on the creek blog

Thursday, January 07, 2016

Renovation Revelations | Month 1

We're about one month into our log home renovation and here are some thoughts:

Home Facts For Month 1:
- Built a new floor
- Painted underneath the old floor
- Demolished the kitchen
- Took off every piece of drywall
- Replaced the side door
- Put up new drywall in the bathroom
- Took out the old baseboard heaters
- Installed new baseboard heaters
- Built new steps for the front porch
- Removed all of the OSB from the floors
- Removed the furnace and entire duct work
- Replaced the basement door
- Replaced outside lighting fixtures
- Moved the basement steps to the other side of the basement

Removing, painting and building a new floor.

Read more about our living room renovation here.

Removing the old drywall. Here's an explanation why we decided to go this route with the drywall.

Personal Thoughts:

This project could have turned out really bad.

Before buying this house, I had never renovated anything. I was more in love with the idea of renovating than the renovation itself. I could have bought any old dilapidated house and thought it was going to turn out alright. Luckily my husband has the know-how to inspect houses before we put money down for purchase. Picking the wrong house could have cost us a ton in hidden expenses and time.

Inspect Everything

Going into this, I didn't really care about the condition of the house because I knew we were going to change everything, but I wish I would have inspected things a little better. I would have known right away the things I could have salvaged and known what wasn't worth saving.

Sweeping For Days

The sweeping in this house never stops! It seems like someone always has a broom in their hand. There's so much dirt and dust!

Time Suck
The work never ends. Because my husband and I both work full time, finding the time to work on this house has been a challenge. Going from having free nights and weekends to working all the time has been a personal challenge for me.

Month 1 was incredibly productive. Looking back, I realized I didn't mention a lot of the things we did! Look for those posts coming soon!

Wednesday, January 06, 2016

Homemade Gift + My First Chalk Paint Experience

Tiff chalk paint , handmade 0 Comments

I've been hearing about the awesomeness of chalk paint everywhere and I finally decided to give it a try. My husband has a ton of treated lumber scraps and I wanted to see how chalk paint would work on them. I made a treated lumber scrap village because #outofideas. I painted the lumber with chalk paint and then used a paint pen to draw on the windows and doors. The chalk paint actually worked pretty good. It covered the lumber in just one coat. I did notice that it took forever to dry, but that could have been my own user error. I used this as a test for more chalk painting to come and I was pretty happy with the results. FYI, I used this brand of chalk paint, but I recently bought some other brands as well and can't wait to try them out.

Tuesday, January 05, 2016

Extensive Rehab

Tiff house story , 0 Comments

On my old blog, I wrote a post basically saying I'd have a nervous breakdown if my husband and I ever renovated a home together. Working together on a home remodel is just not our thing. Because of his background in carpentry/remodeling/construction, my husband seeks perfection in everything he builds. Because of my background in none of that, I'd rather say 'good enough' and move on to the next project. It's a perfect storm for arguments. I even dared to share a screen shot of the exact real estate listing that made me decide once and for all I was not going to renovate a home with my husband: