We moved in to our home about three and a half months ago, and have been working on a bunch of renovation projects. Things happen a little each day, as we can get to them. Here’s a little recap on some of the work we’ve completed. I can’t wait to get the kitchen photographed to show you, because it’s really the most exciting part of the reno so far.
Baseboards
After we ripped out our carpet and had it hauled away (we figure we saved about $400 by ripping it out ourselves and using one of our free “haul away days” to get ride of the carpet and pad), we had the hardwood floors redone. I love how they turned out. What I didn’t love is that we opted to replace our old baseboards, and well, it’s one of those projects that’s dragging on and on.
Here’s a glimpse of our baseboard situation:
We had to repair a couple of the boards that split when we originally removed them (top left – we used glue and spackle, and then paint), and to repaint them all, we spread them out over our outdoor picnic table (covered with boxes, top right). The bottom two photos show what we’ve been staring at in Zoom’s room for the past few months. The walls don’t meet the floors, there’s layers of colored paint, yuck.
And here’s what the baseboards look like in the middle of caulking them along the top. The caulk stops right below the light socket. You really do need to caulk them or you see the seam between the board and the wall. Since walls aren’t all even, you often get a wacky wavy looking gap.
As of tonight, we have about 2/3s of the baseboards back up. I can’t wait to finish this!
Backyard
We’ve done some planting in the yard, mostly some agapanthas we got for free off of craigslist, and some ground cover. We are also looking for ways to pretty-up (or hide) our shed, since it’s not what I’d consider an eye-pleasing focal point of the backyard. I’ve been looking at some
custom shed design examples and I’ve found a few that I like. I’m not sure which design we will go with but anything will be better than the current shed! It’s so old and rundown! I put up a trellis and bougainvillea and hope that it will help to break up some of the brown-ness. We might be a bit far off our dream backyard, but I already have some ideas about what outdoor furniture I want to add. It’s a bit out there, but I would really love something like this
outdoor daybed that swings.
Master Bedroom
We finished the baseboards in the master bedroom first, and have started decorating. I’m still not sure whether to paint it or buy a wallpaper similar to the
marble wallpaper for your bedroom that you can buy. I don’t know. Anyway, moving on. The prints above the bed were something I got at an auction last year. We’ve ordered a rug and it should be here next week, and I’m looking forward to having that to ground the room. Here’s where we are today:
The curtains are painter’s drop cloths, inspired by
Layla at The Lettered Cottage. They look cute, but I’ll admit that they don’t block the light very well, so we will be getting some other blinds to go underneath the curtains. I’d like to make a headboard for us from a door, but that can wait. The chair was a second hand find that I
recovered three years ago. Those are some of the visible changes that have been going on at our house. The next big spendy item will be redoing the roof! I’ll try to get some pictures, but truly, it’s going to be one of those things that really doesn’t translate well to a blog post.
