They Dig It!

One House.
Four Buildings.
Twenty-Five Acres.
Seven Hundred Million Feet of Water Line.
Seven Hundred Million Feed of Electrical Line.
Six Yard Hydrants.
Many. Many Strenuous Hours Later....

We have water!!

Hard work I tell ya!!

Bathroom Reno: Part I - Demolition

Part One. Hunker down folks. Long post coming....

Well all that matters is that we aren't done. But at least some decisions have been made! We are getting there. Slowly. But getting there! We just removed the toilet yesterday! Whoop for progress!! Nothing says "FUN" like a renovation project with no toilet. Good thing we have leaves! 

So a while back, I posted this on Facebook:

I compiled images from Pinterest that were similar to the look I'm going for in the bathroom. I needed to know what color knobs for the cabinet. Granted, nothing else had actually been chosen. Knobs were the obvious first decision (Said no home renovator ever!)

The overwhelming majority said the same thing. "I like the clear", "The white will get dirty", "The green is unique", and "The green clear is different". So I went with the obvious choice.

None of these!

Instead, I got these from Amazon for like $11 for a set of 10!! Whoop! Such a good deal I got 2 sets. The others were about $2-3 a piece. No, they aren't that cute green color. BUT. I think they'll look amazing. The only thing I'm worried about is the fake-ish chrome finish and all of the fixtures are bronze. So I may try to spray paint them. Thoughts??

Ok so then, a few weeks later I posted this:

I needed tile help. We already had the floor tile chosen. We found an amazing deal at Lowes for some 18"x18" tiles in a nice neutral color that would tie in the hallway hardwoods and the gray cabinet I want in the bathroom. They also work nicely for the kitchen. Win-Win! (I'll update with a post to the tile once I find it!)

So my question was, we knew we wanted the White Subway Tile for the bath surround, we wanted a farmhouse feel, I wanted something light and airy.... so what tile for the inset in the shower?

Vast majority said the White Penny Tile. So that's what we went with. I ordered it from Overstock.com. No issues whatsoever. I love them. Can't wait to install them.

So now that the tile is out of the way, if you can remember, here is what we started with:

Lots of pink. Lots of gross. Lots of demolition.

Wanna see a weird pano shot? Hi!

See those walls? They had that pink glue-on tile. Ripped the sheetrock to pieces. So we tried to decide...do we replace the sheetrock, put up a cool pallet wood wall, wainscoting all around the room?? But then I saw a really cool idea on another blog that I read for a white-washed brick wall.

So first things first, it is getting covered with this:

Ugly right? Well I have big plans for that faux brick. (I always feel fancy when I say faux!)

White-washed Faux Brick Project to come in Part II

But let's talk about brick while we're at it. See all that brick on the wall in the tub? And even in the picture above? It's hideous. Everyone keeps telling me to leave it, that "it's brick and don't you watch Nicole? Nicole Curtis says that 'why in the *bleep* would you cover that up?!" Pardon the bleeped out wordy-durd. But um, I'm pretty sure  when Nicole is talking about finding the really amazing, old vintage, chipped brick....she doesn't mean this stuff. This orange, obnoxiously long, perfectly-good brick. It ain't purdy folks. It's 1970's maybe? There's nothing vintage or retro about it other than the fact that it is in an old farmhouse. No charm. No connection. I can do this. I can paint the brick.

Anyway, the brick in the tub is getting covered regardless of my fear that one day I'll regret painting brick. I'm still working on hubby about painting the living room & back bathroom brick anyway. And yes, even the faux brick is getting painted or white-washed.

But moving on....

We tore out the sink and countertop. Tore out the mirror (planning to salvage it with a fancy rustic wood frame). Tore out the really amazingly bright side mirror lights. I loved the light. They reminded me of when I was little and I'd climb on the counter and sit for hours and scrub my pores and brush my teeth and do my hair and makeup. Nostalgic. I really didn't want to get rid of them, but face it, they are ugly and could land a spacecraft they are so bright.

Bye bye sink! (The old sink will probably get used somewhere else. I love the shape! See above.)

Oh, there's me! Hey! Wearing my fave purple hoodie. I obviously didn't come to actually DO any work that day....Just take pictures!

Another pano shot to show the exposed walls on the left. Cool little built-in going in there and wainscoting on that side. With maybe a few towel hooks! You know, like all the cool kids on Pinterest are doing it!

So that's where we are (were?)....

Part II to come... Painting the cabinet, Installing lights & Hanging faux brick.

Family, Fungi and Floors....oh my!

Slowly but surely we are seeing changes around the house. For the most part, the hard work going on right now is stuff that will never be seen again. Poo!! Who wants to spend thousands of bucks on duct work? Just makes me shiver but, hey, hopefully my kids will breathe easier and the musty smells will be "gone like a freight train"!

In the meantime, we continue to scope out the land....and I continue to steal kisses....

Check out those studs! This house is SOLID! As for me. I'm a little less than solid these days. "Hey y'all!" But I'm sure proud of how hard we worked in the bathroom and were able to get most of the sheetrock removed, as well as the gross floor.

We are pretty sure that the previous owners held stock in floor glue (and nails!!). The stuff is EVERYWHERE and every bit of floor in this house is stuck like a tongue to a metal pole in the winter!!

  

Raise your hand if you've seen this flooring pattern before? Vintage? Yes! Cute? NO! Had to go. Like I said, everything in this house is gross and dirty. Plus, I have a really awesome plan for this little potty room!

Now, onto some other floor in the house. This is in the front room that will eventually be the boys' room. "Before pictures" to come after..???? I'll get to showing the entire house in its "Before" stage. Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself!

 

 "Daddy Doc" came in from California to spend a relaxing week here in North Carolina. Little did he know that we don't mess around....we recruit good help when we see it. He didn't even know what he was getting himself into! Pffftt....jet lag or not, get to WORK!!! Ha!! And work he sure did! Look at this!

THANK YOU "DADDY DOC"!!! We hope you'll come back soon to work, I mean, visit!! :) 

Don't these floor boards have the most rustic, amazing "finish"? I wanted to keep them. The horizontal layout, the texture, the vintage, rustic farmhouse look. Sigh. You can't duplicate it! Unfortunately, these are the sub-floor boards and have one million nails. My sweet husband really tried to find a way to make these work, but really the work to get these useable just isn't worth it or cost effective. :( 

There's no way they could be sanded and the cracks are big enough we might could lose a kid.

Hey, wait...... 

then again...... 

Nah. 

I love those little boogers!

Too much mess, too much work. My little heart just had to give up on the dream of reclaiming them. But! We found some fancy laminate flooring that is fairly similar, darker, but has the worn look. It will be lovely!! Can't wait to give a sneak and reveal those suckers, but it will be a while, that is last on the list.

Hubby labored hard this day, bless his little heart. And knees. I am so proud of him. He's worked his patootie off getting this reno going. Maybe it is the toosh-slaps that I give for motivation!! ;)

 

Back on subject. Nasty floors.Seriously. This is GROSS. What IS that yellow stuff? I don't even want to know. ::shivers::

 

Oh looky! GLUE! Black, sticky glue. Everywhere. Again, another floor ruined. My hopes were to expose the concrete and resurface and stain it. No go. Not gonna happen. 

Guess I didn't give enough "toosh-slaps" to get that job done. 

This was tough work. I tried. I would chip off like 1/2" pieces at a time. Hubbs came in and was swinging that sledge hammer like a champ! I was impressed. 

 

This too is getting covered in secret flooring to be revealed later! You can find it on Lumber Liquidators but that's the only hint I'm giving. That, and it's kind-of brownish and pretty, AND it was ON SALE!! WHOOP!

 

And for some randomness, Fungi. We have mushrooms. Red ones, yellow ones, orange fluffy ones, big tall white ones and short tiny skinny ones. We could open a lovely little mushroom farm.

Or become drug dealers......

 

We aren't sure which ones to eat, share, or call the DEA for...... :D