Sunday, May 27, 2012

Transformation

The last 2 weeks have been filled with activity as we move along with the various projects related to staging and re-inventing our house.

Our realtor and an interior decorator that he has teamed up with have been hard at work bringing in artwork and antiques to complete their vision for what our house is going to look like.  They started with new rugs in the dining room and great room, and this weekend added some antique furniture and artwork.

new desk

This antique kidney-shaped desk was apparently quite a find, and Patrick was very excited to get it.  Tom & I paid for it initially, but Patrick really loves it and is planning on buying it back from us after the house sells – either for himself, or to use as inventory for his staging business.  In fact, he’s probably going to buy most of the furniture we’ve bought for staging, which is a great deal for us!

Tom and I were able to find a replacement dining room table this week, and it was a really good deal . . .

New dining Room

We thought it looked pretty good on it’s own, but then Patrick found an antique buffet and framed tapestry that really dressed up the room!

dining room

Last week, Patrick and I hit some garage sales around Ann Arbor, and I managed to find a wicker set for the sunroom.  With the addition of some cushions and greenery, the room looks pretty good!

sunroom

Most of the changes were making are cosmetic . . . replacing our furniture with new stuff (or old stuff that’s new to us), but one room that we’re actually spending some money in is the kitchen.  Every realtor we’ve ever talked to, including our current one, has wanted us to replace our vinyl floor with wood or tile.  We fought it for 3 years, because we really liked our floor . . . it’s warm, comfortable, easy to clean and durable.  Two years ago, we compromised and replaced the carpet in the living room and the vinyl in the breakfast nook with wood floor.  We really liked how it looked, but still weren’t crazy about re-doing the whole kitchen. 

This time we gave in, and we were able to get enough of the same flooring to finish the rest of the kitchen and mudroom.  So, instead of camping this Memorial Day weekend, our plan for the long holiday weekend was to get the new wood floor installed in the kitchen.

Oak floor

With the boxes of new floor stacked in the garage, we spent Friday night pulling off shoe molding and moving the refrigerator out to its new home in the garage.

Frig in garage

Empty frig spot

Old home of the refrigerator . . . and the vinyl floor being replaced

On Saturday, we were up bright and early, and hard at work . . . our plan was to be done by Monday afternoon.

Tom and Nick at work

Tom & Nick tackled the difficult spots – working around the door jambs!

Bryce at work

Bryce quickly came up with a system for measuring and made lots of progress!

Tom was in charge of the cutting, and the boys and I did all of the measuring, marking and installing of the floor.  We were really proud of how hard the boys worked, and it was a great family project!

Nicolas working

Bryce not working

There was minimal complaining (contrary to the pictures!), and we made excellent progress . . . in fact, we were able to finish the entire floor on Saturday!  Things got a little tense in the evening, when it took Tom and Nick about 2 hours to finish the coat closet in the mudroom (the danger of putting 2 perfectionists together!), but by 10pm we were all done!

new kitchen floor

We are really happy with how it turned out, and wish we had done it years ago . . . LOL!!  Seriously, we really do love it, and hopefully so will all the potential buyers who come to see the house!

Next up, we’re having a slate backsplash put in, and replacing our white appliances with stainless steel . . . that will finish off the kitchen, and should eliminate all of the “negatives” that buyers had when they came to our house.

Since we all worked so hard yesterday, we took the day off today and drove up to Frankenmuth for one of our favorite dinners – world famous chicken!  It was delicious, as usual, and a nice break from all the work around the house!  Tomorrow, we’ll be back at it . . . replacing the shoe molding and shopping for appliances . . . and Patrick & Jim will be back to continue the transformation . . . I even heard they have a sewing project for me!

4 comments:

  1. quite the transformation!..hope that all the hard work pays off!!

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  2. All the Extras you are doing now will Pay Off. Wishing you the Best. It's about time.

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  3. LOOKS GREAT MARCI
    DEE

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  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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