Project Shiloh is back!!

After taking a 3 month break from house renovations, we finally painted the hall bathroom!! All it needs now is a new faucet, light switch & outlet plates, new light fixtures, and some towel racks. Otherwise, it looks great and I love how it's simply decorated. It went from a boring antique white bathroom with brown base boards, to a spiced cider bathroom with magnolia white base boards. :) I love it! It didn't take much time at all either. We started on Saturday afternoon, got the baseboards primed and the walls finished within 5 hours, then I painted the base boards last night in a matter of minutes. Project Shiloh is offically back in the game... just 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom to paint and then we're done painting the entire upstairs. Whew!! Enjoy the pics!

House Photo Update

We have been working feverishly in the house until now and we are finally able to rest a bit and admire our work. There are still touch-ups to do and other rooms to begin, but it's accomplishing to take a step back and see an entirely new house before our eyes. Here are some photos to show what we've done thus far, in regards to decorating...

The kitchen is by far my favorite :) You have to see it for real to get the full effect. I love it!

110 hours later...

The house renovations are coming along nicely! We've had a couple minor set backs (ask my husband about his first experience laying tile!), but overall things are going well. We've accomplished a lot in the 100+ hours we've put into it so far. All the painting is DONE (can I get an AMEN?!), all we have to do now is use a paint pen to cover the nails we're putting in the freshly painted base boards. But of course, when I say done, that doesn't mean we've attempted the bathrooms and bedrooms yet... done means the foyer, dining room, kitchen, living room, and down the hall. :) Done means all the trim and those pesky base boards are painted, which was quite a task. Done means the areas our guests will see the most, ha!

The kitchen floor is tiled and will get grout on Tuesday night. The new dining room floor is installed, we just have to finish taking it into the living room, foyer, and down the hall... I cannot wait! The dining room is beautiful and so far, my favorite room. My second favorite will be the kitchen. I've removed the cabinet doors, washed them, and installed new hinges and handles. It makes the doors look brand new and I am so very excited about this. They were looking pretty dodgy. I had my first experience painting using ragging and it was a lot of fun. Not nearly as difficult as one may think. My kitchen looks like a tuscan coffee house. :)

Overall, we are thrilled with how the renovations are coming along. We love our oversized windows and screened in porch. I love that we can sit outside and see every star in the sky. I love laying in the grass with Lily and just looking up at the dark night sky. It's wonderful. I love talking about the house, looking at the house, transforming the house... it's really a dream come true for us.

My goal for 2009 is to have the rest of the upstairs painted before Christmas. I'll start with the hall bathroom in the spring (eh, maybe February), and then work my way onward from there. Once the upstairs is completely painted, we'll start working on the floor. We're still deciding if we want to do the same floor from the rest of the upstairs into the bedrooms. I'd love to, but we'll see. We may just install newer carpet at some point.

Hopefully in 2010, we'll begin working on the basement. We have some exciting ideas for the basement and it's definitely going to take the longest to transform because it'll have to wait on a bigger budget.

Overall, things are awesome! I'll have some photos soon. :)

Phase one of house renovations...

This weekend was... eventful. The country has shown some pretty hilarious sides of itself since we started this weekend. I'll begin with Friday night...

Friday, we took off work at 2 and headed to the house to unload my car and his truck full of boxes and stuff. We got Lily acquainted with her new backyard, which she LOVED! She was on cloud nine. She just ran and ran and ran. Next door, there is a little black puppy that came over and ran along the fence with Lily. Their tails were just wagging... the black dog would pee on the fence and Lily would pee on top of where the other dog peed, haha. They were so cute together. So glad she already made a friend. After all that, we went to pick up the paint from Sherwin Williams, then went back to the house to finish hauling out the carpet and to start removing base boards. We took an hour break to celebrate Misty's birthday with the family, and then went right back to the house for more work. I went to Walmart, got some stuff we needed, picked up a late night meal, and went back to the house to continue going at it.

At 1:00 a.m., as we were straightening up and getting ready for the next day, we heard Lily bark for the first time! We darted outside to see what in the world she was barking at, to find a massive horse and donkey just roaming our drive way! We stood there baffled, wondering what to do. We brought Lily inside, praised her for barking, and went back out to stare at the two beasts eating our grass. We didn't know who they belonged to, who to call, nothing... so we just went to bed and hoped they'd find their way home.

The next morning, we got up at 7:30, showered, and got ready for the painting to begin. We finished removing all the base boards, primed all the trim in the dining room, living room, kitchen, and almost down the hall. We started painting the trim and got the dining room completely painted (except the base boards). It looks like a room from a totally different house now. The trim in the kitchen is done, as well as the doors to the pantry and laundry room. They are now white and look SO MUCH BETTER!! The guys spackled the holes in the walls and removed all the wall paper in the foyer.

We didn't start on the walls in the kitchen or living room yet. In fact, we can't do the living room at all until the ceiling is painted, and the person who was supposed to paint it blew us off so now Glenn's dad is going to do it for us instead. He's very helpful. The kitchen cabinets and counters are going to get removed so we can paint more efficiently and can tile the floors without anything in the way. We have more than enough tile for it. I just haven't decided if we're going to go ahead and get new counter tops in the kitchen... I definitely don't have enough and need to add some on the other side of where the stove will be. But I just don't know yet. We'll see.

To top off our weekend in the country, we heard gun shots and of course, Lily got scared. We thought, "hmm... houses are too close for someone to just be out there playing with a gun." We look to see who was doing it, and sure enough... our neighbor was standing outside in a bathrobe shooting at a tree. Um, okay... so we watch him for a while... he walks down his porch steps, goes over to the tree, and grabs a can. He was shooting at a can, in his bathrobe. Not sure when we'll decide to go introduce ourselves to this character. To top it all off, he looks like Charles Darwin. Natutrally, we had a good laugh.

So this coming weekend, we have a LOT more to do. We have to finish painting the trim in the hall way, prime all the base boards and start painting them white, and prime + paint the doors that go to all the rooms in the hall way, because right now they're just off the hinges in the garage. Glenn's dad is off work the all next week, so he's going to paint the ceiling in the living room then and I'll start painting the walls. The red accent wall in the living room has to be painted gray before we paint it red so that the red comes through properly. We'll be at the house some this week over the holidays and may do a little more then. Plus, I know Lily was bummed about having to go back to the apartment, haha. She liked her back yard. I can't bring the kitties to the house yet. They will just be in the way... so they'll have to wait. Good thing we have the apartment as a second home until Jan 31.

1005 Shiloh Drive belongs to us!

It's official! 1005 Shiloh Drive is the new Wallace residence. We are very excited! The closing went really well and wasn't nearly as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Yes, there is a lot of paperwork, but no, our hands don't feel like they're going to fall off. We feel very fortunate and blessed to be the new owners of this wonderful home. We are also very thankful that the sellers were such nice people. They live 3 houses down from us and came by to visit last night with their kids to see how we're doing. They found out that we don't wait around much; we got started immediately on ripping up carpet!

Of course, these pics were taken on my phone so they're not the best, but you get the idea! Project Shiloh has begun and we couldn't be more excited!

This weekend we have a lot to accomplish and I can't wait to see just what we happen to finish. We're having a "Painting Party" on Saturday that will roll into Sunday. We're inviting everyone over who wants to help and we're providing lunch. I'm excited to see who can make it and what gets done. The transformation of this place is going to be amazing to see. It's going to become more than just a dwelling like our apartment has felt like... it's going to be our home.