Weekend Home Renovation Update: So Happy to See Our Stuff

This weekend presents us with another work weekend at our new house. My husband's best friend is giving up his weekend to help get some projects done and move some large pieces of furniture into the house. When these guys get together to tackle a project or a number of projects, they move quickly, and get loads done in a short amount of time... they always amaze me. Fun fact, several years ago, Sacha and Matt owned their own painting and home restoration business. They mostly worked on historic homes in and around Salisbury, NC. Their combined knowledge of home restoration and repair is so helpful during this process, and they do beautiful work, so I don't have to worry about the way a project will turn out in the end.

Saturday brings us to our house, with a box full of hot doughnuts, and kids eager to get into their new rooms to unbox treasures. Beanie's new vanity is all put together and set up in her room, and she is so thrilled to sit at it and organize all of her baubles and beauty items. B is excited to give his bedroom a gamer vibe, set up his collectible figures and some of his LEGO builds, and chill in his own space, away from his sisters. Can't say that I blame him- he's been an absolute trooper during this transition period. A new (temporary) floor is going down in B's room today, and we're eager to see it finished.

Take a look at some of what's changed at our house...

B takes a donut break in his new room after the new LVP flooring is put down.

Bean's room with her new bed, new bedding, new vanity... and an explosion of toys!

We still have a lot to do upstairs, but the bedrooms and playroom are mostly finished, and we can move the rest of our furniture, toys, books, etc into these rooms. It is making my heart so happy to see my kids happily reunited with their stuff, and enjoying playing with their things. I'll have a lot of fun rearranging their furniture and helping them decorate their spaces.

Our living room furniture! Happy day!

Since the floors downstairs were waiting on a patch over the old fireplace hearths in the front living room and in our master bedroom, I asked the guys if they could tackle both of those and then move our living room furniture into the house. The kids have been in need of a place to land downstairs. I walked in and saw our living room partially set up, and I'll admit- shed a tear or two. It has just felt so good to be reunited with our belongings, to see boxes of our decor, to have wall art back, and to know that we have a comfortable place to hang out when we're in our house. I love the way the light fixture looks with our furniture and decor- though we've talked about getting a new couch to accommodate more people. We still have some furniture pieces to move into this room, and my wheels are turning on how in the world to make them fit without chopping up the floor space... but that's for me to play around with, so no worries there.

From the back porch laundry area to the family mudroom!

This old back porch is where the laundry appliances go. It was set up with a washer and dryer, wire rack shelving, and was functional that way, but just looked so ugly. It had hideous carpet covering the floor. I asked my husband to give me a true mudroom. We have three kids, and they are so messy. We chose a beautiful tile for the floor, plan on refreshing the paint, and turning this into the small mudroom of our dreams. This room will house the washer and dryer, but will also feature a small utility sink (yay!), new cabinets, and a folding counter! I am so excited! This is the project that will be finished next weekend, and I cannot wait to see the end result!

This century-old home is presenting us with many challenges in terms of design. We're having to make adjustments as we go along, and tackle some smaller projects to get to the larger ones. That's the way of it. If you're wondering if I feel like all of those homeowners on the HGTV shows who are going through renovations, the answer is YES, 100%! We're learning a lot from this process, though, and every hiccup happens for a reason, and is leading us to completed projects. Every little thing that is completed gets us one step closer to living happily in our new home.

Stay tuned for more updates!