Renovation Nation: The Rest of the House

Instead of creating multiple blogs for relatively minor updates, I figured I would simply create one post and include all of the photos – since, well, we all know you’d rather see the “before and after” anyway!

What used to be the office – now one of our tenant’s kids rooms

The master bedroom – thanks to Pam and Grace for their painting skills!

The spare bedroom (aka Amy’s Room) – now painted hot pink and blue for our tenant’s daughter

Hallway – all new paint

All new doors!

Living room – thanks to Jonelle and Chris, and my mom for helping paint!

Dining room

The entryway – repainted a darker brown, and also a new chandelier

The downstairs bedroom pre-reno

The downstairs bedroom – with new carpet!!!!

The floor – not yet tiled

Almost tiled

New tile! Thank goodness the carpet is gone…

New chandelier

Renovation Nation: The Kitchen

I have to admit, after the bathroom renovations, everything else just seems small in comparison.  Yet for me, I think the kitchen was my own personal triumph (me being Michelle).

Our kitchen is an old kitchen, but a workable one.  I hate the countertops, despise the fact that they couldn’t bring the cabinets to the ceiling, and am extremely confused by the fridge being on two different floor surfaces, but on the plus-side, the cabinets are large, the kitchen is big, and there’s lots of counterspace.

Instead of ripping the whole place apart, I decided to paint the cabinets and the walls and install all new hardware.  Brilliant me decided to do it on a weekend that Keith was away.  I should’ve know better when I began taking down the doors that it was going to be a long, grueling weekend.

I’m fairly certain the cabinets were never cleaned prior to our living there – or they were running a grease restaurant.  Each cabinet face was somewhat disfigured by painted-over dirt and grime.  I removed all of the hardware, and got to work cleaning and painting.

Lucky me had no idea the cabinet hardware was original to the house, and is no longer mass produced (as I learned from four different hardware stores).  So – all new hinges which I installed with a driver instead of a drill (how should I know the difference?) and mostly, with some elbow grease.

The result of all of this hard work?  A whole new kitchen!  After the paint went on the walls, I couldn’t believe how much brighter, cleaner, and happier the room looked.  From its drabby gray walls and plastic hardware to some brushed nickel and celery green paint, it was a total transformation.

Check it out below.  What do you think?  Did the hard work pay off?

The gray wall color and the white plastic hardware just made the place look drab

Pulled off all of the cabinet faces and repainted the cabinets themselves

It looks so much different when you have x-ray vision

All of our countertop items

I attempted to label the cabinet faces so I knew where they would go when I put them back on – it was not successful

Fresh paint on the cabinets and all new hardware

Looking much better already – just need to clean up and paint the walls

And the finished product – new paint included!

I love the light green – it brightens up the place

Next up on Renovation Nation (Bauer Edition)?  The Bedrooms!

Renovation Nation: The Bathrooms

Y’all excited to see the results of our renovations?  How could you not be?  After all, now that we no longer live in our house, it’s not really possible for you to come over for a visit and check it out.

We thought we’d begin with the bathrooms.  That’s right – plural bathrooms.  Over the summer, we tore down the walls on the ground level of our house and began a major construction project with our awesome contractor, SE Kitchen and Bath.

After years of being unable to use the downstairs toilet due to a layout that ought to make a photosite of bad design somewhere, it was extraordinarily exciting to start the process.  We tore down the walls and ceilings ourselves (okay, mostly Keith – I emptied out the rubbish and put a nail through my toe) and our contractor did the rest.

He installed a new toilet, vanity, lighting, and – yes – a shower!  New tile floors, and a newly created laundry room with California closet.  Heaven on earth!

I can’t seem to locate the pre-reno photos, so you’ll have to do with only the post-reno ones.  Check it out in the gallery below.

Upstairs, the construction was a little less severe.  With tiles falling through the wall, we knew we had to do something.  (Turns out the tiles were placed on sheetrock, and not the hardy backer-board that is much sturdier, resists mold and is designed for tile and bathroom use.)

We tore apart the shower, raised the showerhead quite a bit to match Keith’s height, and ripped up the floor.  New tile was installed by our Russian friends at V&S Tile.  We decided to go all the way to the ceiling with it – it just looks better.  The floor was also tiled, and with new base molding, a few coats of paint, and new hardware in the shower, it is indeed a prettier, cleaner, nicer bathroom.

What do you think of the upgrades upstairs?

UPSTAIRS BATH: Looking into the bath pre-renovation

Vinyl floors

Old tile

Old bath – tile is only 3/4 up the window

The showerhead is so low, Keith gets hit in the chest when it’s tilted as far up as possible

Old door

Ripping apart the tile

NEW bath tile!

All the way to the ceiling

Pretty floor tile (no more vinyl!)

Reinstalling the cabinets

Painted the bathroom a darker blue

Pretty white tile

All done!

DOWNSTAIRS BATH: The corner of the bath – we had to put a curtain up because a wall is not feasible

Looking into the laundry room

The laundry room

New washer and dryer

New closet

New vanity

Next up on Renovation Nation (Bauer Edition)?  The kitchen!

Terra Cotta

As many of you know, we’ve been doing a lot of home updates lately, including staining our deck.  So far, we’ve gotten a portion of it done, but it’s still a work in progress.  Thought you might be interested to see the new color!

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A New Coat of Paint

These last few months we’ve been transforming our home into something worth the rent we’d like to see.  From adding on shutters to crown molding in the living room, it’s all a process.

Recently, we started work on our back deck and front porch.  We painted the porch (twice), planted three sand cherry bushes out front, covered them in black night cedar chips, and then had our driveway sealcoated. All we can say is WOW!  It has made such a difference to the front of our home!

The back deck is a process.  We just recently finished washing, powerwashing, and washing again.  There’s one coat on a few pillars and rails which looks just like we’d like, so we’re excited to see the finished product.

What do you think of the changes?

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Name That Bug

Whoever told me that preparing our house for renters would be easier than preparing it for sale, please comment below so I can smack you in the head.

This weekend, we started some of the minor and major overhauls necessary over the next five months.  It started with the fun (and disgusting) job of powerwashing the gutters, followed by another lovely coat of gray paint on the porch.  After all was said and done, I think the house has a lot more curb appeal than it started out with.  Plus, I’ve always wanted to hang up a wet paint sign!

Next, we decided to tackle the fire pit.  As we began to dig, all I could imagine was being in an episode of Bones and finding myself clunking my shovel on a buried human skull.

Fortunately, we found only one disgusting and revolting thing in the ground – a bug!  What it is, I don’t know.  I’ll give you a lollipop if you can tell me.  What I do know is that it started pooping the very second it became exposed – and boy oh boy did it poop!

We dug for a few hours, and filled up Keith’s truck with the remnants of an old stump, firewood, and stuff that I’d rather consider dirt than the awkward brown mush it appeared to be.  After that, we piled the stones as best as we could to keep a large fire pit, and voila!  It may not be the best in the world, or as beautifully perfect as our neighbors, but it’s functional and free of weeds, trash, and giant, mucusy bugs.

To celebrate the day, I beat Keith at miniature golf.  Seriously!  I did!  I would say this is the second time I’ve ever beaten him at anything.  The first time was Trivial Pursuit.  I wiuld’ve kicked his butt in Monopoly way back when we played with Lesley and Nishant, but he decided he was too bored with the game to continue.  Oddly enough, this was about thirty seconds after I collected nearly all of his money in rent when he landed on one of my properties.

Maybe you’re not as keen as I am to watch home improvements, but I hope you at least mildly enjoy the transformation!

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