2 years of This Old House: before and after!

Next week marks 2 years since we bought This Old House.  I can hardly believe it! Our lives have changed so much in that time.  We've finished the house project and moved in...and had our first baby! Little Josie joined our family in September.  I've finally had time to put together some before and after collages to remember our renovation journey. It's amazing for me to look back at the pictures of this project...makes me thankful that we're finished! Here's our journey of the past 2 years in pictures  :)

 

 

Thanks for the sheet rock Santa

We must of been nice this year because Santa brought us sheet rock!  So it's been quite a while since my last update on This Old House.  After we finished siding the house (just in time for some cold weather), John got to work framing, while the heating and plumbing guys worked their magic.  Electrical went pretty fast, thanks to John's friend Ken for helping out! Then followed spray foam insulation and now we're finally ready for sheet rock! They (Santa and his elves) delivered it yesterday and we should have finished sheet rock walls by the end of the week.  

Here's how things look before the sheet rock goes up.

Kitchen

Dining Room

Our Bedroom

Closet area with walk-ins

Guest bedroom (with sound proofing insulation)

It's so cool to be able to turn on the lights with a switch, and soon we'll have a working bathroom! Yes, we currently use a Thunder bucket. :)  We added sound proofing insulation on the floors and some of the walls to help with the old house noise factor. Next up we're choosing colors for hardwood floor (we're renovating the original hardwood), kitchen cabinets and tile for the bathroom.  I'm thinking about paint colors too, now that we'll have walls soon! Things are finally moving along.  We still have a long way to go, but it's amazing to finally see some big progress.  This time last year, This Old House looked like this....remember?

I have to look at the old pictures so that I remember how far we've come and all that we've accomplished! It may be taking us a long while, but hey, it keeps us out of trouble and challenges us. I'm excited to see how the next few months proceed.  Winter cold is no problem now that we'll have walls and heat to keep us pressing ahead on finishing up our house.  Until next time!

The Old House made new

October 30th marks our one year anniversary owning This Old House. As I worked on the house this weekend I realized I'm over due for an update. This Old House is starting to look new!

Remember how it looked last fall...

Well...I'd say a lot has changed in a year!

Here's the final color scheme! 

Where to begin?? First off, the demolition is completely finished and TOH smells like fresh sawdust and new construction instead of dusty insulation and yuck!  Siding excitement was put on hold for a few weeks while the hubby finished framing up the inside. We added pocket doors to the master bedroom walk-in closets (now I won't have to look at the messy closets)!  Then we were ready for HVAC guys to run duct work and plumbing guys to rough in the plumbing. Talk about exciting! Those HVAC guys can work fast and the heating is ready for first inspection. So we're back to siding and outside work while we wait for the plumbers to come.

This past weekend, we put in 18 hours in 2 days and finished siding the West side of the house (just the back side and the porch left!). Caulking, painting and more siding continue as we push ahead to beat the cold weather. 

I had my first fall from a plank this weekend. Thankfully we were only 4 feet off the ground so I only scuffed up my legs a little. It was sort of funny... John was nailing the siding piece and I was holding it, moving left one step at a time. I kept sliding over and over and then whoops, there's a 18 inch hole between the planks and in it I fell. I sort of felt like it was something you'd see on a cartoon! :)  I'm glad it happened while we were only 4 ft off the ground and not 20 ft.

We've also moved on to the exciting point of picking out the innards! Bath tubs, sinks, counter tops, lighting and cabinets...you know the fun design stuff.  I'm getting excited, can you tell? I finally have a vision for each room and it's so fun to start to piece it together.

Back to it! Hopefully the next update will include insulation and sheet rock :) 

It's getting better all the time...TOH update!

Who sings that country song with the line..."it's getting better all the tiiimeee"?  Anyway, I often hear that line as I look through our progress in pictures on This Old House.  We're making progress but it's SLOW.  I suppose that's how it goes when it's old house construction.  Right now we're ready to add siding to the 3rd side of the house (the back) and have only 1 more new window the put in for the house.  The new back door just went in last weekend (thanks for helping Brian!).  John's still framing one side at a time and we're moving ahead slowly but surely.  I've still been working on the project here and there, but some shoulder tendinitis is limiting my projects these days.  Lots of window taping and caulking for this chick, then siding, siding, siding.  Estimated date of completion?  Let's just try to get the outside finished before it snows...  :)  Ugh, don't think about the snow.  :)

Here are the most recent pictures!

Our dining room with bay windows and the new window on the left wall...looks out into the backyard! 

The dining room and living room. I'm excited about all the natural light!

The living room and stairs up and down

The dining room (love the new window with the view of the back yard)

The kitchen addition (just 4' x 4' but it adds a lot!') and new back door. Love it! 

The front porch with new living room windows (also love them)! 

My sweet Samson prefers to be right in the action. 

Stairs up (the last window to replace is that square hall window)

Good company  :) 

Shop vacuuming away the last of the insulation and stuff upstairs!

Framed up the new master bedroom and closet space.  Finally got rid of the ugly door to the roof!!
(Remember that thing?)

Master bedroom walk-in closets....eventually  :) 

The front of This Old House. Still needs siding on the porch and painting, but much improved! 

Starting to look like a nice place to live eventually...our neighbors think it's a great improvement! 

Close-up of the east side and bay windows. 

Back side of the house. Still has the old rickety back steps, but it's ready for siding.
(I think the house looks like it's winking at you!)

Loved seeing our yard bloom this spring and summer! Lots of Lily's! 

The kitchen is on the west side and yet to be framed up and ready for siding...it's our last side to go! 

Close-up of the newest window in the dining room. The view will be pretty once that storage tent is gone!

That's all the pictures and updates I have for now. Can't wait to finish up siding and windows, especially once we paint the house!  It'll look good.  You'll have to wait for the pictures to see our color scheme, but it's going to look sharp! 

Till next time! Happy project working  :) 

If you forgot what TOH looked like last time, you can revisit the update here. or here!