The Big Overhaul

Since you saw my house in the game night pics, I thought I’d share how it started.

This is the sunroom as we saw it the day we bought the house. Just to the left of the table was a door to the deck.

This was the living room. Behind the fireplace was the deck. There was a tiny sliver of a window to the left of the fireplace. To the right of the fireplace was the sunroom with the door to the deck. Well this is where we blew the wall out.

This is a shot of the house before we pushed the wall out, removed the fireplace, the trees, the deck, the door and moved the window and it went on and on…

This is where our crew started to remove the wood-burning fireplace. The room was so small that when we first moved in, our son, Jon, told us not to burn in the fireplace because our coffee table would probably start on fire. Ha! He wasn’t too far from the truth.  So the guys built a stud wall before they could tear out the real wall. This would give us 12 x 12 more feet and make the living room and sun room one big open space. I told you I watched HGTV– you can do almost anything. They did have to add a huge beam over the addition and so far it’s working!

This is the pretend wall. Then they tore the real wall down. That was fun and scarey at the same time. After it was successful, the contractor said, “not bad for the first time.” Probably a contractor comedian line.

We would wake up to contractors walking in through a wall of black plastic and plywood every morning for about 3 days. I just prayed we wouldn’t find deer in the living room in the morning. Next, we waited for cement until 6:00pm that was supposed to be there by 10:00am. Whoops! I think I had 6 sweaty guys sitting around ready for cement in 96 degree temps. Lots of water.

This shot shows the open new space with a real door and window. No fireplace. Wood bead board ceiling , sheet rock walls and subfloor. Our wood floor is sitting there in the packaging acclimating to the indoors. Next came paint, and wood floor and lighting, and crown molding and cleaning and cleaning and cleaning and then furniture.

Ain’t she perdy? I am so happy with this transformation. Not to say there weren’t headaches with this project, but well worth it in the end.

The two matching recliners didn’t work. They were defective, so now we have two different chairs, his and hers.

We have moved things around a bit and added a desk behind the couch. It all worked out well. Now if he would just let me makeover the master bath. Hmmmm!

Cottage Overhaul

Since I love to design and decorate, Lindsey thought I should be adding some of my cottage design ideas I have incorporated into our home in Tennessee. I get pretty caught up in my jewelry making and quilting, but I do love to decorate. When we decided to move to Tellico Village 4 years ago, there wasn’t a lot to choose from in housing (our price range and size). We knew we wanted to downsize, so we found this little 1600 sq. foot house with a beautiful yard full of trees and flowers and ….lots of work. Anyway I started to dig in and make some major changes. We actually thought we would be fine in a small house, but at that time we didn’t know the social activities of this community and it wasn’t long that we decided we needed more space. We didn’t want to leave this great neighborhood or lose our view of the Smokey Mountains straight out our front door. So we started on a process of 3 different remodels across 3 years. Whew! Now we love it. Here are some before pics and then I’ll show you how things have changed. I’ll start with the kitchen for today. Turquoise and pink and plaid all over. Track lighting and popcorn, oh boy. This is the day we bought it, while the previous owner is still in the house

Before

This is how it looks today. There is a process to it all, but our last big reno was a 2 years ago and what a difference it has made. I’m a HGTV addict, so I knew walls are not necessary, well not all of them anyway.  Here is the kitchen now.

After

We removed the wall that was at the end of the counter, added granite, bead boar ceilings and bar front, wood floor (which I love and will never have carpet in my great room again) and tile in the kitchen.We bought a hand scraped engineered wood floor that has so much definition. The wall removal made such a difference. It gave the room an open feeling. We checked into having all the popcorn removed from the ceilings but really loved the idea of white bead board ceilings throughout the main house.  We had the center beam  beefed up to a chunky white look. Both changes gave it such a cozy feeling. I will show more of the big changes as time goes by. We really love our house now. It’s perfect for 2 busy retired people.

Bargain Cottage Style Decor

Saturday we decided to spend the day in a little town called Sweetwater TN. The town is loaded with antique shops and great little restaurants and gift shops. I never thought Roger would go, but he thought it would be fun to check out some of the “antique” (good junk) shops I peruse from time to time. I’ve got him watching Junk Gypsies with me on HGTV. He thinks the stuff they do is pretty cool, so he thought he’d like to go along. Well, if he would have had a pocket full of money he probably would have had a truck full of stuff (his stuff). He loves the gas station antiques. Maybe someday he can have his own gas pump all refurbished. Maybe?!

We had a great lunch and then we hit the shops. I am always on the look-out for cream McCoy pottery. I used to have a bunch of it in pastels, but I thought it was time to sell it off about 10 years ago and now I want it again. Oh well, we women do change our minds! It so happens Lindsey’s mother-in-law collects the McCoy pots and when I saw hers after not having them for so long, I wanted to start the old collection up again, but this time in creamy white only (although the green would look great in here too). I found this beauty, which is not a McCoy, but I loved it and it was only $4.80.  Roger just rolled his eyes and said, “I thought we weren’t collecting any more.” Just these dear. Isn’t it pretty? I have it on my coffee table. My friend down the street brought me flowers for my birthday that night and I plopped them right in the vase. It was meant to be. I’ve moved it around a bit. I like it best on the coffee table. It’s tall and I think this is the best fit. I can already picture holly and berries and evergreens in it for the holidays.

The two on the left are McCoy and the swan on the right is not marked. If anyone ever told me I would buy a swan, I would have thought they were crazy. We do change. I got it at an estate sale for $5.00 and I love it too. I painted the old cupboard that belonged to my great grandparents, a creamy white. Its filled with seasonal stuff. My home is filled with color, but there is nothing like white in cottage design.

Sunday was another birthday dinner with friends. We do a lot around food in this neighborhood. Had a great time!