Remodel

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A couple days ago I gave you a look at the home we purchased 7 years ago. Today, I have the after pictures from the remodeling we have done over the years. It's so fun to see the differences.

We took out the carpet on the patio, made a ton of repairs and repainted the exterior.

Both bathrooms got completely redone. New flooring, even a new actual base floor in this bathroom. New toilets, showers and sink/vanities. The only thing that stayed is a tub in the 2nd bathroom (not pictured here).

The dining room lost the built in China Hutch, Got new wood laminate floors. New paint and a new chandelier.

Just like the bathrooms, the kitchen was gutted. Jail posts and Denny's bar was removed. Drywall put up instead of the paneling. New amazing Stainless Steel counter top was put in because I said I wanted something like the tables at Chipotle. All new cabinets, new counter tops and appliances.

This is the other end of the dining room but you get the idea. New paint, new floors throughout. New Dual Pane windows...and a crap ton of wood work.

The two pre-existing bedrooms got face lifts with new paint, carpet and windows.

Lastly, we added this third bedroom.

Little bit of a difference, huh? So fun going down memory lane. We will be sad to leave this place but are looking forward to what the future holds.

Our House before it was Home

Tomorrow we meet with a realtor to list our current home and buy a new one. With four kids...and hopefully more foster children to come, we need more space and a yard. Oh, how we need a yard.

I thought it would be fun to take a look back at the dump we turned into a home. I am not being harsh people. Just wait.

About 7 years ago, we decided to buy a mobile home as an investment to one day use towards a down payment. In order to make more money and stay in budget (the very small one we had), we bought a dump that was in a really nice park. My dad is an amazing woodworker and dabbles in pretty much anything that would need to be done and agreed to do the work at cost. He's awesome, right? On top of my dad, I have a super handy husband who was able to do a lot of the stuff on his own when he wasn't at work. My brother and uncle also came and helped out with the bigger projects.

All this to say, we looked at this clunker of a mobile home and knew that we could make it work on a tight budget.

Today, let's look at the before pictures. Later this week, after we do the photos to list, I will share those as the afters. The afters of the work and also, it's been lived in for about 6.5 years.

Okay, who's ready for a crazy flash back?

Welcome. We joked that the poor birdhouse was an miniature of the broken down house inside.

 Let's dive right in with a look at the bathrooms. These were the first to be fixed up. We wouldn't shower or use the restroom here until they were. The toilet in this bathroom would sink into the floor if you tried anyway. So much water damage. The stuff in the shower? Parting gifts from the previous owners, I guess.

 The kitchen and dining room are the biggest transformations in my opinion. I felt like I was in jail in there and the Denny's breakfast corner...well that could have been cool if it wasn't crammed in there.

The bedrooms and living rooms had black paper covering all windows and mirrors before we took these photos. One of the brothers (it was being occupied by the deceased owners adult sons), didn't like to see his reflection so it was all covered. Many of the flooring had to be replaced due to water damage from indoor plants.

All in all, it was a mess. Cannot wait to show you our after photos.

See the After Photos Here.

Living Room Transformation

The definition of Living Room, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is:

living room: noun

: a room in a house for general family use

:  a room in a residence used for the common social activities of the occupants

According to this definition, to our family, Living Room is simply translated as Play Room. So as soon as our kids came along, that is what it became. I never really took the time to transition it to that though. We kind of just let the "play" take over the space. 

This year for Christmas, we made the kids a few things and turned the space into an actual play room. Hubby and I had so much fun working together and making it a space that the whole family would enjoy. 

We painted a chalkboard accent wall. I change out the little sayings about once a week. The kids are allowed to draw all over it too.

Bookshelf was $20 at an estate sale, we covered the wood in white paint and painted the hardware black.

Steven made Rhiannon's dress up storage with very specific directions from his very picky wife. Sorry babe...

Both the toy and art storage were found on the curb for FREE. The toy storage is an old top of a hutch that we painted with my favorite spray paint. We filled them both with IKEA bins. On top of toy storage is a ball bin (Hobby Lobby) and a suitcase (Land of Nod) that holds baby toys.

Play table. Yup, another free item, found on a street corner with a free sign. This one took some scrubbing but it works. And as I mentioned, Free.

The fabulous couch and chair were a yard sale find...they found us really when we went to visit my sweet friend Natalie at a yard sale she was having. The family rules sign that hangs above is Hobby Lobby.

Steven and I teamed up and made a giant teepee. It is about 5ft x 5ft of fun. The kids love it and we had a blast making it. A little birdie told me that if you e-mail VesselHandmade@gmail.com, there will be two custom order spots available at a time. And they are only $150 for this size + shipping (or you can pick it up). The rug was IKEA. The bean bag and poufs were Target clearance, along with the lantern garland hanging above.

I am so happy with the overall look of the room. It was so important to me to make this room be a spot I liked to look at, it is where we do life. 

Where do you spend most of your time? What is your favorite room in your home?

Linking up with Shabby Nest and 504 Main

Managing our Home

Lately I have been criticized a lot for being so busy. As one person put it "You really glorify busyness." The little comments have been like daggers. They hurt for a lot of reasons. One, I am not all that busy. Two, even if I was, what would I cut out? And more than anything I don't have "busy work", everything in our lives is called by God. Everything we do is part of the path we feel He has placed us upon.

When I look at our lives, I don't see busy. I see blessings, I see provision, I see the love that our Father has poured out upon us.

Majority of our are days taken up by me playing with the kids. We spend hours on the floor laughing and having fun. We make time for playdates and rarely have to tell anyone we are too busy to come over and play.

When I was done being angry and offended I realized that it wasn't people judging me. From the outside I do seem like I am too busy. That I wouldn't have enough time for what is important.
So I want to show you how I manage my time. Maybe it can help some of the other "busy moms" out there.

Let the construction begin...Again.

About 4 years ago we moved into our home. We purchase a dump of a manufactured home aka Mobile home. People who have been to my home get upset when I tease about  the mobile home we live in because it really is gorgeous. But all joking aside, we purchased a dump. We knew we did. We had a very small dollar amount to work with but knew we wanted to own something. We had been burned so many times renting that we were fed up.

So we found this place. A very nice mobile home park. A park that only recently became open to anyone. It used to be a senior only park. We loved that. It meant a quiet neighborhood with friendly neighbors. We looked through the park. Found some beautiful homes. All out of our price range. And then we found this one. It was not beautiful. Not at all. Upon finding this place, my hubby and his parents (who were looking with us) saw it and were ready to run. I saw potential.

Although I didn't want to buy a mobile home, which is a whole other story, I figured, if we were going to go for it, we could make this place work. Between my hubby who is an amazing handy man, as well as, my dad and brother who do it for a living, I just knew we could make it work. We brought my dad to take a look, assess it and see if it was doable on our humble budget. He too was shocked that his daughter would even consider this place but he thought we could make it happen with LOTS of work. Inside and out!

Did we really buy this place?

We purchased out home in December of 2007 and our journey began. We had to redo the whole home. Replace floors, everything in the bathrooms, windows, paint, cabinets, anything and everything. Looking around, the only things that remains is the walls, fireplace and one unused bathtub. The transformation is ridiculous. Seriously mind blowing. Look. I think I may have been crazy.

BEFORE

Livingroom

Kitchen and Dining Room

Bathrooms

AFTER

Kitchen and Bedrooms

Formal Living Room and Family Room

When we bought this home, we had only been married a couple of years. We had no kids. (We found out shortly after buying that I was pregnant with Rhi). We were a family of two with plans of selling the home 5 years after buying, to make a small profit, a down payment for our first house.

Today, we have two toddlers. We are about to begin our adventure with foster care to adopt. Our family is growing. Our lives are changing. Although we still plan to make a small profit on it eventually, we don't see ourselves moving too soon. So, it is time to take this ol' place on another journey with us. I am so excited for the new transformation.

Stressed, nervous but SO excited. I cannot wait to share all the changes with you. I think that is why I wanted to share the originals with you. To give you the background. I mean I can't show you where we are going without showing you where we came from right?

Sooo... I hope you will follow along with us as we change our home and everything that happens in it!

Inspiration Workshop - Front Porch

A few weeks, err, cough months ago, I told you all I was going to start linking up over at Gussy Sews for her amazingness that is the Inspiration workshop. I did all of one post and then life happened and I got way side-tracked.

Well, this week I'm back and super inspired. This weeks prompt is The Front Porch. When I read this prompt, I instantly flashbacked to my childhood.

As kids, my siblings and I spend the weekend at grandma and grandpa's every month or so. Everytime we would stay there we would have breakfast on the patio. So much fun and such a fond memory. One that I would love to recreate.

First I need a nice space. Right now we have a mess of a front porch. It is pretty spacious but is covered with toys and a few lounge chairs. There are plenty of memories made, just not pretty ones. Ha!

I would love to put something like this out there. You know to inspire lots of breakfasts and morning memories.

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I would LIVE on my porch if it looked like this.

A porch like this would need a meal worthy of serving in such a fun and happy place. If I served up something like this, would you come have breakfast with me?

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These spaces and decor bring joy. I need to put some work into my patio. Soon!