Our First Home ~ Saying Goodbye

I know it has been forever since I've been here...but shortly after my last post, Hubby agreed to list the Tiny house with a realtor (his sister). She got it on MLS and within 10 days we had an offer just under our asking price.  YEA!  Then started the long process of home inspection, bank appraisal, buyer's loan approval, and underwriting.  But everything was finalized on March 2nd and we said goodbye to our first home.  We've owned this house for 21 years and have many wonderful memories and did countless home improvement projects.   Here's a few pictures of the house in it's minimally staged state.

 

 

 

I'm not sure that I've ever shared photos of the basement.  When we purchased the home in 1992, it had a typical cement, unfinished basement. We did most of the major work to finish the space about 18 years ago, but the bathroom had only made it to the drywall stage and the wet bar area had only been plumbed.  So those areas are newly finished and unfortunately, I never really got to enjoy them. :(

The flooring here in the lower level is a wood-look vinyl plank. We had had berber carpeting down while we lived there, but it needed to be replaced, so we thought this was an excellent choice and budget-friendly. (I'll share the installation process in a future post).

 

 

 

 

The doorway in the hallway leads to the work/storage room.

 



Opposite the storage room is the bathroom.  We didn't get the glass shower doors installed, but Hubby did an awesome job on the tile!

 

And at the end of the hall is the small laundry and utility room.

 

Well, that's the Tiny home tour. Its a little sad to say goodbye, but we live just down the street, so we do pass it everyday. lol  :)

 

 

 

 

Tiny House Porch Addition

There has been so much going on lately that I completely forgot to share pictures of the Tiny House's recent face lift. The project started last summer (before we purchased and even found the new house) and it was something I had wanted for a long time...a front porch!

This is what the front looked like before. Your typical 1960-70's brick ranch, complete with the obligatory yew hedge.

Just a small stoop and no overhang to protect guests from the elements.
The blacktop driveway had seen better days.

The first stage of the project was to have a new concrete driveway and porch slab poured. The front hedge came out and a we installed a jar bubbler fountain under the window.

Then the porch was built and we started laying out where we would lay the paver walkways. A local garden center drew up landscaping plans for us (many places offer this as a free service knowing you'll likely spend lots of money on the plants).
We love the craftman style and tried to incorporate a little of that into the design of the porch supports. We gave the drawings to our contractor and he did a wonderful job building the structure.
And here it is now. We finished up the painting ourselves to save on money and put in the rest of the landscaping.

I'd still like to get a few more plants in and a couple of chairs with pretty pillows on the porch, but its a definite improvement. I'm a little sad that I never got to enjoy it while I lived here but,we've still got a bit of work to do before it goes on the market and we're just a few minutes down the road, so I plan on sitting out on my new front porch every chance I get. :-)

I'm sharing this project over at the Shabby Creek Cottage link party. And at Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday.

Progress at the New House ~ 2nd Bedroom

Before I show you the 2nd bedroom, I want you to see the new cabinet that I got for the office (3rd bedroom). Its the Hemnes Linen Cabinet from Ikea! Its the perfect shade of red. Love it! It will hold our books, magazines, and basic office supplies.

Ok, now on to the bedroom...

Here's a small update on what we've been doing at the new house.

The hardwood floors are down in the 3 bedrooms and hallway; new interior doors have been hung; much of the crown molding, baseboard, and casings are done.

This is the 2nd bedroom. As you can see, the window casings still need to be finished and the hardware has to go on the door. Here is a Before picture (after the mauve-y pink carpet was removed). Purple walls and ceiling and the basic 70's ranch plywood doors. (nothing against purple, but, you have to really like that color to want it on every surface.)

The walls were painted a light neutral tan called Gray Beige by Olympic paints, and the trim is a white satin (the doors will be painted the same white, eventually). This room will be decorated basically the same as my master bedroom in the Tiny House. I Love the floors! They are a 5" wide plank of 3/4" hardwood in Brazilian Teak . Its not quite as dark as the hardwood floors we installed in the Tiny House. Although I really like the darker color, we now have a very light yellow lab who sheds, and the dog hair shows up in an instant on the dark floors, so I was hoping to find a color that was a touch lighter. The Brazilian Teak came in both a dark and light version, we choose the light. I'm very happy with the color! Please ignore the copious amounts of dust in the pictures. :-)
Well, that's all for now. Have a great week, everyone!

Our New Hardwood Floors

Yea! The floors are finally finished! There's still a bit of caulking and painting of the trim to do, but the major back-breaking work is done.
We went with a 5/16 solid hardwood "Tiete Chestnut". With this type of flooring you can either glue it down or just glue the joints and make it a floating floor. We decided to glue it down. I'm really pleased with the color. Its a nice medium to dark wood, but there is a lot of variation of lights and darks throughout the planks, so I think that will help transition it between whatever furniture I decide to purchase in the future. We installed the hardwood throughout the entire first floor with the exception of the bathroom. That's my sewing room you see at the end of the hall. As soon as I get the walls painted in there, I'll take you on a little tour. :-)
I still need to decide on area rugs. I'm thinking of a room size, cream-colored berber for the bedroom and something a little smaller for the living room. Have you seen the new Amy Butler rugs? They are large renditions of many of her fabric motifs and simply GORGEOUS! I would love to get one of those. A little pricey for our budget, but definitely splurge-worthy.

This project is also part of the "Make Your Monday" link event on Kim's Twice Remembered blog. Click here for other Make Your Monday participants.

Why I Haven't Had Time to Sew...or Blog...or Cook...or

We're installing hardwood floors throughout the house. This could take a while. LOL
Shuffling furniture in a small space and stopping every ten minutes to remove splinters really slows down the process.
We're also installing new baseboards, door casings and vent covers as we go.

So far, we've got the living room, dining room, kitchen, and half of the hallway done. The two bedrooms are next and then its time to shop for area rugs. :)

I love the look, so far! I'll be back soon to share pictures of the end result.

My Tiny Kitchen ~ and A Little of This and That

Whew! Who would have thought it would take sooooo long to finish such a tiny kitchen? I'd still like to make a new valance for the the window, but haven't found the right fabric, yet. I'm torn between giving the small room a punch of color, or keeping it more subdued and blending with the adjoining living/dining room.
Here's a list of the materials that we used: Colonial Gold Granite countertops, Cabinets from Home Depot in Dove White, Kohler Smart Divide sink, Brushed nickle hardware and faucet, Wall color is a very light tan called "Hominy" by Martha Stewart from Lowes.

Now comes the "Little of this and That" part of the post. First, some fabulous fabrics. I think I'm finally ready to part with this beautiful GlenCourt curtain panel.
And I also came across these great 1950's barkcloth pieces as I was reorganizing the stash.
Its kind of a deco wave on a leopard spotted background. The small green piece sold quickly, but there is also a larger piece in brown listed on the website. You can see all the newly listed items here. And I have a few pictures of some of the sewing projects I've been working on. This first wristlet may look familiar, as the fabric is the same gorgeous ocean blue linen that my drapes are made from. I made yet another wristlet from the cute powder blue chidren's fabric, but added a fun detail to the back. A vintage yoyo flower and appliqued leaves.

Here's the front...are we tired of seeing this fabric, yet? LOL I've also been making some vintage fabric bookmarkers. I thought they would be nice as freebies to include with orders. I'll try to get a picture of them soon.
Well, that's it for my miscellaneous post today. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!