There are so many things happening in the house (you can read about our new house HERE if you missed it) that I decided I should write a weekly recap while we’re in the thick of renovations to give you a rundown of the activity. Some projects we do are not worth a dedicated blog post, but might be worth a few sentences in a larger recap post. So, here we go with our first weekly reno recap.
This week was mostly about having the wood floors installed and the week prior was all about getting ready for those wood floors. This meant moving everything out of the three rooms in the house that were getting hardwood floors installed. This is why I felt some urgency to unpack. Yes, things will just be sitting out, but unpacking reduces the bulk and most items could be absorbed into a piece of furniture, cabinet, or closet. This meant we could move furniture from the family room and studio into the dining room and have just enough space to set up a small area to use as a “family room” for a couple of weeks. It gives us some space to live as our house shrunk from eight usable rooms to five.
I mean, it’s tight and messy, especially when work had to be done in the corner of that room on Monday (we’ll get to that in a minute.)
Getting ready for the floors to go down also meant we wanted to get as much wallpaper removal and painting done in the primary bedroom prior to the new floors going in. It’s so much faster and easier to paint in an empty room over a carpet that is coming out in a few days. So, my mom and I made a big push to remove the wallpaper glue off the walls, paint the ceiling, and Jeff helped me prime and paint the walls in the primary bedroom.
What is funny is that I am usually very tidy when I paint walls, but I was just slopping it everywhere. It’s like I had pent up all of my messiness and decided to let loose on this carpet!
I ended up painting the walls in Benjamin Moore’s Decorator’s White. I wanted to pick a color and get it up, but I really loved how clean and fresh the primer felt and wanted to let the room be quiet and crisp until I decided what color I wanted to use (if any.)
There was a hole cut in the dining room wall to bring up a vent for the dryer from the basement. The side entrance is off of the driveway, so it ends up being the main entrance to the house. For that reason, we wanted to move the washer and dryer to the basement so we can turn the laundry room into a small mudroom. Let me tell you…I want to cut as few holes in the walls as possible because you always find stuff you don’t want to find when you cut holes in the walls of old houses. If it’s not causing a problem, I’d just rather not know.
Well, in cutting this hole, they found an active colony of ants and inactive rats nests in this little space. The good thing about this was that the pest control technician arrived at the house just as this was being discovered and he was able to bait for the ants and confirm the rat activity was very old and not anything to worry about. We now have a dryer vent, which sounds like a small thing, but I was hauling loads of wet clothes from the washer in the basement up to the dryer for a couple of weeks, so I am so thankful to have them side by side. I sort of love it when I have the opportunity to be reminded that I need to be grateful for small, everyday things. It’s easy to take those for granted and inconvenient reminders can be very sweet.
The hole is now all clean and a tech from Ehrlich will come back to check things out in a week. So, let me tell you about the pest control. Obviously, my immediate concern was mice. (You can read about my little intruder and my amazing mouse-trapping skills HERE.) But, I already had pest control on my list. We’ve always had our homes treated for spiders and general household insects and we wanted to get that started. The Ehrlich tech not only sprayed and treated for pests in the home, but he looked everywhere for evidence of mice and any other rodents/birds/bats. He spent over an hour in the house and was very thorough and reassuring. This is not an Ehrlich ad, but I’ve been super impressed.
The contractor who put the dryer vent in also blew out the pool lines, checked the electricity, winterized the lines, and measured for a cover. (The inner workings of the pool were in great order, which was wonderful news.) And, he put a fan in our bathroom, which is fantastic! Like the dryer vent, it sounds like a small thing, but the “wet room” of the primary bathroom would get so steamy it was even hard to dry off after a long, hot shower. The new fan makes a tremendous difference and is a nice addition until we can fully renovate the bathrooms.
All of this was happening while the floors were being installed, so it was pretty nuts. I wasn’t even the one doing the work and I was exhausted at the end of the day.
Jeff and I primed and painted a portion of the garage (would you believe this section sucked up an entire gallon), so we could build and install shelves along this wall. I told Jeff, “If we’re going to paint this garage, we need to do it before the shelves are installed or it’s not going to happen.” So, we painted just the area where shelves are going to go and started work building those. Shelves will get all of the bins and boxes off the floor of the garage so we can find tools and be a bit more organized.
And, speaking of the garage, we had our new fridge delivered! (It’s hanging out in the garage until we are ready to install it in the kitchen.) I will be sharing more about it next week, but I have never been so excited about a refrigerator.
Other things that happened this week – I primed and painted our bedroom closets, I primed and painted part of the floor in the basement (I’ll share that soon), the garage door was repaired, and my mom and I worked on organizing the basement as all of the other projects were happening upstairs.
This is the closet before it was painted and I’ll share a bit more detail about their makeover.
And I’m finishing up the week with an orthopedic appointment for my foot and my mom and I will do a bit of antiquing while I’m out of the house and in real clothes!
Not every week will be like this. This week was noisy, messy, dusty, and bustling, and I went to bed really ready for bed each night. It felt good to be active and working, though. And it felt good to see a lot of work being done and to check a lot off the list.
Once the floors are done, we’ll be able to truly move in and get settled in a way we couldn’t with the flooring project around the corner. I really can’t wait for that…to put things in their place, to play and fiddle, and to really get to know how my style works best in this house. To me, that is the fun part. The style of this house and my curated collection of furniture and antiques will come together to create a new version of my aesthetic and a new story for this house.
32 Responses
I’m a big fan of your style and love your book! I can’t wait to see how you decorate your new home. Big blessings to you as you move forward in the process!
Moving right along! Looks good, I know you must be exhausted 🙂 We are at the beginning of reno on our kitchen and 2 baths, and it has already wore me with just demo! We got a new fridge too….after 10 years of 1 handle missing, the ice maker not working, and the seal splitting, I almost started to tear up a little when the new one was delivered….lol 🙂
Do you know how hard it is to read your blog on a cell phone! Constant pop up ads!!! Impossible!
so true! i save the articles to read at home with an ad blocker. i know it’s income for bloggers, but it’s so difficult to distinguish the content from the ads!
If the pop ups are distracting, you can put it on Reader View and you’ll just see the text. Click on Aa next to missmustardseed.com and then click on reader view. Click on it again to remove reader view to see the pictures.
If the pop ups are distracting, you can put it on Reader View and you’ll just see the text. Click on the ‘Aa’ next to missmustardseed.com and then click on reader view. Click on it again to remove reader view to see the pictures.
???? I don’t see any aa anywhere.
So exciting. I love Decorator’s White and painted the entire inside of my childhood 50’s ranch in it after I moved in when my parents passed away. I love everything about it. You might enjoy your new white rooms just as much. I just want to say how lucky the family whose Mom owned this house is. You mentioned it was her dream house. She would be so pleased knowing how much you are enjoying this update to her house. We all hope someone will love our house as much as we did. I love the new floors.
What a work ethic and to have your mom working alongside you. Bravo! You and she are examples to us. Thanks for sharing {and the paint color too}.
Swoon! Wood flooring! I wouldn’t take anything for mine. They are twenty years old and have lots of character but those scratches and nicks make me smile!
Part of my daily routine is enjoying seeing what renovations you’ve made! I love your energy and how you’re transforming you’re new home!
From someone who downsized fromm 5,000 ft 6 beds 6 baths ti 1,700 and 2 horrible baths.. Im loving seeing your progress..
Great accomplishments! You are coming right along on putting your stamp on your home! It’s going to be beautiful! Was that little visitor ever found?????
We have two dated baths, too, so I am with you! 🙂 At least everything is functional!
It never ceases to amaze me how much you get done in such a short time! I bet it is exciting to be doing these transformations, especially with family to help.
It’s all looking so clean, fresh & lovely! I am so excited to see you are adding this weekly Friday update post – that has been the only thing wrong with your blog, no new Friday post! We Mustard Seeders are a greedy bunch
How nice to see the progress you have made in such a short time! Marian, your home is going to be even more beautiful with all your special personal touches! Hardwood floors are so nice to have. How nice to have your Mom help you — and have your parents so close by! Enjoy your weekend with your family!
I have been looking at the Forte fridge/freezer and trying to research. This confirms my plans. I am local to you, did you get them nearby or online? can’t wait to see it installed!
Thanks so much for the updates. I think it’s a great idea and I sure appreciate you taking us along on the journey. I’m trying to imagine how you’ll make the house you.
Keep on keepin’ on, DIL, You’re doing great!
Greetings from the gals.
Just like everyone else, I am having so much fun watching this process. We just went through it last year with our new house, but we were not living in the house while the work was done. When I saw the family room/fireplace shot with the new flooring, I really started getting excited to see how you will work your magic with this room!
Love seeing your progress!!
When it comes to your foot I want to share something from my experience wearing a cast and then a boot for a severely sprained ankle. I was able to do a lot when the boot was on. This led me to think everything was fine and I discounted the problems I had after ut came off, thinking it just needed more healing. But it never got better from that point and it is easily injured many years later. I realize now that it has affected my activity level greatly. Don’t let this happen to you. Keep going back or find a new doctor until your foot is pain free. If you cant get to that level then budget for paying others to do what you once did.
So much done already. You are so lucky to have mom as a loving and able assistant at your side. I was wondering about your foot, from now on you will be working hard physically, so be careful. I laughed seeing the paint run over the old blue carpet, oops who cares, it will be trash any day. There are similarities with the ex house, the fireplace centered between two open shelve cabinets, and also low ceilings.
In NY we painted most of the walls in Benjamin Moore in China White because it needed a bit more warmth than Decorator White in the natural light we have there. I love the many choices B M has in its WHITES collection.
Happy weekend.
I’m tired just looking at all of this! It will be gorgeous when you are done.
My son has that exact same bike! 🙂
I love seeing what you are up to every day and all the things you are getting accomplished! I especially love the new floors! I am so eager to see these rooms come together. One of the other things that I find so appealing is the ceiling height. I live in a newer home with taller ceilings and, in my opinion, it is difficult to really make them feel anything but cavernous. With the lower ceilings, it is so much cozier!!! (I think I miss the mid-century ranch I lived in before this house!)
I think there a lot of us who are excited to see you put your inspiration into your new home! I love following along, anticipating a great story from you.
I was hoping we would hear how your x-ray turned out. I sure hope you are out of that boot by now & kicking up your heels.
Did something happen to the October 6th blog post? I just went to look back at it and isn’t here anymore?
Great Progress!! So important do do all that “stuff” rather than have to work around furniture, and rugs and all that other stuff. You’re doing a great job. As soon as those floors are done, everything will fall into place. Oh… there’s the kitchen! sometimes a challenge in and of itself!! Enjoying watching the process from my laptop! Thanks so much for sharing with all of your readers!!
I love the light pattern from the ceiling fixture in the second picture!
I’m so enjoying following along on your new house refurbishment and can’t wait to see the finished product! You are so impressive with all that you’ve accomplished since moving in!!!
The floors already look amazing and they aren’t even finished yet. I am going to have to research Forte fridges because I have never heard of that brand. We have a 17 year old Whirlpool SS side by side and I know we are probably on borrowed time although he is running find at the present so I better not jinx it. LOL
The wood floors add so much to your house. Looking good!
“I sort of love it when I have the opportunity to be reminded that I need to be grateful for small, everyday things. It’s easy to take those for granted and inconvenient reminders can be very sweet.”
Amen! They are so easy to miss until they’re gone! And I’m sure it pleases God when we notice what a blessing they are.