The Saga of the Disappearing Walls…Part 1

I am a big fan of the open concept – unfortunately my house was built 35 years ago – before that was the style.

We have done or had done a few things that have dramatically opened up our main living areas including the living room, dining room and now the kitchen.

Before we even moved in – we took out a partial wall that leads to our front door from the living room. This was of course, before I started blogging – so no before pictures. This is the best I could do with the computer programs I have…

It really did open up the space. That was done 8 years ago and I still love it. We left as much of the wall in because there are light switches near the front door and this was a relatively easy fix that didn’t require any electrical work. There is still a distinct entry way but it feels and looks more spacious. Now people don’t have to travel down a dark hallway before entering our home!

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Laying the Ground Work

I was looking through some old pictures on my computer and came across a few that made me think – wow, we have come a long way from where we were!

The thing about buying a farm is that the house is way at the bottom of the list of what matters. It is the location, outbuildings and facilities for livestock that matter the most! Having said that, I really can’t complain. The house is a 35 year old ranch style house, so it is somewhat modern for a farm house and has good structure.

Here are some of the major changes we did with the existing flooring.

Look at that lovely vinyl! It wasn’t the original but close to it! I just remember how hard it was to clean. It had dips and grooves that you had to get down on your hands and knees with a scrub brush to get clean. Not that it ever really looked that clean with the dingy yellow color it was! This was in the kitchen, the back hallway, laundry room and back bathroom.

I couldn’t find a picture with the carpet that was in the dining room when we moved in. The previous owners had put in a light beige carpet – it wasn’t really a bad color or anything. Just not ideal with small children!  This is actually the plywood subfloor that I painted to look like tile. It really turned out well and the ketchup that 2 little kids spilled on it cleaned up much easier than carpet! The 2 years that we had it painted were about the limit for what clean up the paint could take. Even with several top coats of poly it was starting to chip. It probably didn’t help that, at the time we had roller chairs!

Please ignore my pathetic, spindly tree! Prior to blogging I really only took pictures at holidays and birthdays apparently!

This pictures shows where the old vinyl meets the painted plywood floor. The colors really didn’t mesh very well, did they?!?!?!

About 4 years ago we replaced all the vinyl and the painted plywood-previously-carpet areas in the kitchen, dining room, back hallway, utility/laundry room and bathroom. This was a large undertaking, requiring moving the washer and dryer, chest-style deep freezer, toilet, dishwasher, refrigerator and stove. We took off all the trim and tore up all the old vinyl – both layers plus the underlayment. It took days to pull out all the staples! Then we spent 3 days eating either in the living room or the basement.

It was totally worth it and is so much more functional – easy to clean and a more neutral color. The new flooring really opened up the area, making it feel much larger, when it was all the same through out the kitchen and dining area. The bottom of the next  picture is where the old “seam” between the kitchen and dining area was.

I also added a bench and small island to the kitchen since the first picture.

This is looking from the kitchen into the dining room.

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One of the biggest things I disliked about this house from the moment we moved in was the royal blue carpeting that was in the living room and front entry and down the hallway. As you can tell in the picture – every little speck  or piece of lint shows on it. And imagine trying to decorate around this color – not fun! The only reason it wasn’t the first thing to go was because I wanted to remove the wall between our dining and living rooms and didn’t want to replace the flooring until that happened.

This was taken at Christmas time a few years ago. It wasn’t until this past November, that we finally replaced it. The previous April the wall had rather unexpectedly come down. Not that it fell down – just that my husband gave the go-ahead when we were having the bathroom remodeled to take it out – YIPPEE!!!!

A Christmas picture from the past – ignore the presents all over the place!

And the new flooring installed – what a difference!

I couldn’t find pictures of the old flooring in the bathroom before the remodel, but I really like the vinyl we installed in there also. It hides a lot! You can see pictures of that here.

Here are the dramatic side by sides!

KITCHEN

DINING ROOM

and the LIVING ROOM

These changes alone have made a HUGE improvement in our home. It definitely makes it easier to make more superficial changes.

the Creative Collage

Bathroom Remodel

Last April we were able to remodel our main bathroom. Our house has 1 1/2 baths so this is the bathroom that everyone uses to take showers, brush their teeth, do their hair (only me!) So, when we had to go without this bathroom for a month, it was rather, uhhh, inconvenient!

But it was worth it! I love the bathroom now. I am not great with the actual finishing decorating touches. Maybe you guys can give me some suggestions for things to put on the counter and walls!

The worst part of this “reveal” is that I don’t have any before pictures. I guess I didn’t want to remember how it looked!!

The bathroom is quite narrow and long and when the house was built and moved on the farm – 35 years ago (before my time!) the design featured a closet for the washer and dryer in this bathroom. The owners at that time had built the western part of the house (the kitchen, utility room, back hall and back 1/2 bath) and just added the prebuilt and moved portion to it. Since they already had a utility room with a washer and dryer they didn’t need the closet.

Since the closet wasn’t being used for laundry they added some shelving. Not a bad set up but since the closet was in the corner and came up to the door, the light switch was in the hallway instead of in the bathroom.

If anyone has kids – they KNOW what a temptation it is to turn the light off while Mom is in the shower! And of course, there wasn’t a lot I could do about it at the time if Dad wasn’t home!

The closet did not have a light in it and was deep enough that things tended to get lost in the back. We lived with it for 6 years.

Then we started having problems with the tub leaking. Sooooo, if we needed to get a new shower – why not do the whole bathroom – Yeah!

We actually bumped out the wall that the shower is in by about 10 inches so that we could fit a standard tub shower in. They had a very narrow shower before. We tore out the old vanity and huge medicine cabinet. We were able to sell both of those on Craigslist for $100. Better than the landfill!

We tore out the closet and all the shelving in it and even moved the toilet away from the wall in the corner to a standard distance. Before it was a little bit of a squeeze! No elbow room.

So – on with the pictures – sorry to make you wait so long!

This is the view when you first look into the bathroom. The window with the light makes the pictures a little dicey – sorry!

We replaced the closet/vanity with a new vanity that steps up and a tall linen closet.

We put 2 light bars – one above the sink and one above the higher counter. I use this counter for doing my hair and makeup.

I bought a hand towel holder to set on the counter but it didn’t work out real well, so for now, we are using a barnwood frame hung from above the mirror to hold our hand towel. I made it using palette boards and Ana White’s instructions.

I love the furniture feel with the feet and the overlay door and simple handles. I do need to find a rug, but I haven’t come across anything I love yet!

Here you can see that the light switch is now IN the bathroom – no more dark showers!!! I also love the crown molding on the linen cupboard. Not sure why I’m calling it that. The towel aren’t even stored in there!?!

Here are some of my favorite things about this built in – laundry hamper. The bags are fabric mesh and can easily be pulled out and taken to the laundry room – without sorting!!! Well, mostly. Sometimes, little boys seem to have a problem telling whites apart from blue jeans and shirts!

This drawer is “Mom’s” drawer. It holds my electronic hair equipment a.k.a. blower dryer, curler and curling irons!  But the best part is….

There is a power strip in the back of the drawer – so I can just flip the switch, put my stuff on the counter right next to it and when I’m finished, turn it off and throw everything back in the drawer. No clutter is left on the counter. I put a large metal pan in the drawer so that is the curling irons are warm yet, they don’t burn anything else. I am so glad we designed this cabinet!!!! It helps that my BIL is a carpenter, so he went with my odd suggestions! I have to work on a better system for the cords – every once in awhile I have to untangle. Any ideas?

The doors above the “electronic” drawer house all of our cleaners, soaps, bandaids, and I added a couple drawers for some of the smaller items on the top shelves. It works out really nice.

The very top 2 shelves hold things like toilet paper, medicine, and Kleenexes. I put them in crates to make it easier for me to get to them. I am only 5’5″ so I’m a little vertically challenged.

I needed a vertical system for all of our towels so I went with an old ladder I got from my mom.  I cut it off, sanded it down somewhat and put about 10 coats of a rub on poly. I really like the rustic look along with the modern sleek lines of the cabinetry.

Then I also made these shutters out of the pallette boards and my husband helped me hang them. He was a little skeptical, but he really likes the look and they work! I didn’t have anything on the windows for a couple months. And even though we live in the country – I wasn’t comfortable stepping out the shower with a bare window! I like how they turned out and no more flashing anyone out the window.

I made the shower curtain out of leftover material that I had and then bought some hand towels and added matching trim. Wish I could same the same for the large towels hanging on the ladder. Sometimes we have Lion King and Nemo!

One more shot of the shutters closed. The basket on the toilet was a thrift store find that I painted a dark brown. It holds the tissues and a couple extra rolls of toilet paper.

I was really nervous about doing this remodel because I knew that it would probably not be changed as long as I live here – which will be until we retire – if then! So I didn’t want to make any mistakes. And it isn’t perfect, but I am really happy with it so that is what counts!

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