For Better or Worse | Through Thick and Thin | Till Death do us Part |
For better or worse, through thick and thin, till death do us part…words we all have heard a million times. Sometimes these phrases come to mind not just in marriage…but in buying a “fixer-upper.” Personally…I love the feeling of getting a house that you know has had so many stories happen within the walls but is in desperate need of LOVE again!
Making a house a HOME is something that I cherish and love to-do! This blog is to document my husband and I turning our first house into a home and renovating the Harris House on the Hill. For better or worse we bought the “ugly” house on the block (ok…neighborhood!) and the renovation has brought a lot of blood (darn hammers!) sweat, tears, laughs and a few bottles of wine…or cases!
A home renovation, especially if you are living in it – is not for everyone! But – it works for us. Through thick-and-thin and a lot of weekends we are tackling the 80’s out of our Midwestern Colonial.
As for “Till Death do us Part” our builder grade 80’s oak is becoming non-existent…because if that wasn’t the first thing to go I was going to lose my mind.
Here is a sneak peek of our progress…
Can you say – hello 80’s doll house? YIKES!!
We still have a lot we want to add to make our home unique but our first step was to repair all the wood rot, paint , update the garage doors, get new shutters and begin updating the landscaping.
Hi builder grade, 80’s oak! Oh my goodness – just WAY too much of the same tones…I instantly fell in love with this room when we were looking at houses though. I knew it had GREAT potential! “Good Bones” …words my husband now dreads 🙂
This room is still a work-in-progress (isn’t a house always?!) But we eventually want to get new couches and chairs and change the layout…but for now I think it is working for us!
Ok…to be honest I never liked our dining room. However, it was the first room we tackled and with help from family we quickly took the old chair-rail down and gave it an instant BOOST! We need to get a bigger dining table and rug but again…for now I think we really turned it around.
This is just a small preview of some of our projects. I am so excited to open up our home to you and share our renovation story!
Thanks for stopping by!
Paula Klinksick
October 17, 2017 at 3:28 amHi Kelsey & Lucas! I didn’t know you were doing this. I love getting to see your progress. I was wondering how you changed the brick tone on the fireplace? It looks great. Thanks for sharing.
Kelsey
October 17, 2017 at 4:50 pmHi Paula thank you I am glad to hear that, we are thrilled to start sharing it with everyone! For the brick fireplace we did a simple whitewash mix. We used Arcade White paint from Sherwin-Williams and water. The constancy should be about 1/4 paint and 3/4 water – always start with more water because you can always add more paint later! And then we just blotted it on with a paint brush and wiped away excess with paint rags. If you don’t have a super large fireplace you can get away with just buying the sample size. It is a super easy process that has a HUGE impact! I’m glad you asked 🙂 it was one of my favorite transformations!