We Got a House!(..and I'm redoing everything!)

We got a house!  I can't believe it!  We are like grown-ups now. (so weird)  I love this place.  It was a blank slate.  This house was a foreclosure that Fannie Mae bought up, fixed up slightly and sold to us for an incredibly cheap price.  When Fannie Mae buys a house they will do some improvements like putting in a new microwave, stove and dishwasher.  Yay!  They also like to paint the whole entire thing a peachy beige...which is fine for painting over.  However, they do paint the ceiling which I am sure was white before that ugly peachy beige.  What the heck!  Uhhh.  They are really high ceilings.  Getting them white seems so boring and so hard on arms! This might be a project for someone else. Another day.

Anyway here is our home. Isn't it cute?!?

I started on the living space right away.  I mean right away… like as soon as I walked in for the first time after we bought it.  I had been dreaming about what I was going to do to this home from the first time that I saw it!

It's Demo Day!!!!!

This is what happens when you watch too much HGTV.   I look only slightly like an insane person here, right?  This is me removing the chair rail.  I am not
anti-chair rail.  I actually like most chair rails bu, this one was very crappy and randomly stopped at one part.  I just used a hammer and screw driver.  So easy. I then went around and filled the nail holes with some spackle.  This stuff starts off pink and turns white when it's ready to be sanded.  My son saw me doing this and said "Uh Mommy, why are you painting the walls pink? :)  He was very concerned. :) http://www.homedepot.com/p/DAP-1-pt-DryDex-Spackling-with-Dry-Time-Indicator-12348/100634326

Once this dried I went around with my handy dandy electric sander.  Be sure to wash your walls before painting especially, after sanding.

I took months trying to decide on a main living space color.  Yes, months.  From the first time we saw the house with our real estate agent.   I knew that I wanted a color in the gray family but warmer than a straight gray.  I really like confusing colors that can appear to be different colors.  I was between Magnetic Gray and Silver Strand by Sherwin Williams.  I decided on Magnetic Gray.  Once I painted a little strip on the wall I decided that it was too dark (Silver Strand was the shade lighter).

This is my baby girl who was enjoying her new house as I was working.

I decided to do a test strip on the parking lot of Sherwin Williams when I was taking my cans into be lightened.  Just kidding, of course.  I had my two little ones (as always) and I was trying to carry WAY too much (also, as always). Makes you sick doesn't it? Paint is expensive!  At least it’s funny now! Fortunately, I was able to scrape up most of it. 

Since I was having the paint lightened, losing some on the pavement made getting the color just right a little tricky.  The lady at Sherwin Williams was able to lighten my colors a bit but not get them to the Silver Strand color that I wanted.

When I got home I mixed my two paint cans together to make sure my color was all the same.  The one that spilled had more room to be made lighter than the full can.  I did a test strip and decided it was still a little dark.  So in my impulsive nature, I took all the paint into my garage and dumped a bunch of white into it.  :) I used my Silver Strand test strip to get the color as close as possible in case I needed to get another can.

I got to painting.  Of course, I ran out of paint a few small walls before I was done.  I went in and bought a can of Silver Strand…and…it worked!  You cannot even tell the difference.  I did have the wall that I ran out of paint on that I had to redo with the new color just to make sure it blended but other than that it all looks like one color.  Do not try this.  I am very, very lucky and absolutely recognize this. :)

I painted all the trim and doors white as I went.  I used a few different methods for sanding all the trim and doors.  I used a liquid sander on the baseboards and my hand sander on most doors.  I was seriously seeing baseboards in my sleep.  I was so sick of painting them white!  So boring, but what a difference this made!!

Once I was done painting the main living space, I tackled the kitchen.  I was determined to get a lot of this work done before we moved in.

I used Klean Strip Liquid Sander on all the cabinets and my hand sander for the island.   This liquid sander/deglosser seemed too good to be true but the lady at Home Depot told me it is the way to go and that it absolutely works.  http://www.homedepot.com/p/Klean-Strip-1-qt-Easy-Liquid-Sander-QWN285/100112667 Figured I would give it a go. :)  Following the Home Depot lady’s instructions, I wiped the wood down with the deglosser using those standard green kitchen scrubby clothes.  Way too easy but worked great as far as I can tell.  I took the hardware off the cabinets but did not remove the hinges. I just put a strip of painters tape over each hinge. The cabinets stayed up as I worked. I chose durable gloss finish paint from Home Depot.

I really wanted white cabinets but also did not want to make my kitchen look too boring so I stained the island with my dark espresso stain (same stain as the kitchen table).  As soon as I stained the island, I went and sanded and stained my mantle.  :) I was glad to say goodbye to all the orangy wood.  (No offense to anyone who has a lot of orangey wood in their house.  It is just not for me) http://bytrialanderica.blogspot.com/2015/04/kitchen-table.html?view=sidebar 

Here is where we are at so far! (White washing the fireplace this week and hopefully adding wood beams!)

Before and Afters!

What I would do different:

·        I would have not spilled all my paint. :) I would say that I would not try mixing my own colors but it actually worked out really well for me so instead I will just say that I do not recommend that you try to mix and match your color.  If you try this and it doesn't work you are not allowed to blame me ;)

·        For the love, if you are staining something and do not have gloves to use, go buy some!  Ahhh the chemicals! I know it’s awful that I didn't use a glove and I had a strange colored hand for like a week.  Wear a glove!!!!

Moral of the story- You can make over just about anything.  You really do not need to be a professional or know exactly what you are doing . Just do it!  I had plenty of oopses and would do it all again in a heartbeat! I love how everything came out.  The beautiful thing about home DIY projects is that you can make your home how you want and there is room for error.  I have had plenty.  Once you start on these sorts of projects you will also have the supplies to fix any oopses or issues down the road.  You can absolutely do it!  Let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks for reading!

Erica