Tag Archives: diy

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Old to Bold

After a few weeks of painting the living room, dining room and kitchen during weekends and after work, we’ve finally (almost) finished!!! Knowing that the near future holds a major renovation for the dining room and kitchen, we decided we should figure out a way to update our dining room lighting on the cheap.

The goal was to somehow get our brass chandelier to connect the living and dining rooms. And why not choose a bold color from the living room to be that connection? We decided to go with the color of our accent chest, since the pumpkins below are only sitting there temporarily.

TV Stand and Sophia

Accent Chest and Sophia

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Wait, you need a bathroom in a house?

Ok, we fell into the blog trap. That is, the thing where you have a blog but neglect it and don’t update for a super long time. Well I’m back… at least for now.

Remember at the beginning of the year when we started renovating our bathroom? Then when we did a little bit more work on the bathroom?

Well we’re FINALLY nearing the finish line.

One big concession we had to make was that we can’t do it all. With work schedules coupled with laziness, we knew if it were just up to us, it’d be a bit more time until our upstairs bathroom was done. So we bit the bullet and hired a drywaller to help us get the bathroom going and to do a few more project – stay tuned for those!

Thin Set for Tile

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Bathroom Renovation 3: Snow Day Edition

So as I’ve said, we’re taking our sweet old time on the bathroom. We’re lucky to have a functioning bathroom in our basement, which makes things a bit easier. Over the last few days, we’ve ramped back up and are making some great progress, though. Including some big transformations happening with the floor! First things first, we had to get that damn pink bath tub out of the house. It being cast iron, we’re talking about a 320 pound, 5 x 2.5 foot tub, so not exactly easy to maneuver down our winding staircase. So we did this: Smashing the tub Continue reading →

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Bathroom Renovation 2: A Surprise!

After demolishing the walls, we next set our eyes on the floor. Now, here’s the thing. Weeks ago, one of the square ceramic tiles that were part of the previous owner’s 1994 renovation, came loose. And under it, there was a flicker of hope. I saw something, but didn’t want to get too excited.

So what I’m really trying to say is that of everything in the bathroom, all I really wanted to do was tear up the floor. Repeatedly, Gabe had to stop me from tearing up the tile before the walls were done. But I just couldn’t wait!

After we removed the wall behind the bathtub, though, it was apparent that my hopes may become realization after all.Original hexagon tile under bathtub Continue reading →

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Vanishing Walls

**WARNING: This post depicts an unfinished project. No pretty outcome has resulted…yet.**

By the layout of the walls in our first floor, it is pretty clear that people didn’t like to be around each other in the early 20th century. There was no flow between the kitchen, living and dinning rooms. The opening between the living room and dining room is definitely not original and while that was a good attempt at opening up the first floor we knew there was a lot more potential.

And by potential, that means we had to do some demolition!!! And demolition = fun! Look for yourself:

Just knocking down that wall has made a huge difference in the amount of light that shines through to the dining room.
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The Unexpected

No one ever said buying and modernizing an 85 year old home would be uneventful or easy.

Being a pretty big HGTV junky, I always knew, but never wanted to admit, how fake shows like “Love it or List it” are.

The other day, I really felt like I was on an episode, maybe not for the best. We had a furnace tune-up scheduled, just to make sure things were in good order before the cold set in and before we were living at the house full time. And that’s when the HGTV drama hit. A call of “you have dangerous levels of carbon monoxide in your home” really has a way of setting the tone for the rest of your day.

Sad, old furnace

As you can see, this old beast needed some help.

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What We’re Working With

Chris and I understand that the process of making this house into our home will take some time. But, as any first-time homeowners, we have an ever-growing list of ideas and goals for the place. But to get started, we have to decide which room will serve what purpose – which walls will stay and which walls will go.

Before we can start making major changes (other than the carpet, it had to go immediately), we have to know the exact space we’re working with. Luckily, I’ve always wanted to create a floor plan! Before we even knew whether or not we were getting this house, I was surfing the web looking for an app that would allow me to do that. I ended up using Magic Plan for iPad, mostly because it’s free and appeared in a couple of my searches.

Mapping the house was a little time consuming, but it was definitely worth it. I would draw the shape of the room, and then Chris would help by measuring each wall, window, door, space between windows, space between doors and walls, etc.

I’m sure we’ll have to tweak a few measurements, and I have not added appliances nor kitchen cabinets…but here’s what we’ve got so far, and it’s proven to be super helpful.

Left – Back of House ———— Front of House – Right

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