Remodel Update: Upstairs Tile

since i've been in phoenix this week, i've been anxious to see how the house was coming along. this is a big week: tiling the bathroom, countertops installed, sanding and staining the hardwoods. exciting stuff.

well, just a little bathroom teaser for you: liz sent me pictures of the bathroom tile (pre-grout). it's lovely! enjoy!

Upholstered Panels

ok, so a HUGE part of this remodel has been asking the question "how can we use as much of what they already have" and do something new and fun with it? just because you're redoing your house, doesn't mean you need to throw everything away and start over!

well, one challenge has been my parents' current bedroom suite. the bed is a king size monstrosity that they have had since they got married. the wood is really dark and it can just be overbearing. well, step 1 is to pare it down. we are letting my dad keep his wardrobe from the set and only using one (instead of both) nightstands. step 2 was figuring out what to do with the headboard. it is a huge wall unit of sorts and has all these panels. our first thought was to upholster each individual panel but that seemed like it was going to be too precise for us. long story short, we decided we would upholster the entire head board. but given the construction of the headboard, we were allowed to upholster panels that we will slide up into the headboard (this will all make much more sense when the after picture is posted with the upstairs before and afters).

so here are the very easy steps on how to do a project like this:

step 1:

get all your pieces. you will need your fabric, batting, panels (if necessary). you will also need scissors and a staple gun.

step 2:

lay the panel (or whatever is to be upholstered) on the batting and cut around it, allowing for the length to be folded around to the back.

step 3:

staple the batting to the back of the paneling, pulling it tight as you go.

step 4: repeat step 3, only this time with the fabric. (when using a striped fabric, it's even more important to make sure you get it straight. luckily, our stripes are so close together you go cross-eyed if you look at it too long so it's not as obvious if you do mess up)

step 5:

admire.

i love using liz as a model.

Remodel Update: Upstairs Demo

(liz asked me to "do that thing where you focus on one thing and everything else is blurry" so i did. i just think this picture is funny)

SO many of you have been interested in remodel pictures, we have honestly been overwhelmed. it's so sweet that y'all care. (p.s. i get lots of emails, tweets and messages...is there anything i can do to get people to leave comments? do i need to ask questions?)

anyway, i will be doing full before and after pictures once the upstairs rooms are completely done (which should be around the first of february!). for now, here are some "in between" pictures. by this point (in the pictures) we have already ripped up the nasty gray carpet. don't worry. it will be displayed in all it's glory in the before pictures. the hardwoods started going down on thursday (not pictured). we had a slight mis-measurement and they will hopefully be done by mid week. we went with a 5" white oak. haven't picked out the stain yet, but it's gonna be gor.geous. we have also painted all the rooms. but all that will be shown in the afters.

the former "middle bedroom" (because it is in the middle of the hall)/junk room. this will be the office when all is said and done. nothing too exciting here except fixing some awful water damage in the ceiling (which was already patched at this point but you can see how nasty it made the walls).

the bathroom was probably the funniest project because it involved hanging beadboard which involved me and liz sweet talking david and jd into helping - which they did because they are great and selfless and awesome. but it also meant that we were cutting and liquid nailsing and nailgunning and leveling until 10 pm one night. but it's done and it's great. now, to tile!

here we have my old bedroom. unfortunately, the stripe theme was one i chose as a freshman in college. not as a 12 year old.

the bonus room off of my bedroom that will forthwith be known as the playroom. the racing stripe was there when we originally moved in, and although it is heinous it went well with my nascar collection, so it remained. well, see ya rainbow stripe.

this is liz's old bedroom:

we will be replacing this awesome ceiling fan with...

this awesome chandelier (that was really cheap and came in the wrong color...so we spray painted it.)

Life Update

this weekend we were in atlanta to meet our new nephew (pictures forthcoming, of course). monday night we worked til 10 pm. the boys came and helped us hang bead board in the bathroom. they are amazing. they also got free pizza. so, mom is awesome, too.

last night was small group. first time in a group since moving to birmingham. it was awesome. however, we miss our nights with the peters. and then tonight i had another late night, so instead of getting groceries, i stopped by mcdonald's on the way home.

the good news is that i got everything done. hardwoods are being laid (lain? laid.) tomorrow, and i successfully got all the rooms painted and everything off the floors (if you only knew what a feat that was.)

this is how i feel right now. hopefully there will be posts soon of the updated remodel and of baby jackson but for now, i need some sleep. and a shower.

Remodel Update

this has been our first week back at the grind. we had to take a hiatus to granny sit for a week after a sudden and unexpected hospitalization (never fear, dear ole granny is doing great) and then, naturally, we took the week of christmas off. so things are moving right along on the upstairs.

monday, we were removing wallpaper upstairs in my old bonus room (that's right, a random room that was only off my bedroom...score!) and we were a little delirious. next thing i know liz is dancing across the back of the room saying, "dancin's all about the freestyle." i'll let you be the judge.

then, also on monday, we were moving some things into the attic and our dog began to attack a bat that was stuck to a glue board (one of those things you put down to catch bugs and such). it made awful noises and liz and i screamed and ran out of the attic only to realize andy had brought the bat with him. i don't think i'll ever fully get over the hissing sounds and sonar clicking we had to endure. thankfully, there were boys there cutting down some tree limbs that were gracious enough to come in and dispose of the bat. but i decided to go back and take a picture once we were sure it was dead.

then we started on the bathroom. say good-bye to hideous blue hexagonal tile and matching blue countertops. it will be a wondrous world of white once we're done.

Remodelers

so i am supposed to be blogging this experience. and i haven't been. but i promised i would start. liz and i are both currently unemployed and my mom has been wanting to do some work on her house for over a year now. so with these powers combined, it has turned into a project headed up by liz and me. it has been quite an experience so far and we are still very much in the beginning stages.

we spend a lot of time like this trying to figure out what in the hell we are doing:

thankfully, liz is a designer so she knows a lot of this stuff. i'm really good for bouncing ideas off of, though.

and we have been doing some basic wallpaper tearing down, ceiling scraping, etc.

we are really just ready for demo to begin. like the real demo that involves sledgehammers and destruction. it will be good times. this little house deserves it. mom and dad deserve it.