Dining Room

It has been a while since my last post and I must apologize for that...things got really busy and after the pool was done, we spent a lot of time outside :)

However, here are some pictures of the dining room.  Not 100% complete but pretty much there.

As you know when we first purchased the house, the dining room roof and ceiling had problems.  There was a massive hole in the roof which had caused all the ceiling and the outside wall to be completely rotted and moldy.

We were very lucky to have Sam and Jessica come to visit and they helped to pull down all the bad drywall on the ceiling and walls, remove the bad framing and roof.  WOW what a mess, that is for sure.  The smell was not particularly nice because of the mold.

Here are some pictures from the inspector and from when we arrived in October 2014.

This picture actually makes the dining room look respectable...all the bad parts are behind the camera.

So after all the bad had been removed, Kevin started the long process of replacing.  Below is a picture of insider to the right of the window after the wall has been cleaned and the new roof is on.  Below is a picture of the area for the final piece of drywall.  I might add here that Kevin hates drywalling with a passion so we are really glad that there is only a small amount of drywall work left to do in the blue room.

Once the drywall was all completed, the next step was to paint the walls.  The window wall we wanted to be a dark forest green and the other three walls an off white color with a hint of yellow to work with the green.  All trim to freshly painted white.

For the ceiling we really really wanted tin tiles, but cost was way way above our tight budget.  The room is 15*20 and for actual tin it was going to cost about $8000, for the "fake" tin tiles you can get at Lowes it was going to cost $3000.  Pinterest came to our rescue...someone had posted that they had used a wallpaper with a tile design on it and then painted it with metallic paint.

So with the help of my quilting equipment I cut the wallpaper into squares so that it would be easier to put up on the ceiling.  Here are some pictures of the wallpaper and paint.

Once the wallpaper was up on the ceiling and had dried we set about painting it.  First a light brown primer and then the metallic paint.

Light fixtures were a challenge as I wanted sconces on the wall and I wanted the candelabra to have crystals.  I couldn't find one that I like at the right price, but Charlie and I found a matching set of candelabra and wall sconces in Lowes one day.  I purchased some crystals from Ebay and voila, a perfect set.

We still have to put up new molding and finish the floors but apart from that the dining room is complete.

Swimming Pool

Well, the swimming pool....the one item that needed renovated that we all seriously wanted to get done first, but the whole being able to live in the house came up as a higher priority.

The words "swimming pool" was not really the right words that should have been used to describe what our pool used to look like and was definitely not somewhere I would want to swim in.

Here are some pictures of the pool from when we purchased the house...it was a swamp, piled high with trash, broken pool loungers and way too many frogs and other animals we were unsure of.

Above and Below - The pool when we arrived in October 2014

Below are some pictures of the work that Kevin and Charlie (with some help from Kevin's work friend Paul) completed.  The pool is 40 feet long by 18 feet wide and 10 foot deep at the deep end and 4 foot at the shallow end.

So with the new liner attached, the process of filling the pool started....because of the way you have to fill it up bit by bit to cut out holes for the filters and pump outlets, we had some challenges.  It took over a week to get the pool filled and ended up with algae.  However the right chemicals have killed the algae.  Below are some pictures taken once the pool was filled.

Erin and Jordyn...plus Charlies feet :)

Jordyn

 

Shelby taking a swim

Tracey cleaning the algae

Nearly there

We are still struggling with keeping the algae at bay, but plan to empty the pool before winter, refill and winterize.

Just ordered a cover...the costs that we have incurred for the pool are $800 for liner, about $200 in chemicals, $100 for the cover and $30 for winterizing chemicals.  Luckily our water bill has not increased because here we have a standard fixed city utility bill of $35 that does street lights, trash and water.  I am sure because of running the pump our electric bill will increase as well but have not seen that bill come in yet.

So next year I estimate that it will cost us about $300 to keep up and running for the summer.  Well worth it considering that I have spent an hour a day swimming since we got it set up, Charlie loves it, as does Kevin.  Tracey and Erin certainly spent a lot of time swimming whilst they were here too!

The Front Yard

We as a family have always enjoyed sitting down at the front of the house and to watch the world go by....

We had a porch when we lived on Harrison, but mostly used the back yard there because Charlie was so little.  Also, the kids just loved the trampoline.  My Dad can agree that the squirrels that lived in the trees there were rather entertaining...

When we lived on Twin Lakes we had a very small porch and the neighbors were far from friendly, so sadly we rarely spent time outside at the front of the house..

At Gloria, we had no porch so we had a swing in the front yard for some time and have lots of memories of sitting there and enjoying watching our cats and the kids playing in the cul-de-sac...

Here in Mississippi we are lucky to have a larger porch that allows us to have three chairs, a couple of tables and some plants.  There was a local flea market in town and we purchased three Adirondack chairs and the tables to match when we first moved here.  We also found an awesome garden center in Magee and got a green chiminea as well which has an awesome grape design on it - perfect for any wino!  It had a small amount of damage that is hardly noticeable so we got it for a cool $25.

I have lost count how many times we have sat out there to eat, have a glass of wine/beer or to just chill and chat...

So we have focused on working on the lawn and the footpath, although the path needs a little more work as some of the bricks have come loose.  But below is a before and after photo of the front footpath.

After

Before

The "lawn" and I use that word very loosely was mostly weeds and moss when we arrived covered with a deep coating of leaves (and a set of house keys somewhere Kevin).

Its amazing how quickly things grow here, you lay down grass seed and within a week you have 2 inch high grass.  So some before and after pictures.  We probably have cut down over 50 trees from the front yard that were in different stages of growing.  It was so totally overgrown when we arrived in October that we could not see the house.

We now have a lawn that my father would be proud of, however still more work to do around the big trees and on the north side of the front yard.  And of course, cant't wait until we have all the trim painted and the porch roof fixed.

BEFORE PICTURES

Overgrown and barely able to see the house

Overgrown front...the ivy on the left was all over the side of the house.

Sad and unloved.

A staple it seems for anyone who wants an ant free zone....

Finally, to make people feel welcome, we picked up an awesome sign that we have set up by the front path...

Kitchen finally complete

Our kitchen is finally complete (except two very tiny jobs left to do).

We took the kitchen from a grimy, bug invested space of nastiness to a cool, fun kitchen.  You have already seen some pictures that I posted of the kitchen when we purchased the house, and even some pictures of the process....but now the final results.

Here is a short reminder...

And here are the results...let me know what you think!

So our new fridge/microwave and dishwasher are shown in this shot...just love the bottom drawer freezer...Not sure why we choose orange for the walls, but we have always wanted orange somewhere in our house (even in Colorado).  Here we know that we will never be selling the house so its OK to have any color we want...surprisingly, everyone that has seen the color so far loves it.

We had to use vinyl tiles on the floor...eventually we will put hardwood floors down once we have done some foundation work, but this is perfect for now.  I love how we put the tiles down...we put them down diagonally and rotated the pattern.  Makes the room feel much larger.

Of course, we also had to put back up our wonderful under cabinet lights.  All the colors look awesome on the glass tile back splash.

The cabinets have been cleaned, painted inside and then stained and clear coated on the outside.  We got some awesome brushed nickel handles that have a antique style, but are modern due to their color.

The hallway beyond the Kitchen going to Charlie's bedroom on the right, and the bathroom.  We plan to replace the bathroom door and get a handle to match the hardware on the kitchen cabinets.  Found a place in North Mississippi that sells old refurbished panel doors, so one day we plan to head up there to check out what they have.

Bell's picture has pride of place beside Charlies bedroom door :)

This picture shows the great job that Jessica and Sam did on the cabinet doors.  They are chocolaty and very rich in color.  We followed through with the brown colors in the glass back splash and the counter tops.  The bright orange on the walls and the awesome new windows brightens the kitchen up perfectly.

So, old kitchens typically do not have a built in trash can so I searched the flea markets for something that might work to hide our trashcan.  I found a box that was originally used to store sweet corn.  It needed a good clean and I used Olde English dark oil on the exterior.  Turned out perfect.  You can see the dogs water peeking around the corner, so I have been on the lookout for something that can hide the bucket but still give them all easy access.  Our little spice rack is holding the spices that I use the most regularly.  The rest are in a kitchen cabinet.  One of my favorite pictures is on the wall and finished off the hallway perfectly...Thanks Dana for the picture :)

Finally our new gas stove, which I love and a low hanging pot rack...so glad I can reach them all easily now :).  Don't you just love the purple lights :)

Awesome job all the way around.  Love my kitchen so much that I even like cleaning up and emptying the dishwasher!

So call out to Jessica, Sam, Charlie and Kevin on helping to get the job done!