Finally, Some Updates!

***OOOPS! I accidentally posted this on this blog and on the Lakeshore Cottage Living blog but before I could catch it, a few of you had left some comments…so I will leave it up!  Thank you for your encouraging comments.  I guess I haven’t blogged in a while and have to get back in the swing of things! LOL***

Sorry Everyone.  The holidays have had me somewhat busy and I have neglected this blog terribly.  I won’t give you all of the details, but let’s just say that someone has been sick in this family pretty much since Thanksgiving….and remember, there are 4 kids ;) so we stair-stepped our illnesses and we kept sharing…

So enough of that, right?!  I hope you are all doing well!

Here are a few pics and there has been even more progress since these were taken.  Enjoy the progress tour!

Here is a picture of the large half of the basement before it was cleaned out. 

And here is the other half of the basement.  We opened up the stairs to allow for more light.

  

This is the other half of the large area of the basement.  The fireplace divides the basement.  This will be nice later and you will see why when it is all finished.  We have different plans for each of these spaces.

This laminate flooring wasn’t bad, but wasn’t what we wanted so it is now gone…as is the desk. 

Anyone want a green floral couch?  We still have this little jewel.  We can’t get anyone to take it.  I think it says FREE, don’t you?  It will go somewhere soon. We plan for this space to be my husband’s office.  He works from home and needs a large space.  This will be tucked away in the basement where it is quiet.  It has an attached half bath as well.

  Here you will find the store-room.  It was filled half way to the ceiling with trash and items when we took possession of the home.  We filled two large dumpsters with the trash in this house!  Amazing.  You can’t see them, but there are several deep shelves on the other side of that AC unit.  Nice.

A weight machine was left behind and we plan to put it to good use.  It was a nice surprise!

  Below you will find pictures of the PROGRESS…yahooo!

This is the formal living room…it will be a different color soon.  All of the ceilings throughout the house were scraped.  No more 1970’s popcorn.  They were re-textured with a flat knock-down and painted a fresh white.

Here you will see the basement again after carpet and flooring has been removed.   And below you will see the other half…the larger half.  

And husband’s office below…no more peachy pink wallpaper.

OK…time to go upstairs!  Below, you will see a picture of the kids’ bathroom.  We decided to put fresh knock-down on the walls in this room as well.  It is a room that is going to get a lot of use and we wanted walls that would hide a few knocks and scratches.  The tile is newer and we left it.  It is in great condition as are all the cabinets and drawers.  I think I can find some great art-work that will pull in some of the peachy/taupe tones that will freshen this space up a little.   Here you will see the kids’ bathroom after it has been painted.  We chose a neutral by Sherwin Williams called Kilim beige.  It softens the peach and makes them look a little more taupe/neutral, don’t you think?  There are double sinks here, I just couldn’t get both in the picture.    This is the master bedroom.  I LOVE the large window.  There is a coating of sun-block film on the window and the birds flock to the Austrian pine right next to the house.  I can sit there just two feet away and they don’t see me!  And to think I thought about removing that tree!  No way now.  They are using this room right now as the “spray room” to paint all the doors in the house so there is not much to show you right now….but soon!

This space is the mud-room/laundry room.  Underneath that paper is a beautiful new slate floor!  I cannot wait to show it to you!!!

More of the mud-room.  That large closet will be transformed to a pantry and cleaning closet.  Believe it or not, I am most excited about this space because the kids can drop off their backpacks and shoes and coats and finally not drag them into the kitchen.  This will make me one happy Momma.

    The gutted kitchen.  I am not going to reveal too much about that now…that will be later…

   Here you will see the view from the formal living room into the family room…the painters did a little artwork on the plastic…not sure what that means?  oh well, they are nice and they are doing a beautiful job so no complaints here!

    And here you will see the family room with a view back to the dining room.  You will soon see a new mantle on that fireplace….yeah! 

   Another view of the family room…and formal living room below to follow….

   This is the front entrance and again, there is gorgeous slate tile under that paper!

This is the hallway back to the bedrooms.  As you remember from the pictures in prior posts, this was filled completely with trash bags we filled from trash and items we found in the bedrooms.  So glad that is all gone.

   And last, but not least is the best room in the house.  This was originally the sewing room.  I know this because we found the original blue prints to the home!  What a treasure that was.  This will be my office…or as the contractor calls it….Kristine’s hidey hole.  Nice.  He has no idea how much blogging is going to occur in this space. 

I hope you enjoyed the progress tour and I hope you will check back in again.  I promise not to take so long with an update next time!

Kristine