House Reno Part One

When we moved to Fort Worth, we really wanted to live in the Wedgwood neighborhood because 1) It is the community surrounding our church and 2) The houses were all built in the 60s/70s and have so much character! We are huge fans of Fixer Upper, and LOVE to "renovate" houses. Our first house was built in 1978, and the prior owners had done a lot of upgrades when we moved in. We were able to paint walls, and we redid one of the bathrooms, but our changes were mostly cosmetic. Our second house was built in 2013, so all we got to do to it was paint the girls' rooms. So, we were super excited to find our current house, because it needs a lot of cosmetic changes, but also some things we had never gotten to do before!

We got an amazing deal on this house, primarily because it was a rent house for several years before we bought it. From the mail we have been getting, it looks like 1 million people rented here. So, the house wasn't in the best condition. The walls were all cream colored, and the entryway, small living room, kitchen, breakfast nook, and laundry room all had hideous tile! It definitely did not feel like home to us, which obviously made our transition to Fort Worth harder to get used to.

So, thankfully, we ended up with some money from the sale of our house in Temple, and instead of putting all of it as a down payment on this house, we decided to use it to start some renovations! We were hoping to get a little bit more done before we ran out of funds, but we have had the following unexpected expenses:

1) Our fridge went out so we had to buy a new one.
2) Our washer broke, so we had to buy a new one.
3) We learned there was a raccoon, who we not so fondly named Rayford, living in our attic that we had to very expensively remove. (It is a blogworthy story that I will tell at some point!)
4) We have had to call the plumber twice, for various issues.
5) We had to have our heater motor replaced.
6) We had to replace the faucet in the Kitchen.

But, here is what we have done so far: (I am only doing 1 before and 1 after picture for each area. There are tons more posted on my facebook album, and on my instagram)

Living Room Before (left) and After (right):

We painted the walls "Amazing Gray" by Sherwin Williams, and replaced the carpet with Pergo Max Premiere Wood Laminate in Heathered Oak.



Entryway Before (left) and After (right):

This was the first area of the house that Casey had to remove the ceramic tile. And man was it a doozie! He went through 3 different tools before he finally figured out that a jackhammer is the way to go! This small patch of tile took him a day and a half to remove! At one point, there was so much dust flying out the front door, a man stopped to make sure the house wasn't on fire! Thankfully my dad (parents) were in town that weekend to help out, and my dad went and rented a jackhammer to finish the job!

Fireplace Before and After:

This was my absolute favorite project so far! I used "Presto Patch" to create a german schmear on our red brick and I could not be more excited with how it turned out! In fact, this room is my favorite. It was originally a living room, but I had the idea of converting it to a dining room. So now, we have a table that will seat 8 people, and there is plenty of room to walk around the table without having to ask people to scoot in! Our friend JMac built our table, and our mantle. He does amazing work. (His website is Ingenious Wood by JMac)

Dining Room Before and After:

This is just Part One...stay tuned for Part Two another day!