Welcome Home: Renovation Week One
We made it! Last Monday we arrived in our new home town and what a week it has been! A whirlwind of scraping, painting, daily trips to Lowe's, and visits with family and friends; gone by in a blink. We are already exhausted! This new old house of ours is in rough shape, and we certainly have one big project on our hands. Tuesday morning was my very first time actually stepping foot inside and it was overwhelming to say the least. An avalanche of mixed emotions poured out of me as I walked around and saw it all for the first time with my own eyes - giddy terror. Thrilled to actually finally be inside after months of planning based only on photos, intimidated by the amount of work staring me in the face, worried about whether or not we can actually get it all done ourselves and how much it will cost, excited to get started, and confused about where exactly to start. Two inexperienced city folk standing in this hundred year old farm house, looking teary-eyed at each other and giggling, "well, what do you think?" My mind was racing with so many possibilities and I was nauseated, nervous and pumped!
We decided to begin in the bedrooms, that way we can at least get our bed moved into the one room and actually start living in our new house as soon as possible. Luckily, we have an incredible support system of family and friends here, so we have a place to stay while all of this work is happening - Adam's Mom is taking good care of us, and also very kindly pitching in on her days off. We are very cozy in our temporary home, but it really won't feel completely real until we start unpacking our things and living with them in this new house, and we cannot wait to get to that point.
Renovation day one was nearly eight straight hours of the three of us sanding windows and baseboards and priming the two bedrooms. We thought we might get some color on the walls on the second day, but that too ended up being a full day of prep work. Filling in holes, patching cracks in the walls, sealing the gaps around windows and baseboards, and more priming. By the end of day two, my hands were aching from using the caulking gun for so long, and my fingertips felt like sand paper. The house was already transforming with just one coat of primer cleaning up all surfaces!! (notice the color difference in the photos below and how old and yellowing the walls were before)
We received our reward on day three when we were able to get some color on the walls. We are so thrilled and patting ourselves on the back about our genius color choices. Our color palette is warm and earthy, to balance out the brightly colored paintings and decorations we are sure to fill the house with. I cannot wait to get our things unpacked and start cozying up the space!!
We gave ourselves the weekend off to spend time with friends and family and get some much needed and well deserved rest. Tomorrow we will hit the ground running, touching up the paint with a second coat in the bedrooms, tackling the closet and getting started on removing the popcorn ceilings in the living room and bathroom. So far we've been working on the easy rooms; this week is going to be full of scary projects, but it is also going to show the greatest change in the house and I cannot wait to get back to it!!