Day 8 of Renovations

We are officially have wrapped up Day 8 of our renovations. Some days I feel like we have gotten really far in the process and other days I feel like we have done nothing. It is a daily battle within my mind. I know it will get done...eventually. I think we can, I think we can, I think we can. This weekend everyone at work was sharing their lovely Easter weekend plans, and they would ask me what I was doing. My enthusiastic response (insert sarcastic tone here) is working on the house followed by some sighs of exhaustion. Isn't this sad? We are only on Day 8, I want the house to get finished, but I am already exhausted...this might be a bad sign. Maybe I should be saying I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

Let me show you the new things happening in the house!

Here is the shape of the bathroom now that the wall is knocked out. It will be shaped somewhat like a pentagon (not all the sides are the same length so it is not a true pentagon). The floor still needs to be brought up from the basement. That is a project that will be happening soon!

Andy cut the flooring all the way to the floor joist. (Btw: totally thought this was called a floor joyce until I Googled it. Remember people, I know nothing about houses. I'm just the help/labor.) Andy and Greg noticed that the floor in the bathroom wasn't level (I didn't- whoopsie) so they decided to cut it all out and do it right. Andy literally cut out 4 layers of floor. Woah baby! This was a very interesting project to watch. The whole time I just imagined Andy falling through to the basement and hurting himself. I was glad when it was over.

Andy and Greg also shored up the floor underneath the kitchen. Again, I also didn't notice that the floor wasn't level. However, the men were very proud of themselves for fixing the issue. The supporting poles are obviously down in the basement. We also have another room of the basement that won't have poles right smack dab in the middle of it. I am very excited about all of this storage space. To me this means room for: big Christmas trees, all of the trimmings, lots of wreaths for every season, as well as decorations for each season that can be used inside the house. I don't know how Andy will feel about all of this, but I love it!

Here is the picture of the staircase with the wall studs built that will be the back part of the master closet. Andy and I have discussed that this wall will more than likely (if all the furniture fits like we think it will) have our TV cabinet on it. The staircase will get the be the focal point of the room.

This is the half bathroom that is downstairs. If you notice there is an extra space built that will be my linen closet. I am super pumped about this! It will be pretty large and will house all of our extra sheets and towels. If we didn't have this, I don't know where in the house they would go. 

I wanted to add another picture of the half bathroom at a different angle so you could see that when you first walk in the front door, there will be a wall with a door to the right for the entrance to the bathroom. Where I am standing, the dining room table will go there. 

As I type, Andy is snoring on the couch. I think he might be a tad tired. I am exhausted and ready to finally get some much needed sleep. Day 9 will start bright and early tomorrow!

Until next time,

Brittany

We have some news to share!

Well Andy and I figure it is about time to share some exciting things that are happening in our lives...we have bought a farm house that sits on 80 acres of land! I know what some of you might be thinking- I thought you all bought a lot in town to build a house on? Well, you aren't wrong. We did about a year ago and had every intention of building; however this came on the market and was too good to pass up (obviously because three other people put in offers as well)! Unfortunately for them, and thankfully for us, we outbid everyone and closed last Thursday.

The house is located in Wentworth, Missouri...basically the middle of nowhere. In reality, it is about 20 minutes from Monett (where we live currently) and 30 minutes from Joplin. I am excited that I will be closer to a Target but my wallet is definitely not. I will eventually have to find a new nail lady and give up mine in Springfield since it will be much further now. This is slightly tragic, but I think I might live.

The house is said to be built in 1906 but according to Newton County anything built before 1900 was just given a year because it didn't have a recording system at the time...the house is an old broad! Don't get me wrong, this house was built to last and has much character and charm.

Here a picture of the house that I took during the middle of the winter!

The point of this blog is to keep all of our friends and family involved on the progress of our house. We know it will difficult at times to stay in contact with everyone since Andy works in the oil field and on the farm, I teach during the day and am about to start grad school, etc. Instead of having to call or text everyone...I will post on the blog and include pictures so you can ooooh and ahhhh!

We have a mountain of work to do. The people before us went in and started on some projects but never finished the work so that leaves us with cosmetic and layout issues to fix. Thankfully, my darling husband and father-in-law, Greg, are incredibly handy. Greg actually used to build houses so consider him our general contractor.

Enough of the jibber jabber and let me show you what a week's worth of work looks like...!

This is the master bedroom before. The door to the right is the bathroom and the door to the left goes straight into the kitchen.

Here is the bathroom. Ignore the disgusting toilet! This is what happens when a toilet is winterized...it looks like there is extremely dirty water in it. Gross.

The bathroom is obviously nothing fancy and quite small. We are blowing out the wall between the bathroom and the basement. Once this is completed we will close off the entrance into the house from the basement and raise up the floor to make our bathroom bigger. (Excuse me for the way I explain things...I am so not the contractor/handy type.)

After one week, here is what we have! All the walls are blown out that we need to be gone and Greg and Andy have built the walls that we are wanting. The right studs will be the bathroom and the left studs will be the front of the closet. The master bedroom was big to begin with and we were able to add these awesome shaped room accessories...and what girl doesn't want a big closet and bathroom?!

Look at this beauty! We are in LOVE with this staircase. It is in great shape and will only need a clear coat over it. As of now, we are discussing what kind of support pole we will have to add by the staircase. The bedroom right above this room needs some support, and we really don't want the guest bed falling through the ceiling onto our sofa while we are watching TV.

Check out those stairs now! This view is peering right into the master bedroom. Underneath the stairs will be part of our closet and the wall will completely extend straight across.







There are several more projects in the works that I haven't taken pictures of because I want them to be somewhat complete before I post. We are working hard in the house and around the farm. It will be a work in progress. I've asked Greg and Andy for a timeline and have yet to be given a date. They don't want to commit to something because they know I will hold them to it! One day at a time!

Until next time,
Brittany