2018 was a super crazy year full of twists, turns, and blessings. Let’s rewind a bit... on Valentine’s Day in 2017, my Great Grandma Tress died and left the kind of hole in my heart that only a great grandma could make ❤. I had never really experienced loss or sadness like that up until that point. I will share more on that in a different post, but my happy go lucky little bubble definitely popped.
Fast forward several months, and I inherited my Granny’s 1970s farmhouse. I am SO incredibly thankful, and undeserving of that gift. I would gladly sleep in a tent every night for the rest of my life to have Granny back but Granny is gone, and no amount of anything will bring her back with us. I am so thankful that I have this piece of her. This piece of land that was hers. This house that she built. This home that she cooked in and loved in and laughed in. I am so happy that I get to carry out her tradition of gardening, cooking, and loving on people. She would not want us to sit around being sad (like I did for the first year after she was gone) but to live life to the fullest.
Now for the renovation part!! Like I said, her house was built in 1970. So needless to say, we had a LOT of work to do. So many people came together to make this dream of mine a reality. Everyone in my family, especially Mom and Dad, worked their butts off to create something beautiful. My cousin is an architect, and she helped draw up the general layout of the house and the kitchen cabinets, helped me pick paint colors, and answered 107678 questions I had along the way. My contractors were great to work with and made sure everything was just right. Hunter stepped right in once we started dating, and has been so good about helping out with anything and everything.
I knew I wanted a classic look that would not go out of style quickly, so I decided on white subway tile with a charcoal grout for the kitchen backsplash and both bathrooms (showers and backsplashes). The farmhouse sink was the first thing I knew I wanted in the whole house, so of course, I got one! I did a white distressed barnwood TILE floor for the bathrooms, and the remainder of the house has pine throughout. My contractor created the flooring by using pine 1x that were stained. It looks absolutely amazing, and since it's pine (very soft), it isn't too hard on my typically-bare feet! LOL. In the kitchen and bathrooms, I got custom cabinetry made from a knotty alder, and they are probably one of my top 2 favorite things in my house. They are beautifully stained, and the knot holes in the wood give it the perfect amount of rustic charm. In the kitchen, I did the island in a color (grey), not the stain of the other cabinets, and I'm still enjoying how that breaks up the wood tones.
The next task that Dad happily took on was knocking out walls. There was a "pony wall" in the middle of the living room that made it feel very closed in, and we knocked that out. The kitchen was kind of a separate "room" with just a doorway, and we opened that up by knocking out basically the whole wall between the kitchen/dining room and the living room. Now there is a much larger walkway between the living room and dining room, and it's all completely open from the kitchen into the living room. It makes the space feel SO much bigger. That was the only major demolition that we had to do, besides tearing out all of the old shower walls. I also had the carpenters to add a little broom closet off of the dining room. That space used to be wasted, as it was a cabinet in the main bathroom that was just in the way, behind the door. Other than those things, I kept the layout of the house exactly the same.
The next task that Dad happily took on was knocking out walls. There was a "pony wall" in the middle of the living room that made it feel very closed in, and we knocked that out. The kitchen was kind of a separate "room" with just a doorway, and we opened that up by knocking out basically the whole wall between the kitchen/dining room and the living room. Now there is a much larger walkway between the living room and dining room, and it's all completely open from the kitchen into the living room. It makes the space feel SO much bigger. That was the only major demolition that we had to do, besides tearing out all of the old shower walls. I also had the carpenters to add a little broom closet off of the dining room. That space used to be wasted, as it was a cabinet in the main bathroom that was just in the way, behind the door. Other than those things, I kept the layout of the house exactly the same.
These are SO scary to look at, but it was so worth it to start over from scratch. Far left: little bathroom with its green tile 😷. Left: the view into the kitchen from the living room. That wall on the left got knocked out, to open the kitchen into the living room. Right: the kitchen- layout is exactly the same, just started over from scratch, and added a pantry and an island. Far right: Little bath after we started knocking off the tiles.
As you can see, with that pony wall gone and the doorway to the dining room and kitchen expanded, the living room/kitchen/and dining room are all open concept, and it made a WORLD of difference.
Contractor: Brian Wilkerson- Puxico, MO
Paint: Walls- all Sherwin Williams- Kitchen, living room, hallway, all bedrooms: Stamped Concrete. Little bathroom: Peppercorn. Dining Room: Waterloo. Main bathroom: Kendall Green.
All Trim and Baseboards- ProHide Gold from Busy B Lumber, Dexter MO.
Painters: Lisa, Kevin, and Lari Jean Spitzer- Not for hire! ;-) Bernie, MO.
Faucets: Delta Trinsic collection throughout the whole house. Stainless for the kitchen sink, and oil rubbed bronze for all of the bathroom fixtures. They are guaranteed for life, and I got them at Bath and Kitchen Idea Center in Cape Girardeau, MO. This is also where I purchased my white farmhouse sink. They have amazing service and they were able to order anything that was not in stock.
Tile Flooring: Remodeling Room in Cape Girardeau, MO.
Appliances: All Samsung, ordered from Sears in Malden, MO.
Cabinets: JW Woodworks- Fairdealing, MO.
Doors: I believe all the doors were ordered by my contractor from Holloway Distributing in Puxico, MO.
I am so thankful to have had the help needed to get this project to where it is today. I'm still not "done", but probably never will be! I want to redo the back deck, paint the brick, finish decorating and adding personal touches, etc. etc.! If you're going through a remodel right now, just keep pushing and know that it WILL get better.
xoxo,
ljs
Comments