We are FINALLY done.

It's been a while since I posted anything about our home. We've spent every weekend and day off doing small projects and adding things to our kitchen (you will see below) but for the most part we are done, finally. Today we had an appraisal, we hope it comes back way more then we owe, so all our hard work came to use. After a little over a year our house is how we want it and we love it. Now we are debating putting in a garage and driveway. We still need some rock outside in the back and down the sides of the porch, but otherwise it's done. 

Outside got a fresh coat of paint. Almost the same color as before just more up to date. The front porch cement was also stained. We added a fence, rock and new plants. I still want two red chairs to go out front, we just forget to get them every time we go to the hardware store. 

The backyard grass is doing good, the deck is all done and looks beautiful. 

Our trees are so green and shade most of the house. 

we forgot to paint the trim around the upstairs window

The kitchen got a pantry, tile backslash and a linen closet on the back of the pantry. 

Plus molding around the top and bottom of each cabinet. 

the next picture better shows the pantry

Linen closet and Desk area. 

The linen closet was a nice addition along with the above pantry. 

Both much needed add on's

Bathroom stayed the same. 

Our bedroom got a door leading up the stairs, this now makes our home a 2 bedroom. 

Upstairs got a closet and a good cleaning. 

That's our house.

Thank you everyone for following our long year of taking this older home from nothing to new. 

It was allot of work and many long days and nights. But we got it done. 

Our next goal is to add a garage and maybe rental property behind the garage, move the washer/dryer into the garage and add a half bath upstairs. We may end up selling before we ever do that, but it at least gives us 

something to look forward to. 

Now what will we do with all of our spare time. 

What we've done from November to now..... (New Years Eve)

My Dad & Step Mom were in town all last month helping my boyfriend put a deck in the back and side yard. 
We have been waiting to get this done, since we had to tear out the back porch from the plumbing issues. 
Luckily we got this done the day before 19 degrees temps hit. 
I am so happy with the results and even spent this morning ordering sod. 800 sq ft will be here day before Thanksgiving from Northland Turf in Chino Valley. Can you believe you can lay sod when it's this cold. They assured me this is the perfect time to lay sod. I can't wait till next week. (of course you can see I wrote this all and never posted it)
We still need to add railing and steps to the deck, the steps will hopefully happen this weekend and the railing will have to wait till my Dad comes back in a few weeks. (still haven't got this part done)
Below is the start to end project. 

Next week, seal the deck before it gets too cold & paint the house. We are still debating on colors. Iv'e got about 8 sample colors painted on the side of the house, can't figure out what one we want, yet! (got the deck sealed, looks beautiful, but still haven't painted the house and don't think we will get around to it till Spring)

Before Porch & Dirt Yard

Finished porch, before stain/sealant.

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Porch framing

My Dad =)

Down the side of the house, done except the railing, my Dad will be back once the snow melts to help us. Next week hopefully

Back of the house, sliding glass door goes into our bedroom, right off the trellis side will be a hot tub soon.

Thanksgiving Eve Brock & I spent hours laying sod. 
We were both frozen solid when we got done, but still got right up the next morning and treated ourselves to a yummy early dinner. Once Spring hits our grass will be all filled in, other plants will be planted and our hot tub will be in(hopefully sooner on the hot tub). We will also add rock to non grass areas and front yard. Along with a picket fence all around the front yard. 

yard before sod

katy the kitty & jacky checking out the new grass hard to see but that's jacky & molly playing on the grass. we were almost done at this point and almost frozen solid =)

Thanksgiving morning, the shaded area is where the hot tub will go.

New Years Eve

behind shed/garage dog play and dig area and fire pit area once they sell patio furniture up here again we will buy chairs for around the fire pit and patio furniture.

Bathroom Before & After Pictures

The bathroom is harder to do before & after pic's since the bathroom isn't even in the same spot as before. 
The stairs are now where the bathroom was and the bathroom is where one of the bedrooms used to be. 
I am posting all the old bathroom pics first and the new bathroom second. 
We love the way it turned out. 

This room used to be a sort of bedroom. But now it's the bathroom. The window with the ac unit is now the large glass block window in the shower area.

We found those old beer cans under the house. Ones still full of beer, lol not sure why they ended up in the bathroom, but they did!

The wall to the left of the toilet still needs trim. It's cut but we have all the trim in a pile and can't figure out what goes to what.

We still need to paint the trim & door and I need to add a mirror that moves out by the sink, so I can see myself.  
Other then that the bathroom is done. 

Before & After Kitchen Pictures

Before you look at the pictures please know that the back-splash is not up (it's ordered) and the cabinet above the fridge isn't in place (not sure why not, lol) we're trying to figure out how to install it, it has to be raised up some and there is nothing to mount it to. Also on the ceiling there is a light that never happened that needs to be patched up. 
 I hope you like my NEW KITCHEN as much as I do. 

The back-splash will be done very soon and I will post pic's when it's done. 
I won't tell you all what were doing, it's a surprise =)

Moved in =)

As most of you know from my Facebook posts we got moved in over the weekend. It was lots of work and reminded me that moving is a pain in the butt. But now that it's over I am happy to say we are living at the new house. 
Still minus the kitchen, trims around doors, baseboard and some other finishing touches. 
We had a major set back on day one..... Brock was taking a shower, I went to flush the toilet and all you could hear was a funny bubbling sound. I waiting a bit thinking this is odd, maybe we can't use the toilet and shower at the same time, lol... I was VERY wrong. You can! Turns out a tree decided to grow inside of our pipes (as you can see in the pictures below) and Mark the Plumber had to come out and dig a huge whole in our back yard to fix it. 
With the help of Brock busting out the back porch (the porch we would of sooner or later busted out) and Mark's associate Jr's help they dug down to get to the pipe and switched it out for a new one. All before the huge monsoon storm hit for the afternoon. So now we have a soggy wet muddy backyard that the animals just seem to always walk in the worst areas and pipes sticking out of the ground... at least we can flush the toilet and shower at the same time, lol...

The Plumber will be back this week to continue down the backyard to the alley replacing all sewer pipes so it's done right. What a pain in the butt. I guess better it happen now then after we replaced the deck or even once it starting snowing and we have to shovel snow away to get to the frozen ground...

So here are pics of the aftermath of sewer issues and the blob of tree roots hanging out in the pipes. 
Plus some added pictures of my new couches (still not arranged how I want them) and my make shift kitchen till the new one comes in....

The thing with the yellow cord on it is roots that were living in our sewer pipes. The black piece over top the cord is also roots. This was about 6 feet long and the width of the pipe.

This is just some of the couch pieces. They all come apart so you can put whatever you want where you want, it worked PERFECT for our small living room, this is day one pic, today they are moved around different, till I find the perfect spots. As you can see they are really for the girls and all their stuff, I guess we have to sit on the floor =)

More done... Move in soon...

Bedroom closet and main door installed, the main door still needs trim added around it and both need painted. knob also needs to be added to main door. I am also changing out the knobs to the closet door when I find ones I like. 

Bathroom vanity, lights & toilet were all put in. Mirrors, towel racks and toilet paper holder to come soon. 

Living room ceiling fan #3 finally added. We couldn't decide what fan to add since all were too low after install, so we finally settled on this one. Not my favorite but it will do. 

Move in Note:

No matter what we are moving in at the end of July. 
We won't have a completed kitchen till the middle of August (hopefully) but will have to make due. 
The stove/oven & fridge will be usable. I don't want to hook up the microwave (goes above the stove/oven)
so I will just buy a small microwave to use till kitchen is complete. 
Everything else will be done in the house before we move in. 
We are still waiting on Home Depot to deliver a few things like wall & door trim and the bathroom window. 
Once they are in the house will get finished up and we can start moving more in. 
So far we have brought a few loads over but they are all in the shed.  

I will add more pictures soon.

Carpet, Blinds Done

Painting still needs some touch up and corners done and baseboard added.

Upstairs Coming down the stairs into the bedroom

Bedroom, the blinds are sort of a grayish brown hard to see in the pictures

Lot's more is done, but we had a major setback.....

Shower tile got done last week, minus the grout that get's done tomorrow. Also the bathroom floor tile (minus grout) 
We LOVE how it turned out. I was not liking the slate tiles when we bought them but after they were installed I was so happy with the results. I LOVE my new shower. Next week we hopefully will get the shower heads in and the rest of the bathroom done. 

Setbacks: We started to install our kitchen cabinets last week and found out the measurements were off on the window above the kitchen sink. So after almost a month of cabinets sitting around and the excitement of installing them all got shot down in an instant. The store took them back since the measuring wasn't our fault and we had to order new ones today from a different store. But now we are set back about a month or two. So disappointing but things happen. In the meantime we will finish up what needs to be done and start moving things in. I don't think I want to actually move in till the kitchen is in, but maybe that will change. 

Tuesday carpet gets here and blinds should be in this week or two. Things are coming together. I will post more pictures soon. 

Where we're at as of today (6/2) in house renovations

As of the last time I posted ~ Drywall is Up ~ we now have texture on the drywall, all layers of paint up including 2 layers of sprayed on primer and 2 layers of the colors we choose. ALL plugs, switches, cam lights, bathroom fan & all light sockets inside the house done. Floors sanded but no stain as of right now on them and I think that is all, oh wait one new door know, lol. It's soon to be done. Carpet for the bedroom, stairs and upstairs is measured and tomorrow will be ordered along with blinds, they came today to measure them. Shower will be started Wednesday, floors will be stained this week and kitchen cabinets will go in this week ( I hope). 
Pictures are in no order, just showing you all that is done to this point. 

Kitchen ~ Painted Sea Salt, under stairs area (will be a desk) painted Lemon Grass and all kitchen plugs, switches and cam lights up

Desk area again

Front Door wall painted in the Sea Salt color as an accent wall & all the plugs and switches done here too, plus the wiring for the ceiling fan we still haven't put up.

Bedroom walls again Sea Salt and I forgot what the accent wall color is but it's a green shade. We tried to stick with what we thought is a beach shades.

My boyfriend getting ready to paint the primer, such a messy paint little bits were ALL over him, me, sprayer and everything that wasn't covered up when he got done.

After painting the primer with the sprayer

Sanding Floors

I think this is after 2-3 times going over the floor with the sander

After 2 days of sanding. It was a LONG process to get the floors smooth, we shall see what staining them looks like in the next few days.

Drywall is up!

The drywall is actually up. I didn't think this day would ever come. 
The rest of this week our drywall guys will be adding texture and finishing up
after that we will prime, paint and sand the floors. It's actually coming along, i'm so excited. 

bedroom closet

upstairs laundry room area

kitchen more kitchen bathroom toilet area and some shower area

upstairs and the stairs area under the stairs ~ desk area bathroom vanity area living room, the only picture i could get since stuff is in the way

New Windows and Some other inside things..... we're getting there...

All the windows are now replaced with new windows and screens. The window at the bottom of the stairs is glass blocks installed by Brock (was so proud of him) & one bathroom window will be with glass blocks but has not been completed yet (will be done this week)

The whole home was re-wired last week. The new breakers box was also installed out back. It's not done and won't be till after drywall goes up Wednesday (5/14) Right now we just have one plug in the house to use if we need power.

We are starting to install installation we got half the bedroom done and all of the stairs, kitchen and bathroom area done. Now all the rest of the inside walls will be done tomorrow and Tuesday before drywall day. The pink installation we are only doing to cut down on sound in the home since it's so small, that way you don't hear someone on the bathroom or someone walking up and down the stairs. The rest on the walls is for holding the heat/cold inside and outside sounds. 

It's really hard to take pictures right now of the inside. There is SO much stuff all over just waiting to be installed. 

Just some outside pic's from over the weekend

Over the weekend we did some touch up painting of the trim and cleaned up the yard. 
We will eventually re-paint the house but right now we are more concerned in getting the inside done
so just some touch up of the pealing paint was done. 

4/23 to Today (5/2)

Just some new pictures so see how it's coming along. 
ALL the new electrical is in, not on but in. 
Our new windows get installed on the 8th ~ this Thursday
then if all goes as planned the drywall will go up the following day. 
Here is where were at so far......

A shot from the backyard looking towards the house. The sliding glass door is the new one I showed last time and the window up top is our newest thing. This was going to be a door but the stairs got in the way so we had to add a window instead. Yes we had a brand new wood/trash mess, but that's gone again.

Upstairs looking out at the new window. That yucky pipe coming from the ceiling will be gone soon. Just haven't got around to it for some reason. The new wood is the railing or boxed in top area for the stairs. It will look totally different when done.

Driveway side of house. My new door into the living room/kitchen area is up. It now has a wood frame around it, it was just put up after I took the picture. All the tree's are getting so green.

I thought this was so cute! After my door got installed, Tim left this note.

This is the tile we picked out for the bathroom floor. It's not down yet, Brock just set it there when we were trying to figure out what pattern we wanted.

New Door!

Look out in to the yard from the back porch. Can't wait to put grass in, plants in & my garden... We still don't know what those fruit trees are.

Stairs with the bottom step now done and the hole in the floor covered up. Brock's working on the glass block window that's going in.

Upstairs laundry room area. All the hook up's are in. I think we will frame this area out and make it like a laundry closet. That way for the time being I can have a guest room and sewing room up here and you won't always just be looking at the washer/dryer.

4/17 to 4/22

Things are still coming along as planned with just a few minor set backs. 
Friday before Easter I was having lots of pain in my left wrist. I took myself to urgent care Easter morning to find out I had torn ligaments in my wrist. They cast my arm and gave me some anti inflammatory pills, so my part of helping out slowed down some. I am not in a soft splint that allows me to move my hand better so I can help out but still no heavy lifting. 

All the framing, stairs, one window (we were planning on making it a door but turned into a window) side door and back sliding glass door are ALL done. All the plumbing and gas lines are ran. Everything is waiting on the electric to get started (Monday) It's coming together. 
We even picked out our tile. The original tile we choose just for our shower walls was going to cost us over $1000 we went to Phoenix over the weekend to a tile warehouse and got all our shower tile and bathroom floor tile for under $500. Brock had to load the whole car I just stood and watched. My poor prius was riding so low and we had over an hour ride back home. It made it though up big hills and still I was getting about 40 mpg. I love my car!

Hopefully this week the shower pan will go in and tile will be put up on the shower walls. The floor tile has to wait. 
This coming week (starting Monday AM) the electricity will be put in, drywall will go up, kitchen and bathroom will come together and paint will go up on walls. 

I forgot to mention all my cabinets I had custom ordered for my kitchen and bath came in this week and my appliances got here. They are now just sitting all around the house taking up space, waiting to go where they belong. 

My arm on Easter Sunday!

Prius loaded down with shower wall tile and floor tile.

Underside of stairs and you can see my new sliding glass door, it has blinds in the middle. I love it!

Middle of stairs looking up into what will be a laundry room area for now. Plans are to extend this area and put in a bedroom. Right now it will be laundry/guest room area/sewing area

Bottom of stairs when they were being built.

I will take lots more pictures today and post them tomorrow. So you can see how much has changed in the last few days. 

4/12 to 4/16

The house is coming along as planned. We are still on track as far as we see to move in when planned. 
In the last few days the walls for the bedroom, closet, bathroom and door jams were all done. The rough plumbing has been finished and our bedroom sliding glass door has been installed. The stairs are going in today, I can't wait to see them when I get off work. 
We finally decided to put our washer/dryer upstairs along with the hot water heater. We will put up a wall to block them off from the rest of the room since that area will be guest room/sewing room for me.

My bedroom sliding glass door is done, it was going to be special ordered due to the size and our framer Andy found the exact size we needed at Home Depot from someone else that had special order they never picked up. So we got lucky! It even has blinds in between the panes of glass, just like we wanted.

This is my bedroom closet. We will pick out doors for it tonight.

This is my walk in shower. The hole in the floor is just a crawl space it will be boarded up and tile will go over it. The rough plumbing is also in for the shower.

Bathroom vanity rough plumbing is in! The pipe going up I believe is to the washer and dryer area upstairs.

Day four to yesterday 4/11/14

We took a few days off since I was exhausted after working my normal job during the day. But we got back in the swing of things and have the house to where we need it for the framer, plumber and electrician to start. Keeping fingers crossed that all happens next week so we can stay on track. 
Our family friend Andy will be framing the bathroom wall and walk in shower plus putting in new stairs (as you can see from the below pics the stairs are gone) after he is done the plumber and electrician will come in. The plumbing and electric will be completely re-done. The pipes were old and cast iron and the electric is very old, not grounded and we can't even put in a washer/dryer as it stands. So best to just re-do it all since the walls are down. 
Once the above is done we get to start sanding the floors, painting walls and tiling the bathroom. 
So excited it's coming along. I can't wait to move in. If all goes as planned we will be in by the end of the month. 

That wood with all the wires hanging off was the stairs, it's now gone minus the post, it's load bearing so we had to leave it till the new wall goes up, plus we didn't want to get shocked. The green tape is my bathroom laid out. The black box is my toilet next to it will be a walk in shower with 2 shower heads and the area with X is the vanity there will be 2 sinks. The triangle shape in the far left corner is the door, it will be at a angle like that we hope. We were eliminating the window above the toilet but now think we will keep it with frosted glass. I did get rid of the claw foot tub. It's sitting in the bedroom at the moment. I decided I don't like it. So I will sell it. Oh just in case your wondering the extra piece of wood on the floor is where we cut a crawl space for the plumber. The floor will all be tile when we get done.

XXX Right above those xxx will be the stairs. Behind the stairs will be a closet that will be part of the bedroom. There will be another closet in the bedroom.

Almost done getting the linoleum up off the kitchen floor, such a pain. We had to buy a heat gun to help get them off. Each time we go to the house we get about 5 done, it takes forever and they are so sticky.

Trash pile is now gone. We had this amazing guy I found off craigslist haul it all away for $240, it was less about $200 but I gave him a tip for getting the job done so fast. We started a new trash pile as you see in the second photo and won't have that hauled away till were all done, just in case we have more and i'm sure we will. 

I will post more soon....

Our New House

Our New Home
I will try and get a better outside picture when it's not so cold or dark. 
My boyfriend and I bought this home after a long month of going back and forth with the realtors, bank and appraiser. 
It's finally our's and now the fun begins. 

The home is only 870 sq ft. 2 story but the upstairs isn't good usable space (the ceiling are low) we are still using upstairs as a guest room. The whole home is being gutted. We are moving the bathroom to the other side of the house and adding all new windows, door and floors (minus the original hardwood in the kitchen, bedroom and living room. 

Most all the work will be done by us. We have so far spent 2 days on demo work. 
The plumbing, electric and windows will be done by licensed contractors we hired. 

Enjoy watching us make this home ours and as questions if you have any. 
I will try every few days to post updates and lots of before and after pictures. 

Day Two/Three 4/2/14 & 4/3/14

We got a ton done in the last two days. Just about ready to start re-framing the walls and figuring out where everything is going so the plumber and electrician can come back over. 
Today the plumber is closing off all the old pipes for us and taking the gas stuff out. That way we don't need to worry about blowing the home up... lol....

We are trying to decide if the stair case should stay where it's at or if we should move it to the other side of the house. I am for moving it, to me it makes more sense space wise. My father was supposed to come help us figure these things out but is having some truck issues, so were on our own right now. Tough decisions. 

Here is the last two days progress...
I can't wait to put it all back together and make it our home. 

Day One of Demo Work 4/1/14

This was a den type room, it will now become the only master bathroom in the house. We might add a bathroom upstairs but not at this time. The window with the ac unit will be gone and the window that is being blocked currently by a staircase will stay and have a frosted glass added when replaced.

Front Door & Living room area. This room will stay the way it is and size. It will just get updated windows, possibly door (if it fits in our budget and new drywall, paint and ceiling fan.

Current bathroom. It's an odd room right now. Toilet & sink are in this 1st room, you turn the corner and there's a claw foot tub with wood walls. Sort of creepy. I would of been scared to shower the way it was.

Our plan is to clean this tub up nice and redo the inside and paint the outside to re-use in the new bathroom.

Day one trash pile. We put in 3 hours on day one, got a ton done. I was very proud of us =)