Bathroom Remodel: Priming and Painting

priming and painting header

Project Updates

Let’s step back and recap: We are unfortunately way over budget, but hey, we’re ahead of schedule! We should be done by May 1. We had a lofty goal of $2,500 for our bathroom renovation, but we’re currently around $3,200. This was our ambitious plan, but we realized all the little things we forgot to take into account along the way: Nails, screws, bags of mortar, caulk… That stuff adds up fast! We do have returns to make which will hopefully bring some balance back to our universe. In the grand scheme of things, that’s still extremely inexpensive for a whole new bathroom that we DIY’d. We’re almost done, and we don’t expect to exceed $3,500.

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Bathroom & Shower: Taping and Mudding Walls

shower walls header

Mud and Tape

The natural next step after pouring the shower pan is? You guessed it: Adding shower walls. And you can’t just use regular drywall, you need to really waterproof that new shower of yours. It’s a high-stakes job, but you can do it!

Here’s a glimpse of us mudding and taping (with a little help). It’s in reverse order, so you’ll see the shower walls up first, then the rest of the bathroom. Enjoy!

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Whitewashing a Brick Fireplace

DIY whitewashing brick fireplace

How to Whitewash

Alright, this project has been on my dream wish list of house projects since before we even moved in. I figured we could tackle this in a day, and it didn’t even take that long. Honestly, it was so easy. This took me two hours, tops.

Supplies

  • White paint
  • Paint brush
  • Painter’s tape
  • Towel
  • Shop rags
  • Water
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Unpacking our Bags

moving in

 

We’ve been moved in for awhile now, but we can finally look back and decompress. Although, we still have a box or five that still need to be sorted.

Moving day was a crazy blur. We left the old house and did both closings the same morning. We handed over the keys and a few tears were shed, but we were really happy to learn a disabled military veteran would be buying the house. We were just excited to get an offer, but this was icing on the cake. He was most looking forward to the running trails and impressed by the neighborhood. We thought he’d be an excellent fit!

So, we were homeless for a few hours before going to our second signing.

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5 Tips for Staging your House

setting the stage banner

5 Tips for Staging your House

If you’re in the midst of trying to sell your house, you know how stressful it can be. But if you follow some of these basic tips, it doesn’t have to be hard.

  1. Get help – A staging person has a great eye and experience. When in doubt, have someone walk through your house and uncover your blind spots. Many realtors offer to include this for free and have connections in the industry who consistently stage houses that sell.
  2. Borrow – Ask friends and family for select pieces of furniture before footing a bill on new things. Thrift shops and consignment stores can be your best friend.
  3. Keep it simple – Neutral paint colors, sparse furniture and minimalistic decorations are the name of the game. Clean, clean, clean! I could say it again. It makes such a difference. People like to envision what they could do to a space, not see that someone’s living there.
  4. Storage – Invest in a storage unit, or rely on friends and family to hide away your clutter. Nobody wants to walk into the garage and see mountains of odds and ends. On that note, hide away anything that is valuable to you. If someone makes an offer, they may ask for you to leave that favorite rug or those expensive pillows behind in order to seal the deal.
  5. Breathe  – This is a process with lots of moving pieces. Get yourself a good team and do what you can to best prepare your home for showings. After that, let go and trust that things will work out. It’s important to get good sleep during this transition and eat healthy (even if you’re not able to use your kitchen.) It can feel chaotic, but it will all be worth it once you get a happy buyer for your house 🙂

 

Stage Presence

Here’s how we did it. We were pretty confident in our staging abilities, and guess what? We didn’t do too bad! When Barb the professional came in, we didn’t have a whole lot to change. Mainly this is because we had already cleansed the premises and shipped all our possessions off to various garages.

If you’re currently trying to stage your home, you don’t necessarily need to hire a professional staging person. Although, you may find it helpful. Luckily Joe’s parents had some furniture to lend us and his mom got to be the personal shopper for staging. I’ll try to give as many details as I can.

 

staging layout drawing

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House is Sold

sold sign

 

It’s (Almost) Official

The Sign Santa finally came around and left us a little present in the front yard. Just in time to update it to “SOLD” – Joe accepted an offer!

 

Joe signing house offer

He was SO happy to hear it.

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Guest Bathroom: From Popcorn to Knockdown

knocking out popcorn

Popcorn vs Knockdown

Are you like Joe and hate popcorn ceiling with a passion? It never bothered me much, until I realized how many alternatives are out there! Joe has always wanted to try doing a knockdown ceiling treatment, so we decided to pick a sample room and try our hand. Since Steve’s bathroom is basically unoccupied now, we figured it was the perfect small space for a test run!

The Supplies

You’ll need to buy a few things before attempting this yourself.

how to DIY knockdown ceiling supplies

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Spare Room Conversion

spare room redo

Brown or Purple?

You be the judge. We really love this paint color, but everyone seems to have a different take on it. Depending on the lighting and time of day, it looks either brown or purple. Or both! For the record, it was in the brown section of Pittsburg Paint, but it must have some purple undertones.

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Summer Ventures

summer jet ski

Summer On

It’s already August,  but summer is just getting started! We refuse to go quietly into fall. Hold your horses, autumn. We’re hanging onto summer as long as we can! These last couple weeks have been a whirlwind of sun, sand and sanding. I’ll start with the fun stuff.

Camping

We went camping in Alexandria, MN and spent a lot of time on the water!

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Fresh Canvas

freshkicksfrenchkiss

New Works of Art

Ok, not the finest art but hey. I like simple pick-me-ups. I spotted these mini canvases, where else but at Menards. I was just rummaging through them and found 2 that I just couldn’t leave without. Actually 3, but I made myself choose just two.

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