I just went back and re-read everything we’ve put out there from the beginning.  First of all, you people are saints for sticking with this blog and this journey.  Somedays it feels like it’s been just a few weeks, and other times it feels like it’s been a dozen years since we first saw the house that we decided would become our home.

As with most journeys, this one will never truly end.  There are so many plans we had for this home that have not yet come to fruition and I’m honestly pretty excited about continuing to work on them into the future.  There are some decisions we won’t even know we needed to make until we move in and others we did make that we’ll probably immediately regret, but I think that just comes with the territory.

Most of all though, I’m thankful to see life restored to this old house! It’s been like watching a child grow up when you see them every day. You don’t necessarily notice all the small changes that add up over the course of time and once you stop to look back you can’t believe it.  That’s the best way I can describe the renovation.  I can’t count the hours (and certainly don’t want to recount the dollars) that have gone into it, but it’s all worth it 100 times over to be this close to moving in and having a forever home that we’ve made our own.

I can’t wait to do some before and after comparisons, but I think we’ll wait until we’ve moved in and added some warmth to the spaces.  Our final inspection is next week – we are so close!

Until then, we’ll talk about some of those fun “renovation things.”  You know.  The unexpected things that pop up on a Tuesday morning and stall work for the entire rest of the week. Or the projects that are supposed to be a quick-fix, but end up taking two months and two million dollars to just get back to square one.  So, just in case you too have stars in your eyes about how you’ll take a home from zero to hero in one month on a dime like all the shows on HGTV – consider this your reality check.

Here are just a few of our experiences and pointers:

• Flooring: Just because Chip and Joanna find 100 year old, antique hardwood in pristine condition under every piece of carpet they rip up does not mean you will too.  And, there’s this special thing in the world called “subflooring” that is not your friend if you’re inheriting an older home.  Be prepared that all subflooring is not created equal and in our case, not created to withstand the installation of hardwood at all. Replacing every single piece of subflooring and installing hardwoods on top of that could be a considerable alteration to your budget and your timeline. Floors, however, are a very important and I do recommend them. Fortunately ours turned out way better than we even hoped and were actually pretty affordable for what we got (sand in place, real hardwood). Now the floors are worthy of this home, but it definitely took a lot longer to get there than we planned.

• Basics: Going into a remodel you look forward to picking out all the fun things, like the fixtures, furniture and artwork, but turns out that you spend way more time debating over absurdly basic things. Like sheetrock.  Or gas lines. Or plumbing vents, etc., etc. You don’t see a lot of pictures of gas lines on Pinterest or Houzz and there’s a good reason for that. These things are not fun, not fancy and certainly not glamorous, but a requirement.  Get ready to talk about them ad nauseum.  

• Communication.  This is probably the biggest and most important part of anything, but especially critical when it comes to a remodel.  I feel like I would be so much better at this in a round two, but thinking of doing this again makes my eye twitch, so I’ll pass this advice along to you. Over communicate with everyone involved. Drive them crazy. Don’t take anything for granted. If you mention in passing that you want tile laid in a herringbone pattern, don’t expect anyone to remember that. Draw things in detail, with measurements and materials noted.  Speak construction language as much as possible. Don’t just show them a ripped out magazine page. Everyone can’t read your mind. (Well, apparently some people probably can, but they all live in Vegas.) Take notes. Write things down. Follow up. Check in on your site and to-do’s every single day. We didn’t do any of that very well, but if we had I think lots of time could’ve been saved.

• Quantity: Buy more than what you think you need of everything.  You can always (or usually) return what you don’t use, but what’s really a problem is when you get three quarters of the way finished with something only to find out you need more materials and they’ve been backordered or discontinued. This happened to us with the wallpaper in Eleanor’s room, the outdoor light fixtures and several of my tile selections. We finagled our way out of the these corners by going the eBay route, making lots of phone calls and otherwise just putting our heads together, but it did cost time and money. Also, don’t buy/order things too far in advance because if it doesn’t work, the return window may have expired by the time you figure that out.

• Ordering Online. We’ve already established how big I am about buying local when you can, but sometimes in a small town, you can’t find what you need or if you can it’s cost prohibitive.  So, you either drive for hours to get what you need (which we’ve done plenty of) or you take your search to The Internets.  If you do, I have several pointers.

1. There are some great buys online, but beware of quality!  Read the reviews on everything before you buy it and make sure you can return things that don’t work for you for a reasonable price. Three big scores we got online were our claw foot tub from Signature Hardware, our farmhouse sink from Amazon and our couch from Article. We also used Build.com for several things like door handles where they had a wider selection for a fraction of the cost of box stores. (We did have to exchange some of those and they were very helpful about it all.)
   
2. Google for coupons! Before I bought anything online, I would first google for a coupon or promo code. Typically I found one for at least 10% off my purchase and several even better than that. One time we just chanced it and typed in FREESHIP on one website and it worked!  When you’re buying big ticket items, this can really help you save.
   
3. The Internet is a black hole. I can’t tell you the hours I’ve spent in the middle of the night looking at plumbing and light fixtures – comparing details, price, shipping costs, everything. In the end, I ended up at Home Depot and Lowe’s for most of our lighting fixtures and a semi-local plumbing supplier for the plumbing fixtures. There were a few I did order online from Overstock.com, Wayfair and West Elm, but I spent way too much time looking for things that were just as well bought in person.
   
4. Speaking of West Elm….and I’m going to lose street cred here for saying this but…WEST ELM GET YOUR LIFE TOGETHER. For the love of Pete, if you send me one more email telling me to buy “what I left behind in my cart” when it’s no longer in stock, I’m going to have an episode. I fell in love with several of your lighting fixtures, tried unsuccessfully to purchase them online (212 times after 212 emails telling me I should come back to buy them), called your customer service line where they told me they did have a minimal amount of each in stock, but they couldn’t ship to my zip code (seriously??), was told one of the fixtures was available in a store (3 hours away), drove 3 hours only to be told that it was not in fact available at that specific store, was sent across town where I was finally able to purchase said light fixture which came in a box that had obviously been returned (I could tell by the words “dining room” written across the box in sharpie scrawl) and on top of it all you wouldn’t honor the online coupon you’d emailed me that morning.  I almost made a scene, but I really wanted this light fixture. Never again though. I’ve made my peace with you, West Elm, and have said my forever goodbye.

Whew I needed to get that off my chest.  #itsfine

Next week we should really see the final product so I'll post more pictures to the photo journal then!

I killed the blog. Or more accurately, I let it die. I'm sorry y'all, but to be very honest, it was either the blog or a living, breathing member of my family and I really like them a lot.

​But, here we are…resurrecting the story when we are nearing its end. SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED and like many millennials, “I can’t even” so I’ll start slowly and see how far we can get before my head explodes…

If you follow us on Instagram you may have noticed a pretty significant thing that happened while we were away.  Yep!  We had a babaayyy!  Her name is Eleanor James Oliver and she was nine weeks old Monday.  Needless to say, the addition of another human has really changed the game around here – for the better.  She’s as sweet as pie, smiles and laughs easily, is a good eater and sleeper (compared to her sister at least!) and makes our hearts so full.  It’s definitely been different to have a baby in the middle of winter vs. summer and during the holidays so I feel like her first few months have been a complete blip. We are, of course, busier than ever but so blessed and thankful for everything that contributes to that busyness!

Because of all the busyness, I could currently use at least half a dozen clones to keep all the proverbial cars in my life between the lines.  One for each of my children, one for my husband, one for the renovation, one for work, one for all the remaining important people in my life and one to do nothing but sit on the couch eating double chocolate chip ice cream binge watching Gilmore Girls. But since cloning didn’t really take off, I’ll just have to deal with splitting myself into pieces between them all. 

Like Voldemort.

…kidding.

Anyway – about the house!  Before Eleanor arrived we gave our builders permission to put us on the back-burner. It became clear around the middle of October that there was not going to be a “good time” to move until after Eleanor arrived, after the holidays and after my largest fundraiser of the year for work.  All that brought us to mid-January, so sometime around Thanksgiving we gave everyone sort of a pass for a few months. Things move quickly and if you aren’t available for one day or you don’t communicate well, they start getting compromised and we just didn’t want work happening while we couldn’t be 100% keyed in.  

But, a few weeks ago we all agreed that it’s time to get this project done and this family of four in their new home.  We are seriously staring down the barrel of moving in at the end of this month. SOMEBODY PINCH ME.  So surreal!!

There’s no way I can cover everything that's happened, but here are a few things that are semi-interesting (hopefully!):

The cabinets have been installed in waves and it’s fun when you go by and realize there are more than last time. It’s really made our kitchen come to life and I’m super pumped about the functionality of all our space.  A must have was the appliance garage that we designed with Bodine Woodworks for the microwave and Keurig. It’s about 80% finished right now, but should be pretty cool. Another exciting feature is the kitchen island – basically because I’ve never had one before, but mostly because it has pull outs for the garbage and recycling!! Since we’ve moved to our rental house, our 13 year old Labrador incessantly knocks over the trash can to eat any morsels of left-over food every time you turn your back. To prevent this, we're forced to put the garbage on top of the counter practically 24/7 which is just gross and I’m sick of it. Poor thing, he’s 13 and knows by now that it’s totally worth the scolding to get that people food.  And honestly, we just don’t have the heart to get onto him. But I’d like to see him try to pull that bin out when we move. SORRY BO!

The counter tops are absolutely my favorite part of everything so far.  The marble for the kitchen did not disappoint and although I realize it won’t be pristine for long, it is amazing. That’s all I can even say about that. The floors run a close second. They lack one more buffing and being sealed and then they’re finished. I love how they are the same throughout most of the house and pull everything together.

And oh heavens, the fireplace. There was never a time when I thought the fireplace would be the biggest debacle about this house, but well, never say never. After we pulled out the insert like I mentioned before, we realized the fireplace was no more than a glorified hole in the side of the house. When we started trying to rebuild it, it got even worse. Apparently the flue had collapsed either during or shortly after construction 40 years ago and instead of really fixing it, a band-aid was put on in the form of an iron insert. Problem is, when you start trying to back all that out, the structure is extremely compromised. Extremely. There was a point in the fireplace "rescue" when I watched no less than 5 grown men stand in fear of touching the fireplace one more time lest it literally FALL OFF THE HOUSE and take half of the living room along with it. It's funny now, but I assure you it was not very funny that day. In the end, they jacked up the collapsed flue and pulled it out the top one heavy piece at a time. At that point it was technically impossible to insert another flue, so we've had to settle for gas logs. It was a bittersweet decision, because as much as I wanted a real wood-burning fireplace I honestly can't see myself ever building a wood-burning fire on my own. However, I can masterfully turn on a switch. The only let-down is that all this totally blew the fireplace budget so we'll have to wait a bit to get the gas logs. But good news is when we're ready for them, so is the fireplace and it looks a million times better than before. The resurfacing is gorgeous and taking the brick to the ceiling really makes it a stand-out element.

The tile work has been a little bit of a struggle too, but one well worth it.  Between picking out tile that was back-ordered to requesting it be laid in an unusual pattern, I’m pretty sure our tile guy hates me.  With very little tile in the house you wouldn’t think there could’ve  been so many glitches, but when given the chance to complicate things I will always rise to the occasion. The biggest snag was the fact that I wanted most of the tile laid in herringbone on the floors. We kept running into tiles that were not exactly the same size and rooms in an old house that aren’t exactly square.  But, once everyone got it figured out it was smooth sailing.  

I also requested custom “nooks” for each shower. One thing I hate is not having anywhere for soap and shampoo to live in a shower.  All our stuff is forever falling down from where we stick it on towel racks and on the sides of the tub, and I saw pictures all over Pinterest of insets with marble shelves which I thought would be perfect for us. Turns out that everything you see on Pinterest isn’t exactly easy to do. Or even possible for that matter. But our builder has worked really hard with the tile folks to make these boxes happen. They aren’t done yet, but I’m eager to see that finished in the next few days!

Speaking of our builder – I feel like this is as good a time as any for a little shout out to Rusty Walker and Stewart White of Walker & White Builders.  They are up and coming in our community as one of the quality home construction companies and we have been honored to be one of their first major projects.  Rusty has worked with my husband for years on various rental houses and corporate projects, and he has been our point person. They have all put up with hand-drawn blue prints, binders full of magazine clippings, indecisiveness, endless questions and crazy requests on a tight budget – all while taking care of us beyond what I can even express.  We highly recommend talking to them if you plan to build or remodel!    

Yep. That’s all my brain can handle for now and all the time I have.  I did not resurrect this blog just to kill it again, so expect to hear more soon and keep tabs on Instagram, because that’s WAY easier to maintain. Bloggers: mad props (and a fist bump).