Temporary Renovations
What I mean by temporary renovations is light construction or maybe decorating done until we can fund a major reconstruction in the room. Most if not all materials are no cost as they are left overs or things repurposed from the other house. As summer turned into fall, I realized just how dark and dreary the living room and kitchen both were. I knew if I had to live in this house over the winter in rooms that I was not comfortable in then it would make for a very long winter indeed! We also were in the process of jacking up the house as the floor was so bowled we couldn't even put up our book shelves as they came away from the walls by almost 8 inches! So we had many many boxes of books hanging around waiting for the day we could finally put them out. By the time we started thinking of painting Jon had already moved the house over 5 inches. Close enough is what I said so lets get to work!
The first room we worked on was the smaller section of the living room which once was considered the dining room. We had already removed the carpet that was in there the first week after closing. We were left with an old vinyl floor that was nice during the summer as it was cool, but come winter we knew it would be freezing. In the other house we had just laid over 1500 square feet of Laminate flooring to cover the whole first floor which was one of the first things we pulled up when taking it down. One Saturday I looked at Jon and said.. lets paint and lay the flooring. :D
So he and I got to work first by clearing what once was the dining room and using paint leftover from the other house, proceeded to paint the walls a cream color. What a difference from the dark paneled walls as the room transformed into a lighter and brighter room! We also removed part of the paneling from around the room dividers to see if the original walls existed. They did and I was so surprised that someone actually covered them up! So we cleaned it up and painted them along with the walls. Once the walls were dry we began laying the floor. Jon and I worked as the floor layers and the girls as restockers (getting flooring from the back porch and bringing it into the house as we needed it) it was a long day but a job well done when it was finished. Leaving Sunday to work on the larger living room side we began early so we could make sure to finish it. We definitely felt like weekend warriors! We ended up running out of the cream paint after painting all but the window wall in the living room so I decided to do an accent wall using the Maple Red color I had left over from a few years ago. This actually made the room pop and added a splash of color to finish the transformation from dark and drab to fresh and inviting. I know I sound like a DIY show right? :D But you look at the before and after pictures and decide for yourself.
So he and I got to work first by clearing what once was the dining room and using paint leftover from the other house, proceeded to paint the walls a cream color. What a difference from the dark paneled walls as the room transformed into a lighter and brighter room! We also removed part of the paneling from around the room dividers to see if the original walls existed. They did and I was so surprised that someone actually covered them up! So we cleaned it up and painted them along with the walls. Once the walls were dry we began laying the floor. Jon and I worked as the floor layers and the girls as restockers (getting flooring from the back porch and bringing it into the house as we needed it) it was a long day but a job well done when it was finished. Leaving Sunday to work on the larger living room side we began early so we could make sure to finish it. We definitely felt like weekend warriors! We ended up running out of the cream paint after painting all but the window wall in the living room so I decided to do an accent wall using the Maple Red color I had left over from a few years ago. This actually made the room pop and added a splash of color to finish the transformation from dark and drab to fresh and inviting. I know I sound like a DIY show right? :D But you look at the before and after pictures and decide for yourself.
Since we had such great results in the living room we decided to keep going and paint the kitchen. Of course this took a bit longer as there are a lot of cupboards in there that I had to remove the doors and take outside to paint. This was quite the undertaking as you never realize just how much wood work there is until you start painting it! We again used paint we had left over and actually for this room had to go and purchase more to finish it up. The end result again went from cool and drab to warm and inviting especially when we were able to bring in some of our cabinets that we had from the other house. The kitchen is going to have a big renovation if we can afford it next summer so we didn't want to do too much. But with just a coat of paint and some decorating it was enough to make me happy until then. And as they say... Happy Wife means Happy Life :D