Living Room Renovation

Our living room was the quickest transformation of the whole renovation project. We finished painting it all in just one day! Luckily we only had two coats to put up thanks to our Behr premium plus paint. (Totally not sponsored, we were just so happy with the quality!) As stated in the previous post about our bedrooms, we used the same paint color throughout the house: Subtle Touch on the walls, and Bakery Box for the trim.

Thankfully the floors were in good shape when we bought the house, so all they required was a good scrubbing with our mop. Just a few coats of paint was all this room took to fix up.

Before

After

Once we finished painting the bedrooms we felt like pros so tackling the biggest room in the house was a breeze! The paint edger we used mentioned in the previous post saved us hours of carefully working around the trim and baseboards.

Painting tips:

• Make sure to have all supplies ready before you start! This makes it so much easier to complete the task at hand because getting started is truly the hardest part
• Paint the trim first. You will not have to tape off twice if you paint your trim and baseboards before painting the walls. Pro tip: you won't have to tape anything off if you use an edger!
• Speaking of edgers, get one! I cannot emphasize this enough! It is an amazing tool that will save you time, money, and tears.
• When you reload your brush, paint in a "W" formation on the wall. This distributes the paint evenly which gives the best finished look!
• Use a drop cloth. I underestimated how much paint I would spill/splatter when painting our bedrooms. Using a drop cloth, especially in carpeted areas, will insure the protection of your floors!
• If you spill latex paint, use rubbing alcohol to clean up dried spots. Most spills you will see and wipe up immediately, but for those little dried-on bits that you didn't see, rubbing alcohol will help you clean them up like they were never there.
• And lastly, be patient, especially if this is your first time painting. It takes some time to get the knack down. Don't try and rush through your project because the final product will show it! Trust me.

Make sure to follow me on Instagram to stay up to date on where we're at in house projects. Keep an eye out for our kitchen renovation post. This was by far our biggest project and change in the whole house! I will be adding subsequent posts after the big projects series to showcase our home decor which is one of my favorite parts of home ownership. Thanks so much for continuing to come along through this series on our fixer upper projects!

Bedroom Renovations

Every room in our house was (some still are) a work in progress, but the bedrooms were our first big project. One of the biggest problems we noticed was a heavy amount of soiling on the carpet once the previous owners moved their furniture out. We negotiated in our contract to have the house cleaned - carpets being one item on the list. We were certain that with a good scrubbing, the stains and smell would come out.

We were wrong, unfortunately. So a carpet change was in order pretty soon down the road!

If you are buying a fixer upper that needs new flooring one tip I would suggest is to paint before you change out the carpet or hardwood. This saved us so much time and hassle because we didn't have to worry about paint splattering or tipping out onto the floor, which it inevitably will no matter how careful you try to be. Trust me on that one.

Aside from specific changes and upgrades we did in each room, the paint color we chose for the house is the same throughout. It was really important for me to create a neutral, cohesive backdrop in each room because I like to change out decor every now and then - which usually means swapping pieces from room to room.

Our color of choice for the wall was Subtle Touch by Behr. The trim is Bakery Box, also by Behr. We opted to get a "middle of the road" paint. Not quiet the best of the best, but better than the lowest grade. I cannot stress enough how much I suggest getting this if you are undertaking a whole-house redo. It took only two coats to cover some of the darkest and brightest paints in the house. Definitely worth the money!

Painting was a fun adventure for us because neither one of us had ever painted any walls before... ever. The best tool we picked up was an edger like this one. This was a life saver because we did not have to tape anything... I repeat ANYTHING off. Amazing. Bless you, creator of the edger. *Disclaimer - make sure you paint your trim first and then use the edger so you don't have to tape anything!*

We started in our bedroom, which wasn't too drastic of a change - from sandy brown to light grey. It was our first taste of how transformative a fresh coat of paint can be.

Bedroom before

Bedroom "after" aka in progress - notice how we didn't have to lay a tarp out - the only perk of having gross carpet!

Once we felt like we had a grasp on how to properly paint, we tag teamed the guest rooms. This is where the transformations become a little more dramatic! The first guest room was a dark green color that made the room feel a little like a cave. After we finished this room, it felt much more airy and welcoming!

Guest room #1 before

Guest room #1 after

Probably the most drastic change in the entire house was the second bedroom, which started out as a tart lime green. There wasn't anything subtle about the touch up we achieved in this room.

Guest room #2 before - the worst of the worst carpet was in this room

Guest room # 2 after

After all of the rooms were transformed, we painted the closets with a coat of Bakery Box to clean them up as they had some scuff marks. Shout out to our friends Tanner and Claire for helping us accomplish this one weeknight last fall!

Once we allowed all of the paint to dry, we quickly made a choice on a new carpet. We went with a neutral grey Stainmaster carpet since we have a sweet pup who is always tracking new, fun things in the house especially on rainy days.

Beautiful, fresh, new carpet. <3<3<3

The biggest bonus that came with replacing the carpet was that it helped eliminate about 90% of the funky smell we noticed during our walkthroughs. We are so thankful for the changes that we were able to make with the bedrooms. My inner Joanna was singing with joy. Next up to tackle was the Living Room!

Our very own Fixer Upper

Raise your hand if you've been under the spell of Joanna Gaines since Fixer Upper debuted in 2013. I have a strong feeling I won't be the only one with my hands up in the air. Yes, both hands.

Fast forward 5 years. My husband and I are now seriously starting to look for a house to buy after settling in to our new town. I was no longer just stalking Zillow for dream homes that are way out of my league and far above what our bank account has to offer.

We looked at a few houses with our awesome realtor Tish and waded through the first round of looking. Then one day we happen upon an unassuming home in a smaller, quiet neighborhood. We walk in and it hits me - at first not with beauty and potential but with a strange smell - years of dog pee and funk. It was like a palpable scent. 

I was in love.

Not with the odor, of course, but with the potential. Beautiful brick fire place in the large, open living room. A decent sized kitchen and large back yard. After the second walk through we were sold. A few weeks later, luckily so was the house - to us! 

Time to get to work! Luckily, Jeremy nor I had ever had any experience working on a house in any capacity, but I had years of HGTV shows cataloged in my brain and ready to go. 

This was our time to shine.

I'm going to be going room by room sharing in our trials and triumphs of what we accomplished and what we learned along the way. Hopefully this series will be inspiring and entertaining because after a long and somewhat traumatic experience we all deserve to look back and laugh, right? 

Thankfully everything has turned out for the better and we have been blessed with a stronger marriage, lowered "perfection" expectations, faithful friends who showed up to rescue us in the pits of our despair, and our trusty sidekick of a pup who is just along for the crazy journey.

I hope you'll stick around and see what our fixer upper has to offer!