A Walk Down Memory Lane

It's hard to believe we have lived in our fixer upper for more than 9 months! Shortly after moving into our home we went from a family of 3 to our newest addition, Jocko, who is almost 10 months old.  Though we have years of work ahead of us, it's always fun to take a walk down memory lane. 

Below you will find some before and afters of our living room.

Originally, the living room was separate from the kitchen and there was a bar facing toward the living room. In addition, all the walls had textured wall paper, two ceiling fans hanging way too low and popcorn ceilings in all of the house. 

Same view of above today... still work to do!

Another before picture with the 1970s bar.

The removal of the wall and bar was a process.

Not only did we remove the wall and bar, but we had to install a large beam in the ceiling as it was a load bearing wall.

                                        

 Our parents removed all the wall paper.

The original color of the Adobe brick fireplace was too dark and out dated so I white washed it. Surprisingly, this was not a hard process.

I'm still in love with my barn wood console hutch! Now it's time for my Dad to create the perfect art piece to hang above it.

We also removed all the flooring in the whole house a installed hardwood everywhere except for the bedrooms. Thanks to Creative Flooring in Clovis for the beautiful floors!

It wasn't until about month 6 that we had lighting installed in the living room. I must say, it was worth the wait because the canned lighting is wonderful!

Dogs have settled in just fine!

Last but not least... A Flashback to 10 months ago... Wow! Things can sure change.

The to-do list continues in the living room, but it's always fun to look at the progress. 

DIY Farmhouse Bathroom on a Budget

I wish there were more pictures of the "before", but our guest bathroom has made a transformation on a small budget. As always, I did not want to put  a lot of money into a bathroom when we have plans to remodel. However, the remodel is at the bottom of our remodel list. This has led to some DIY projects and attempts to take the bathroom out of the 70's and into modern farmhouse era.  

When we purchased the house the bathroom was fashioned with redish-orange blinds, dark wood cabinets and the original 1973 mirror.  Simply removing the mirror, painting the cabinets and changing the blinds made a world of difference.

Before pictures

Three layers of linoleum ......

After -  DIY shelf was made from old wood in our garage and galvanized pipe.

Simple word art is a perfect way to keep the farmhouse theme.  I live by and remind myself each day to be thankful for all we have.

The Home Depot special added some much needed light in the bathroom.

The old cabinet door is gone  and replaced with a  basket, towels and soap under the sink.

TJ Maxx is an inexpensive way to accessorize 

A big challenge was how to hang the bathroom towels since the bathroom was so small. Galvanized pipe was the perfect solution.

Small touches of Christmas completed my little project.

Total cost was less than $75 to change the outdated '70's look until we check this project off our list of to do's.

Found Bench!

Keeping with the white distressed theme, I finished my "found bench". A little over a year ago, my dad and I decided we wanted to build a piece of furniture out of wood from my backyard. Slowly, we gathered all the wood we could find and went to the drawing board. With the artistic ability of my dad, we were able to create a bench with wine storage. (A necessity in this house!) Anthony and my dad spent the day building the bench. Once they finished the bench, I put a coat of stain on the wood and placed it in our house. 

After moving to the new house, I continually looked at the bench and was never pleased with the final product. I loved the sturdiness of the wood, but the color did not work in the new house. Finally, my obsession of the color white took over and I began painting the bench. Initially, I was going to leave some of the wood stained and other parts distressed. It didn't take long for me to realize, I wanted the WHOLE bench white and distressed.

I wish I had a better "before" picture, but this is all I could scrounge up!

 You can see it was a light wood color. 

Here are a few picture of the bench when it was two different colors.

 Final Product!

Not too shabby for a piece of furniture costing $0