Master bedroom with carpet, new doors, and wood entryways laid by me personally!
Bathroom vanity made from Eric's old Potterbarn dining table. Paint can storage is temporary (as is the cat, I hope!)
Vintage tile floor by Daltile

House Update

I wish I had more work done to show, but I don't!
I hung a chandelier and a porch swing- and no, they do not hit when you swing!

In the process of painting the exterior trim. I even had a dream that a nieghbor offered to loan me a ladder so I could hurry up! We're on our 3rd color for the shutters. The original color was turquoise- like the trim along the top that I can't reach. Then I went for an olive green, but it was too yellow against the beige of the house. Then we tried a blue color, but it was too bright. Now we're going tonal. We matched our house color, and are going with a color one block down on the color strip, with chocolate brown doors and windows and "swiss coffee" white accents.

We're also slowly working on our landscaping. We planted 3 new trees in the front yard on Sunday, July 8. I won't forget when, because it was the last "activity" we did with Heidi before we had to take her in. The tree above is a red maple, and the two trees in the photo below are red oaks. They're still hanging in there!

This photo was taken from our front porch. The gray house to the right was foreclosed on back in June, and just hit the market a week ago. It got multiple offers the first day! It needs A LOT of work, but the Realtor who represented the seller on our house has a bid on it, and I'm hoping she gets it, as I know she'll do a good job fixing it up. The only downside is I know she'll rent it and hang onto it rather than flipping it, and I'd rather not have rental property... Oh well!

We also finally got our dining room light figured out. I found one at our Habitat for Humanity outlet here in Dallas that I loved- It was the two-tier round wrought iron type with glass shades. Unfortunately, I broke one of the shades, and I cannot find another one ANYWHERE. So we ordered this little simple one, and just put it in yesterday!

Master Bedroom is ALMOST finished!

The master bedroom is almost finished. I laid the wood threshhold pieces in front of the exterior doors, and the carpet is installed. The subfloor was replaced (by me!) in places. Both exterior doors have been replaced with matching french doors made of steel, and the builder swears they will not leak anymore. (side note- builder, Aubrey Cate, and I were at Home Depot buying materials, and everyone thought we were a little family taking on a home improvement do-it-yourself project. He was mortified, and quickly set everyone straight that he was a contractor! Quite funny to me!) Baseboards are down, and doors are trimmed out.

The master bathroom tile and vanity are in, and now we are wishing we had replaced the tub and surround before we did that... maybe it can be done later... we'll see. The electrician has replaced the chewed wires, and both bathrooms have lights. Now we need to blow in insulation above the master bedroom/bathroom and have all of the accesses that were cut into the ceiling by the electrician patched.



I admit- I hate carpet- but the pets are loving it, even choosing to sleep on the floor rather than with us, and Aubrey Cate enjoys playing with her toys in there.

See the ceiling fan I hung and the floor I put in?

As soon as our own computer is back up and running, we'll get more photos of the bathroom and all. The vintage tile in there looks great, and Eric's table made a really nice vanity.

So close... yet so far away!

Looking from back door in master bedroom- hallway leads to the kitchen, and bathroom door is on the right. The furdown that was at the end of the hallway/entry into the bedroom is gone, and a real air vent was installed in the ceiling.

Master bedroom. Ceiling scraped (partially by me, before I wimped out) and floated to be a smooth ceiling rather than popcorn. In the process of painting them a cream color.
Master bathroom vanity made from Eric's old dining table. The builder even salvaged the part that is stamped "Potterybarn." Silly guy!
No more apple green! Hooray! Except for that spot behind the potty...
From the main wall of the master bedroom, this is the new closet/bath set up.
And Heidi, of course.... wouldn't be a true remodel if Heidi wasn't in the photos!
Kitchen now has a laundry room carved out of it. Also rebuilt the header beam that connects the old house to the addition and made it flush with the ceiling in the addition.Laundry room has stackable washer/dryerThe "rest of" the laundry room.... not that it's that big- just hard to photograph!

Poor Aubrey Cate taking her nap in the midst of our clutter.

May 7

We had really bad storms in Dallas on May 2. Lots of trees and limbs are down in Oak Cliff. Even as late as 1:00 the next day, there was still no electricity service at our house, and most stop lights in the area were completely off- not just flashing red, but completely off.

We lost a large portion of a tree, and it fell on a wire that we are assuming is either cable or telephone service to our house. It ordinarily would not be stretched across the deck like so.It blew the garage door off one of its hinges, and blew down more branches...

BUT, other than that, we are making some progress in other areas. See below:
The beginning of some landscaping in the front yard... It's HARD WORK!

Plumber moved sink plumbing in master bath to allow for a double sink in a different location...

Air ducts in the master bed/bath have to be moved. There is currently one air duct for a 25 x 12 space. In Texas. With single pane windows. I don't think so!

No more strange box thing to hide the ductwork in- It will just go in the attic like a normal house.

This photo shows the old box for the air duct and the old location of the bathroom/closet door.This photo shows no more furdown required- but drywall repair is required!

I need to take new pictures of this progress. This is the framing of the new master bath/closet set up. It has already had the drywall installed and new electrical run. Closet goes in the area on the right, and the area straight in front will be the master bath sinks. Still not a big bathroom, but there isn't a whole lot to work with!

I painted and bleached the heck out of the guest bath.
Guest bath before photo- YUCK

Guest bath after photo

Most of the walls are off-white. I painted the hallways a chocolate brown to give a little interest.

(view from dining room into hallway)

Oh Dear

We are officially under construction.

Charbroiled support beam? GREAT.

A laundry room and pantry will be carved out of a portion of this space.
The ceiling is now gone in the master bath area... It was missing a crucial support beam and was allowing the ceiling to sag, so the builder knocked out the ceiling to put in a new beam.
You can see outside in the corner... yikes!

Exposed ceiling with electrical hanging everywhere.

Walter is in charge of rebuilding everything... poor guy!

Walls are on their Way!

Builder Mike has started rebuilding what Eric and I demolished.

Builder Mike is a neat freak. He sweeps and vacuums all the time.
The "room" to the right is the closet, and the bathroom vanity goes to the left.
And, as with all construction projects... Once we took up the carpet, we found that the subfloor in part of the master bedroom was maid of 1/4" thick particle board. Particle board swells with moisture. Not the smartest thing to put down!

A Hard Day's Work

I finished painting the living and dining room walls and ceiling... now I have to do the baseboards and door and window frames... yuck. The purple master bedroom is looming down the corridor... YIKES!


The 3rd bedroom (which we will use as office/tv room) is painted those same horrid terra cotta and peach colors, so I've started priming, but have a ways to go. (see below) Eric began prep work on the flower beds. We trimmed up the bush/tree. We don't want to cut it down, because it provides shade for the west-facing living room windows... and we all know about Texas summers!

Wall is completely gone and ready for the new one!