Our Rallying Cry.. the reason we can renovate NOW!

Over labor day, instead of living it up by the pool, we moved out of our house into a rental down the street.

 

Why? Because instead of building a house, we decided a while back to just renovate the house and make it the home that we want and need. Our location is ideal and the house is great. It just wasn't OUR house... it was my parent's home.  That's one of those weird things that I never thought about until living in the house I grew up in as an adult and parent!

So, while the start of the school year is the absolute worst time of the year to start a home renovation, we are doing it. I really started back in the summer with the girls rooms and have been slowly building to the level of insanity we are at now.

But we are surviving. Primarily cause we are good at living in chaos. ;) But more than that, we are surviving because we have a plan and a rallying cry!

A what? 

A RALLYING CRY!!!

Doug brought home the book The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family by Patrick Lencioni

This book was the difference maker. I read it in one sitting and then ran out to staples and bought our white board!

Doug and I bounced ideas back a forth a couple of days and ended up with this as our family board.

It was a great experience and really got us on the same page so that we could move forward together. I often feel like while we are on the same path and absolutely on the same journey, we are often taking turns leading and following, rarely walking side by side.. hand in hand.  And maybe that is exactly what we are supposed to be doing within the the give and take of a relationship, but I truly enjoyed hashing out our family rallying cry with Doug!

With "Make the House Our OWN" as a rallying cry, it was easier to walk into the insanity of packing our entire house and moving us four houses down the street for 4-6 weeks. I want to see our plans and dreams fulfilled. And how do we know that we are on track? Well, the defining objectives are things that we want to accomplish along the way. 

The kid's rooms are done: CHECK! 
Because the moving out to renovate we used this as a chance to simplify and sort for a garage sale. So CHECK and CHECK!!

The only piece that we are struggling with right now is the Plan the Week objective. That will get better, but it is hard to plan the week and prep meals in the middle of the start of school and moving!

And since I am sure you are wondering, the Standard Objectives are things we want to do or continue no matter the goal or rallying cry. These are the things that we value as a family and don't want to neglect.

Tuesday morning the renovation started.

It's going to be very different. I'm not sure yet if that is good or bad...

but it will be OUR home.

So I guess mid October we will be looking for a new rallying cry. Hopefully this next one won't involve a move!

Whatever it takes to give an old bathroom a new life.

Whatever it takes to give an old, outdated bathroom new life... or it could be called...

 

Whatever it takes (okay within reason..) to get this dadgum house to sell!!

 

This week, our realtor suggested that we really consider painting the bathroom.

 

I've thought about it at least a jillion times over the last 8 years. But, to do it, you have to have a couple of days for the labor and then the smell is sooooo soooo bad, you have to be out of the house for I would guess a week!! And you have to be able to let the stuff cure.

 

So, since we no longer live in the house...today was d-day.

 

Consider this to be tutorial should you ever want to take on a project like this.

 

1. clean. This isn't a quick clean, this is a full out, scrubbing every inch clean.  Get your comet and a scouring pad and scrub every surface that you are planning to paint. Rinse. Clean with lime-a-way. Rinse. Dry.

 

2. Using 400 grit sandpaper, go over every surface.

 

3. Wipe everything off.

 

4. Get a tack cloth and wipe down all of the surfaces. This gets rid of all of the last of the residue. It also leaves your hand nice and sticky. great.

 

5. This brings you to this step... see the pictures below. a completely clean ugly bathroom.

 



This took an hour.

At this point, I highly suggest deciding that your bathroom doesn't really look that bad and that if you only got new bath towels, everything would be much better.

If that doesn't work. Prepare the epoxy.

Note... once you have activated your base you have a six hour window in which to use the quart. It's just a quart, but my is it an expensive quart, so you don't want to waste it!!

 

6. Using your brand new 1 1/2 or 2 inch tapered paint brush (don't buy the cheapest one, but don't spend much either!) start painting the grout lines. Don't forget to "feather" your lines a couple of seconds after you paint them.. you don't want heavy paint edges that you have to try to cover later!

 

7. Take a break. Actually it's gonna stink so bad that you will know when 5 minutes are up because you will be light headed or dizzy or something... the instructions say paint for 5 minutes and then go outside for fresh air for 5 minutes. THEY ARE NOT KIDDING!! I actually used my timer on my phone and set it for 5 minutes. Painting this way takes FOREVER. But better to be safe than woozy!

 

8. After a couple of hours of painting the grout lines, go back and using either a little foam roller or your brush, fill in the tiles. I liked the foam roller, but the paint is thin... so it drips. bummer. However, in the end, I used the brush more, because I liked painting a little heavier with the brush.

 

9. Paint the tub.

 

10. Paint the sink.

 

11. Close your can of paint. Put your paint brush in a ziploc bag. zip it up and put it in the refrigerator. (okay, I don't know that I would do this if the fridge had food in it. Yeah, I would, but I'd double bag the ziploc..) Now, go away from the house. Like at least a block away.  Sidenote: When I pulled up into the driveway I could smell the epoxy!!

 

12. After at least an hour, come back and start everything again.

 

After more than 6 hours of painting, I used every drop of the quart of paint. I have 2 coats on a lot of the tile, and 1 coat on some. Tomorrow morning, I'll start again. ugh.

 

But for now, I'll leave you with the in progress pictures!!

 

Yeah. It's worth it. Dadgum. I sure wish I could have done this 8 years ago!

(oh.. and on the off chance you were not feeling sorry or at least a little sympathetic towards me for having to spend a GORGEOUS Saturday locked in the bathroom smelling epoxy fumes... I did this after getting up at 4:30am and running 15 miles.) 

I'd like a rockstar sticker now.

Thanks.

Hall Bathroom Remodel

With a Sunday at home with sick kids and a Monday off, I knew that it was time to get one of my new house to-do list items checked off.

 

And so, Sunday I painted the hall bathroom. All day. It's amazing how long it takes to cover a few partial walls. One of the reasons it took so long was that the walls have a heavy texture that I had to really coat.

 

 

(side note: hey man, I gotta say... my legs look long and skinny. what? cool. Thanks Doug!! You are the new resident photographer! and yes, I am wearing my house shoes....)

 

On Monday morning, I took the doors out to th enclosed patio and painted them in very short, very cold bursts. The doors took 3 or 4 coats a piece to look decent and probably could have taken another to look really nice.

 

 

And here is the partially finished project. I still have to get the doors on the cabinets, make the curtain(currently its a sheet hanging on the rod..) and get some artwork. But I am thrilled with how bright and fresh the bathroom feels.

 

Now if I could just get the girls to keep it clean!

Moaning Monday.. are pregnant people really supposed to remodel houses?

So for the last week or so I have spent every waking moment outside of the workday working on our house. It is begining to look incredible, I must say. But the cost is my feet, my back, my hands and my exhaustion.

It's all my fault, I am very aware. Doug (my husband) would have never dreamt up finishing off our to do list on this house and trying to sell it and buy a new one before baby comes in August. But me, yeah.. we bought a new house while I was pregnant and Doug practically gutted the thing and made it a show place before Maddie was born. That was almost 9 years ago. I still remember the aches and pains from removing staple after staple from carpet so that our hardwood floors could be refinished.

Move foward about 5 years and we moved to a new town and bought a house. We only did the painting then.. for I was pregnant with Lexi. Over the last few years we have just almost completely remodeled this house. But here we are with baby #3 coming in just a few short months and something in me says MOVE!!! So, that's what we are working on.

Tonight I am posting between cleanings of the brand new tile floor in the den. My dad spent a good bit of the last few days over here installing the new tile floors with Doug and now I am doing the clean up, buffing and final mopping. Man, this is hard work :) But the result is so worth it!!

Thanks for letting me moan and I can't wait to post pictures of our house!