Week 13: Bringing the Old into the New

Hello and welcome to our Blog! I decided to create this to document and share our journey of purchasing and remodeling our first home.

Matt and I were married on October 6, 2012 and became proud owners of our forever home on July 8, 2013. Our brick ranch sits on a corner lot of a beautiful tree lined street housing 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, living, kitchen, dining, family, finished walkout basement and two car garage. This marked all of the checks on our list and has room to grow for many years to come, we still pinch ourselves. A special shout-out to our realtor Jonathan Hayes, who made this place ours.

The house was built in the 1950s and hasn't seen much of any major remodels or updates since then. It has however been well cared for and loved by a great family since the 80s who had a hard time saying good bye to it. We actually had to call them on day 1 to figure out how to unlock the garage man-door :) They came no questions asked to give a helping hand and are excited to see the transformations we make. Matt and I hope to create the same thing for the next 50 years, a place where our family for generations to come can call home.

A Little Background......

Since college I have been compiling binders full of magazine cutouts and hand sketches for "my dream home" so to say I am excited is an understatement. I graduated from UK Design School in 2006 and have been in the commercial field of interior design since. I have always enjoyed residential design and take joy when family and friends ask for ideas and advice but truly can't wait to start on my very own project. The first time Matt and I walked in the doors we immediately saw the potential for how great we could make this place. I had sketches drawn up in my head before we even made an offer. Matt says I have that visionary trait and he sometimes can't understand all of the ideas going through my head but he trust my instincts says to run with it and he will catch up.

We are very fortunate to have family & friends who know a little about houses so we are able to do portions of the work ourselves. Not only does it save money but it puts a place in your heart knowing that you did it with your own hands.  

So here we go.....................................

WEEK ONE - Demo Begins 

The first step to the remodel is getting the existing walls down to its bones so we can see how the electrical and plumbing is run through out the house. This gives an open canvas to the trades to come in and tell us what walls, wires and pipes can be removed/moved/replaced and if our new proposed layout will actually work. Matt and myself along with my parents and brothers helped with this phase, a big THANK YOU to them! While the guys did majority of the heavy lifting stuff my mom and I took down all of the custom made window treatments, very nice and expensive fabrics that were in great shape just needing a trip to the dry cleaner. The tags were from JCPenny's drapery department. It didn't have any date on it but I would guess late 80's to 90's.

Entry/Mud Room: I refer to this room as the "Knotty-Pine Room". All four walls and built-in shelving are paneled with 100% knotty-pine which does have it's beauty but here was another opportunity to save some money. Instead of tearing these panels out and putting up new drywall we will just paint them. The texture of the panels will come through giving the room some character and a nice visual boundary of space. The carpet in this room is in great shape and in one large piece so my parents, Matt and myself rolled it up to keep it that way. If left down it would have gotten destroyed during the demo. Matt and my dad took down the wall separating the entry room and the dining. We knew this was a load bearing wall based on the way the joist run in the attic so after we take it down to the studs the framers will make the call on how much of it can be removed (hopefully all of it).

Kitchen: Matt, my dad (the Foreman) and my brothers ripped out the kitchen removing all cabinets, base boards, chair rails and appliances. The wall separating the kitchen and dining was torn down to its studs by Matt, the Foreman and my brother Eric. This is where we discovered the walls were plaster/drywall mix not large sheets of drywall. Apparently those had not been introduced to the market when this house was built. The downside to it was the mess but this is where are first house warming gift came in handy. Our very own Shop-Vac.... thanks Dad!

 

Dining: Matt and the foreman removed the chandelier which I will refinish. My favorite element of this room is the ceiling medallion. Everything could go as long as that stays. Not only is it beautiful it helps define the space for the location of the dining table. In an open plan design you need to have visual boundaries that define individual spaces.... if not it will just be a big old room with lots of stuff in it.

After this was all complete we had our General Contractor (Matt's Grandpa), Electrician, Plumber and Matt's uncle Mike, who builds homes, come in to evaluate just what we were working with. We got the OKs to move forward with the plans I had drawn up so here we go into Week 2!