Part I of our Home Remodel

402 N. Lincoln St.

A year ago this month, we moved into our wonderful home. A 2,100 sq. ft. craftsman. 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths on a big, shady, corner lot. The real estate flyer said it was a charming house with lots of potential- just needed a little TLC. HAHA!! Hasn't that's been the understatement of the year! 
I want to post some pictures of before and after so those who are interested and have asked for photos can see some of the work we've done and so I can see some of the work we've done. When you live inside a project, it's easy to enjoy one accomplishment for like 7 seconds before you're making a to-do list for the next project.

 Here is a view through our living room to the dining room. It was so dark and musty in there! The wallpaper was in really bad shape- faded and dirty. The carpet was three layers thick. In fact, our real estate agent was sure there were no wood floors on the first day we saw the house. We were bummed but we figured we would rip out the carpet and have wood floors laid.

The day we closed we took a box cutter and deep down under lots of cat-urine carpet was-wood! It had to be refinished but that's a lot cheaper than having new wood flooring put in and kept the original feel of the house.

Well here is Day 1. The day we closed we started taking down drapes and stripping wallpaper. We thought this would take a day or two. Look at all the energy and pep we have.

30 weeks pregnant with Coco, thus the mask.

So, we had to strip the wall paper in the master bedroom, front bedroom, kitchen, and main bathroom (second full bath is in the basement). We estimated this would take us a weekend-tops. Then we were going to move onto painting, then have the floors refinished and voila- our simple "flip" would allow us to move in and tackle the kitchen and bath remodels at a later date. Well, weren't we novices?



The wallpaper may have been faded and dirty but it was NOT peeling. No, it was stuck to those walls with the best Bay-of-Pigs-era glue ever manufactured. Goody for us.

Oh and in some rooms there were multiple layer and the master bedroom had wallpaper on the ceiling.

Master Bedroom

Peeling off the Master Bedroom wallpaper layers

These cute kids kept us entertained. I can't believe June was just a little over a year here! And Coco is now just a couple months away from her first birthday and wearing some of the same clothes June is

  wearing in this picture. How fast things change!

Junebug

Tiny pieces of wallpaper slowly coming off

You'll notice the dropped, sound tile ceilings but that's a project coming up later.

Oh, these are painful pictures to see. Here is a panoramic of our living room after we had stripped the wallpaper. A task that took many days. The wallpaper came off in pieces the size of a bar of soap. This main room is about 50'x35'. We used our steamer and many varieties of special solutions. In the end, the magic was just a lot of arm muscle. 

The wallpaper removal left scabs all over the original plaster which lead to our next stage. We had to mud over the walls in most of the house with plaster. This took 3 weeks. 3 weeks for a project we had no idea we would even have to do!

So much for a quick fix! This is what our next three weeks looked like.

Mudding all the walls in the livingroom and dining room

Given, we did do most of the work ourselves (or Brian did a lot of work on his own). We had some very kind, generous friends and we hired a few guys here and there to help. Thanks to Joel, Mike, Ellis, Caleb, Sean, Levi, my Dad, Zak and Matt for helping Brian on some of those long nights. And for Hope and Margeaux for helping me when it was my turn!

So, it's not that it was that complicated of a project, just time intensive and we were learning as we went. I was not as much help as I had intended to be. We had some pretty terrible days where we had trouble smiling about all this. It seemed like the more work we did the more work we discovered we had to do.

Brian after a long, discouraging day.

But we kept going and we had some sweet little helpers. Lucy always wanted to be in the middle of it using some power tool. She takes a genuine interest in our work which I love.













 
I have no idea where my before pictures of the girls' bedrooms and the kitchen and bath went. I know I took some so they must have gotten lost or downloaded somewhere else. 
But here is what the flooring looked like in the bedrooms- vinyl (and old newspaper underneath) and then carpet in the upstairs bathroom...ewww.

Coming up in Part II...ceiling sound tile removal, painting, floor refinishing and finally moving in.

Our New Place

 Oh it's good to be back in Idaho!

I haven’t posted since end of October. It’s really bad. But between now and then I have had a baby, traveled cross country three times, packed up and moved from Virginia to Idaho and painted like 17 different rooms in our new house, some of them twice (Brian loves when I do that). And when I have some free time I’m not drawn to sit down with my laptop so here I am five months later- a bad blogger.

But I’d love to show you some of our new house!

The living room and dining room were two different flesh tones

so we repainted both charcoal gray

Monique did the cake picture in the dining room (she's so good!)

Entry table

Master bedroom. I would post pics of Lucy and June's rooms but they're both sleeping now.

I painted the kitchen coral. I have two girls I figured I'd embrace it all the way. It really goes well with the green formica counter tops:/.

 

 

 

Growing up and my dad would tell us, “God will give you so many blessings you will say, ‘It’s too much God. Stop, stop!’” I remember thinking, “When is that going to happen?” Well I feel like saying, “God, its too much!”

This house is no exception. I rented it on the spot while Brian and my dad were still driving our moving truck through somewhere in Missouri. The timing worked out perfectly. Not a day goes by that we don’t sigh and look at each other and say, “I love this place.”

My sweet girl

In and Out of the Nest

There is Nesting and then there is Super Nesting.  Since with Lucy there was a chance she could come quite early, I was in Super Nesting Stage for about three months. Once I had nested and gotten the essentials taken care of (nursery set up, baby clothes organized), Super Nesting hit. I vacuumed everyday which was very unnecessary, I had every drawer and closet organized down to the fact that our junk drawer no longer existed. I had even started packing away maternity clothes because I just wanted everything to be so ready. If I hadn’t been in the hospital giving birth on February 7, I probably would have been home separating pens and pencils into different containers in our non-existent junk drawer. 

Well, with this baby I once again over did it. But unlike with Lucy, I didn’t have energy or drive for three months of Super Nesting. So I Super Nested about a month ago and now most of the work I have done has regressed into a stage called, “Do I even Own a Washer and Dryer?” and “I Should Probably Buy a Diaper Bag” or “Dinner is Overrated”. But here are a few of the fun things I did get done while I was still feeling like a busy hen.

I had my eye on this beautiful four poster bed at a local thrift store (I am learning that thrift stores on the East Coast are nothing like West Coast stores. There are treasures hidden everywhere out here!)

This bed was $175, which is a great deal, but we didn't need a bed frame and this bed didn't come with rails, slats or finials. I kept checking back in and a few weeks later it went down to $125. I stopped by recently and it was out front and down to $55. After a few minutes of haggling I got it for $35!

Brian was able to use parts of our old bed and some new adapters pieces to get it all set up. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for finials to finish off the bed posts.

I have redone our room in neutrals- black, white and tan. I found black silk curtains, painted a bookshelf and did a cross-country switch with my sister Margeaux for a tan duvet cover and moved around pillows, rugs and accessories to fit our new room. I thought about painting the bed black but the wood is in good condition and it brings a lot of warmth to the room. I haven't fully decided yet.
I'd love to find some art for over the bed but its so hard to commit to something that big and for some (even bigger) reason our Excel spreadsheet for the monthly budget doesn't have a row labeled "Art Piece Investment".

I found this little glass and wrought iron bar cart at an antique store and it fit just right along a blank wall in our room facing the foot of our bed.

The shells and coral we found on our trip to Vieques bring back so many good memories I love to see them out.

So this was a pretty dull white IKEA lampshade that I wanted to do something with. Thanks to a generous friend (thanks Sarah Mortimore!), I had some beautiful Amy Butler fabric that fit. I had never covered a lampshade before and was so nervous about ruining that wonderful fabric. So if it hadn't been for the Super Nesting urge I would have left it in the fabric box and felt so much better about letting it sit there for probably the rest of my life. But it went well and with just some measuring, cutting, ironing and a little fabric spray- it transformed this LÄK into LOVE for the girls' room.

I got several pieces of art finally framed and hung. Two pieces by my sister talented Monique- one for the girl's room and one for ours:

And one poster we bought a few years ago and Portland and never had a spot for.We hung it over Lucy's toy chest.  

I have also been spray painting everything in sight gold. I won't bore you with all those pictures. But now I have a lot of gold pots, gold pinecones and acorns, a gold iron hall table and any jewelry or knick-knack that fell prey to the can.

Do as I do

I like to cook mainly because Brian and I love food. Unless I am particularly inspired, coming up with dinners night after night is not my spiritual gift. This is one reason I have named this blog Before 5’oclock. This way I can avoid featuring the dinner part of the day if I want to. When the afternoon rolls around, I start dreaming about food in anticipation for dinner.  Every once in a while I still come to the realization it is not my mom that will be in the kitchen tonight but me. And yes, its 5 o’clock and that pork butt is rock hard in the freezer.

Before I got married in 2008, my mom said she was going to have to warn my future husband that I just couldn’t cook. And though I really have the nicest mom in the world, I knew she would follow through on this one. I have had many culinary failures.

Once, I made six loaves of banana bread for a partial family road trip (Margeaux, Monique and I stayed home because our work and school schedules didn’t line up with our younger siblings) and I left the sugar out of the entire recipe. Halfway to Palm Springs, my mom called and explained why they were throwing six loaves of bread out on the side of the road. I felt really bad. But who needs to learn to cook when you mom is a gourmet?

When I got married and Brian and I were still alive six months later (so obviously I was cooking something!), you realize you learn a lot vicariously through your mom about working in the kitchen. As well as a ton of other things! I always buy butter whether we need it or not because that’s what my mom does.  We’re both germaphobes about restrooms and flyswatters. We believe physical contact cures everything. We love to have dessert on hand (did I mention we buy a lot of butter?).  And an abundance of other similarities both important and ordinary.

So while my sister Monique is preparing for her wedding in December and my mom says, “I have to let Joe know she can’t cook.” I know that they’ll be ok. 

I know that my girls will follow my example in many ways. Some which will be good and some bad. It’s especially easy to spot Lucy’s sins because she is just like me.

I realize I need to watch my idle words. The other day I said “Gosh!” when I was overly frustrated about the key being stuck in the locked door and my arms full of groceries. Lucy stood next to me and looked at the stuck door and said, “Gosh!” really loud. I explained to her it was not respectful to God to say that word and mommy should not have said it. But less than half an hour later when I dropped an apple slice for the third time on the kitchen floor, I sighed loudly as I bent over to pick it up (I try to avoid bending over as much as possible at 34 weeks pregnant). I didn’t even have to say anything and Lucy said, “Gosh!” 

So Mommy has to be as good as the children she wants to raise.  

Vanity Fare

I have sat down to start this blog at least five times.

I’m a stay at home mom. I cook and craft and play with my sweet daughter. I am in love with my handsome, hardworking husband.

I have a wonderful life. Our trials are small and God has richly blessed us. There is so much love in our little family. When we lay on the rug and wrestle after dinner and Lucy is laughing and Brian and I are so in love- I feel so full of life and satisfaction.

Then I wake up the next morning. The long day stretches before us. The verse, “all is vanity and a chasing after the wind” comes to mind. Here we go again. The same thing we did yesterday. Mom has got to get it together.

I struggle with a feeling of inadequacy. I don’t bring home a paycheck. I can’t seem to host enough dinner parties or sew enough baby clothes. We don’t eat Bobby Flay inspired dinners each night, I can’t remember the last time I scrapbooked and I still haven’t written out Lucy’s birth story.

Which brings me to my point. I think a lot of moms feel this way. We’re always “Behind, behind, behind!” We Instagram pictures of our DIY dresser makeover and the Martha Stewart-esque cookies we decorated with our smiling children clothed in mini-Boden. “I mean, of course I always have a pedicure and I never wear my husband’s T-shirt to bed!” I fall victim as much as anyone else of posting the sunnier aspects of life and leaving out well…the not-so-cleaned-up reality.

The reality where we bleached our husband’s underwear so now they all have pink spots or when we just tried to sauté garlic and burnt it for the second time because the oil was too hot. And then we cried about it. The reality where we lost our temper, scrolled through Facebook during a conversation, didn’t make the bed. Didn’t, didn’t, didn’t. You won’t find me rushing to upload those snapshots.

All in all, I want to rejoice and glory in the wonderful aspects of my day. And there are many. Being a stay at home mom puts you front and center in one of the most joyful plays of life. I laugh a lot. Lucy brings tears of joy and pride to my eyes. But then I fall into the comparing game. “That mom seems to have it together. I mean, did you see the birthday cake she made? I don’t even know how to construct sugar creations like that!”

Yesterday I listened to a wonderful sermon by Ben Merkle titled Run with Endurance. I randomly picked it but it was exactly what I needed to hear. Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “…and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith...” God tell us to run the race marked out for US. Not to try to run the race of my friend or my mom or even my husband. I’m not very good at sewing so then I’m not very good at sewing. I can get better and I should try. But I should not be distracted by those whose gifts are maybe more suited at the sewing machine. I am running MY race. If it takes me three tries to sauté the garlic correctly then so be it.

And the second part of the verse also says that our eyes should be fixed on Jesus. I know my eyes often aren’t. I’m looking bug eyed at a beautiful garden I didn’t plant or a sweater I didn’t knit. There is so much to say on this topic. But when I need a simple reminder to get my eyes back on God I should think- Why are we on this Earth? “To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” So I’m going to work on that. Maybe I’ll get to dinner later.

Here is a cake I made recently. Just to get started out on the right foot:)