New Color in Living and Dining Room

 After living here for 8 years, the paint in the living room and dining room needed an update with fresh paint and a new color.

Watching Fixer Upper got me hooked on farmhouse ideas so I went in search of the perfect farmhouse gray color. I settled on Behr Grey Mist from Home Depot. I loved the primer included! True to it's description, it only took one coat! I used one gallon per room!

I took the pictures as I hung decorations. I'm not great at staging so please pardon the mess!

Exterior Paint!

 

FINALLY! When the COVID pandemic began, we decided what a great time to get the house painted! Kevin found Lain's Painting. Billy is a one man band and very diligent. He spent a week painting and it is very well done!

Although our house is not a Craftsman, I wanted to stick with the style of the early 20th century. Three muted colors. 

On a road-trip to historic Jefferson, TX we came across a Craftsman with similar colors and fell in love. In addition, our colors are very different from the rest of the neighborhood. Most houses are beiges, grays, and blues.

To recall the before pictures, check the first post, In the beginning . . .

Foundation Work on the House

We are ready to do some serious renovating/remodeling in the kitchen and bathroom. Now that we are empty-nesters, it not only gives us something to do but will not be hard to accomplish since it's just inconveniencing us. 

August 5,2019 work began and took the foundation crew about a week to get it done, lots and lots of digging in one of hottest months of the year! If I recall there was a 7 inch difference from front to back on the west side of the house!

Below in the pictures, you can see how much dirt was removed from under the house. It had probably never been leveled in the past and there was almost a 100 years of dirt accumulated underneath. Our contractor originally said it was not a pier and beam because there was not a crawl space. After the dirt was out, he had a change of mind and said it is a pier and beam but so much dirt had built up, who knew!!

There would be a chain of guys under the house passing the dirt!

Lots and Lots of Dirt!!

And then Kevin decided we needed to keep the dirt! What?!?

Lydia teaching the dogs how much fun they can have playing King of Mountain!

Last two pictures show how much fun two dogs can have chasing each other around on mounds of dirt.
Titus, Boston Terrier in first picture, is the King!
Duckie running so fast she is blur like the Flash!

Dresser Updo and New Shelf

This is a free chest of drawers we got at a garage sale several years ago and I decided to experiment with painting them and this is what I got! I also had a set of shelves I had chosen for Kevin's oil lamp collection to tend to so I decided to use the same concept and it worked great!!!!

New Windows!

I thought I had already posted this! I'm getting  behind! Kevin installed windows for the living room to balance the front and allow more lighting for the living room. Unfortunately, the lighting for the living room also allowed more heat so I blocked with bamboo shade. Once we get screens to block the heat, I will remove the shades. Now, to get trim for interior living room and dining room, then comes total redo for kitchen and bathroom. :)

Things are Moving Along

Well it's been quiet around here the past few months. Between the weather and work Kevin is getting done with what he can when he can.

 Kevin put a wood floor in the garage. His dad, Bob came over and fancied it up by sanding and painting. You can see how Kevin has dressed up the front so far with windows and a door. The door used to be the front door of the house. He and David poured the concrete for the porch. The porch will eventually be the width of the front. He is getting closer to opening up the leather shop!

 Kevin decided to use some sort leftover from leveling the side and backyard to install a garden.

 This is the path from the carport to the shop. Kevin dug up the rocks from the front yard where they made a walkway from the front door to driveway and the mailbox.

 My kitchen cabinets are finally coming together. I had wanted to get them finished last summer but never got around to it. There wasn't anyplace in the house to lay out the doors to paint them and still function during the day. I couldn't do them on the back porch because it is oil paint and bugs, etc would get stuck in paint during drying. Kevin decided to put his new shop to use by getting the doors painted, painting the chicken wire red, and attaching it to the doors. When he began installing we could only locate 2 sets of hinges and 5 cabinet pulls. Now they are on order and we're patiently waiting.

While strolling at 1st Monday, Kevin came across this porch light for $5 which he promptly installed on the back porch! Thank goodness, what we were using made me nervous!

Schools out and the work begins . . .

It has been a while since I have done anything productive in the house other than clean and cook! School work has kept me and the kids busy since we settled into the house. Kevin on the other hand as been a busy beaver! See below for interior improvements! He as also done a lot of work outside including the cleaning out of the garage and he is in process of emptying the storage rental. We also had a new roof put on the house and some dirt work!

Floral Arrangement I put together using one of my Fiesta pitchers. 

Living and Dining Room . . .

Kevin got busy putting up the baseboards and trim around the doors! I will be busy this summer applying caulk, sanding and painting a lot of trim!

Living Room

Trim on front door

Opening between living and dining room. No mitering corners for this guy!

David's bedroom door

Hall Closet Door

Then the closets . . .

Kevin also got all of our closets finished!

The handy closet now has shelves! Lydia painted the inside for us.

David's closet with shelves. Kevin put trim around all the closet doors as well.

Plenty of room for all David's clothes. If we can get him to hang them up!

Our closets got trimmed in as well! This is Kevin's.

Kevin has 3 rods in his. Only he or David can reach the top rods for hanging up clothes.

Shelves on one side under top rod.

No room for a nice gun case, at least until kids are moved out, so he just made one in his closet!

My closet door with trim added.

What you see is what I get! No shelves, 2 rods of which I can only use a 1/4 of the bottom one and no floor space, hence the shoe bag on the door.

Lydia's closet. She nagged and nagged Kevin until it got it finished. She painted it right away! Now she is waiting for baseboards and her room will almost be complete.

She has floor to ceiling shelves on one side which are very well organized.

Two rods on other side but she only uses the top one. She did all the painting herself, inside and out.

She also got an air conditioner installed in her room! Unfortunately she has to leave her door open so it can help cool the kitchen. We also installed one of these small units in the Master Bedroom.

What's going on outside . . .

A new metal roof! Dirt Work and Kevin has put out seed for grass.

 

How the front looks now.                                              How it looked one year ago!

East side of the house.

Backyard after dirt work and seeding.

Shot of backyard from different angle.

West side of house after dirt work. I think they moved out about a foot of dirt!

 That's it for now! More updates coming soon.