Time Flies

Several good friends make it a point to remind me every time I see them that they would like to see some updates on what’s been happening at the house. Good grief, it’s been a year since my last post! Get it together Victoria! But seriously…who has time to blog about renovating a house when you’re renovating a house? Well, maybe my design idol in Waco, TX. But I’m pretty sure she must not sleep or maybe she has a clone to help her accomplish everything on her plate. But anyway, apologies to those who have followed this page for my horrible blogging consistency.I will try to be better.

I’m so far behind with the updates I don’t know where to start. I guess I’ll try to run through the highlights of projects we’ve worked on over the past year and go from there. Some of these projects happened over several months (or are still happening) so the order of the pictures jump around a little bit.

The first couple months after we moved in, the house looked like a bomb went off.  We were just so happy to not be living in a camper in the middle of winter that we didn’t even care that the playroom had a chop saw in the middle of it or that a string of construction lights was the only lighting we had in the house.

We’re all about safety here.

Piano for a kitchen island…why not?

Our coat closet for the first several months.

Fine dining.

Oy, just looking back at this makes me anxious. I don’t handle disorganization well.

As a side note, our camper sold in the dead of winter two days after we posted it on Craigslist for the same price we bought it for five months before. Total blessing!

Shortly after we moved in, J replaced all the windows in the house with windows from Window World of Western Massachusetts. They are awesome! Check them out if you need replacement windows! The new windows completely update the look of the house inside and out. We went with a dark bronze finish for the exterior and a wood look vinyl for the interior. You seriously wouldn’t know unless someone told you that the interior is not real wood. They look amazing!

Here’s what they looked like before…

We had several windows with missing panes all over the house. Not very efficient.

And after…

We painted and closed in the stairs. When we bought the house they had no risers and were completely open from the basement up to the second floor. We put risers on each step, painted the treads and railings and put a wall and a door between the basement and first floor. I still need to stain the risers and finish a couple areas of paint, but they’re looking much less scary.

Toby approves.

We finished the toilet, shower and sink in the first floor bathroom before we moved in, but there was no storage and the back wall of the bathroom was just open studs for a while. Then J made me these kick butt shelves which I am totally in love with!

Before

During

During

After

J and my dad did some work in the basement. There was a big, unfinished part of the foundation that was just dirt. J dug it down and they filled it with concrete. J built storage shelves which helped tremendously with helping us get a little bit more organized with all of our stuff that is STILL packed in boxes. He also put up walls between the garage and the stairwell and the stairwell and the laundry area. At some point in the future there will be more walls dividing the laundry area from the storage space.

Someone give this guy a back massage.

I haz excitement!!

To give you an idea of what it’s like living through a reno of this magnitude, check this out. This photo was taken on March 18th, four months after we moved in. I’ve learned to embrace-well, tolerate-the chaos. Most of that stuff in the background is still in boxes now. It will be like Christmas when we do get around to opening them. I can’t even remember what I own anymore!

J built me a walk-in closet in our bedroom and I snagged this door off a FB yard sale site. The door is still awaiting hardware.

We went for months with lab tables for kitchen counters with no storage to speak of.  Then cabinets started trickling in! Oh happy day! Doors, upper cabinets and finished counters will be coming at some point in the future.

Storage!!!!

Even the kids were excited!

No more piano island!

In the spring we had two rounds of baby goats…oh the joy! We’re expecting three more litters this spring.

When the weather was nice enough J started on the chicken coop. We ordered chicks around Easter and they lived in our basement for FAR too long.

Then after the coop (at the same time as the coop? I can’t even remember…) we started the fence. This was a requirement for us to close out our Order of Conditions with the Conservation Commission. J and I sent the kids to Nonni’s house and knocked this out over one weekend.

Those are the major highlights from when we moved in November 2014 up to May 2015. I’ll have to do May to November in another post.

I’ll leave you with this. This is a picture from last winter. So I’m sorry to all the snow haters, but this is what I have to look forward to, and I say bring it on! I can’t wait!