TEAM WILLIAMS

Team Williams can do anything they set their mind to.

Like hand-crafting this sweet shoe-rack/ end table / bench from logs we found laying around...

 

And with our helpful side kick, Bella the cat...

 

 

There is no stopping us...

 

Currently we are working on adding a 2nd bedroom to the basement, stripping wall paper in the living room, and landscaping in the yard, including putting up a new fence... pics (hopefully) will come shortly.

 

 

1930's original wood floors

I LOVE our wood floor upstairs, which is a good thing considering the months it took to finish.



Blurry picture...but best pic I could find to show
off our BEAUTIFUL wood floors

If we would have know, we probably would have put in new floors instead of refinishing the old ones.  What we figured would have been a relatively easy project:  sands, stain, and seal...turned into a nightmare.

We sanded with a hand held sander- got nowhere

We rented a professional sanding machine- barely made a dent and spent a fortune on sand paper

We used chemical stripper- finally started seeing progress

We sanded again by hand hour upon hour



Dust, Dust and more dust
Happy the project is finished
and I can keep up with
cleaning house!

 

It took 3ish hrs. to sand each board...if not more.  There are 40 something boards upstairs.  You do the math :) Every time I go upstairs I admire the floor..it was probably worth it. 



Platform Bed

When the box spring to our queen mattress wouldn't fit upstairs without knocking out the wall, it didn't take long to decide to make this  platform bed I saw on pinterest  http://www.shanty-2-chic.com/2014/08/easy-diy-platform-bed.html

The lady off the blog made her platform bed for around $55.  Jesse tore apart the box spring and used the wood inside to build a good portion of the bed so it helped keep us under that number.

Here is the finished product... (after two tries)

I sewed up the small pillow
after finding some leftover
fabric at our local thrift store

This was my first staining project and I majorly failed the first attempt. 
Note to self:  always follow directions on the back of the stain can...it knows more than I do
 
Jesse now refers to me as stain master.  I do not  quite live up to that title, but I have gotten  better and now have a fuller understanding of the ways of stain.  It is fun learning new things and as a result we are in the midst of building some pretty good looking projects.  Dare I say, we are actually starting to figure out this whole renovation thing.

 

Rock Wall, You Rock

My favorite project and favorite part of the bedroom is the ROCK WALL!  We are so happy with how it turned out and it went relatively smooth compared to the rest of the bedroom.



Laying out the dimension of the wall in the garage
 so we can cut rock to fit

The fake rock was reclaimed off of a house for a little under $3.00 a square foot.  The closet doors were bought from our favorite store, Uncle Benny's for $40. 

Look!  I'm mortaring!  Oh the skills we have learned

Making cement

We love reusing things.  It brings me joy knowing that we are keeping things away from the dumpster and saving $ while doing so. 

 

Last summer Jesse took the picture from on top
of the Tundra.  We used Grandma Schliep's love
gift to turn it into a canvas...perfect spot for it
 



Even Bella is happy with our decision

Bedroom Renovation

Jesse and I both agreed our first big project would be our basement. We wanted to add in a second bedroom and nice place for our guests.  Well, after permits got in the way, we decided to tackle our master bedroom instead and shortly start on the basement.

We envisioned it would be a quick project... yeah right. 

Here is a good rule of thumb:  When doing home renovation projects, the amount of time you think a project will take, multiply by 3.  Even then, you will be lucky if you can finish on time.

Jesse and I had a crazy thought that we could finish by Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then shot for when my sister got here in February.

Well, it took until now, but no more sleeping on the living room floor for us! :) 

BEFORE



 AFTER

 

 

 

BEFORE

 

AFTER

 

BEFORE... sort of (forgot to take a pic at the very beginning)

 





 

AFTER

 

 

It is not completely finished, but we are happy with it.  I am not sure anything in the house will ever be completely finished :) 

 

Keep reading for future blogs (hopefully soon) of how we put up the rock wall, finished the floors,  made our awesome platform bed, and insulated EVERYTHING.  It was hard work, but paid off. 

 

Now onto the basement...

 



 



The little things

 

 Sometimes it is the little things that make the biggest difference...

 

Time to take down this old, broken, dirty blind...

and walah!  How beautiful is this old door!  Why would you cover it?



For under $10 we bought a sheer curtain panel and rods to hang it up.  Not a bad price to completely change the look of our door.  I think typically the curtains hang on the inside of the door, but I decided I didn't want to cover up all the glass so hung them between the screen door on the outside...might have to wash them more often, but I am happy with the look!

 

 

UPDATE: My lack of blogging does not mean we haven't been busy.  I bought fairly low cost curtains (thank you Walmart) for the living room and kitchen (and made curtains for above the sink), we hung and reused the Hunter Douglas blinds my parents had on their old bay window and placed them in our bedroom, did some thrifting and found a "close enough" match on the blind that was missing upstairs for $3.00 vs. the $80 we were getting ready to spend. 

 

Window treatments are expensive!  With some scavenging and spending time to look for good deals what could have cost us easily over $200 plus, we did for under $100.  Yay for saving money.  

 

Honey-Do List

So I don't necessarily consider myself lazy...and Jesse is far far from being lazy, but it is crazy how much time a "simple" renovation takes.  You start on one project, only to find another one that needs taken care of as you are fixing the first problem.  Needless to say, this whole house remodeling thing is taking longer than anticipated.

Bella lending a "helping" paw working
on window treatments

I put up window curtains to show off our cool wood windows and realize how filthy the glass is on the outside and how all the trim needs to be painted.  We start to take down wall paper and it tears up all the dry wall underneath... We think putting up a few walls to separate the laundry area from the bedroom area downstairs will be fairly simple and then run into all sorts of building permit problems and are still waiting for answers. 

Regardless, it is still fun fixing up our home and are learning so much in the process!  I never realized what a handy man I married.  I am not sure if this a good or bad thing for Jesse.  Good because he has a super impressed wife.  Bad because I am going to be making a much bigger list of projects for him to complete :)

Check out my latest find at the local thrift store.  How cute are these lights for $5?!

 

Let there be light!  Of course there is a big red spot of paint showing where the last owners painted around the old fixture which now needs painted over, but who cares when you have a cool new light fixture?