A Bit of a Fixer Upper

On August 5th Eric and I bought a house! If you know me at all, I've been dreaming of owning a home for a LONG time. It happened sooner than we thought it would, but we aren't complaining. The home was built in 1969 and everything was pretty original to it...so of course, we needed to renovate. Eric and I weren't scared of the renovation process because we watch A LOT of HGTV and we saw potential in our house from the get-go (even when it was filled with a vast amount of furniture). We are doing quite a bit of reno work including new flooring, cabinets, countertops, paint, lighting, windows, baseboards...you name it! To save money we chose to do the demolition ourselves and pay people to put the house back together. 

Signing papers

Once the previous owner's junk was out of the house, we got to work. We started taking off wallpaper. The hallway and living room wallpaper came off so easily! I was thrilled. And then we hit the kitchen wallpaper. Let's just say I didn't finish getting all the wallpaper glue off until yesterday :)

Eric and his dad gutted the kitchen...

which allowed Eric to take down the wall that separated the kitchen from the living room. That was a MUST HAVE for me. Because the home is older, it's very compartmentalized and the rooms are pretty small, so taking down this wall gives SOME open layout to the house. 

It was a lot of work, but Eric was a champ! He got a little help from YouTube but mostly did the whole wall himself. 

Doesn't that look so much better? Then of course we needed to remove the kitchen laminate and replace the drywall and insulation. That floor was a beast. 

Eric and his parents gutted the two bathrooms on the main floor and then we are making minor changes to the basement bathroom (countertops and flooring). 

Main bathroom

We had a lovely wood panel room in the basement living area. I was actually going to keep it thanks to some inspiration from Pinterest, but it was a potential home for termites so...decision made. 

When we were done vacationing during the month of August, we really set to work. Eric invited some friends over for a demo party and they accomplished a lot that night. Thanks guys!! The wood paneling was one of the biggest jobs. 

Once that was out, we reframed the room to the correct depth so we wouldn't freeze in the winter and then put up new insulation. 

Some hideous built-ins were taken out of the laundry room. 

 And while all this demo work was going on for over a month, Eric's mom and I were trying to get bids from as many people as possible. THAT is an exhausting process. To mix things up, I also did a lot of shopping which is still taking up a good portion of my time. But my main contribution is watching the kiddos while everyone else works at the house. 

All the demolition is FINALLY done and we were able to start putting things together. The electrical has taken over a month and is ALMOST finished. There was really weird wiring and about zero lighting in this house, so Eric and a family friend have been at the house most nights working on electrical. Check out these beautiful can lights!! Eric measured, cut the holes, and passed wires through the attic while Von did the electrical work. 

 We aren't tackling the exterior of the house until next year, but I was soooo excited when our new windows were installed! It makes such a difference on the house (even though the rest needs quite a bit of work). 

Once everything is complete, I will do before and after pictures. It might not look like much has changed, but we've put many many hours into this renovation and a lot has happened on the backend. Stay tuned for more!