






 



 

 
 

 

To Do SHORT TERM:

 

Paint paneling (done)

Rip out carpet (done) The carpet is orignal - 40 years old. ick.

New carpet (ordered) - match carpet on floor and stairs

Add some lamps (only one ceiling light in here)

 

To do LONG TERM:

Decide whether to replace paneling or just mud the paneling

Rip out the wall seperating rec room from family room

Replace closet doors

Replace all trim

Rip out ceiling panels

Put in recessed lights

Sheetrock ceiling

Update fireplace

 

Closet/Crawl Space

 



 

This is the closet from the family room, there is full shelves, and to the left is hanging rod area.  It's a large area uner here, and also goes under the stairwell.  Right now, it's holding all the baby storage and not as used stuff.  What I would love to do is something like this:

 

And make it a fun kid play area.  (This would be the view from the family room)  Mike is not on board for this, he's all practical and wonders what we will do with all the crap we have in there as storage.  I figure i have a few years before J would really play in it much anyways, so I will win yet....

 

Can you guess what this is??

 

 

I know, a sink, but do you know what it was listed as in MLS? 

A wet bar.  we have a wet bar.  :)  We figured what made it a wet bar as opposed to a random sink off the stairs, kinda awkward, was the bottle open attached to the wall under the light...

 

At first, we were going to rip it out completely.  But, I think we are going to save it, and make it a real wet bar (as much as we can). 

 

To Do (LONG term)

  Replace sink with little sink

  Add fridge under

  Replace paneling

  Replace light

  Put shelves in on top

  New counter top

  Put cabinets in under

  Tile the area (was carpet, we ripped out)

 

This is just off the stairway, to the left, to go down hallway.  If you keep going past here, you will get to this storage/furnace area:

We have already ripped out the walls, to open into the rest of storage in basement, and to put in the washer and dryer.  This was an odd, super small room.  The pics below are of the rest of the storage area, that you had to access from the bedroom.  that paneled wall, with the ledge, is the wall from above.  Now, against the brick wall is the w/d

This area will eventually be tackled, but not sure what we will do yet.

Going back out to the wet bar, and down the hallway, is the blue bathroom:

decoratve paneling, blue everyting, lovely tile...

The shower....

To Do:
Rip it all out....  Honestly, it just needs to all go, and completely redo the bathroom.

3RD Bedroom/Office

Check out the carpet...

Walkthru closet to get to basement storage

To Do Short Term:
Rip out carpet (done)
Put in new carpet (done)
Replace door
Paint paneling (done)
Paint trim (done)
New curtains
Closet door/curtain

To Do Long Term:
Sheetrock/mud paneling?
Figure out a way to close off basement storage area access
Do something with big wood beams
Replace light fixture
Replace trim

Well, there you have it, our new house.  We also have some yardwork to do, but that can be for another day's post.  I honestly havent thought much of that with everything to do inside yet!







New House Plan Part 2 - Upstairs

If work didn't get in the way, I would have so much more time to keep updated on this thing!  Luckily, I get an unexpected Friday afternoon off, so I figured it's a good time to continue with the home tour.

Continuing down the hallway from the LR:

The Laundry Room:

Sorry, i can't figure out how to turn it....

TO DO:

• Currently a laundry room, will convert to a nursery/3rd upstairs bedroom
• Move washer and dryer to basement (done)
• Move all electric sockets to floor
• Rip out tile
• Put in carpet
• Paint
• Long Term:
• Move wall the w/d are on out 3 feet into kitchen area to make a full size room
• For now, Jacob is set up in this room, due to his room being under construction

Main Bath (aka the pink bathroom) - EVERYTHING in this room is pink...walls were painted a darker color, very dark room, no window

TO DO:

• Paint (done for the time being, already int these pics)
• Rip out tile on walls
• Rip out tile on floors
• Retile
• Get new door
• New sink
• New cabinet
• New toliet

Jacob's Room

• Can you guess???? Yep, rip out paneling (done)
• New window treatments
• New closet doors
• replace main door
• Put organizer in closet
• Mud/tape the sheetrock (2 wks)
• Paint
• replace carpet in a few years

Master Bedroom

TO DO:

• NO PANELING!!!
• Paint
• Replace curtains
• Replace doors (closet, main, bathroom)
• New trim
• Replace carpet in a few years
• Replace fan/light

Master Bath (aka green bathroom)


Avocado anyone??

To DO:

• Rip out lineoleum
• Rip out all avocado green things (sink, shower, toliet)
• Put in a "real' shower head (is a detachable one)
• Tile floor and shower
• New cabinets
• New window treatments
• Replace lightfixtures
• Update Trim
• Need cupboard/storage above the toliet

Honestly, not sure when our room or the bathrooms will be done, kinda low on the list.  We also have 2 closets in the hallway, a linen and utility one, which I love.  THis house has SO many closets, way different than the old place!

New House Renovation Plans Part 1

So, I know many of you will think we are absolutely crazy when you see the original house we bought.   I mean, just 6 years ago, we bought the house that i said, "No way in hell" on a Wednesday, and Mike bought on Friday.  Well, I finally paid him back.  I looked at this house on a Wednesday, when he was in Chicago for work, and put in an offer that night, before he had even seen it in person.  :) 

Granted, we knew what we wanted, and another offer had been put on the house, so we had to move quick.  Our offer was accepted on Friday, and Mike saw the house on Saturday.  Also, we could have backed out at the inspection if he hated it.

While this house is completely out of 1973, it just needs cosmetic stuff done to it.  Not the complete overhaul we did on the first house (ripped down to the studs and start from scratch on everything).  So, I am going to "borrow" Young House Love's idea, and show rooms and list what we plan on doing to it, show what we have done to it, and will post progress updates as we go!

We wanted a house that was bigger (need a home office for Mike), wanted bedrooms on one level (as opposed to us downstairs, Jacob upstairs), more land, an outbuilding, decent home (aka, not a lot of work) and not a corner lot, preferably a home on a quiet street.  And it needed to stay in our budget, around the Afton area.  Yea, good luck.

So along came this house, which matched most requirements.  Best part, it is on a dead end road.  No more speedway outside our house!  Bigger, more land, attached and detached garage, in our budget range, in Afton.  Cons:  2 bedrooms up, one down, original 40 year old carpet in the basement, and paneling.  Oh the paneling....

Advance apologies for the pictures, som are dark, not best shots, but you get the idea

The Outside (will get updated pics, w/o snow soon!)

Front view

Back of house
 

Back property line

The Enrtyway

View into the house

View from LR down to entryway

 To Do:

• Rip down paneling (done)
• Fix sheetrock
• Find new light fixture
• Replace door/window
• Replace wrought iron railings
• New tile instead of brick
• Paint

The Living Room

View to left is entryway, tall door is hallway to bed/bathrooms, other door to kitchen

Oh the paneling, so so much paneling...

This is standing by hallway.  Left would be kitchen, far left of fireplace dining room, and right side is big windows to front yard.

 

To DO:

• Remove Paneling (done)
• Fix sheetrock
• Remove curtains (done) and hang new ones (purchased)
• Replace carpet (about 5 years out hopefully...)
• Paint
• Replace ceiling sheetrock and popcorn texture with knockdown
• Replace trim
• Figure out lighting in here (no lights in ceiling)

Dining Room

View from LR, to left is kitchen, thru patio doors is sunroom

To Do:

• Rip down paneling (done)
• Fix sheetrock
• Remove and hang new curtains (purchased)
• Paint
• Replace light fixture
• Long term: 
• Knock out wall to the left, extending kitchen
• Putting sliding glass door in
• Remove carpet for kitchen flooring
• We will make the kitchen larger, more a combined kit/dr, similar to previous home, we dont care for a formal dining area.  For now, will be used as a play area/toy room

The Sunroom (so far our fav room)

View from DR, faces SW, back lot of house

Original homeowners stuff, better view of hte paneling 

To Do:

• Paint paneling (done)
• Rip down blinds (done)
• Replace north side with curtains (done)
• Find new light fixtures
• Rip out carpet (that is glued to the floor)
• Replace carpet (picked out)
• Replace windows
• Make a four season room (right now 3 season - no insulation, plan is within 1 year)
• Replace paneling when we make 4 season with sheetrock
• Rip out patio door into this room
• Put in french doors to this room

Kitchen

View from DR into Kitchen

Eat in kitchen area with view to deck (south side of hosue)

Check out the floor!!

View from Eat in are towards DR

To Do:

• Short term:
• Paint walls (done)
• Paint paneling (done)
• Remove curtains (done)
• Hang curtains for patio (purchased)
• Make curtain valance for over the sink
• Replace light fixtures
• Put down cheap flooring?
• Paint pantry (done)
• Reline shelves (part done)
• Long Term:
• Move eat in kitchen wall over 3 feet into kitchen
• Move patio door in here to what is now dining room
• Replace Patio door with windows
• Replace cupboards
• Tile floor
• Replace cooktop with flat cooktop version
• Replace countertops with stone
• Replace 3 container sink with normal sink
• Knock out wall into dining room and combine the two rooms
• Get new fridge (prefer side by side)

I will do the lower level in another post, as well as the upstairs bedrooms, as this post is already lengthy!

Broken World

I dont know what has happened that has made me more aware, empathetic, and hurting for this broken world, but there are days, moments, that just HURT.

Is it from being a mother, and realizing that I can't protect my beautiful, innocent, sweet baby from all things horrible and sad?

Is it from drawing nearer to God, and wanting more from this life?

Is it just being more aware of what really is going on around me?

Or are we as humans just catipulting more quickly into brokenness, tragedy, and hopelessness?

I pray it's a combination of the first three, and not the last one. 

I read news articles that make me cry.  Horrible stories of children being abused, animals being mistreated, bombings, car accidents, suicides, everything that could possibly go wrong that will.

In the past few months, I've had friends, family, clients, acquatinces, who have lost their baby, had a miscarriages, dealt with severe depression, committed suicide, attempted suicide, and it makes my heart just ACHE and weep.  As I type this, I'm tearing up.  It makes me want to drive to daycare, sweep up my sweet lil boy, and just snuggle and love on him until I'm ok, and know that he's ok. 

I scour the internet for happy stories.  For uplifting news.  And it's hard to find.  You want a story about the bad stuff, it's everywhere, take your pick.  But the good stuff is hard to find.  And that is so disheartening to me.  I avoid articles with child abuse or death, because I can't read it without crying.

I never used to be that way.  I could read them and move on, not a problem.  I can't anymore.  I want to rescue every hurt animal and save everyone.  I want to protect Jacob from the dangers of the world. 

And I can't.

I can't keep him from being hurt.  From being sad.  From having his heart broken.  And this terrifies me.

And I know there is good in the world.  I just wish there was more of it.  I want to read stories of people helping one another.  Of lost children being found.  Of happy teens, with the world ahead of them, at their feet. 

I want answers of why these things happen.  Why good people have horrible things happen.  Why life isn't fair.  And i know these are not going to be answered.  I know the best I can do is show others God's love, and pray that they pass that light on to another.  I can pray for them, pray for their suffering to ease, pray for a smile. 

I know I haven't posted in a LONG time, and this post isn't light and happy.  But it's been weighing on me, and I hope that by putting it out there, it gets lighter.  I know I'm not the only one who feels this way, and maybe someone else needs to read that they are not the only ones either. 

I pray for the goodness to be more apparent.  To see the little things that are sweet.  To keep my baby as innocent as he possibly can be for as long as possible.  To protect him as much as we can.  To teach him to be show others kindness and mercy.  For everyone to show others kindness and mercy.  To reach that one person who needs to see the hope of light on their darkest of days. 

I want to be the change I want to see.

Sunshine & Smiles

Maybe I should just say whenever i get to these during busy season, I will, rather then tyring to do every Friday, since if you look at my track record, i think i have only hit that once...

• We bought a new house.  Really, i bought it, Mike was in Chicago, and didnt even see it until our offer was accepted.  Pluses:  bigger house, more land, dead end road.  Drawback:: HELLO 1970!!!  Needs a little cosmetic updating, but nothing we can't handle!  We don't close until May, but are super excited.

• Our "old house" is officially on the market.  We spent a lot of time cleaning, packing, and moving stuff around the past week to get it ready.

• March 15th deadline is past, less then a month to go of overtime.

• Mike has been home for 2 weeks now, and will be for all of March!!
• Jacob and Selby playing tug of war (need to video this)

• Kisses and snuggles from Jacob, all initiated by him, he is such a little lover and cuddler!!

Sunshine & Smiles Friday, on Saturday

So, it's week 2 of doing just Friday posts, and i'm already behind....

Here are my favorite things for the week:

• First kisses initiated and given by Jacob.  Open mouthed, slobbery, sweet smooches.  Melted my heart  :)
• Dinner and movie date with Tiffany, although only one of us could have a drink before seeing the movie :)
• Happy gram from Jacob's teachers
• Honest toddler blog post (this blogger makes me laugh so hard)
• http://thehonesttoddler.com/the-honest-toddler-a-childs-guide-to-parenting-book/
• Jacob had surgery number 2 on his ears, and although it was stressful, he is doing great, and we are praying that the ear infections are OVER, or at least happen way less often.

Sunshine & Smiles Friday

Since I am obviously lacking in the posts lately, I'm going to borrow an idea I see on lot's of bloggers pages about a happy Friday post, basically the things that made me smile this week.

(Sorry in advance, no pics, since I'm doing this quick, will try better next week, but no promises...)

1. Free Chipotle for lunch today!! They ran out of chicken for my online order, so I got it free
2. House is cleaned for a showing today.  Long story, no our house is not CURRENTLY on the market, but we plan on moving sometime here, and have potential people interested.
3. No more infectious diahhrea for Jacob.  Yes, it sounds bad, seriously was WAY worse then it sounds if possible, landed us at ER for dehydration, but all better now.
4. Mike is home tonight, until Tuesday!!
5. Tulips from my mother in law
6. Extra days at home snuggling with Jacob, from him being sick
7. Jacob is now 16 months old
8. Great bosses who know family comes first over work, even if it is busy season
9. Caribou's new Trail Mix Oatmeal, YUM!

Happy Friday!