A "Hole" in the Wall

Check it out! 

The before....

The after....

That's a pretty big hole!  Like we took out the "whole" wall!  And I couldn't be happier!  What a difference!  

You can see a peak of the tongue and groove ceiling. Those are the boards I've been painting!

We are planning an L shaped kitchen across the back and to the right.  The sink will eventually be under that far window.  For now it still sits in the middle of the room.  We still need to finish the plumbing for the sink and dishwasher.  The two posts you see will stay there.  They are holding up the 2nd floor!  There will be a small 4-foot island right in front of the posts. You can see a single light bulb in the ceiling over the dishwasher.  That will eventually be a pendant light over the island.  

And what a difference drywall makes! 

A couple more pics before I close.

 There will be a computer desk and wall cabinets to the left where you see the blue chair.

 And a view from inside the kitchen.  {love}

All for now!  
Love to you all!
xoxo 
  

Some "before" pics of the Kitchen

Demolition of the kitchen has begun!  In honor of this special occasion I thought I would share some pictures of what the kitchen used to look like.

This is the entrance to the kitchen from the dining room.

Walking straight in you come to the sink.  If you look through the brown windows you can see the new white window in the addition.  The kitchen will be extended out just like we did in the boys room.  

To the right of the sink.  

To the left of the sink.  That was the door that led to the basement.  But since Mr. Windmill reworked the basement stairs, it now leads to the addition.  This door and the whole wall with the brown windows will be removed. 

The fridge sits behind the sink. This is the opposite side of the dining room wall that will be removed.  Our plans for the nook to the right of the fridge will include a built-in desk and some storage.

 

After a day of wrecking the joint....

This is where the sink used to be.

This is where the fridge stood.

This is the view from the brown door that used to lead to the basement.

Some "before" pics of the Living Room

Hello!

Just checking in with some "before" pics of the living room.

Mr. Windmill is working at a fast and furious pace to try to get this room done!  

This is the fireplace and front entry.  The arch to the right of the fireplace is going to be taken out.  We have plans to open up the entry space a little more.

You can see repairs to the mortar joints in the brick work of the fireplace.  Because it would be way to crazy (and dusty) to grind out all the mortar joints, the brick will need to be painted or tiled.  The two squares at the bottom had grates like you see at the top.  I think there used to be fans in those places to help circulate the heat.  

The grates at the top will be covered and the ones at the bottom will need to be bricked.  We are hoping to install a gas insert so we won't be needing the circulation.

This is the view looking into the dining room.

My favorite spot in the house is sitting in this double window corner!

Here you can see the glued on ceiling tiles, the wobbly ceiling fan and that strange hood thing that was mounted above the fireplace.  All of these things will be removed!  

So far the plaster has been removed, the wiring has been updated and insulation was installed.  We found quite a bit of water damage behind that tongue and groove.  The chimney leaked several years ago and was never repaired properly.  It's all fixed now!  
The master bedroom is next!

Dining Room Demolition

You may have seen this pic on Facebook.  The one where it looks like the zombie apocalypse taking place inside our house......minus the zombies, unless you count my kids in the morning......or maybe me, maybe.......  #coffeefirst !

Anyway....

Here is our plan.

There is a small storage closet behind this door.  Because it's under the stairs, it's all awkward with a slanted ceiling.  We may be able to open this space up too....but we aren't quite sure yet.  For now, we know that this door will be gone!

And here's what it look like now!

Making progress but so much more to do!  My pinterest boards grow and grow!  It's all so exciting (and dirty).

All for now!

~B

Boys Room Remodel Ideas

Right before Christmas, Mr. Windmill demo'd the boys' room.  We then added six more feet to the room, installed a beam, insulation, new wiring and drywall.  Now there is room for all of their furniture and their closet is at floor level.  Previously the closet was built up a foot off the floor.   

Here's a pic of the closet

My kids had to literally climb into the closet to reach their clothes.

If you missed the before pics, check out this link.

I've been thinking a lot about how I want their space to look.  My boys being 6 and 8 have their opinions too.  So we all talked about their room and this is what we came up with.  

We already own the blue and green comforters.  And since we are on a pretty tight budget (you know, a whole house to remodel), I decided to work with what we have.  

I started by showing the boys my pinterest board inspiration for their room.  To my surprise, they really liked some of my choices. 

I originally thought of grey walls, blue and green bedding and some orange accents for a little pop of color.  But my youngest superhero insisted on green walls.  At first, I wasn't sure..... but now that I see it, it might just work!

I really like that desk, but I'm afraid it is out of our price range at $440.  I'll have to hit the garage sales and flea markets this summer to see what I can find.  

Mr. Windmill doesn't know it yet, but I'm scheming for him to build some rustic book shelves.  I would also like him to build something like the cage light holder you see in the upper right corner.  My oldest really wants this light by his bed.

Who knows when we will ever get to the decorating phase!  But it's fun to dream.  

Happy Tuesday everyone!

2nd Floor Progress

Slow and steady wins the race.  Right?  Yep, uh huh, this is where you nod your head and say..... "Yes indeedy pumpkin seedy!"

The reason it's been so long since I've posted some pictures is because I really didn't have any pictures to post.

Things around the cottage have been slow.  Our Christmas was very low key.  My oldest superhero had his tonsils removed a week before Christmas.  We cleared the calendar and just relaxed.  That gave us all time to re calibrate and time for my little guy to heal.

Taking a break is good.  But sometimes it really messes with your mojo.  You see, we REALLY enjoyed doing nothing for a few weeks that it made it really hard to motivate again.  Like, really hard.  So much that "slow and steady" became just "slow"!

The upstairs sat in demolition for a while.  Mr. Windmill plugged away an hour here, an hour there.  His work schedule changed between daylight and midnight several times, which made it hard for his body to know if it was coming or going.  

Here are the pictures of the drywall coming along.

 The right side with the bathroom framed in.  

The left side.

Just a quick pic of the stairs.  I am thinking of refinishing them.  Or painting them.  Not entirely sure yet.  We definitely need to choose new railing.  The height of this railing is not up to code.  It's way too short.  

Here is a link to my Stairs Pinterest Board to give you an idea of what I'm thinking about.
So many choices, only one set of stairs............

Have a great day everyone! 

Boy's Room Demolition

The next room on the demolition list is the boy's bedroom.

Here are few snaps of what their bedroom used to look like.

The drywall headboard and house wrap wallpaper are a nice touch, don't you think?

When we installed new windows, we knew we were adding on to the back of the house, eventually making this bedroom bigger.  So once we removed the old window we had to board up the hole and install a new window that would be more centered to the new space.  

Since this room is so small, there is no other configuration for the beds.  The heads of the beds were right on the demolition/ reconstruction.  Jagged drywall tends to crumble and make dirt.   So our temporary solution was the house wrap and drywall headboard.  Umm if you can actually use the term "temporary" for well over a year.

 My resident artists felt that their room needed A LOT of art.  

Also note in this picture you can see the original brown window in the wall that used to be the exterior wall.  You can actually look through that window and see the new white window that is in the addition. This wall is going to be ripped out and a beam will replace it since it is a load bearing wall.

And just like that.....It's a construction zone.

This picture was taken from inside the addition...looking through the old brown window.

 Same view after some cleanup.  

This is almost the same viewpoint as the first picture.  

But now the wall and brown window have been removed.  

Now you can see the addition and how much more space it will give the boys. And now their dressers will fit into their bedroom.

We really wanted to replace the tub/shower in our first floor bathroom.  It currently is a two piece unit.  It has leaked a time or two when I had a crazy boy in the bath.  So it was really important for us to replace it with a one piece unit.  The thing is, we needed to buy the unit and get it in the addition before we finished building the walls.   Otherwise, it would never fit through the front door.  

The bathroom remodel is far away yet.  So, the tub unit will have to stay in the boys room until then.  

Gosh, a vanity in the living room and a tub in the boys room.  It's all so crazy around here!

But that vanity should be moving soon.  Plans change!