Friday, September 30, 2016

Living Through A Home Renovation Is Like...

Hey all,

As you can see by the meme to the right, renovation can often be quite an adventure. Surviving can even be a struggle.

For me, I think while I worked hard to get things done and learned to live in a "dust zone", it was easier than what some people deal with. Partly was because of the help I had, but I think the biggest reason was that I did most of it on my own.

Jonathon was there only for a few days, and while he gave me daily input when he was gone, the majority of the work and decisions were mine. And then I carried them out. No arguing, no worries for the most part. I'd ask his opinion, we'd make a decision and then I'd carry it out.

Not that I'd want to do it again. I MISSED him. Missed him being a part of the fun. If we ever do this again, we'll make sure he's part of the action.

But after two and a half months, I'd done all I could do before leaving. And I was happy...very happy with what we'd built. Last week I gave you the BEFORE and AFTER of the kitchen, bathroom and living room. Let's do a few more rooms!

The Upstairs Bedroom

One of the easiest rooms in the house mainly because I only did the basics in this one. Since my son and his lady were going to decorate it, all I did was give them a base to work with. But once you see the BEFORE, you'll see it was something that needed to be done. Badly.
Maybe they were going to use this room as a nursery. Only reason I could think of for a bedroom painted pale blues and pinks!

BEFORE


AFTER

As you can see, pretty basic, but SOOOOOOOO much better than the pink and blue.


Let's move on down to the lower level of the house. This area was the part that had the water damage when they turned on the water and forgot to check to make sure the winterizing had been done correctly. Luckily, Jonathon is a wiz at plumbing, electrical and construction, and he taught his family when we renovated our tiny cabin in Idaho.

But this house was also a challenge. There wasn't a single room that didn't need work. Our bedroom (formerly an extra living space) was the best of the lot, so I left that for last. Let me show you two areas that needed a lot of work--two that IMHO, I changed into an area you can use and enjoy!

The Hallway. 
This was where MOST of the water damage was. Floor tile was destroyed, ceiling crumbled and paint was peeling. There was nothing we could do but pretty much start over.  Let me show you what I mean...

BEFORE


 I have to add, when the contractors "fixed" the water (Boy, did that not happen!), they pulled down the destroyed ceiling. And left the broken, moldy and disgusting pieces on the floor under the stairs.
Which destroyed all the tiles.  Bloody idiots!!!!!!!!



AFTER






 Big difference, right???? I am really proud of myself. Especially the floor. That was my own personal HELL until I got in the groove.  LOL

Now the next room is one I'm REALLY proud of. This one was a joint effort. Jasiah, Jeramiah, Jonathon AND I together changed this room from the worst in the house to..IMHO...to one of the best. I'm talking about...
The Laundry Room or...as it was called at the beginning.
The Hole of Death.

BEFORE

This is a little fuzzy, but it's the best of the worse pictures. This is what the room looked like when we first moved in.



AFTER



I have to admit, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how this turned out. Talk about a before and after, right????

Anyway, that's all for this week. I'll be back next Friday with a special blog about some other things going on, then I'll be back the following Friday with the last of the renovation blogs!  

Have a great weekend! And please, let me know what you think!


Hugs,
CJ England

3 comments:

Ray said...

With all the work your house is worth many times more than when you bought it.

CJ England said...

Agreed, Ray. It is one of our goals with the renovation. We started with a nice chunk of equity at the beginning, but now, we're looking forward to finishing the landscaping and getting another appraisal.

Phylis said...

It looks really nice CJ! Looking forward to your landscaping as I have been puttering in my backyard for many years. Thanks for sharing the pictures!