Since July or August, we finished our master bath, downstairs bath, and decided that it would be a great idea to work on the kitchen too. We found renters in October and moved to Provo Halloween night (how appropriate, there's nothing more horrifying).
First off, the master. Oh my goodness....luckily this one went relatively quick thanks to help from Brian's parents. We had such a love-hate relationship with this bathroom. The slate was a nightmare to put in, but we liked the look of it. The paint was scary too. In all of our bathrooms, Brian made me choose the paint color. I wanted to do something different, so the first time I had to choose paint for the main bathroom, I decided to go with a bluish color-
We liked the way it turned out, so we decided to go for another dark color in the master. We chose a white vanity and I loved the way this green looked with it. It took a couple weeks for the green with the slate to grow on me though. All our potential renters LOVED the color when they came to look at our house so I feel validated. :) You can't really see the slate in this picture. I don't have a good one because of the glare off the glass shower door. Not a good idea by the way. not so fun to clean those...
Next we worked on the downstairs bath. This is where I screwed up on the color choice. We went fairly cheap on this one and it went in faster than the rest so, other than the paint, I look at this one as a massive success. I wanted a gray tone in this bath, but the paint I chose turned out to be lavender. Luckily our renter has daughters that think it is awesome.
Next up was the kitchen. We debated back and forth for about 4 months whether or not to even touch anything in the kitchen, but one day I got it into my head that instead of replacing our cabinets and making everything expensive, we could paint them because I thought they were hideous and if we are being completely honest here, they did not fit with the rest of the house anymore.
*** This was probably a day after we got back from our honeymoon, hence the boxes, flowers, and chaos***This seemed like a really good idea, and in no way do I regret doing it, but it was an incredible amount of work and took longer than I care to remember. There was a good 2 weeks where I developed a nervous twitch because all of my cabinet doors were off and open to the world. I cannot handle that. Doors are ALWAYS closed in my house. It's my OCD. That and lights being left on, like the one I just noticed in my kitchen.
Anyway, we had a real struggle trying to find a paint that would cover the wood smoothly and be durable enough for everyday use. 3 primers, 4 paint options, and too many days later we decided on a nice light cream color and borrowed the always amazing paint sprayer from Brian's dad.
We never intended to touch anything other than the cabinets, but then we realized that the sink was terrible and the faucet leaked, and the lower oven didn't work, and the one oven that did function was so small I called it 'the easy bake' from day one, and the stove was malfunctioning...so it ended up being a bigger project than we expected. Then we realized that the counter was the same hideous powder blue that the old toilet seat in the master bath was, only with some bonus burn marks and various permanent stains. In the end we bought a new sink and faucet, new double ovens, a new stove, and we put marble on the counter tops.
Ignore the dumpy fridge. We traded that out later for a less dumpy looking old fridge.I have several favorite parts of the finished kitchen. The marble tiles I was so against because of the grout lines turned out to look amazing! The stove we got for less than half the price and those glorious double ovens that both work and actually heat to the right temperature brought me endless joy for the short time I had them. I love the way the black outlet covers look too. My favorite favorite thing is the beadboard around the bar though, probably because it was my idea and the color turned out amazing AND, again, it was MY idea!!! Thats exciting because I rarely know what I'm talking about when it comes to these things.
I'm really proud of the way it turned out and how little it actually cost us to do. It isn't exactly what I'd want in a kitchen, but looks million times better and I'm sure it helped us secure renters within 4 days of advertising.
We did a ton of stuff to this house now that I think about it. We pretty much gutted the enitre main level. There's all new carpet, paint, hardwood floors, and tile. Outside we moved 15-20 yards of dirt the previous owner was stashing for an unknown and unfulfilled purpose, tore out bushes, laid 900 sq. feet of sod in the backyard, planted grass in the front, planted flowers, painted the garage door, and tamed the wild rose bush that was growing 15 feet up into the tree next to it (no joke. it was terrifying).
We miss it. Here are some pictures of a couple rooms I missed today:
We couldn't have done it all without help from both of our parents! It was a lot to take on and we are really proud of the way it turned out!!! And after all that work we were still happy to leave. Our commute was terrible. With Brian headed to Lindon and me to Provo, and with all the construction on I-15 and an icy winter looming in the distance we decided it would be better, cheaper, and life-preserving to move closer. So we found us a gross little apartment that met our two requirements: W/D hookups and an extra bedroom for all our stuff. It isn't really so bad, just different. Especially when we see little things like outdated outlets and weird extra light fixtures that we could fix so easily if it was our property. It is nice to have everything contained in a small area. I swear there were areas of our Riverton house that we never used and set foot in twice. The worst thing - my lovely carpeted bathroom with no outlets. I know it's a generational thing, but really? Who thought that was a good idea?!Other than that we are adjusting well to being in happy valley again. I switched my school schedule to get done faster so I go until 10pm 3 nights a week. Brian uses that time to play basketball or watch games without me rolling my eyes at him. We are excited for Christmas and looking forward to our 1 year anniversary. :)
I've heard that doing a remodel is a difficult thing to put a marriage through. After 9 months of continuous remodel in our house, I'm feeling pretty good about the future! Now if I could only get him to close cabinet doors...
Posts
