Renovations 101-Part 1

We have been in the middle of some major renovations to our house over the last several months (whoa...no, it's been more like eight months to be exact!). Since we have been homeowners for over two years now, and with the "flipping" of a house in Lubbock (which Brett's family did last year), we felt like we finally had enough experience under our belts to do it ourselves. Well, I should clarify...Brett's done a majority of the work :)

First renovation we did was right when we moved in (but I felt it needed to be included in this post). Brett re-tiled the floors in the laundry room with slate (thin, white tile was there before).

My job was the grouting, and it was a lot of fun!

Ever since we started the demo/renovation all throughout the house last summer, we have found that the "to-do" list just keeps getting longer and longer. And every time we begin a new project, we wonder why we didn't just hire contractors! We definitely could have gotten it all done a lot more quickly if that had been the case...

First, there was the guest bathroom, in which Brett took up the tile/carpet and laid travertine. My job was the one wall behind the mirror (the other walls are the same khaki color all throughout our house).

Before shot of the guest bathroom (Notice the striped wallpaper and Hollywood lighting...nice)

Up came the carpet (carpet in a bathroom is a no-no)!

Down came the mirror and the wallpaper (doozy of a job...that's why I primed over the wallpaper in our master bath....that renovation is still in the works, so more pics to come!)

Brett laid and grouted the travertine

I primed, textured, primed again, and painted the wall a chocolate brown color.

Finished product (despite the shower, later post)

All we have left to do in there is install new faucets, and Brett's almost done working on the shower. We were able to keep the "Safari" theme, centered off of a picture of a giraffe that Brett's grandmother, GiGi, painted in 1981.

Next was the entry-way...I did not get a before shot :( But the finished product is great! There was builder's grade (dated, white cafeteria-style) tile there before. Brett started this project thinking it was not going to take too long (it's a smaller space, no hard cuts, right?)...however, it turned into one heck-uva job!

It took several weekends and a couple of new tools :) to get the mortar up (plus, lots of dusting on my part)!

What can I say, we like travertine! After all the tiling he has done, I tell him that if he tires of the CPA career, he's got another job!

Next up: the dining room. It was in definite need of a facelift! Without a lot of extra space in that room, we opted to spring only for a new table and to keep the rustic mini-hutch I had before we got married. I recovered the chairs of our older dining room set (to get rid of that 80's-inspired print), and we handed that down to my sis and her hubby.

Before pic

I also made use of the light fixture, or shall we say brass chandelier (which was there when we bought the house…UG-LY) by simply priming and spray-painting it with a textured paint.

I think it turned out okay (light fixtures are pricey!). It will do for now...

We love, love, love our new dining room table (it has a long bench on one side). It has already been at the center of some great memories, with many more to come! Also, I got the painting in the background at an estate sale.

The biggest renovation by far has been our kitchen. We had white formica (yep) for our countertops and white appliances that we have wanted to change out since we moved in. And, after saving up and doing some price-shopping, we finally went through with it all!

Before shots of the kitchen (white GE appliances and all)

In went the Jenn-Air stainless steel fridge, microwave, dishwasher, sink, and double oven! Brett installed the microwave, ovens, and dishwasher himself...what a handyman!

I was able to break in the double oven over the holidays :) I love our updated kitchen!

Santa Cecilia Extra (I liked it because of the red garnet)

Granite galore!

And Marlie (above, on the floor) blends in with the granite now! The dogs love to lay on the rugs in there, right under our feet :)

DFW Granite installed the granite (we just had to pick it out of the 100's that we liked), the cooktop (gas, whoohoo), and sink. They also did the backsplash tile, which I got to pick out :) We love our new kitchen, and spend lots of time in there cooking/baking up a storm!

All we have left to do is to refinish the pickled cabinets (which we want to do all throughout the house), because we think they need a little splash of contemporary! We thought about staining them, but that is a BIG job. So, we are going to try and glaze them (I will first experiment on the tool cabinets in the garage).

Now, we still have a couple of projects on our list. AHHH! Like I said, never-ending. Brett wants to re-tile the fireplace in all of his spare time. And I have textured and painted the master bath. Plus we want stained concrete for the floors in the bathroom, a frameless shower, and saloon doors/wood floors for the closet. Can you tell we are going for an "old-western" theme? We'll be sure to post pictures of the master and guest bathrooms once they are complete!