Pinterest Dreaming: The plans for Renovations

Nowadays... the best place to start when you are wanting to redo something is check out pinterest, houzz, and of course trade publications!

Here are just a few that really exude the feeling we are wanting to achieve in our new house. 

May take us a while to get here but excited and up for the challenge!

So... I personally do not care for the color of shingle on the roof, (see below for what I prefer) The house also needs the brick painted, some landscaping, some grass instead of weeds, and a basic overall facelift. Some things will have to wait, obviously. But we hope to make a few inexpensive changes to get the place looking like a family lives here by early fall.

 (source unknown, let me know if you know where its from)

This is the color scheme/look we will be going for. 

We have however discovered this week, the rotten wood we asked to be replaced.. bummer!! so we will have to address thigs like that before we can move onto more fun stuff.

As of right now the only pan for this room is to paint the fireplace a cream color, and paint the paneling. 

We will hopefully have the chimney cleaned sometime soon then I will shop for a new fireplace screen and remove this brass one.

Belo is the layout for the den we are hoping to achieve.

Obviously the sectional sofa has to go and we will likely get rid of the leather recliner as well. 

I have found my two side chairs for this room but finding a couch is proving to be harder than we thought. 

To accomodate this amount of seating we need a couch less than 84" and a love seat. 

Baby steps.

via urbangrace.com

Here is the dining area of the kitchen. 

So far this has been one of the few spaces in the home we have been able to address. 

(waiting for the rain to clear to get some shots with better lighting for yall!)

Can't wait to show you what we found!!

I must admit this doesnt look like a selling feature to most. 

But to me this 17 foot, yes seventeen foot long laundry room meant I could have my mud room area as well as my in home business. oh... and clean those pesky dirty clothes.

haha

Here is an idea of what we are thinking for the cubbies

 via isabella and max rooms

As I am sure you all well remember, the last house was next to a drainage ditch and backed up to the main interstate in our city. Loud, easy for the dogs to escape, and in no way condusive to small children playing. 

I think it's safe to say the new space is uh... a blank slate. Even after 20+ years of when it was built. 

I have some SERIOUS plans for flowerbeds!!!

source via oakleyhomebuilders.com

And a paver patio, and a pergola, and an outdoor kitchen.

Does anyone know where to get those money trees I have heard of?

Thinking I may need to plant a few with ALL these plans I have!

via houseandhome.com

viahomesdesignlove.com

And the next big space is the playroom.

I LOVE how holly designed her boy playroom. 

Lots of fun and whimsical touches.

Hoping to solidify paint colors in here soon!

via holly mathis interiors

I think the bathrooms and the kitchen need their own post!!!

Lots, Lots, Lots to catch up on.

Let's see, let's see... where to begin....

May have to break this down into... oh, 10 posts. 

So much to discuss. 

First off I am FINALLY wrapping up the year long clean out!!

Still managed to have quite a few things to gather for a local children's consignment sale and take 2 more boxes to good will. 

I am just facing facts, I know I dont need it... I dont. 

Went through old pictures last night while waiting on hubby to get home. 

Threw away over 100... kept one pile to buy a photo album for. 

Whew that was a task, now to decide what pictures to print of each of my kids and start some photo books of our favorite memories. 

Its sad but I only have a handful of printed pictures of my baby girl!! 

She is 4!!!!!

Too sad.

First up of many spring decisions is what type of fence to do??

Source: southernliving.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

I kinda left yall hanging on the whole story but long story short our city super stinks (i say sucks under my breath)

It's pretty sad when you get excited about a fresh roll of chainlink ;/.

They said the last fence was installed around 1954 when the neighborhood was established.

At least all the old posts are gone now :)

And after putting up and taking down 5 fences the city had the state take down the fence they installed and sent out a crew and put up the proper size one and brought 3 truck loads of dirt to fill in the sink hole.

Basically to prevent us from temporarily having our fence problem again we will back off our property line a whopping 3 feet.

(this is the 6 foot fence they put up the second time, then someone from the city came out and told the state to take it down, basically the city wouldnt do anything so I called the State and was put in contact with the Building Engineer for the State of Tennessee and he himself came down and said this is unacceptable and a hazard to myself, my children, and my dogs, this sweet man FIANLLY got the ball rolling and made the city do something.)

At this point I dont care how many feet. 

Just so glad this nasty debris, dead tree and ugly fence we put up to protect us from this dilapodated fence is now all gone...

Whatever it takes to get me out of this place!!!

(last time on the market people asked for an allowance to install a fence, it needs to be done but we put making the rest pretty above the fence, I digress.)

Here is what I have pinned on pinterest and have been eyeing. 

Since we won't be here forever we may not spend the $ and do these designs. Just dreaming while we plan.

Source: my-backyard-projects.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

Love this but quite a big high end for my starter home neighborhood.

Source: annedeckerarchitects.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

Source: meaghancurryphotography.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

This would be for the gate into the backyard.

Source: southernliving.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

What kind of fence would you do?

Big City turned small town when....

You find a job in a part of town you knew nothing about growing up.

While at said job people get to know you and find out you live around the corner.

Said people reference your home as "so and so's old house"

You don't know so and so... until a high school friendship is rekindled as she moves around the corner.

The so and so's become high schools friends, neighbors aunt and uncle. 

Follow that??

Anywho thanks to the power of facebook you are offered the incredible and rare opportunity to connect with the so and so's and email back and forth.

Through your back yard new fence nightmare you find one of their childrens precious stepping stones accidentally left behind when they moved.

I am so excited to be able to message the wife of this couple and get her to fill in the blanks for me on our home we knew nothing about.

The people who bought from them were who got foreclosed on. 

After several emails back and forth and her answering some questions for me she sent some pictures she took just before they listed their house on the market. 

Enjoy seeing how it has changed in 8 years.

The bank made a LOT of changes between them and before we purchased. I kinda wish the kitchen was how it was when she had it. 

Oh well.... to be renovated eventually!

This is the picture she sent me, i commented with the changes that have occurred since then.

Sorry its dark. but the kitchen dining area became our home office.

disregard the suitcase. haha

not sure who did what here but i LOVE her cabinet doors. 

I dont have these pretty doors. mine are plain with an AWEFUL paint job to them!

and the cooktop and oven?? jealous!! this cheap thing I have doesnt cook evenly!!

CURSES!!!

And i hate my countertops, time to stop complaining.... there are people around the world starving and I complain about my faux granite countertops! 

What am I the most jealous of??? she didnt have these HORRIBLE spanish tiles in her backsplash. one day I will get mad enough and just take a hammer to em!!

final share for this post...

remember my question about the random pole in the middle of the very back yard?? 

She answered it!

That was the side to the ladder for their above ground pool.

better picture from the spring when we added the flower beds.

Wait til this spring when we FINALLY landscape and put up a privacy fence!!!

I will probably cry because I will be so excited about the dogs not being about to run off!!!

More to come in a second post!!

A Kitchen Remodel: The planning phase

The time has come. 

(you may have noticed from my most recent pins what I have been scheming)

If we must stay in this house I am going to make the kitchen what I want and also utilizes every square inch of the 9 ft by 8.5 ft space.

Here are a few of my favorite pinterest inspirations that we are going to use as our guide. 

This first pin is probably the closest representation of what we will be doing with the space.

Source: houzz.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

Source: decorpad.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

Source: vickys-home.blogspot.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

Source: designocd.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

Source: simplebeautifulhome.blogspot.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

And I am on the search for either a vintage china cabinet to transform or considering opening an account with British Traditions and ordering one of their stately reproduction pieces. (more on that later)

Source: home---made.blogspot.ca via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

Hope to either be back later today or tomorrow with a style board for the space. 

I am still waiting on a few more quotes to come in from some vendors, but this has and will be an extensive researched product and a great resource for anyone weighting the cost of stock vs. custom, look alike marble or marble or even formica for that matter.

Stay tuned....

The Guesthouse

This post is only partially for me. 

It is about 60% for my friend Erica. 

She has followed along on our blog ever since we purchased this home and I have failed all of you!!

I have NEVER shared the guesthouse. 

Its that place in my home I thought was "cool" when we offered on the house then I realized.... its a huge huge thorn in my side.

Have we had a tennant? 

Yes we did! A sweet girl I worked with at J Crew lived out here for about a year. 

(wish I had photographed it with all her cute decor and not it's current barron ugliness)

Alas...

Here she is.

Only recently did we paint the front door and replace the exterior lights.

When we purchased the room was grey and had only the foundation for flooring.

See this left over sticker?? I don't know why but I can bring myself to remove it. 

This was the bank's winterization sticker they had on the door. 

To me it is sooo much more. It's the very final reminder of how misloved and broken this home was and how my husband and I were able to pour blood sweat and tears into the whole property and make her pretty again. Make her desireable to another family so they could also call it home.

Door open looking into the "living" space.

new wall color and new carpet. 

Sooo thankful for a father in law who so graciously offers to help us. We have soo much home improvement wise to learn from him. 

Just another angle.

Standing in the kitchen looking back out towards the back of our home. 

To the left is the closet, right the bathroom and if you went through the door straight ahead you would go into the garage.

door into the bathroom

The bathroom and another uncomplete project of beginning to put hardwood in this bathroom.

Lovely wallpaper wall.

Notice the bass fish border? haha

Here is the suprisingly large walk in closet in the space.

Again another unfinished hardwood flooring project.

See this crumpled paper? That WAS the flooring to the closet. This is what I like to call the scary side of buying a foreclosure.

in the "living" space and looking into the kitchen/dining area.

Another view

We took all the cabinets down out here to paint and never got around to it. 

how cute would this place be with a fresh cabinet paint?

And the nasty view into the back yard. 

Remember how this place looked 5 weeks ago??

Let me refresh your memory.

Ughhh believe it or not the only thing that kills all this kudzu is a chainsaw and pouring bleach on it. 

Apparently kerosene works but that stuff is expensive when you need 3 or so barrells.

Well it looks like that's the "full" disclosure of pictures of this home. 

I will probably do a "selling our house" post. Lets just say it has been a LONG drawn out process.