A Home of Our Own

I know its been a while, but we finally just put the finishing touches on our kitchen and I have the pictures to prove it!!! It is probably my favorite spot in the house so far, because I got to add things to make it my kitchen. Like mis-matched knobs from Anthropologie and Pier 1 Imports, and we also put up some floating shelves where I can display some of my pottery and some knickknacks I’ve collected over the years.

We still plan on getting a portable chef’s block that has some more storage underneath just to give us that little bit more of counter space, so that is really the only thing missing. But, we installed a breakfast bar in the throughway from the kitchen into the dinning room, which already is helping with counter space.

I can’t wait to actually gut and remodel the entire kitchen eventually, but right now I am so happy with my little creative kitchen. 

So with out further delay…here are the pictures!!

This is before…

This is the only picture I have of the kitchen, but you really don’t need to see how gross the rest of it is. The cabinets pictures are also to the left of the door way that is pictured. There was a floor to ceiling pantry and cabinets that would go around a fridge.

!!!! I still cannot believe the difference. We put up b-board once we ripped out the old cabinets and kept the tile that was there before. Added some white base cabinets from home depot and a counter and it’s like we gutting the kitchen and re-did it! We also decided to buy a wardrobe and use it as storage for things like glasses, pans and other kitchen things. 

The view from the throughway in the dinning room to the doorway that would lead downstairs. This is where the old cabinets stretched to. They went up to the ceiling and were awful and rotting. 

Our bar! It kind of reminds me of the bar we had in our basement, only better because I can sit there with my coffee and breakfast and actually look out the window!

Another view. The whole in the wall above the stove is our exhaust fan that we need to get a new motor for…so for now it’s just a pretty whole.

My knobs!!! I love them so much. It’s my favorite part of my kitchen.

Next will be some pictures of our living room and dining room! I promise it wont be as long as a wait!

Until next time

xo

Cait

I know it’s been a while, and last I posted we had actually gotten the house and I put up some pictures of it. But now I finally have the time to put up some before & after pictures!! We only worked on two rooms and a bathroom, just on the downstairs part of the house. We decided we would make it livable for Rick and I downstairs, and then we could start working on gutting and re-doing the upstairs of the house.

So, here it is!

Although you can’t really see it, in that very tiny door way is our bathroom. Its a super small bathroom with stall shower to the left of the door. But we added a mirror, some lights, and a cabinet to make it more comfortable, and this is what it looks like now..

So onto our living room of the moment. Boring white walls, cold tiled floor…nothing very special at all. This is what it used to look like,

And now…we have nice warm carpet! We added a little color to the walls and put in some recessed lighting and added some art, and this is our living room now …with a touch of christmas 

When we moved in, Rick and I went a little over board and decided that we needed a flat screen TV. I have to say, I’m really glad we did it, watching movies looks so much better!

Onto the last room! We re-did the bedroom, which before was a really scary bright yellow, and again..had the same cold tiled floor as the living room. So, this is the before..

We added some really comfy carpet, put a really awesome looking blueish grey on the walls. Added a nice ceiling fan light and of course…all the art work and our things, and now this is my favorite room in the house!

The pictures really don’t do the rooms justice. Its amazing to feel the difference in the rooms with just some cleaning and some fresh paint! The carpet also made both rooms a lot more comfortable and also, a lot warmer than if we just put down area rugs over the tile. 

Right now we are just starting to work on the kitchen. We’ve torn out all the old cabinets and just put up some base cabinets, a counter and sink for now, just so we have something to cook in. We’ll have this kitchen maybe for a year or a year and a half before we really gut and redo the kitchen. Once the kitchen is all done, I’ll post pictures of that!

Until next time!

xo

Cait

Well, it finally happened for us! We finally got the keys to our house, and last week we were able to get in there and start cleaning it! It’s kind of unreal still, the fact that we have a house…a huge house, but at the time it is unbelievably exciting as well. So, the plan from here is to get it up to living standards and then December we are moving in! We have done a lot already to just make it look better, like cut the lawn, rake up all the leaves, get rid of all the garbage laying around the house and yard. We had some other things to fix as well, like some rotting window sills, parts of the gutter in the front of the house, and painting some columns in the front of the house, but already it looks so much better!

This weekend we start demolition on the entire upstairs. We’re going to tear out all the sheetrock in the three bed rooms upstairs, and gut the entire bathroom up there as well. We’re also tearing out the cabinets in the kitchen because they are all rotted and disgusting. Temporarily, we are just going to put in a small counter and sink to use as a kitchen until the spring time, only because the cabinets are so bad.

As far as the bedrooms and bathrooms go, we are going to re-sheet rock them all. Probably close off the bathroom that is in the upstairs already to make it a master bath, and add a small half bath. Basically just bringing all the bedrooms up to date!

My guess is that we wont be finished with the bedrooms until at least March, but we have a decent sized room to move into in the downstairs of the house until the upstairs is finished. I know we are in for a ton of work, probably more than we even realize right now, but I’m so excited for it! I’m excited to watch the transformation. I’m excited to be able to put in my ideas. I’m even more excited to see how awesome it is all going to look when it’s done!

So, for now I have some pictures of the house the way it is right now. And as we go through each step, I will be taking even more pictures. Finally, I’ll be updating this blog the way I intended to! Let the fun begin!

So, this is our two car garage. AKA Rick’s man cave.

This is our side yard. Its a lot bigger in person, which is awesome. I can’t wait to have time to have a garden back there.

Our narrow back yard! I’m picturing a fire pit back there some where…

So, it’s a bi-level house, this is the stairs from downstairs, up to the landing at the door and then up to the upstairs.

View from the living room upstairs, into the kitchen a little bit and down the hall way to the bedrooms.

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This is the view at the top of the stairs into our living room.

Our dinning room.

Our kitchen! Don’t you love how the dishwasher matches the cabinets? I’m really going to miss that.

Hallway to the bedrooms.

Bedroom number 1

Bedroom number 2

Master bedroom.

Bathroom.

View from the bathroom from the master bedroom.

This is the view out of the bathroom into the hallway. This is what we want to close off, and put another bathroom in that little hallway with the closets.

The downstairs. Where we have a utilities room, another bedroom, and another family room.

This is the downstairs family room.

View from in the family room, the back doors, and thats another really small full bathroom.

And the downstairs bedroom! This is where Rick and I will be living until the upstairs is finished! 

Until next time!

xo

Cait

So, it’s been a while since I’ve last written in here. I blame the frustration of the process of trying to buy a house. We have been in a long, long battle with a short sale for some months now. However, we got some really amazing news around the end of September that we were approved to go into closing and from there it should only be a matter of about 30 days until the house was finally ours!

Well, in a perfect world, that might have been true. At first it was smooth sailing, everything seemed to be falling into place, and our expected date to close on the house was October 14th. Unfortunately, the people that are selling the house have been renting it out month-to-month for the last four months. Now, when we went into closing for the house, the renters were told that the house was sold and they had 30 days to start looking for a new place to live. I guess I should have known right off the bat that buying a house where there were people renting was a bad idea, but I was giving these people the benefit of the doubt. Assuming that when they were told the house was sold they would at least try and get out.

Again, in a perfect world… Just when we thought we were in the clear and with a little more than a week left before we were set to close on the house we hit a wall. The renters have no intentions of getting out of the house any time soon! In fact, they want to stay there through the holidays! I get it, I’m sure these people aren’t in the best financial situation, who really is these days? I’m sure having a place to stay in through the holidays would be nice for them, and this probably is not the time of year that they want to stress out in finding a place to live. But, the house is not yours! You are renting out a house that is on the market to be sold, what did you expect to happen when the house was actually sold?

On top of all that, there is damage in the house that happened after we last looked at the house. Damage that these renters caused. Obviously the house isn’t the best looking by any means. It’s a project house, a house that we are planning on putting a lot of work into to bring it up-to-date. However the house had good bones. A great structure to work with, hardwood floors that really didn’t need much work except for some cleaning, and the walls were in good shape for the most part. There was nothing major that we had to do before we moved into the house. That is not the case anymore. According to the appraisers that went into the house, the hardwood floors have been destroyed by a leak from the wall mounted air conditioning unit the renters have been running. A leak that the renters made no attempt to fix. At first we had suggested that the renters use their security deposit to fix the floors, because that would have been the logical answer, right? Wrong. The renters have already worked out a deal of some sorts with the sellers using their security deposit.

So, basically, the renters have destroyed the floors, making more work for us. They also don’t care about the house at all, because it isn’t their house to begin with. It is just something for them to live in until they find a place more permanent. The seller could care less about the house because technically they do not own it anymore. The bank does. The seller is renting out the house, making money off the renters and just milking it for all its worth by also taking the security deposit for their own use instead of using the money for what it is actually for - to cover any damages on the house left by the renters.

Our next move? I’m not really sure. We are suppose to close on the house tomorrow, but we will not close if there are people living in it. That would mean we would have to go into the process of eviction if the renters don’t get out - and that is too costly and messy for us. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the bank gives us an extension until the end of the month to close on the house, maybe by then the renters will be out. Even if the bank does give us an extension, who is to say the renters will be out by then? They want to stay there through the holidays! So, it’s either we get an extension on the closing of the house, or we have to walk away after already putting thousands of dollars into this process.

Walk away…Walk away from waiting on this house for almost six months now. Walk away just because we are stuck dealing with some really awful people that are doing some shady deals and cannot just get out of a house that is not theirs. We would walk away and have to start all over again.

At this point, if we have to walk away I never want to deal with a short sale again. I don’t want to even bother with having a house. I don’t even want to try looking again for this all to end badly all over again. At this point, all these backward steps in this house buying process is just making me feel like it is a bad omen. That this house deal was a bad idea to begin with because you put way too much effort into trying to get it, to only have it not work out in the end anyway.

All I want to to be out on my own. That is all I have wanted for the past forever. Now I can finally afford it, and this damn short sale is keeping me from it. I could be living in an apartment by now. I could be out on my own. But, I’m not, because I got caught up in the idea that owning a house would be better. At this point, it’s not. It was the worst idea. Sure I’d be paying rent on a place that isn’t my own. I’d be throwing money out, so to speak…but who cares!!! I am twenty four years old, I do not need to be living in a house that is too big for my taste right now.

I feel in love with the idea of the project house. With the idea of making it my own, of being the reason behind the scenes that the house had character, was beautiful, and well maintained. I can do that with an apartment. At this point, that is all I want. A place to call my own. A place I can decorate and put my style into. A place to have friends over, a place to be able to cook in a kitchen and not feel like I’m getting in the way.

So, sorry I’ve been on such a long hiatus. My inspiration that is supposed to fill this blog has been blocked for a while. I’m hoping it will come back. I’m hoping that it will come back soon. Until then…

Adios. 

Through all of my searching for inspiration on the internet for decorating ideas I have come across so, so, sooo many great DIY projects that I cannot wait to try when I actually have space to put them! I honestly have endless projects bookmarked in hopes that I can actually find the time to do some of these things. Of course, not only do I have internet pages book marked, but I also have quite a few craft books that have about 20 DIY projects book marked in each. I guess I will be a very busy girl once I finally have a house! I guess this means I’m going to need a craft room…

This belted chair is a must for me. Recently, my mom and I have had a habit of driving by people’s houses and finding treasures in their trash to save. Most of the time it’s old beat up chairs like the one pictured just waiting for someone to give it a new life! Now all I need to do is get a collection going of old belts!

I’m going to need to step my game up with wine drinking to get this project done. Or just start a collection of wine corks in general like my Mom has done to do projects at her store. Either way, I love how this looks, and it seems so easy! Definitely a really cool way to make a bathroom unique!

This is mirror project seems super easy to do as well. And, it seems like Restoration Hardware sells a mirror exactly like it for hundreds of dollars! Its always really cool to find a cheap way to re-do a really cool designer mirror. Might look really cool in a bathroom..

This tree branch lamp is probably by far the coolest DIY project I’ve come across yet. I’m not electrical person, thats why I have my boyfriend to help me with things like this! Now all I need to do is find a really great tree branch that can stand up like the one in this picture and I am so testing out this project!

One thing that I really cannot wait for when I actually have a place and I the have time to have a garden. A garden and a nice place to sit outside and enjoy a nice summer night or a cool fall night around a fire pit. These little garden globes look really, really easy to do and make a great ambiance for a nice relaxing outdoor escape!

Another really cool and super easy mirror idea. This sunburst mirror is an awesome, and I love the ability to get really creative with it by painting it whatever color or putting a really great detail around the center of the mirror. Would be pretty cool to hang up at the end of a hallway or something like that.

I love, love, love this lace lamp project. I’ve already been collecting doilys from antique stores and flea markets trying to get just the right ones to get the look I’m going for. I’m really searching for the perfectly stained doilies just to bring a little character to the lamp. Yes, I know I could tea stain them myself, but where is the fun in that?

This is probably a little out of my league, but I’m willing to try it out! An etched map serving tray! How awesome! Take a map of you’re favorite roadways and etch it onto some glass of a window, attach some handles and there you go! The coolest looking serving tray ever!

I love canvas paintings, and having two that work together looks awesome to me. I found this list of 10 easy wall art ideas that anyone can do, and this one is by far my favorite! Definitely a must try DIY project.

Until next time!

XO

Cait

On my list of things to do in the next few months is to invest in some real cameras. As much as I love apps like Instagram and Hipstamatic, I’m starting to wish I actually had real photos to work with. However, I have found some really great websites that I can email my favorite prints off Hipstamatic and have them made into actual photographs, but still - it’s not the same!

The reasons behind my need for actual photographs are as follows…

Ever since I was little I’ve always admired this one table in my grandparent’s kitchen that was cluttered with pictures of family and friends through the decades. Now that I am looking to get out onto my own, my goal is to have a photo table of my own! I just really love how a photo collage looks inside of a table, and I love how scattered it can look while still being a great conversation piece in the home.

This, I am obsessed with! I would love to be able to get something as large as this filled with a collection of polaroids, but that might take a lot of time and money to get enough polaroids to make. So, I am considering making a bunch of smaller sized versions of this picture with some mini polaroids. 

I think that this is a great way to use up a small wall space with a bunch of pictures. I love how random it is with the different sizes and shapes of the pictures. This is definitely something that can be done with out breaking the wallet.

Another idea that I absolutely love. I love how this person hung up what looks like a bunch of vintage photos of their family members. Considering I don’t really have many of those myself, I would love to just take some black and white pictures of people in my life that are important to me, and display them like this. Love this.

Until next time!

xo

Cait