Hey friends,
Well it’s summer and if your summer is going anything like mine, well it’s been crazy! I think I said the same thing last summer too. We’ve been busy bees around here even with having company and being gone to have our hardwood floors refinished.
When we first considered having our hardwood floors refinished we were planning on listing our home for sale and planned on having it done while we were on vacation. The house wasn’t listed but we knew the floors needed to be redone. Because we’re slackers, the flooring couldn’t be redone until the end of July/beginning of August. Not thinking, we scheduled the floors and then about a week before I started thinking maybe we couldn’t be in our home during that time because of dust, the smell and not wanting to damage the floor by walking on it while it was curing. Thankfully we had some nice friends that willingly took in a family of 6 plus 2 dogs for a few days.
BUT, before we get to far ahead, let’s not forget that we also decided to remove the dreaded POPCORN ceiling! At first it was just the dining room, then because it was our anniversary, the husband decided to gift me the removal of popcorn ceiling in the kitchen too. I know, what a guy, right?!?! Seriously though, it did make me super happy! I mean look at the difference before we even painted it!!!
That was on Saturday and it took most of the day to do the dining room and kitchen. I loved it even before we painted it, the room seemed so much brighter and the ceilings seemed taller. We were sore and tired but because we’re I am crazy, in church the next day I turned to my hubby and said, “I think we should do the powder room too, I mean the toilet will be out of there, it’s the perfect time.” AND THEN, we decided to do the entryway too because it was the last area left where the hardwood floor was being refinished and the house was already dusty and messy and who wants to make that mess on newly refinished hardwood floors? So…..we managed to remove all the popcorn ceiling in the dining room, kitchen, powder room and entryway. It was hard work and definitely messy but also, SO worth it! There are plenty of tutorials out there on removing popcorn ceiling so I won’t have one but if you are thinking about it, do your research!
The hardest part of this whole process was picking out a stain color. I didn’t mind the light wood floors with my white cabinets and I know dark wood floors are all the rage but I didn’t want that either. We decided on Chestnut stain for the flooring and when we came home after it was done, I think the hubby and I were a little freaked out by the color. At first we hated it and considered having them come back and restain it. After living with it for a few weeks now, I can say we are pretty happy with the color although I kind of miss the lighter color. I am not a warm/cozy feeling home kind of person, I like a light and bright, beachy feel. I think the color we have is fine but if I could do it again, I’d keep it light.
Besides removing popcorn ceiling and changing the color of the floor, another major change is that we finally were able to kiss the dining room carpet goodbye! Who puts carpeting in a dining room? Probably the same builders that do popcorn ceiling everywhere. I’ll be sharing the dining room in a separate post soon as it is getting a mini makeover right now. Here’s a quick pic I shared on instagram the other week, I was testing out white curtains in here, obviously these were too short. We also needed to put the shoe moulding back on and paint. I may have changed up the gold light fixture too.
Finally, here’s a quick glance at the entryway, it’s come a long way in 4 years. If you look in the last pic you can see the stair landing and our project this winter, removing carpeting off the stairs and in the hallway upstairs. I’ll share more as we get ready for that project.
Did you notice there are 3 out of 4 pics of the entryway with a dog in them? Seriously, they love to photobomb my photos.
Finally, if you aren’t following on instagram or my fb page, you should. I may have purchased a leather sofa off craigslist last week that started an entire room makeover. So besides being gone or having company, that’s what we’ve been up to this summer. I’m still not ready for school to start or fall to arrive, thankfully I have 3 more weeks of summer to enjoy yet before that happens! Has your summer been as crazy as mine?