2011- Year in Review

People talk about time moving quickly.  This past year has been the fastest year of my life.  Much of it a blur.  I took every effort to slow down and soak it in-and still there are months I can't recall.  I thought I would do a high level recap.

January 2011

• I put my first home on the market.  A little bittersweet but I had to make way for new beginnings.

My first house.



• Scott PROPOSED.  He caught me by surprise.  Read more about it here:   The story of my proposal.

February 2011

• Scott and I took a short vacation to Southern Florida for the Miami Boat Show and some needed R&R.  You can read all about our vacation here: Our trip to South Florida

March 2011

• We continued to look for a new home and we found one at the very end of the month.
• Thankfully less than a week later we went into a contract on Pandora's Box.
• We set a wedding date for early August and a reception date for late August-the planning begins.

April 2011

• We closed on the new house and began the demo that same week.  

The new house

May 2011

• My brother Shaun got married in Hilton Head.
• Scott and I had our first couples shower.
• I closed on my house
• I moved all my things from my house to the basement of the new house
• The renovations continued



Scott and I at Shaun and Allisons wedding.




 



Scott and I at our couples shower.




 






The group in Charleston for the bachelor/bachelorette party

July 2011




• We continued with the house.
• We took a brief, and very rare break to celebrate Fourth of July at the marina. 



The sheet between the top and bottom floor of the new house.  It helped with dust and chaos control

August 2011

• I celebrated with the ladies for a girls only wedding shower.
• We traveled to the Bahamas to get married and honeymoon.
• We came back and had all our family and friends in for a wedding reception




 



Our honeymoon




 

September 2011

• The upstairs neared move in ready.  Scott finished the kitchen with appliances.
• We attended a Univ of TN tailgate-the first of many games which would have better pre-game festivities than the games themselves.



Scott and the supervisor




October 2011

• We MOVED UPSTAIRS.  It took us 6 months. 

November 2011

•  Scott went hunting in Arkansas
•  We moved all Scott's furniture from his garage into the new house.  Finally we were mostly furnished.
• While he was gone I figured out how to use all my existing holiday decor in the new house
• We received our wedding license in the mail-so at last we can proof it happened;)
• We hosted our first Thanksgiving celebration.  In our brand new kitchen.  It went very well.




December 2011

• We attended holiday parties galore.  We hosted our third annual garage party which was a success.
• Bailey took a turn for the worse health wise and we had a very hard 10 days at the end of the month before his small heart couldn't take anymore. He dies on December 19th which was impossibly hard.
• Scott and I celebrated our first married Christmas-which despite the sadness was nice and good.




This past year was one of the most hectic I can recall.  I feel we did so much in such a short time.  We had some fantastic highs from getting engaged to getting married after almost 4 years together.  We got to celebrate our life and future with our loved ones.  Those highs made the horrible low of losing Bailey bittersweet.  But-its how it happens.  It can't be all good-bad things happen.  I have high hopes for 2012.  Can't wait to see what's in store!!

Moving on and outward

The nature of the beast of home renovation is multi-tasking.  Finish the current projects while planning the new projects is how it has to work to keep the ball rolling.

We are nearing the end of "Phase 1" of the renovation which included the entire upstairs of the house.  We are getting ready to put a new roof on the house-which normally wouldn't precipitate big decor decisions, but in our case it does.  We plan to paint the outside of the house-in "Phase 2" of our renovation, after the new roof.  To pick the right roof color I need an idea of what the outside color of the house will be-which makes sense. 

As a reminder the current house is light khaki with a dated teal color accent.  Not our taste.  Since I am all about taking risks with color I lean toward a grey outside color scheme (I know-CRAZY TOWN-but my comfort zone is khaki and taupe.)  I used the Sherwin Williams site to mock up some ideas.  This is crude-but you can get the idea.  Also keep in mind-our lot is heavily wooded..and we are not planning to change the stone.  We will do a full overhaul of the outside landscape next spring, "Phase 4."  I will be adding lots of color to the front of the house with reds, purples and white bushes and flowers.  Don't let the current UG-Landscaping influece your ideas.

Please let me know what you think.



Option 1.  Green, Grey and a Teal-ish accent.



Option 2- Grey/Blue, Taupe and Orange



Option 3- Khaki, Dark Khaki and Red




Option 4-Light grey (almost cream), dark grey and blue.




Option 5- More khakis and a green accent



Option 6- Dark slate grey/blue, light grey and a bold yellow.  Note I like the tone of this door but yellow will be no where in the landscape if I have my way. 

Option 7- grey blue and an orangey/yellow accent.



NAILED!!

Scott and I have been looking for a big/industrial piece that we can use in our "under renovation" home once its all finished.  I wanted something with size that would be unusual.  We had gone back and forth on lockers, library card catalogs and things of that nature.  This piece from Restoration Hardware is my inspiration.

Inspiration Piece

The end of June we stumbled upon the "NAIL BIN."  It was on craigslist and we both instantly liked it.  We liked the price...it wasn't crazy far away so we called.  We went back and forth with the owner of said nail bin and came to a fair price.  We went to Sevierville to pick it up the Saturday of July 4th weekend.  At 8am.   Like vintage furniture marines.  We were home by 10am with this guy (after breakfast in a place that looked like our current basement, which was odd):

All nine feet of the nail bin glory.

Its HUGE...this picture doesn't even do it justice.  It's HEAVY and the top has considerable rust.  Each of the bins is heavy metal and they slide out...not on a track.  They stay open like you see above.  Some of them have considerable rust.

After letting it sit for a couple of months I am trying to come up with a firm plan.  I know it needs to be refinished in some way.  Likely sanded down.  Maybe sandblasted?  And probably refinished in some way.  All these details are up in the air.  Also-I know I want to remove some of the bins for open shelve storage.  Since it will be in the dining room I imagine we could put platters on it and such.  The bins I keep could be used for napkins. 

I have showed many people and I think most think I am nuts.  Maybe?  We'll see.

Kitchen- In Progress..

The hardest part of the entire remodel project, for me, has been the lack of a kitchen.  We moved in on 4/23 and have basically not had a kitchen since.  Yes-its a long time.  But-we are starting to put the old girl back together.  Here is a pictorial of the progress we have made.

The BEFORE view of the kitchen from the dining room.  Prior to us pulling down the wall to open the whole space.

The kitchen BEFORE..in all its 1970's glory.



The kitchen after the demo.




The IN PROCESS view of the kitchen from the dining room.


  

The kitchen BEFORE.  The view from the kitchen into the dining room.



The IN PROCESS view of the dining room from the kitchen.  Note our new island is installed-sans counter tops.


 I will post more detailed shots as we move along but the progress is extraordinary.

Dark wood is good wood

In the midst of the the wedding whirlwind we are also finishing the house.  We have allot going on.  Over our honeymoon our brilliant carpenter installed our hardwood floors.  Scott and I went back and forth on what to go with in this house.  I leaned toward dark chocolate and he wanted something lighter.  I wanted to take the house in a more modern direction...since that is something I had not done in the past.

While this picture does not do them justice-since they are dirty -you can see who won:)

Take Out Anyone?

People make lots of funny comments about our remodeling project.  Most of them center on the common empathetic themes of "i am sure its almost done," "it can't be that bad," and "think how much you will love it when it's finished."  All true-all true my friends.  While its not that bad the worst part, by far, is the lack of kitchen.  I tell people we don't have a kitchen and they smile and smirk as if I am kidding.  Last weekend I took a group of girlfriends on a mini tour of the upstairs and the overwhelming response- "YOU SERIOUSLY DON'T HAVE A KITCHEN!!"  I realized that maybe I am not emphasizing my lack.  Here is a picture of my current kitchen:

What's for dinner?

Basement Land

There has been some mild curiosity on how we are living in our house, during this massive construction phase.  When we moved into the house in mid-May we moved straight into the basement.  When I say basement its really just the bottom floor.  The house is split level so the bottom level has a living area, a bar with sink, a bathroom, laundry and a bedroom.  Its fairly functional for a short amount of time.    We also have sliding doors to the outside so the dogs have full access to their backyard and we have sunlight.  It's still a bit cramped.  Mom-this is for you-pics of my box land:

Close up of the wall of boxes/ box springs and assorted "stuff."



View from the basement door.  This makes it look like chaos...and I am starting to think it might be.  Thankfully I am able to tune the whole mess out since I know I am not a hoarder and this is a short term solution.

And not to worry..the dogs appear totally unphased by their new digs.  Most days when I come home I find some version of this going on.  I guess it is the lazy dog days of summer:)

 

TAKE DOWN THAT WALL....

We are still working on the house.  Many of the things we are doing are not really good blog fodder.  For example...when Scott redoes wiring it makes ME sleepy-so I imagine it would make you all sleepy too.  But he has been wiring...and plumbing...and sheetrocking.  That last one is worth covering.  Our house was an interesting split level/split foyer layout.  It's not a classic example of either but a meld of the two. 

I have no real before pics of this.  But imagine walking into a small foyer and right in front of you is a wall that is high, but not quite to the ceiling.  We took it DOWN!  Scott convinced me to do it and it was a brilliant idea.

This is a in process pic of the wall removed before the sheetrock had been replaced.  The wall went up to the hallway height...which left it short of the celing by 3-4 feet

 .

This is a view down the hallway once the wall had been removed.  It really did open everything up.  You can also see a weird vent that had no purpose above the wall.  We had plans to take it down too.



Here is the wall after the drywall work was completed.  Now you still walk into a wall but the hallway is open to the light and front door.  Weird vent removed and drywall fixed.



View into the hallway after the drywall work was completed.

Many more detail pics to come....its been a busy couple of weeks.

A Brand New House

Hello...my last blog was devoted to my first home and all the trials and tribulations that went along with it.  I redid the entire house and than I met Scott.  And then Scott and I got engaged.  And then we decided to sell my house to fund our first home together.  Which we did.  Now everyone is all caught up.

Scott and I have been looking for a home, on and off again for over a year.  We had zoned in on a few choice neighborhoods and were actively going back and forth on what we wanted.  I had a short list:
1. flat backyard with easy access.
2. relatively open floor plan
3. place for a dog door
Everything else was a luxury for me.

Scott had a different list of wants/needs:
1. Not stucco
2. flat driveway
3. no pool
4. relatively open floor plan or potential for one with torn out walls
5. a garage or carport where we both could park
6. if its on the high end of the price range than it has to have at least an acre of land

As you can tell our lists ruled out many a home.  We looked and looked.  I was convinced we would never find anything.  I was becoming desperate, despondent and morose.  It wasn't pretty.  I envisioned me and the dogs homeless or living in the garage with no backyard:(

A house came on the market in our desired neighborhood.  It was a bit odd since the listing said they wouldn't be showing the house until the end of the month, about 4 weeks from the time it was listed.  I didn't think much of it.  I called though.  THANK GOD I DID!!!  The house was going to go under some renovations after the children of the couple who lived there cleared out all there stuff in an estate sale.  I asked to see it "as is."  The agent agreed.  Scott and I went separately to the house and perused it.  It was a showpiece in 1976.  It was the parade of homes house that year.  Coincidentally the year Scott and I were born.  Suffice to say he and I have aged better than this house.  It was lovingly maintained but never updated.  AT ALL.  We asked for the "as is" price.  We met over Mexican and discussed.  I think I started the conversation with something like "WE HAVE TO BUY THIS HOUSE!!!"  We debated.  We discussed.  We saw our summer slip away in a renovation haze.  We made a low ball offer.  We waited.  I started kissing the house good bye.  Good riddance big project.  And then they countered at full price.  We said no.  They came back and accepted our offer.  Like that we bought a GINORMOUS project house.  yay!!!

This blog will document the house projects.  And the beginning of our life together.  It won't always be easy, but i KNOW it will be worth it!!!!

Our first home.  Watch out Brady Bunch...we have big plans!!!