transformation in progress: bathroom (days 2 & 3)

Apparently, chronicling a project is not my strong suit. Despite my spotty photojournalism, Evan and Curtis have been HARD at work! Here’s what’s been going on:

Day 2 (Friday)

By midday Friday, this is what was left of the bathroom floor. They ripped up all of the laminate and plywood floor…. goodbye pink roses!!

 

 
After a massive trip to Lowes (thank goodness for Evan’s truck and expertise!), the reconstruction began. They began cutting and laying the rockboard, piecing the floor back together.

 

 
Several months ago, we bought a one-piece bath/shower insert at a clearance lot (for only $25!). We were pretty excited about the money and time saved by not having to tile the shower. However, our doorframe did not like the idea- the insert wouldn’t fit through. Oops! Result- a lovely new white tub and another trip to the tile store by me!

 

Cooper LOVES (I repeat, LOVES) to watch the action in the bathroom. Before the new bathtub was put in, he kept holding his hands up in an “I don’t know” gesture and saying, “bath?”. Pretty confusing for a little guy.

 

Day 3 (Saturday)

 
Curtis got an early start on Saturday, cutting and attaching some sheetrock to the walls. Evan joined him shortly and started working on the (many) plumbing issues.

 

This is what he had to work with. Can you see that?? They assured me that this was the drain pipe so I wasn’t quite as disgusted. Needless to say, though, the pipes needed a lot of love. Evan spent most of the morning dealing with those.

 

 
Thankfully, the boys had some extra help. Our friend Ben generously volunteered his Saturday, spending most of it helping Curtis hang drywall. I even had some extra help too! Kelly, Evan’s fun wife, agreed to help me shop for tile. Since I am the world’s worst decision-maker, it helps to bring someone along who will give me a firm opinion. I love that!

The workday ended a little early. Curtis and I took yet another trip to Lowes and made it back just in time to join Evan & Kelly and watch Tennessee hold their own against Florida. Our great friends Seth, Katie, and sweet baby Emery even came over to watch part of the game with us! All in all, I think it was a much-needed boost for the boys’ weary souls. Of course, a win might’ve been an even bigger boost. :)

More on today’s progress later… slowly but surely, we’re getting there!

transformation in progress : bathroom (day 1)

I absolutely hate doing things out of order… I think it is the bit of OCD with which my parents blessed me. :) This was too fun an opportunity, though, not to let you be a part of the process.

First, let me introduce you, just the way we were introduced 4 years ago…

 
The downstairs bathroom. The pink bathroom. When we bought this house, I swore that this would be the first room that we renovated. The first. *Drapery alert!*

 

With gold, cream, and pink as the main decor, it was about as 60’s- and unacceptable- as you can get.

 The gold trim on the cabinets had been hand painted on. To coordinate with the staircase, perhaps??

 

Now, let me show you the bathroom today. Or yesterday, to be exact…

Wait. That can’t be right. Exactly the same?

Yes. Exactly. Hold on. No. We did take down the draperies.

 

But, finally, it was time. Time for transformation…

 
Curtis (my excellently handyman of a husband)  and Evan (our roommate/personal contractor) tackled the paneling first.

 

And there was lots of carrying OUT. AWAY. It was so good for my heart! First, the cabinetry.

 

 
Then, the pink 15-gallon per flush toilet.

 

 
They even managed to get the pink cast iron tub out and into Evan’s truck! Of course, it took two extra sets of hands and caused some slight property damage. But it’s gone. In fact, the scrap metal place paid $20 for it!

 

 
They ended the day just in time for Thursday TV night, which is pretty sacred in our house.

 

 
Not bad for 1/2 a day’s work!

Hopefully, I can post on today’s (Day 2) work later tonight.

transformations: cooper’s room

I discovered this picture after I had already posted about the loft and was kicking myself for not including it… so I’m including it now. :)  This is the loft as it was during one of our pre-purchase visits to the house. I didn’t want you to miss out on the window treatments in all their glory. They will be in full effect throughout the house, so be excited.

 

The second bedroom upstairs (I think of ours as the first) has been through a few evolutions since we moved into the house. It started like this:

Unfortunately, this is the only picture that I took of this room before we bought the house. Please please don’t miss the DRAPERIES. I feel like “draperies” is the only appropriate word to use in this instance. They were heavy dark curtains that extended all the way from one wall to the other. Again I ask, “really??”

 

We ripped down the draperies as soon as possible, though the removal of the rod took a little more work. It seriously took chunks out of the drywall on both sides of the window, which I then had to patch. Check out that nice golden light fixture above!

We then primed the walls and ceiling, painted the ceiling, and had new carpet put in. Since we weren’t planning on kids for a few years, we deemed the bedroom a game room. We even bought a foosball table for it (off of Craigslist, obviously)!

Not long after we moved in, Curtis had to go to Africa for 2 weeks and was gone over his birthday. I decided to finish the game room in style for his birthday present. I painted the foosball table black (instead of the tacky bright green pattern that it was before), tried several paint colors until I found an appropriate “Carolina blue” for the walls, and gathered all of our Carolina and UT paraphernalia (jerseys, flags, posters, newspaper clippings, knick-knacks, etc.) to use as decor.

 

 
I am sad that this silly picture is the only one I have because it was at the beginning of the process and really shows nothing of the room. Who am I that I didn’t take a single picture of the finished product?! By the end, it was a sight to see.  To take it up a few more levels of craziness, I bought a UT lantern light to hang in the dormer, framed pictures of Michael Jordan and Peyton Manning (in their college years, of course), a dartboard, an orange trashcan and two orange beanbags. Curtis may have been a bit overwhelmed when he came home, but he definitely liked it.

When we found out about Cooper, the room began another transformation. First, the trim was finally painted white (note the dirty tan color in the above photo). Then, we painted the walls tan and created the nursery… albeit very slowly over the next two years, which means that it wasn’t actually done until Cooper was probably 1 1/2. Poor kid.

This is the room in all its finalized glory!

 

If you look to the left immediately as you enter his room, this is what you see. It is the dormer on the front of our house, and provides a cozy nook for this twin bed (Cooper’s “big boy bed” someday?). Otherwise, it’s pretty boring and utilitarian- the only time we use it is to change diapers.

 

On your right as you walk in is the highlight of the room: “Marmee’s quilt”. Curtis’ talented mom (aka Marmee aka Cathy) made this quilt especially for Cooper. I wish you could see it in person because it is amazing… lots of textures and cool patterns thanks to her free-form quilting. Amazing!

 

 
Cooper’s bed… where he’s spent about 1/2 of his life so far. Crazy!  His room is an African safari theme, I guess. Don’t you love the cute animals? You’ll notice more (of the stuffed variety) around the room.

 

A close-up of the bedding: Cathy also helped me in the fabric-choosing process but ran out of time to make the bedding herself, so she got a little help. It turned out fabulously!

 

 
Most of our book-reading takes place in that rocking chair, mainly before naptime and bedtime. It is literally the only wakeful time in Cooper’s day that he is still. His favorites right now are “Llama Llama Red Pajama” and just about anything that has the word “truck” or “tractor” in it. Any suggestions?

Last FYI: one of my very first sewing experiences (with a TON of help from my mom… the other talented seamstress in my life) was adding the fabric to the top and bottom of the curtains. Anyone who wants to tell me how incredible that looks, please don’t hesitate. :)

Thanks for checking in! Now I’m off to pack for Windy Gap Women’s Weekend. So, so excited!

transformations: stairway and loft

Like I said, we’ll start upstairs. Or, at least, on the stairs. When we bought this house, the rail up the staircase was one of the most strikingly awful parts.

 
It was a wrought iron handrail, painted white and then spray-painted with gold polka dots. I mean, seriously?

 

If you had walked up those stairs four years ago, this is what you would have seen. Please note the carpet. The lines you see on it? They were odd, dark streaks of dirt on top of already filthy carpet, maybe in the seams (?). My guess is that the carpet had not been vacuumed in years. Literally. Maybe 12.

 

Standing on the other side of the loft and looking back at the stairs, you get another view of the railing. Still hideous. We had just taken down the box frames from around each of the windows. I can’t remember what one calls that “design element”, but they were awful. The light fixtures, as you can tell, weren’t much better.

 

One more, just so you have a full understanding of this “before”.

 

So, we got to work. Curtis tore out the iron railing and lugged it out of the house (with a lot of help). I removed the carpet and carpet pad, which literally disintegrated as I tried to pull it up. I am not exaggerating when I say that I had brown stuff in my nose for days from breathing in that stuff. Gross.

 

Cathy (Curtis’ mom) along with a few other family and friends, helped us with the massive amount of priming that had to be done to the walls and ceilings upstairs. Seriously- EVERY wall and ceiling in the whole house had to be primed and painted. Every one.

 

 
This shot was taken a few months later… we aren’t the quickest to finish a project. It often seemed like the work it took to make a space livable and decent was all that we had in us.  That, you will notice, is a theme in our family’s renovation technique. And not necessarily a good one. Anyway, you can see here that the railing is gone, the hardwoods have been refinished and a carpet rug put down.

 

Fast forward to 2009: the completed space.

 
The beautiful, heart pine staircase.

 

 
Check out that beautiful railing installed by Curtis!

 

The view from the top of the stairs.

One thing I love about the loft is its conglomeration of furniture. The couch and side table are from Curtis’ parents. We bought the armoire on craigslist for $30. Curtis nabbed the chair in college from friends who were throwing it out (what were they thinking??). The small bookcase was a freebie from an old job. The large bookcase, as seen in the next pic, was given to us as a part of the DIY show done in our garage. Much more on that later.

 

 
Looking towards Cooper’s room.

 

 
Standing at our bedroom door looking back towards the stairs. We debated long and hard, but eventually decided to replace the light fixtures. :)

 

 
Standing at Cooper’s door. Note the beautiful light coming through the windows. I always thought I would buy some roman shades or something, but I actually love the simplicity of the bare windows. And window treatments are expensive! :)

So… that’s the loft! Next: Cooper’s bedroom.

transformations

In thinking about the possibility of moving at the end of the year, we’ve become a little nostalgic about our house. As much as we have complained about the never-ending projects and the ails of living in a 70 year old house, it was our first “baby” in a lot of ways. We have invested in this home for four years… money, time, energy. It was the first house that we bought together and we truly love it.

We want you to love it too! To show you how far it has come (and to record it for ourselves), we’re going to showcase each area of the house and how it has evolved over the years.  We’ll start upstairs because I’m hoping, by the time I get all of that documented, the whole downstairs will be ready to unveil (which includes a few major projects that are so far unfinished). Delay tactics. :)  And maybe some extra motivation!?

During our first few house tours (pre-purchase), Curtis kept saying, “Are you sure this house can be cute??” After a lot of reassurance and speeches about “potential” from his mom (who happens to be super-gifted at interior design) and me, he was in. Just check out these coming posts and each “before” picture and you might understand his hesitation…

home sweet home

I knew as soon as I saw this adorable Cape Cod house online four years ago:  it was the one.

 

In my opinion, it was the only house in all of Knoxville with true character that was also in our meager price range.

 

After looking at far too many 60’s ranchers and 90’s cookie-cutter houses, this one stood out like a diamond in the rough.

 

It was original! And big! And beautiful! And old!

Once we were inside the house, however, the “old” was pretty much all we could see. More on that another day.

 

Mrs. Covington, the elderly woman from whom we bought the house, was kind enough to share some stories and pictures from her 40+ years on Twining Drive. First she left this:

In actuality only a photocopy of a picture, it is still one of our greatest treasures. Our house was built in 1940, so our guess is that this picture was taken not long after. I love the dirt roads and the simplicity!  Which one is our house, you wonder?

 

That one. :)  It was apparently the first house built in the area. Not long after, the homeowner also built his daughter a house nearby. Very nearby. Right down the hill. Whoa, daddy.

 

It’s amazing to realize how much life has taken place somewhere before you even existed. And how different that life must have been! (is that a horse barn??)

 

After a 2nd owner lived in the house for a short time, the Covingtons (the family who sold us the house) moved in about 1961. They completed a massive overhaul in their first few years, and left behind pictures of the process:

The front of the house during construction. February 1963, as you can barely tell from the edge of the picture.

 

The back of the house. What is especially cool about this is that the 2nd floor was originally exactly like the front of the house-two dormers (see previous picture). When the Covingtons moved in, they built an addition between the two dormers and created a living area upstairs (which we refer to as the loft). I guess you could say they raised the roof.

Wow. That was bad.

 

More work on the back. We don’t know all that they did during this time, but we know one thing for sure: though the outside didn’t change too drastically (thank goodness), the 1960’s certainly left their mark on the inside of the house.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is what they call a teaser.