Dining Room Do-over

Dead Muppets

Happy Monday, friends. So, we closed on the house on Friday and immediately began to clean and prep for weeks of updating. One of the first rooms we’ve tackled was this room. It was maybe a formal living room in its past life, but it’s going to be my dining room. Check out this original ‘Wild Cherry’ shag carpet. I nicknamed it the Dead Muppet carpet though, because that’s what it looks like. Horrendous red and pink acrylic feeling carpet, backed in jute, and on padding that had been down so long, it was practically melted to the floor. 

Pink Walls?!?

Yes! Pink walls! I picked out tons of paint chips and went back and forth on whether or not the pink walls would be too overwhelming but finally decided on this particular pink which isn’t too Pepto Bismal and not too Young Infant Nursery Room but a nice soft pink which I believe will look great against the wood floors.

 

It took 2 coats of Valspar Premium Paint and Primer to cover white walls. We chose the eggshell finish, and used a low nap roller. The color of these walls is called Baby Blush, so maybe it is Young Infant Nursery Room pink. Haha

Original Wood Floors

We were told by the listing agent that there were hardwoods under the carpet throughout the house but the condition was unknown. After the paint dried, we were anxious to rip out the Dead Muppet carpet and see what the floors looked like. The carpet was so old, it was pretty much dry rotted, and it came out easily. The padding was equally dry rotted, and it crumbled when we tried to remove it. Thankfully, it wasn’t glued down and with minimal effort, the remaining pieces came up easily. What’s left was just residual and easily came up with a good scrubbing of Murphy’s Oil Soap.  Unfortunately, the padding left stains so at some point I’ll need to have the floors refinished, but with 3 kids and 2 dogs, I am not in a hurry to fork out the cash to refinish floors just yet. 

 

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Instant Update

Aqua Doors

Hey friends, happy Monday. We closed on my new house on Friday and immediately went over to start the process of cleaning and prepping for the upcoming weeks of updates. Saturday morning, I tackled the job of painting the front and side doors of the house.

The doors were previously white, as seen in this picture:

But with $10 and an hour of time, now they look like this:

This color is called Teal Zeal by Behr paint from Home Depot. We chose a Satin finish in exterior paint, and it took 3 coats to cover the white paint on the wooden door. We only bought a quart of paint, and even with 3 coats on the front and side door, there is still plenty of paint leftover. Admittedly, the door is not in great shape, and it looks like it was previously damaged by water, so that will get changed at some point. I’m on the lookout for a retro door!!

To Paint or Not to Paint

I’m debating if I want to paint the side window too. What do you guys think? I’ve seen it done both ways, and it looks great both ways, but I’m undecided as to whether or not I want to paint it. What would you do?

 

Home Sweet Home

Hey friends,

Welcome to my new blog! I figured since I was transitioning to a new home, now would be a good time to move my blog to its new home, too!

 

I am so excited to start this journey of home ownership in this awesome 1960s ranch on the outskirts of my hometown. I cannot wait to bring y’all along on the ride as I do renovations and set up home inside this gem of a house!

Some of you know that I have moved a lot in the last 15 years. A LOT. This move will be my 14th one since 2001. And believe it or not, in that time-frame I have lived in 2 separate houses for 3 years each. To say I am ready to put down roots and finally feel settled somewhere is an understatement.

So, what’s first?

Well, thankfully I am not under time constraints to be moved in by a certain date, so that allows me to do necessary landscaping (cleaning up the yard, cutting shrubs) and interior renovations before I have to face the monumental task of unpacking 500 boxes. I am hoping that we’ll have most of this done within a month. Keyword: hope!

My family will help with the above tasks, for which I am grateful. As you can see from the above photo, the shrubbery is very overgrown, and well, the rest of the yard is pretty much on par with this picture.

Inside, we’ll be pulling up carpet to expose the hardwoods, painting ceilings, painting walls, installing new light fixtures, and generally just sprucing up the place. It has been sitting vacant for several months but surprisingly is really clean inside, all things considered.

Retro Ranch details:

So, as I stated it’s a 1960s ranch with 1400 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 1 small bath, a dining room with red and pink SHAG CARPETING, a sunken living room with hideous kelly green industrial carpet, and best of all — a 2 car detatched garage with OFFICE!! The garage is getting closed off and finished for my inventory storage and of course the office will be, well, the office, complete with a second coffee bar and a mint green half bath!

This house is being sold by the original owner, who had lived there since it was built in 1964. She planted lovely rose bushes throughout the yard, and there are several pecan trees and even a pear tree, which is LOADED with fruit! The house sits on half an acre and thankfully there is plenty of flat, usable land out back to put in a small garden.

Which room do you think I should start updating first?

Thanks for checking out my new home. I’m so glad you guys are along for the journey!!