Tag: home improvement

Smokey House Rehab: The Finished Product!!!!!

After over a YEAR of procrastinating working on this house, I am happy to announce that it is finally FINISHED!!!!!!!  Between getting married and having a baby, this home rehab was really put on the back burner, but I’m so glad that it’s complete and ready to be put on the market!

It was quite a project, from all the trash we had to remove to the smoke damage that permeated the very bones of the house, there was so much to do!  If you are a new reader, or you need a refresher on what this house looked like when we started, I thought I’d show you some before and after pictures.  The transformation is amazing to say the least!

The Living Room:

Before

After

We removed the stinky, smoke filled carpet and replaced it with pretty laminate flooring.  We also painted all the trim and the fireplace with at LEAST two coats of white paint.  In some cases it took priming and then painting two coats to cover the yellow stained trim.  Steve painted the ceiling, and we hired a painter to paint all the walls in the house since some were several feet high.  We also replaced all the light fixtures in the house, including the outdoor lights.

The Kitchen:

Before

After

Before

After

At first we tried to salvage the white cabinets by scrubbing them with a bleach and water mixture.  While it looked like we were making some great progress and were really getting them clean, once the painter painted the kitchen, we realized that there was no way we’d be able to keep the existing cabinetry.  Against the white paint, the cabinets were quite yellow.  I’m so glad we replaced them, though, because the new cabinets and counters are beautiful!  We also installed brand new stainless steel appliances.  The stove still even has the protective blue plastic covering the stainless steel.

That vinyl floor was awful, and the new tile floor is beautiful and modern.

The Entryway:

Before

After

Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of the entryway before we ripped up the flooring, but you get the idea.

The Hallway:

Before

After

Ugh! That yellowed trim around the door still haunts me!

The Hall Bathroom:

Before

After

This bathroom probably required the least amount of work.  Don’t get me wrong, it was still grody, but compared to the rest of the house, I feel like it cleaned up pretty well with not as much effort.  We removed the vinyl and replaced it with tile, cleaned up the cabinets and counter and replaced the hardware, painted the walls, and of course CLEANED!!!

The Master Bedroom:

Before

After

The Master Bathroom:

Before

After

We basically did the same thing here that we did on the hall bathroom, but on a larger scale.

The 2nd Bedroom:

Before

After

The 3rd Bedroom:

Before

After

The bedrooms were pretty straight forward.  Clear out all the junk, rip out the carpet, paint the walls, ceiling, and doors, and replace the baseboards and the window screens.

The Bonus Room:

Before

After

This room above the garage (for any repair work call the expert garage door repair and installation in Arlington Heights who are the best in this field) could either be used as a bonus room or as a 4th bedroom.  It has an attached bathroom and closet.

The Backyard:

Before

After

There were two huge cedar trees that had to be cut down, and the lawn had to be completely dug up and replanted, since it was basically just overgrown weeds and vines.

The Front:

Before

After

We got rid of the vines hanging down from the roof, removed all the bushes, replanted the grass, and repainted the garage doors and front door.  Look at that curb appeal!

I can’t believe it’s finally done!!!  Thank you, Jesus!!!

Smokey House Rehab (Part 5)

I know it’s been a couple months since I posted an update on the Smokey House Rehab, but that’s mainly because there’s been nothing to update you about.  The rehab has been on the back burner because of all the wedding madness, and we’ve finally gotten back into it.  The last time we attempted to fix it up ourselves with no help from professionals, it was 100° outside with no working A/C, which made it about 110° inside the house.  We were trying to put up a very heavy light fixture in the house and it wasn’t cooperating, and that pretty much pushed us past our breaking point.  We decided that we wanted to hire some help instead of doing it all ourselves, because we were just getting too burnt out.

We had several contractors/handy men/painters come and take a look at the house to give us quotes, and then once they left, we never heard back from them.  What’s the deal?  People don’t want work?  Finally, we found an awesome painter that has been doing an amazing job so far.

So far he’s painted all the bedrooms, the hallway, the bonus room, and the stairway going up to the bonus room.

We chose Mushroom Bisque as the wall color, and we couldn’t be more happy.  It’s a good contrast with the white trim, and it’s a nice tan color without being too peachy, as some tans can be.

I spent Sunday afternoon cleaning the kitchen……again.  This kitchen is seriously my nemesis, but I think I finally conquered it!  Our painter is going to be painting the inside of the cabinets to try to get rid of the smell that is still lingering from the previous tenant who smoked heavily in the house and somehow got this kitchen dirtier than anything I have ever seen.  We’re going to be replacing those awful green counter tops and that dirty sink and faucet, as well as installing a pretty, modern, tile floor.  It’s gonna look like a brand new kitchen!

After I was satisfied with my cleaning job in the kitchen, I got started on the weeds in the front yard.  There were certain sections of grass around the walkway that had weeds that grew like they were on steroids.  The rest of the grass would be a normal length, and these weeds were 2 feet tall!  So I pulled them all out……in the rain.  We had a landscape company come out a few weeks ago and completely demo the entire backyard, which was previously covered with thick weeds and vineage (yes that’s a word, even though my spell check doesn’t think so).  They removed the tree stumps from those huge cedar trees and dug out all the weeds and about an inch of top soil to get rid of most of the roots.  Then they spread seed and covered it with hay so that the seeds would be able to germinate more successfully.  Now we have pretty little shoots of grass poking through, and in about a month it’ll be a pretty grassy backyard, instead of the forest it was when we started.

Steve spent the day pressure washing the outside of the house and the deck, and what a difference!

It’s amazing what some high-pressured water can do!  You can actually see the grain of the wood now instead of a thick layer of greenish black algae, or whatever that stuff is.  We’ll be sealing the deck once it’s completely clean so that it’ll last for several more years.

Next time we go to the house, I’ll be sure to take a picture of the backyard so you can see the difference from when I posted this picture:

The Smokey House Rehab (Part 3)

This past weekend after all the bridal shower festivities Steve and I got back to work on the Smokey House rehab.  Luckily it’s starting to smell a lot better in there after we ripped out the carpet.  We’re enjoying doing the work ourselves, even though it can get really tiring.

This lovely lady gave us a stare down as we stopped to admire her on the way to Home Depot.  I hope we can have at least one cow someday!  They just look so cuddly!

Steve went CRAZY here!  We had a 10% off entire purchase coupon up to $2000, and Steve was determined to utilize it to it’s full potential!  We bought a table saw, circular saw, chop saw, saw blades, large level, rubber mallet, paint for ceiling and trim, paint brushes, paint rollers, air compressor with nail gun, and a whole bunch of other stuff.  Steve justified all the new tools because we were not paying someone to do all the work, so we might as well use that money for new tools that we can use over and over again.  Men.

When we arrived, the tree clearing guys were almost done clearing the two gigantic cedar trees that took up almost the entire backyard.  Before, you couldn’t see anything beyond where that guy is standing.  Now you can tell how large the yard is!  It looks 100x better!  The forest behind that fence was starting to make it’s way into the yard, and these guys were able to clear all that too.

And the best part was…..they threw all the trees into a chipper and hauled it all away!

I had the fun job of removing the nasty vinyl from the kitchen and bathrooms.

The smell was so gross.  The heat gun would literally cook the disgusting stains and spills on the vinyl and I had to breathe it in.  After I was completely finished I talked to my dad about it and he said, “I hope you were wearing a mask.”  Duh……a mask.  Ya think that might have helped?  Sheesh, I can be a real blonde sometimes.

But I didn’t complain!  I was accomplishing something I had never done before all by myself!

Here’s a close up of me using the heat gun to remove the vinyl.

And here’s the finished product!  That large wood area in the middle was super easy to remove.  I didn’t even have to use the heat gun there.  He must have spilled something that somehow soaked into the vinyl and loosened the adhesive, because there was a large orange stain there.

Here’s another view of the kitchen, and Steve taking out the trash.

Here’s the living room.  Steve removed all the baseboards to get ready to paint and put the laminate floors in.  The floors will probably be the last thing we do.

Here’s the front entryway.  Steve did an amazing job removing the wood floors that were there.  They were glued down over every square inch, and it was really difficult to remove, but he did it!

Bedroom #1 is ready to be painted!

So is Bedroom #2!

The Master Bedroom is ready for paint too!  See that small square of tan paint on the left under the window?  That’s the color all the walls will be, except for the kitchen and possibly bathrooms, which will be white.

Here’s the master bathroom without the vinyl floors.

Ever since we started this rehab project, this little nest with 5 baby birds has been sitting here next to the front walkway.  They must have just hatched right before we started because they were TINY a couple weeks ago.

Look at that little guy!  They’re definitely a lot bigger now.  I don’t know how 5 of them can fit in there!

Mama and Papa bird are very diligent parents.  Every time someone walks by the nest, or even opens the front door, they sit on the roof watching to make sure their babies don’t get harmed.

Don’t worry guys, we won’t hurt your babies!  We made sure to tell the tree clearing crew to be careful around the nest and not to knock it down while they were clearing some of the trees and bushes in the front yard.  I can’t wait to see when they’ll fly away!