This week brings about so much excitement for my family! If you've been following along for a while, you already know that my husband and I purchased a 100-year-old Craftsman home in June of last year. The home sat on the market for a while, overpriced, just like every other house on the market last spring/summer. We watched this house like a hawk, and one day, I saw the price drop by $50k and knew it was time for us to act. We called our Realtor, and the rest is history. 

We wound up with a beautiful old brick and cedar home, nearly 3,000 sq ft. Five bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a spacious yard. While the house had amazing bones and old, original features that old house lovers would go crazy over (clawfoot tubs, original beadboard everywhere), we knew we were going to have to make some major changes and renovations to make the house work for our family of five, and to bring it up to modern day living.

Underneath luxury vinyl plank flooring, we discovered original hardwood floors with a dark espresso stain. We could see why the previous owners put down the LVP. The stain on the floor was so dark, and there were a lot of problem spots with the wood in some of the rooms. As soon as we realized that the floors were in awesome shape, we knew instantly that we wanted to restore them. My husband has worked tirelessly for weeks to strip, sand, stain, and poly these floors. We've had lots of headaches and hiccups along the way- equipment not working properly, causing us to lose time, when we're mainly working on the house on weekends (because we have full-time jobs and all).

We're finally almost to the point where we can start moving some of our belongings into the house (upstairs). The playroom is the first room to be finished. It has been painted already, and we're ready to get that room together so the kids have a place to play and hang out while we work on the rest of the house.

We still have a pretty big list of things to work through after the floors and painting are both finished:

Kitchen- drywall, cabinet/counter install

Master- drywall, painting

Bathrooms- painting, move plumbing, new vanities & toilets

Laundry room- Tile, paint, hang cabinets

Hang light fixtures (whole house: 12 rooms, 2 long hallways)

Pantry- demo, custom cabinets/counters

Those are just indoor projects. Our list of outdoor projects is also extensive, like installing a privacy fence with a rolling gate over the driveway, installing lighting, changing doors, adding storm doors, painting the house and repairing the columns, and then landscaping.

It's a whole house renovation inside & out, and it's a massive project. The floors have taken so long to get finished (and included a staircase), but it's mostly all been done by my husband and whoever he has been able to enlist to help along the way. We're so happy with the progress, though. It may be taking longer than I ever thought it would to get to a point where we can move into this house (we haven't been living in it- not safe for the kids during demo and reno), but we're really starting to see what the house will look like, and it's coming together beautifully.

A blank canvas of a home is a dream come true. Are we crazy for taking this on with three kiddos? Maybe, but this house will be our home until God tells us something different. The memories we'll make here will stay with us forever and we're pretty darn grateful.

Keep following along for more updates through our renovation process. I'm so excited to share our journey with you.