renovations underway

I've been bitten by the renovation bug! At first I thought we'd just make a few changes here and there, but today I said it. The tell-tale sign of someone who's gone off the deep end...

I actually uttered these words, "Yeah, I think we could knock out that wall."

What?!

So here's what we're up to in this new house of ours. The kitchen wallpaper is coming down. Have I mentioned that there's wallpaper in EVERY room of the house? Baby steps.

This is the wall that will come down. We're going to open the kitchen up to the dining room. We decided this after I removed the wallpaper. :)



The plan this week is to paint the cabinets white and the walls a soft, buttery yellow. As I was peeling the wallpaper, I noticed a huge change in the feeling of the room. It was so dark with the maroon wallpaper and dark cabinets.

My husband removed the carpet from the living room, dining room, downstairs hallway and the stairs. Here's a before shot:

This is what we found when we pulled back the carpet:

Lovely "during" shot:

After:

We had such a great day today. A couple of family members and a friend drove up from California and will stay the weekend to help us with lots of projects like pulling up all the staples from the floor, knocking out walls and painting.

And then we were abundantly blessed by new friends who brought over dinner and dined with us on the patio out back. As it got dark, all the kids took off running and they played in the field with flashlights. It was the perfect ending to such a sweet, sweet day.

I must mention one very traumatic event. I took my sister-in-law out to the shed that holds the water tank and I saw a dead rat. I almost threw up. Welcome to the country, Jenny. I'll never forget that image as long as I live. Why couldn't it have been a mouse? Yuck! I don't like mice, either, but if I had to chose one over the other, I would definitely choose mice. I can't even believe I just typed that. I wouldn't choose rodents for anything. I hate them.

So, the renovations are underway. They can be a bit stressful, no? I took the kids back to the hotel tonight while the others stayed to finish up a few things. I know they'll be longer than they said they would. I have a feeling this is what it's going to be like for awhile. I know, because I said we were only going to paint, and now I have them knocking out a wall. It's kinda fun, though, when you start to see progress. But not when you happen upon dead rats.