Let me tell you when we first started this project I thought I was going to be flying with all of the projects, but that is never the reality of a home renovation. In typical renovation fashion, it has been delay after delay! Add to that a contractor that went AWOL and you have a glimpse into a little bit of what has been happening with the house progress! My body aches due to all of the work and Jon’s body is falling apart! I feel so bad! He has been a beast throughout this whole project! He has tackled it all from electrical to plumbing and everything in between. I have no clue how he knows to do all of the things, but he does. Every square inch of that house has been touched by him! To add even more to my adoration of him is that he has been using hammers that the boys made him for Father’s day a couple of years ago. He alternates using them on projects so that the boys’ gifts had a part in renovating the house as well. We just celebrated our 15 wedding anniversary and let me tell you everyone needs a Jon in their life. He is simply the best.

We were able to get our new window, storm door, and garage door installed! They had a crazy lead time due to a glass delay due to covid! We are happy to finally have them in place!

The new bay window brightens up the dining room and is a nod to our old house and it’s dining room bay window. It was always one of my favorite parts of the house and I’m happy to have a similar version in this house as well.

The garage door is just a classic door. We tried getting a traditional carriage door, one where it opens down the middle, but it was super expensive and we decided that extra money could go elsewhere. The plan is to tackle the outside of the house once it gets warmer. We are going to….paint the roof!!!!! Yes, we are nuts, but we hate the staining on it and it’s not old enough to warrant a whole new roof. So, I did some research and paint it is! Ok, okay we are going to try and get it cleaned off first, but if that doesn’t work then paint! We are also going to paint the shingles and the brick! Plus we are going to add shutters and a front porch area. It’s going to look fab!

The new storm door also got installed! I’m really loving the color palette of Eddie Ross’s house so, I’m looking into those colors for our house!

So, that was a bit of good news and advancements. Then our contractor went AWOL and we needed to get someone else in to help us finish skim coating the walls in the house. Luckily we were able to find someone quickly that was highly referred and seemed to know what he was doing. Of course, he also went AWOL after finishing the bulk of the work. On a positive note, the majority of the job was finished and Jon is pretty certain he can finish it up, but it’s just frustrating that there are so many unreliable people in the home improvement world.

While Jon has been working on the majority of the renovation labor, I have been working on things behind the scenes. We wanted to tackle floors next and that bought on a whole slew of questions. Do we DIY or hire it out? Do we go with real hardware or engineered wood or laminate? What color stain do we go with? I was literally at the lumbar store standing on different sample boards to see which one bought me joy. Jon thought I was nuts, but the woman next to me totally got it. We both agreed that you really need to feel it and you want the perfect flooring to scream your name! Her husband was just as amused as Jon especially when his wife picked out a floor she liked and it was the same wood they had just ripped out. We are lucky enough to be partnering with LL Flooring on our wood floors! I can’t wait to share the whole process with you! Getting this partnership is what moved up our flooring install. We originally were thinking of painting the rooms first, but since this opportunity came about we changed gears and are now doing floors first, and then we will place ram board on the new floors as to not get paint on them! The install is happening this week, and it’s all very exciting! We spent the past two weeks getting the floors prepped! Our contractor was supposed to ripe up the old flooring and have it prepped to get the new floor installed. Since he disappeared he didn’t finish the job. This meant Jon and I had our parents over to help us with the prep work! My hands were shaking for days after due to an electric sander!

Jon and his dad even tackled laying cement in the basement to get the floor prepped since it was an unfinished basement and the floor was uneven.

This is my laundry nook area and it is flanked by two closets for much-needed storage!

Here is a peek at the flooring we picked! Stay tuned for more progress on stories and a more detailed flooring post to come!!!

Ah! We are almost at the finish line. After the floors, it’s just walls so paint or wallpaper and then crown molding and doorways and then the kitchen!!!!! Once those items are done we should be able to move in!

What are you loving kitchen wise? I’m leaning towards a color on my cabinets instead of a traditional white. Any idea what color I’m thinking?