Three Years!

We've been living at the Grove for three years now...well, technically three years and a week!  We moved here September 7th, 2009.  Sometimes it feels like we haven't gotten much done in the way of fixing it up because I still see all the things we want to do.  However, when I think about all the things we HAVE fixed, we actually have done quite a lot for only three years.

Here are some pictures that my sister, Becky, took on the day we moved (it actually took several trips over the course of many days to get it all, but the bulk of it was done on the 7th of September, 2009).

The Master bedroom is finally finished!

After having started renovations in March of 2010, then completely demolishing our closet and bathroom to remodel them in November of 2010, we have finally finished the last of the fixing up in our master bedroom!  The irony of it was, when we first looked at the house I remember thinking how perfect it was and how very little we'd have to do to it because the dark green color of the walls fit in perfectly with our bedroom's color scheme.  However, the first cold fall nights in 2009 made us painfully aware that we would have to do a LOT of renovating...our room was COLD!!  First, there was no heat vent, so that had to be remedied right away.  But, still, the room was bitterly cold in the winter.  After the front porch light that was right outside our North bedroom wall mysteriously quit working we had to dig into the North wall to get at the wiring.  We discovered that there was no drywall behind the paneling and the little bit of insulation that was there was sagging, cracked, and falling to pieces.  So, we began with replacing the insulation and drywall in the North wall after Jason fixed the electrical (and made it better than it was originally).  Then, we decided we really needed to start the project of making our tiny little closet bigger.  That led to tearing out the bathroom.  We also wanted to remove the huge ceiling fan/light and put in a better one -centering it in the room as we did so, which meant we needed to patch the old hole and then paint the ceiling.  So, we ended up pretty much gutting our bedroom/bathroom and renovating every square inch of it!  But, it is so much the better now.  I'm in the process of making new curtains because we added a third window to our room also.

If you would like to read my other post about the closet/bath project click HERE.

Here are some pictures, before and after:


The day we saw the house for the first time July 13, 2009.  This is the master bedroom.  See the tiny closet, carpet on the stairs, and the pocket door?

See the ceiling fan, it wasn't centered in the room and it was super low.

Here is the closet now, new carpet and fresh paint on the stairs, and a newly stained door.  I also have the new curtain up on the North window, but still have the old valance and tie backs.

Here's the bedroom entrance the day we first saw the house:

Here's our snazzy new door, which finally has stain and urethane on it!

 Removing the old ceiling fan in January 2012 and re-painting the ceiling.

Starting to get the new paint.  You can see here the new window we put in.  Jason cut a hole in the wall and we placed the window ourselves.  It is SO nice to have natural light there now.  The South wall was so dark.

Putting up trim.  We decided to go with an ivory color for the trim and baseboard since Jason didn't want it to look like a Michigan State room (he's a Michigan fan!).

Here's what the bathroom looked like the day we first saw the house:

Here is our bathroom now:

Now, we're moving back to working on the kitchen!  YAY!!

Fireplace Grate

The other day, we were at TSC to buy dog food and we came across a small fireplace grate.  Turns out, it fits perfectly in the opening of our faux fireplace/entertainment center!  It was just what we were wanting, and now the "fireplace" is complete!

More fireplace pictures

I was downloading pictures off of the camera and discovered I had previously missed some of the fireplace being built.  I'll post them here.

Fireplace

When I was a little girl, my best friend's parents had a fireplace.  I'm not sure if it was functional, because they had faux firewood that would "crackle" and "burn" when you turned the switch.  I always enjoyed it, and thought it was so neat to have a fireplace as the "heart" of the living room.  I've always thought a fireplace would be fun, romantic, and neat to have. 

When we moved to The Grove, we saw the way the living room was arranged created an almost unusable corner. 

The corner was small, and there was a heat vent right in the corner.  This became where we put our TV, but it was difficult to work around the heat vent.  So, in my mind, I designed an entertainment center that would hold the TV, DVDs/Blurays, incorporate the heat vent, and also fulfill my long desire to have a fireplace.  This year with our tax return we decided it was time to replace our nearly 9-year old TV (which was on its last legs) with a flat screen.  We also decided that was the time to also build the entertainment center I had dreamed up.  Yesterday, we finally finished it!  Here are some progress images followed by two of the fireplace/entertainment center completed.