Check out the ‘before’ pics of one of the bathrooms in the Kay House Reno!

I’m finally sharing some new projects I’ve been working on! 

The full source list for everything in my kitchen!  I’m also talking about how everything is holding up two+ years later!

This is the last room of the 'before' pictures and it's an extra special one because I'm currently typing this in the actual room!

Here's a look at our downstairs bedroom before we began renovations...



The OSB on the floor and the baseboard heater.



Here's the view looking out at the back of the property. Another baseboard heater and the furnace pipe running up the wall through the basement.



The doors to the kitchen and the bathroom.


The ceiling fan and visible wiring. One of the things that was different about this house was all of the wiring. Since there was no drywall in some parts of the house, the wiring couldn't be buried in the walls!


The closet.

This room looks much different now and I can't wait to show you all of the 'after' photos!

These are pictures of the loft bedroom before we began renovations.


Look at that floor!  Before we purchased the home in foreclosure, the bank went ahead and removed the carpet, revealing the beautiful (but stained!) tongue and groove flooring underneath.



The closet space and the closet rod being held up by wire!

There was/is minimal drywall in this room, which is awesome because I quickly found out that drywall is one of my least favorite things to do!  I can deal with everything except the sanding part!

Here's a pic of just some of the dust the drywall generated in that room!

Honestly, this floor was clean at one time. Nothing like spending a million hours refinishing the floor to only have it covered in drywall debris!

There's so much more to show you of the finished product, but here's a fairly lengthy post about how we removed almost 30 years of dirt and put a coat of stain and polyurethane of the floors!

A tour of our dining room before renovations.

 

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


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.

Now that I've showed you our house, here are our renovation plans!


Kitchen
I absolutely love these cabinets, only because they were handmade. The lazy Susan is made out of plywood! Every cabinet was made custom for that house and while I would love to keep them in the kitchen, they have to go. We're planning on expanding the kitchen so matching up new cabinets to the existing cabinets would be really difficult. Also, the existing cabinets are in terrible shape and would need a ton of work just to be able to be used again. I also really don't like that style of cabinetry. I want to use them somewhere in the house, though! I'm trying to figure out how to keep them in the kitchen still, so I can't rule that out.


Bathroom
That tub. I've actually seen that type of tub in several cabin pictures on the Internet. I guess it's a thing for cabins? I don't like it. The plan is to replace the tub with something larger and block off the second door to create a master bath. I want a stand alone shower in there too, but we don't really think there's enough room for it. I want a rain water shower!


Living
The drop down floor. My husband immediately made plans to bring the floor back up. At first, I was against it. The drop gave dimension to the house and broke up the open floor plan. It created a cozy space that felt like it was its own room while still being open to the rest of the house. Then I almost fell in it and my ideas changed. The downstairs is going to be one level again. We could tell that the drop down floor was added later, so bringing it back up wouldn't be that difficult.


Dining
The window needs repaired because it has a huge crack in it. I want to make a window seat/nook area because that area is so cozy. New door or repair of the existing door is needed. We priced an identical door for replacement and it's over $5,000 because it's a wooden door. A vinyl sliding glass door is about $300 so it might just be the way to go.


Loft
Staining the floors. I want a new type of railing. I'm afraid our cats are going to get in between the rail and walk along the beams! The floor will be sanded and re-stained.


Loft Bedroom
I want shiplap for days in this room. My plan is to make the house look like it's 100 years old even though it's less than 30 years old. The shiplap will cover the drywall that would have needed repairs anyway. The floor in this room also needs sanded and re-stained. The reason these floors are halfway decent is because there was carpet over them. They're still pet stained, though.


Downstairs Bedroom
The plan is to make this room slightly smaller so we can squeeze in another bathroom. After living with 2 bathrooms, I don't know if we could go back to just having one bathroom. Also, shiplap for days in this room too, hopefully.


Everywhere
- New flooring. We were told that the floors were damaged by extensive pet stains so that's why there's a layer of OSB over them. Before we install new flooring, we're going to take a look underneath that OSB . Maybe we'll find some awesome wood underneath?! I'm hoping that the floor may be like the one that is upstairs. It's a long shot so we're already looking at new flooring.

- New stairs. The spiral staircase is awful. I know it's a thing in cabins, but I personally don't like it. It makes me dizzy. We're planning on building an actual staircase. - Basement Stairs. We're moving the basement stairs in order to add the new staircase.

- Plumbing repairs. As I mentioned before, the plumbing lines are busted, so they're going to need some repairs. Also, the septic is in need of repair.

- Heating. We're still going back and forth about whether to replace the furnace or go with baseboard heat.

- New roof. This is the only thing we're planning on hiring someone else to do. My husband and dad both hate heights and the roof on this house is pretty much 90 degrees, so we're leaving that one to the professionals. - The Smell. Because of the extensive pet stains, this house literally stinks!  Windows are open all day every day!

I'm not sugar coating anything here. It's going to take a lot of work to get this house back to a home again.