Perfectly Messy // A Renovation Blog

The trials and tribulations of taking an old home and making it new.

[perfectlymess]

Since winter has finally said its bitter goodbye, Erik and I have been working diligently to get our yard looking nice! We’re starting by digging out along the foundation at the back of the house, where we have a lot of water coming into the basement. By digging a trench, lining it with plastic, and then backfilling with gravel, we’ll be hopefully directing most of the water away from the house.

Along with this, we’re also digging out garden beds along the back and sides of the house. In the front we’re eventually putting a porch, so no gardens there.

With all the time we spent on the inside of the house last year, we’re liking the change of the pace that tending to the outside provides.

This’ll be our first summer with our newest dog Solomon, and I’m pretty sure he’s enjoying it so far.

[perfectlymess]

And finally, the master! We also painted the laundry room (former office) and refinished the floors, but it was the least dramatic transformation of all the rooms. 

Thanks for following along with us! We’re taking a small break for the winter, but we’ll be tackling the upstairs in the spring!

[perfectlymess]

Bathroom and office/guest room! These two rooms need a little more love and attention to be finished, but they’re functional right now!

[perfectlymess]

Living room before and afters!

[perfectlymess]

After what felt like the longest summer ever, Erik and I are finally able to call our house home! Lots of gushy emotions and nonsense that I won’t get into... but I want to thank every single person that helped us get here. I am so in love with our home! It was made a reality because of everyone that supported us, so thank you!

I’m going to post each room with it’s before and afters in a separate post so you can get the full effect!

We’ll start off with the kitchen. Feel free to ask me questions about anything, I’m an open book!

[perfectlymess]

I know I haven't updated in a while, and the only reasoning is that we still have SO MUCH to do. We filed for an extension with the bank, and cancelled our housewarming party... So that should give you an idea of our stress levels. We hit a lot of small snags that ended up really putting us off track, so we're still trucking along. Ceilings in the living room/dining room/ master are all painted, and I removed the paper from the living room. Living room floor is completely installed, waiting for stain and poly. Finished staining and painting our dining room table. Finished hanging and mudding drywall in the master, guest room and hallway. Primed and waiting for paint. Bathroom closet built (thanks brothers!) and bathroom drywall hung. 2 of 4 living room windows trimmed out. Not pictured is the master bedroom floor, which is mostly laid down but not nailed. Tired. Must sleep. Happy Halloween all!

[perfectlymess]

Apologies for the week-behind post... We're scrambling to get everything finished in time for our October 16th deadline and I'm pooped! Bathroom got half painted, old toilet removed in preparation for floor painting and new toilet installation. Returns and registers were cut out and placed, just about finished with that! We'll be taping all the joints this weekend. Kitchen ceiling fans got painted and had new bulbs & glass shades added. Not bad for a fan remodel! White appliance paint is pretty slick. We also were given a wood burning stove along with a half cord of wood, so we spent a lot of Sunday doing that. Propane lines on the oven are installed, just waiting on the tanks!

[perfectlymess]

My brother Ben and I framed out the master bedroom wall today. It was a very cool learning experience! Carpentry isn't one of my strong suits, but I hope to do more and get better at it. Erik sanded down the old, nasty butcher block counter piece for us to use over the dishwasher today. Smooth as a baby's bottom! Or so they say. We also pulled the old, disgusting toilet today in preparation for painting; as well as added new sconces for over the vanity!

[perfectlymess]

Today we got the laminate counter top in place thanks to Erik and my brother David, as well as got the master bedroom painted, thanks to my mom and I! Long day, lots accomplished. This evening, Erik and my father helped me rewire some antique lamps I purchased for the master bedroom and living room. I didn't feel like putting brand new things in such an old house would look right, so antique I went! Putting the finishing touches on the kitchen tomorrow in preparation for the fridge arrival, as well as continuing furnace and ductwork projects.

[perfectlymess]

Living room is painted!! Last night, my friend Caitlin and I whipped through priming all the drywall, so today my mom and I took on painting the living room! Needs some touching up here and there, but overall is done! Tomorrow we tackle the laminate countertop... Eeeek!

[perfectlymess]

The lack of posts lately is merely a sign of things picking up. Drywall is finally done, and it’s looking fabulous! Onto priming tomorrow. Erik and I finished grouting the backsplash in the kitchen, and our stove arrived as well! Just waiting on the fridge, which will be delivered next week. This weekend we’ll be tackling the laminate counter tops. My brother Sam finished up his summer work with us this last weekend, and it was a bittersweet goodbye! Sam really busted out redoing all the ancient windows on our house, as well as a hefty amount of the painting inside and out. His housewarming gift to us was an American flag, which he mounted for us on his last day! Thanks for all your hard work, Sam! My brother Ben finished up the exterior trim painting for us this past weekend, and the house is just gleaming. Love seeing it look so fresh and crisp!

[perfectlymess]

Everything is coming along! We're still feeling the squeeze of our timeline... 2 months to complete EVERYTHING seems like a tall order, but we're doing our best! We hired out the drywalling, which is going up very quickly (the photo you see was two days of work by ONE person!). We also managed to get the cabinet doors back on, which had been hindered by all the humidity as of late. Something else we started on today was our white subway tile backsplash in the kitchen! This was a very interesting learning experience, which I'm sure will continue as we move on to grouting. Sam was able to get a lot of the exterior trim finish painted, which looks amazing. So nice to see the outside so crisp and fresh! My mom covered the very last bit of dark teal today by priming the kitchen closet! I have to say it's a bit of a relief to finally see it all gone. Furnace and duct work tomorrow, which is something we hope to accomplish without too many more issues (yeah right).

[perfectlymess]

My mom and I got the entire kitchen finish painted today! It is so amazing to see everything looking so nice. Sam was hard at work on painting windows, and Erik finished up installing the insulation! Erik and I also took some time this morning to put up a new mail box. I'll be hand lettering our last name in the large blank areas on the box. It's the small things that mean so much. Next week we'll be putting the cupboards back together, and then looking for appliances! We'll also be installing a backsplash behind the counter.

[perfectlymess]

In preparation for the drywalling work that is to be done within the next few weeks, we had to get all the insulation put up in the walls. Fairly simple, but also itchy. Erik and my brothers made some great progress today!

We’ve also been working on getting the kitchen up and running, which is by far one the easier tasks we’ve dealt with. It’s a whole lot of painting, which isn’t my favorite… But I don’t mind. My mom and Sam have been helping me with the painting of the cabinets! We got a paint sprayer to expedite the process, which has been pretty great.

Sam has been working on getting the finish trim painting on the outside done, photos of that soon!

[perfectlymess]

These are the photos that were sent to the insurance company... hopefully we’ve satisfied all of their criteria and we can move on to bigger and better things. The white you see is actually all primer, and a single coat no less... amazing what a good quality paint can do! We’ll be putting on the finish paint very soon, so the outside will be complete.

Next on our to-do list is the drywall. We managed to hire someone short notice, so we’ll be spending this week getting the walls insulated in preparation. There will be a small amount of drywalling left for us to do, but nothing too complicated.

My goal this week is to get the areas that are going to be drywalled clear of all stuff, as well as clearing out the kitchen in preparation for making it functional. It very well may be the first room in the house to be completely finished, aside from the laundry room.

Many, many thanks to my family for spending their nights and weekends helping us meet this deadline. We couldn’t have done it without you!

[perfectlymess]

This house. I mean... Gosh. It held my heart the moment I laid eyes on it, even as sad and sorry as it was (for reference, go back to the beginning of this blog!). But now... It's almost like I'm seeing it for the first time all over again. Erik, myself, our friends, and our families have put SO MUCH into this place. Our literal blood, sweat, and tears! To see it all coming together (at least on the outside) like this is something so amazing. We still have a bit more to do on the front before we can submit official photos to the insurance company, which will be wrapped up tomorrow. Be on the lookout for some snazzy "official" photos of the exterior tomorrow night!

[perfectlymess]

Today the siding got finished being painted! This is a huge accomplishment for us, and it makes me feel very proud of how far we've come! My brothers kicked ass using the paint sprayer, which really helped move the painting along. This week we'll be finishing the trim painting in time for the insurance deadline. My dad tackled cleaning out the ductwork and furnace, which ended up being a far more involved project than we intended (as per usual). It seems that without a cover on the chimney, water made its way down to the furnace and rusted out several important parts. As far as we can tell, we'll be able to patch everything up for now, which is good. We're looking into having the drywall outsourced in order to save us some time and stressed, so I'll have more to report on that soon.