I probably invested a little more than I should have in the kitchen restoration but given the amount of time I spend in there, it seemed the most logical place to spend money. I'll highlight it in posts to come but the short list is as follows:
- custom cabinet doors made so there would actually be doors going forward (as I am not the neatest person in my cabinetry due to over-collectorating this is important),
- a new boomerang Formica counter top (totally not necessary as a laminate counter top was present in the house. I think, though, I waited long enough to have a counter I really like instead of settling for apartment beige),
- a new VCT floor to return the kitchen back to where it belonged in time instead of the dark modern bachelor cave it was when we moved in (it was stained black concrete now it's streaky grey and white VCT!),
- a new fridge that fits in the space (arrives next Wednesday!), and
- paint (still working on that actually)
The bedrooms all got a coat of paint and new closet insides. I am going to have to wait on adding closet doors (no there were not any when we moved in) as I am not really happy with any of my options at Home Depot/Lowes. I have to go shopping at the restore places to see if I can find something unique and "right" for each room before I'll cave to the "cheaper" options available. My husband built the closet insides which are basic, but it allows for maximum use of the space for clothes and shoes all of which my husband says I have too much of... pshaw...
The bathrooms received some repairs and more cabinetry door work done (again to add back in doors) but the aesthetics in there will come with time. Right now I am just enjoying their blue and pink goodness.
The family room or "big room" as we are calling it turned out to have the color I like the most of all the colors I chose, although it took three of us and two ladders to get it done! Right now it's functioning as the box/stuff staging area since the garage flood. Someday though it will function as the entertainment room flush with a pool table (to appease my husband for all the work he's done on the remodel and heck yeah there is room for one), a bar, and the typical media center area including our record player. The ridiculous thing is that I think someday I'll have to get a bigger couch and tv since that room dwarfs everything. Right now it looks full but that's because of the mammoth wall of boxes and stuff that is in there now.
Lastly the other fairly large chunk of money we spent was on beginning to fix the garage and work on the drainage problem. Half way through the month of July we had a monsoon of a rainstorm which is not expected in the middle of July in Texas! Unfortunately, we had just moved the boxes into the garage for staging the day before. Because we still weren't living there, it took us a day to realize that oh hey the garage doesn't just leak it floods... I didn't take any pictures of the aftermath because I really do not want to remember this much longer but of course the boxes on the bottom of the stacks were not pottery and plastic... oh no, it was books (yes some vintage too) and my wicker under the bed box full of all of my pictures. Devastating. The good news is that the pictures, through a five day drying and crying out process, all seem to be more or less saved. I won't say they are in perfect condition still but you can still enjoy them. (I add the caveat of hopefully, they are all stacked back up in the wicker box which also survived and I haven't checked on them in a couple of weeks...so keep your fingers crossed). The books on the other hand are toast as I prioritized the pictures over the books. I'll have to make a list of the books and slowly rebuy them over time. At least for the most part I can do that. The one thing that would not have been replaceable, my grandmother's handwritten cookbook, miraculously was fine... still not sure how, but I am counting those small victories as positive. So my husband has spent countless hours ever since tearing apart the back of the garage and rebuilding it like a fort becuase he was originally going to turn the room into his man cave which needs to not have waterfront property on the inside. Now we just have to wait for it to rain again and see what happens... We knew there was a "drainage problem" when we moved in, we just didn't know a river literally runs through it... I still have to work on the actual drainage problem but that involves more contractors and given it's August I think we can wait a little bit on that.
Regardless, we've recovered from the flood and we're forging ahead. More updates and details will be coming soon, but I'll leave you with this picture, which has nothing to do with the house. The day we did the big move into the new house it happened to be our third year anniversary. In the middle of all what we had going on, my so very thoughtful husband, bought me this leather bag for the "leather" anniversary. It's a vintage bowling bag, but he thought I could use it as a traveling bag or to hold all my knitting and what not ....A collective awwww now is in order... Me on the other hand had to make up a connection of how my gift fit into the "leather" anniversary. I got him some really awesome cuff links (no connection but they were very him) and a cool vintage burnt orange dress shirt for UT game days. I used a Longhorn as my connection of the shirt to leather... LAME....queue up the Price is Right you didn't win sounds right about now... he loved it, but still comparatively I lose! The bag though is fab and it happens to have my initials on the back (well my maiden name initials but still how amazing is that? 