Making all things new...

I decided in honor of Easter that I would share a before and after of each room. Actually it's not an after it's more like a "during". I was thinking today about the renovation process. I can clean and paint and add new accessories, but it's still the same old house underneath. It is amazing to see the change. But today, with Good Friday behind me and Easter before me, I was not thinking not so much about renovation, but about transformation. Easter celebrates the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Easter speaks to the new and transformed life we can have in Christ. When we accept Christ as our Savior, He changes us and makes us new!

Here are a few pics of before and afters. I pray this Easter you are celebrating a life that has been transformed by Christ.

Kitchen: Before...









Kitchen: After... The cool new light fixture from the salvage yard.












Guest Bathroom: Before...












After...













Living Room to Kitchen: Before... After












Guest Bedroom: Before









After...









Master Bathroom: Before... After












Master Bedroom: Before...









After...









Living Room: Before...









After...









HAPPY EASTER!

Better than Snow White...

Snow White had 7 dwarfs as her working companions. Well, I definitely had her beat today. I had 14 helpers. And none of them were dwarfs (They were all of average height.) So much work was done today, I think I'll just show you rather than tell you.

Guys pulled up the carpet.
Thank you Trey, Curtis, Wesley, and Ryan.










Leah cleaned and primed all the interior doors.
(Yes- this time I remembered to use primer first.)










Mary and Kristen painted the guest bedroom ceiling and drug a ton of garbage to the curb. I don't think the garbage man is going to like me.







Emily painted the ceiling in the office. Great job Emily!!









I just have 2 words for you PINE STRAW!! I think I can officially say that I hate pine straw. Today Michael helped me get the pine straw off the roof and out of gutters. It was so much. I had piles on the ground the size of small cars.
This is the before picture.





And here is the after.







I spent hours clearing pine straw away from the house and putting it around the flower beds / weed beds. Thank you Sarah for helping me wrestle with that awful pine straw.









Which brings me to the building.
What is this thing? Who knows!


















But with a little Man Power...
It's gone. :-)
Thank you so much Curtis, Bradley, Jordan, Wesley, Ryan, Trey and Jack.





Just call me Snow White with my friends: Emily, Meagan (thanks for sanding and priming the bathroom cabinets), Leah, Sarah, Bradley, Michael, Curtis, Wesley, Trey, Mary, Kristen, Ryan, Jordan and Jack. (I hope I didn't forget anyone.)

Oops! I missed a day...

Oops I missed a day of updates. I wouldn't want you to miss out on any of the fun.
Here is the update for Wednesday and Thursday.

The first exciting new addition is a new heater and air conditioner. The installer said he didn't think the old one had worked for years.

Isn't it lovely!












And check out this fancy control. I may have to go to a special class to figure out how to use it.








I have been working on the kitchen cabinets. They have gotten one coat of paint and will probably take one or two more. I will be so excited when I can mark them off of my list.









So, I have discovered that everything in this house, and I mean EVERYTHING is painted with oil based paint. Boo! That means EVERYTHING has to be primed. Here is what happens when I think I can get away without priming first.












I really want to paint the front door red. I wanted try out the color on the current door and see if I liked it... of course the door is painted with oil based paint so the red paint doesn't stick.




So, for now I have a half painted, streaky red door. I wander what my new neighbors think about that ? :-)

Rub-A-Dub-Dub...

look at my new tub.
It's still a little rough around the edges, but it is definitely installed and working!












The tub isn't the only thing looking fresh and clean!
There was a lot of painting today. The master bedroom is painted and the office.



This is the master bedroom before...





And after.
For those of you who may be wandering, I'm not painting the trim gray. It just has gray primer on it because the trim is painted with oil based paint and has to be covered before I can paint it with the trim color.













I had some help with the office and with cleaning. Thanks Ashley and Destinee!



Painting the office














Oh those shutter doors and Winnie the Pooh border!!


I am so blessed to see the progress. It really doesn't look like the same house. Today, I put 2 drawer organizers in the kitchen. It felt good to do something that seemed "normal" for a new house. Organizing a drawer is a much lighter task than pulling up 1600 square feet of carpet or refinishing cabinets.
Tomorrow the new heater and air conditioner will be installed. My fixer-upper house is on the mend!!

Square peg in a round hole....

Today was pretty exciting and busy at the house. I had lots of helpers and big jobs were being accomplished all over the house.

The tub with a hole in it is now gone. And the new tub is almost installed. There was just a slight problem... trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. The tub pieces couldn't fit through the bathroom door. So they had to cut a hole in the bedroom wall and slide the tub in. (On the plus side, when they cut the bedroom wall they cut away some of that awful Winnie the Pooh wall paper border.)


Before...











Goodbye
Tub

















My wonderful helpers got a lot of work done...


Julia and Lucy cleaned the office, including the shutter doors.











Maegan took down the weird plastic on the windows and painted.












And Raelee painted the bedroom and hallway ceiling.

House curriculum

After being at a 3 day women's conference, I returned to find my home waiting for me. I had dreamed perhaps it would come to life while I was gone and fix itself (sounds a little too much like a Disney movie) but I found it just as I had left it.

Today was a scraping day. I scraped the bedroom ceiling and scraped the paint off the bedroom windows. (There was about a 2 inch stripe around the inside of each window.) And of course, I cleaned the dreaded shutter doors. I appreciate all the support I received in my hatred of these doors. Perhaps we can start some kind of support group.

I have been a homeowner for about 2 weeks now, and I thought I would share with you a few things I have learned:
1. You can work harder than you think you can.
2. I am incapable of hammering a nail straight.
3. If you spray water on linoleum adhesive in an effort to make scraping it up easier, it does not work. It just turns the adhesive into sticky gray boogers.
4. Never buy paint in 5 gallon buckets. Trying to pour it into a paint tray is like trying to control an avalanche.
5. You can touch anything if you put on enough pairs of plastic gloves.
6. Mr. Clean Magic Erasers can clean anything.
7. Shutter doors should be outlawed! :-)

Shutter Bug...

In the midst of cleaning, scrubbing, and renovating, it has surprised me the things that have gotten under my skin the most. It has not been what I would have guessed. Today I was surprised to find that I totally lost my patience with these jewels:









Who invented these!?! What a ridiculous idea to put doors with little tiny slats to catch every piece of dirt. These are the doors to the laundry closet. FILTHY! And there is no easy way to clean them. I think I went through 3 rolls of paper towels trying. Squirt with cleaner. Wipe with paper towel. Try to shove paper towel in between the little tiny dirt traps. To add to the fun, I discovered they were painted with oil based paint which means they have to be primed before they're painted. What a shutter bug! (Did I mention these are just the first 4? This house has 16 shutter doors!)

The kitchen, however, has been a much more encouraging project. There is a new garbage disposal and pipes, the inside of every cabinet has been "kilzed". And the cabinet frames and drawers have been painted.









And there is some progress in the yard. Thanks to my Garden Fairy. (Thanks Cecile!)
Before:









After: