I'm sure you've heard your Mother say it time and time again while growing up: "patience is a virtue." Well it turns out she was right about more than just one thing, and patience during renovating just happens to be one of those things!
It's been over a month since I've posted the last renovation updated and actually has been since mid July since we have started this process! A lot has happened since then, but to me it still feels like things couldn't move quite fast enough!
Life has been so busy, and I'm sure has no plans to slow down for us anytime soon! Between our home renovation, preparing for Baby Otte, running the Modern Hive projects and bringing on an assistant (more on that soon!), we've flat out been in go, go, go, go mode since the beginning of August! I have barely even had time to update my followers in instagram on house progress this month! If I'm really being honest, I actually started to write this blog at the beginning of September and time has just flown by!! Sorry friends!
Here's what took place since then and a few valuable lessons I've learned along the way:
New windows were installed in the kitchen which really helped move progress along!
We went from looking like this first image below to a clean new slate (both exterior and interior) oh and also got a new paint color up on the house - more on that in a bit!
Once the new windows were in, we were really able to start moving things forward! Rough in's were able to take place and cabinet templating was able to happen. It was a HUGE relief once I was able to officially get my cabinets ordered and into production. In fact, I'll be able to update you all very soon (maybe even end of next week) once our cabinets are INSTALLED! Yes, you heard me right! And I am SO excited to get them installed and painted!
Though I was frustrated with having to wait for my cabinet guy to be able to start making the cabinets until he could template, I very much so understand and appreciate the fact that this project (along with so many other projects I have done) have very very specific measurements, down to the 1/4" can even make a difference.
I didn't take a ton of pictures during the rough in phase because really, there's not a whole lot to look at. Wall studs are still exposed and mostly new wires and lines are ran. After the rough in's, we hung drywall and started the mudding process. OH.MY.GOSH. was it dusty! And me being OCD just about died over all the dust and debris it created! But after it was over, I felt SO much better to see real walls up in the kitchen and the ceilings were all smoothed out. Byee ugly popcorn ceilings!
Enter painting stage! Once drywall was all completed, we enlisted the help of our family to do some painting in a few of the bedrooms upstairs so we could get a jump start on starting to make the upper level look a little better, since so much of our focus is on the main level. The yellow room will be our nursery (more on that soon too as we created a unique feature wall and I have a few fun things planned to transform that space) and the green room will eventually be our guest bedroom once we get all of our 'kitchen' boxes out of that room and into the new kitchen cabinets!
I just gotta throw it out there that I have the best family ever who is always willing to chip in and help! I can't thank them enough for all their help and support through this process - mentally and physically!
Next we had the exterior of the house painted! I had dreams of a beautifully painted grey brick and simple white siding home accented with black window trim, but had to quickly give up that dream of black painted trim. Picking out the perfect grey color for our brick was somewhat of a challenge - mostly because of the color of the shingles that the previous homeowner had selected. I was SO glad that at least the shingles were not 100% orange, but they do have a little bit of orange / brown tones to them. Black or grey would have been SO much better and would have allowed me to use that black paint on and around the windows however they would have clashed so badly with the shingle color, but hey, you have to pick your battles when you enter into projects like these. After testing out 6 different paint colors for the brick, all with brown undertones, we decided on Sherwin Williams Dovetail and it was the perfect color for the house! Not too brown, not too light. Just the right amount of grey to look good with the shingles.
For a while I was a little worried that I didn't 100% love the way the color was turning out on the home. Going against my own advice I often tell my clients, to not judge the project until it's completely finished, I feared it wasn't going to look the way I wanted it to. But once the front door was painted a fun and vibrant Sherwin Williams color called Aquaverde and the stamped concrete and front porch were painted white, it really pulled it all together!
I'd still love to add a little charm and character to the exterior of the house, such as window grids and maybe some different shutters, but for now this will have to do! Maybe once we tackle some of the landscaping next year and have recovered some finances from this big project, we can add some of those finer details onto the exterior of the home.
In the meantime, I anxiously await for my cabinets to be installed, countertops to go in and for the Kitchen to hit the home stretch of this renovation process. It's been exhausting, but I know it will be worth it in the end.
More 'pretty' updates will soon be coming your way and I cannot wait to show you how things are starting to come together!
