Home Sweet Home

It's hard to believe it's been almost a month since we've moved in!  I've been meaning to put up new pics, but it's harder to take time to write a blog when you're surrounded by chaos, messiness, and a never ending to do list.  It has taken me several hours over the past two nights and lots of trips to the kids' candy jar, but I've finally taken the time to do it.  (please ignore any typos.  I was too tired to go back and re-read it).  There is still lots to do around the house, but at least it is finally starting to look like a home.  Good news is we got the ancient fireplace insert to blow hot air Saturday night so it was much more comfortable around here...at least in the living room area.  Hopefully we will be able to get our hvac in the next week or two. 

We haven't had a chance to hook up all our speakers and such so there is just a big pile of equipment and wires to the right of the fireplace.



First I'll post some of our more recent pictures of the house.  I hesitated to even post some of these since the house isn't near finished, clean or staged, but enough people having been asking -some begging- :) for pictures that I'll just post where we are at now.   Disclaimers (I can't help myself): I took several of these tonight so the quality and lighting is bad.  We haven't had a chance to update/install any of our new light fixtures/ceiling fans.   I have not taken the time to decorate.  If you see pictures or decorations out its because they have just been removed from a box and placed in the best place I knew where to put them for now.  Plus you will still see boxes in several rooms.  We are downsizing on closet and storage space so I don't have places to put everything yet.  We are having to get creative!  :) 

A sweet friend gave us her sectional couch since it didn't fit in their new place.  I still need to recover our ottoman to go with the room.

LOVE all the built in book shelves!  Most of our books have been in boxes since the Mason was born and our office turned into a baby room 

Master closet.  This is after we got rid of a lot of things, packed up off season clothes, moved dressier clothes to A's closet, and moved most of our shoes to the laundry room/mudroom.

This will be our extra office/craft room/reading room.  We have a desk, crafts, sewing stuff, kid books, puzzles etc.  This room still needs some organizational help.  You cant see it but there are a lot of boxes on the other size of the love seat.

It's been a bit of an adjustment not having a bathroom right off the master - we have to go through two rooms to get to it-  but I'm getting use to it.  The boys bathroom isn't done so we are all sharing this one.  I'll be ready to give them the boot! 

 

 

 

Here's part of the boys bathroom.  We are SOO over tiling!!  We will do some and then not touch it for a several days because it's so time consuming.

 Here's our sweet little boys sleeping in bed.  They have been doing pretty good down there as far as not being scared.  They will stay up late giggling, sneaking out of bed, etc late into the night.  Usually the next night they are tired so they fall asleep earlier the next.  We are still in the cycle, but I feel like the silliness doesn't last quite as long.

 I had told Zac before we move in I want a new more secure exterior door down here.  Well that is going to be tricky since the door is smaller and not even an exact rectangle.  So for now we keep a sheet over the window and box full of their bathroom stuff in front of it.  At least Zac did put weather stripping on it this past weekend so you don't see the outdoors along the sides of it. 

 Kitchen still needs a backsplash and some dry wall mudding work around the fridge - can't tell from this pic.  I also plan to put a dark glaze on the upper cabinets.  The uppers were original.  We just had our great cabinet maker from church make the doors to match as well as remove one self about the stove to make room for our microwave. 

Here is the eat in nook.  The legs of the table were literally built into the floor so they weren't going anywhere.  We are removing the top and replacing it with butcher block.  I got the old chairs off craigslist - Patty and I recovered them this weekend with burlap coffee bean bags.  We are also going to get a bench for the back right section of the table. 

The wood paneling/wainscoting along the back wall was removed from our entryway ceiling - it was way to low there.

Next I thought I'd share some of the not so glamorous parts of the reno.  It has a little rough moving into an un-finished house reno.  When we moved in we had one toilet and a bathroom sink, but no tub/shower or hot water.  We got kitchen cabinets and sink after a several days, and we got our shower about 10 days after we moved in.  It wasn't ideal, but who really needs to shower everyday?  Some of our good friends only live 5 minutes away so we crashed their shower every couple days.  The other thing that sucked was that our washing machine broke the day before we moved and wasn't fixed till after two weeks of moving in.  Some friends who let us do laundry at their house, but we just couldn't keep up with the mounds of dirty laundry that kept piling.  Plus it didn't help that when it broke I had about 3-4 loads of laundry that I planned on doing right before the move.

 

So my family moved to the country when I was in 5th grade.  My parents have a huge garden, bees, chickens, fruit trees, and lots of pretty land.  But with country life also comes lots of dust, bugs, spiders an occasional mouse.  You would think I would be ok with the latter list, but I guess I have lived in city life long enough now that it has been an adjustment.  I'm happy to say that I am learning to go with the flow!  Plus I had a bug guy come out and spray the inside and outside of our house like crazy.  :)   I still dread the day that we will probably get a mouse (come spring we will be getting a cat pronto).  We haven't seen any live ones yet, but when we were cleaning the place out there were some dead ones as well as mouse poop in a couple rooms.  Not to mention the dead squirrel that was in the basement.  Eww! 

So most that know me know I like a pretty clean organized house - it's not as organized with toddlers, but I've just accepted that.  :)  Anyway, I am again stretching my personality by living with things that one year ago I would not have been cool with.  Thought I'd share some...

The hole in our bedroom wall houses to electrical boxes that send wires to the exterior part of our house.  The problem is that there is a hole where the wires leave.  So when you look out the hole you can see the light from the outside.  Didn't get that recovered till we had been here almost 3 weeks.  Needless to say our room was a little drafty especially the first week we were hear and the night time temps were in the forties.

In our kitchen when we removed the old backsplash we noticed a 1-2 inch opening that extended all the way across our kitchen window. (The pic below shows a pic of it from afar)  When you look inside you can see an old wasp nest and cobwebs.  Plus you can feel a draft coming from there.  That didn't get filled with foam till Friday. 

This was a pic of our kitchen from about a week ago.  Now we have cabinet doors and part of the backsplash done

The creepy cellar.  I am stoked about having a cellar for great extra storage for all our future garden stuff and produce, but ours just creeps me out right now.

After months of not stepping foot inside I finally braved it because I didn't like the idea of moving in with a room full of mouse poop and 80 years of nastiness right next to the boys' room.

So I told Zac that I didn't want to move in till: 1. the huge hole from the cellar to the crawl space was sealed off - I envisioned mice, spiders, and snakes in the crawl space.  Well that didn't happen till we were there about a week.  2.  That the door that lead into the house (from the cellar to the basement) was sealed and locked to keep out the musty smells and spiders.  That didn't happen till almost 2 weeks in.  Which is partly why I had the boys sleep on the floor in our room the first week.  3.  The wood shelves removed and a thorough cleaning down there to again help with musty smells.  Zac removed the shelves this weekend, but still no deep cleaning yet. 

Here is the creepy cellar door. We actually used the old master closet door since what they originally had was nasty.  Obviously it still needs a lot of work but at least it's contained.

 

I took this pic Friday and am happy to say that the pile of trash is now gone and a new roof has been installed

The siding on the back of our house was rotten so we ripped it off and nailed up some black plastic till we were able to get the siding back on.  Plastic is still there blowing in the wind looking all white trash.  Hoping we find someone to come and do some siding for us since Zac's to do list is still pretty long.

 

I am looking forward to the laundry room, but there are days where I about go crazy stepping in there.  First of all we have tons of boxes and junk in there right now.  We are getting shelves built since it will also be our pantry area, but for now lots of our stuff is just in boxes. 

 

I haven't had a chance to paint the wood wall to the left so it still has that musty old people smell.  Although I think we may just put bead board over it since it's in pretty bad shape.  Oh and yes that is a crack under the door.  Need to install the new threshold.  :)

There is still lots of work to do - I'm dreading all the painting (my job) of all the doors, windows, baseboard, and trim. It will take me weeks to get it all done.  However I am thankful that it is finally starting to look like our home.
I know this is such a long post, but I was going to end with some pretty pictures of the trees around the house.  All the fall colors are gorgeous out here.

Notice the gorgeous trees and new driveway - not the pile of trash and dirty walls.  Thankfully we got our driveway done for a fraction of the cost of going through a company.  Some guys that work for a company during the week came out and did it on their own time over the weekend for half what it would have cost.
 

We are so thankful for all the friends and family who have helped us!  There have been sooo many!  We would be in pretty bad shape without their help.  We had people help us work on the house, watch the boys, give us great contacts, borrow tools, and we even had around 15 guys come out to help us move all our junk.  We are so thankful for your love and support during this crazy time!  Can't wait till we can have a big get together out here.  I'm thinking a bonfire will be a must.



House update

We still have no regrets doing the reno, but it's taking a toll on the family!  Now I know why I said I would never renovate a home with toddlers...it's exhausting.   Everything is taking much longer than we expected.  Since we are doing this on a tight budget we didn't hire a general contractor.  I'm doing most of the planning, scheduling, and purchasing, and Zac's doing much of the actual work.  After his day job he will go out to the country house every night and work till 9 or 10.  Which means I'm home with the children all day and night.  I love being a stay at home, but I'm not the best mommy when I'm with my rambunctious 2 and 4 year old boys 24/7.  I know I haven't been as patient, and I think they are acting out more since daddy's not around much.  Thankfully mother's day out starts back this coming week this because each week has gotten progressively worse.  We are really feeling the stress of our upcoming deadline, but thankfully Zac and I haven't had any blow-ups at each other.  We have 31 days till we have to be completely out of our house...yikes where did the time go?!?  As you will see in the pictures below we are no where near ready.  It's crazy how life works sometimes.  As soon as we officially started the reno life got insane. The week we had our first and only open house all of us got the stomach bug, Zac got hit by a lady that totaled his car and jacked up his back.  We also had 2 weddings in OKC and 2 weekend out of town get-togethers that were planned and partially paid for in feb/march that all fell in the past 5 weeks.  Thankfully we have had some help from family and friends.  Without their help we would be in some serious trouble come October. We did hire the plumbing and some of the framing, garage door to be installed, and a guy to replace some of the broken windows. Even with all the craziness we are still happy and thankful to have bought the house.  We are just ready for it to be over!  :)  So here's our progress...

Front entry - new sheetrock on ceiling, wood floors exposed, one of large window panes replaced

office/sewing room - 3 glass panes replaced, board removed -still need to scrape off tile - built in drawers sealed off to expand the master closet 

Living room - exposed subfloor-Obviously there is a large patch in the middle and by the hearth.  I think we may try to use some of the kitchen floors to fix the patch in the middle, but go with the new part by the fire place.  Hopefully everything will look fine once the glue is all scraped off and floors are redone. 

Extra room -was probably used as formal dining- exposed wood floor.  It is different than the other rooms, but in pretty good condition.  Furnace was removed.

Main bath - new plywood put down on floors, everything re-framed (lots of water damage), new sheetrock, plumbing redone.  The window will be smaller to make room for a recessed medicine cabinet.  I'm ready for a working toilet, but we still need to lay tile first.  Zac had to totally redo the electric and install a vent .

kitchen - Big rotten spot removed and filled in with plywood, the structural beams underneath had to be replaced as well

We are going to keep most of the existing upper cabinets but get new doors.  A friend from church will make our lower cabinets and upper cabinet doors.

Dining nook - completely gutted, reframed, new sheetrock, and we used the wainscoting from our entry way ceiling to make an accent wall in here

Mudroom/Laundry room - removed wood paneling, sealed concrete call, new plumbing for washer and a sink, removed flooring, completely redo electrical (thieves had stripped it all), new sheetrock, replaced windows - it was much cheaper to buy windows wholesale and just have our framer install them

Stairs to basement - Left - enclosed the bathroom sink area  Right is the cellar - it's still really creepy and needs a lot of work.  Right now the craw space is completely exposed so I really want to close that off.  Basement had to be completely re-wired since it was also picked clean and what was left was old knob and tub

Removed the pink tile in the basement bath and fixed the shower lines

Here is where we will put the vanity.  Basically you will walk in the bathroom door and the sink will be to the left.  Go straight to the shower or go right after the door to the toilet.

Boys room in the basement.  We are keeping rafters exposed since ceilings are low.  We sealed the concrete, and put one coat of primer on the ceiling but still needs a lot of work.  Plumber capped off and removed the furnace.  2 glass panes replaced.

A's room - did same as the boys plus removed the carpet

We've cleaned up the outside a bit and secured the garage.  We still need to replace the wiring that was taken in there.  Thankfully one of Zac's friend is an electrician so he has come out a few times to show Zac what to do, check the work Z did, and do whatever parts Z can't do.  3/4ths of the gutters have been replaced, but that needs to be finished and a French drain installed to prevent any more water damage.  There is still more sheetrock that needs to be added, more mudding to do (that's been my job), texturing added, and the whole house painted.  I forgot to take a picture of the master where the closet was widened and the wood floor exposed.  There are still lots more to do, but we are trying to stay focused on the essentials.  We are definitely in survival mode so if we seem distant and flighty it's because we are!  After this weekend we have nothing else planned so we can spend the next 4 weekends really working on the house.  I hope I didn't sound like a downer.  We really have been blessed throughout the process.  Will share more of how God has gone on before us through all this in another post.  We can definitely see His hands at work in this process and through others who have helped us.  Here's to a productive next 31 days!

 

Side note the thieves (four of them) came back about 10 days ago, but thankfully we had the alarm installed.  They didn't get anything other than a good scare.  Hopefully that will be the last of them! 

We may have lost our minds

Normal people go out for a nice dinner date on their anniversary or take a weekend getaway.  Not the Brays.  :)  We closed on an 80 year old dumpy, abandoned house yesterday which happened to be our 9 year anniversary. 

These first couple pictures outside were taken in April before the trees really bloomed

Our friend from church first told us about it in the middle of April.  It went back and forth on whether or not it would happen.  At one point we walked away, but two weeks later the guy made us an incredible offer we couldn't refuse.  The two main reasons we decided to get the house was it will be a cheaper house payment, and the location is beautiful.  We have 4 acres and the east side of our property is connected to 40 acres of new bike/walking trails Rogers is currently putting in. As you will see in the pictures below there is a TON of work, but even after we fix it up we will still have a house payment that will be about $200 a month cheaper than what we currently pay.  

 

Front of house facing main road.  Basement only goes halfway back.  It's where the kids' room and bathroom will be.

Back of the house is built into a hill and the garage is up next to it.  The garage is "newer" than the rest of the house.

Living Room.  There is Zac and David - the guy that told us about it.  He works for the parks department and is working on the trails and park next to our property.

Yellow room was a child's bedroom on main floor, but we will use it as an office/sewing room because our master room is pretty small.  The pic on right is our master closet. :/

Zac heading to basement and the right is a formal dining room, but we'll probably do something else with that space.

Oh the kitchen.  I don't have a current pic, but Zac completely gutted it.  There was some leaks that rotted out a lot of the wood subfloor and lower cabinets.  So everything but the upper cabinets are gone...including a huge hole in the floor.  The right pic is the dining nook to the left of the kitchen.

Before and After of the mudroom/laundry room.  Although now it's even more gutted.  Tiles and wood paneling are gone.

Bathroom also had to be completely gutted due to water damage.  Yes that is more holes in the subfloor.

Before and After in one of the basement rooms.

Other room in basement.  Boys will probably be in this portion.

 

I didn't take a picture of the basement bathroom.  It is covered in pink tile.  Would like to replace it if we have room in the budget.  Mason would probably love to keep it since he tells me almost every day that pink is his favorite color. 

here is more of our property looking at the back of the house  Also taken in April

Here is a picture from today of the house from the bottom of the driveway.  Love how it is hidden in the trees.

So we are pretty excited!  It took us a full month to close because of having to get land surveys and stuff done, but the seller let us go ahead and start demoing it.  We've probably put in around 100 hrs of work over the past month just clearing out junk and demoing.  We are hoping to be able to move in about 2 months.  Say a prayer for us...it's going to be crazy up in here.  Not to mention that we are trying to catch and keep out the vandals and thieves that keep coming up to the property, but that's a wild story for another day.