Our Home - Upstairs {Befores & Afters}

First of all, I wanted to thank each and every one of you
that left such uplifting comments on my post yesterday.
THANK YOU!!!!

I am shocked by the amount of comments I received and
so grateful that you have all taken the time to cheer me on!

:D

Believe me, you do not know the tears of sheer frustration
I have shed over this place.






And I should probably clarify about the wainscoting
and the built-in hutch that I ripped out....

The lady that lived here before us, meant well.

I'm sure she wanted to freshen the place up to sell.

And she painted the hutch with a water based latex paint.

That's right.

Over oil based paint.

You know what that means...

It started bubbling and peeling off in places.

And where it wasn't, it was stuck fast.

I mean, every single piece of trim, wainscoting...  EVERY piece of anything that was wood, she painted with it.

It was HORRIBLE!!!!

I didn't know what I know today about stripping paint and
decided it must come out because there was NO WAY
I was going to be able to salvage it.

Thankfully though...

I have every single piece of trim, wainscoting, hardware, and doors.

I asked Scott last night how hard it would be to rebuild it, since the only part that is completely gone is the center.  The upper cabinets and lower cabinets are still there.

He looked at me and said, "Hard."

and

"I asked you four times if you were sure before I ripped it out."

I looked at him and said, "Ummm...  Yeah.  I changed my mind."

{crickets}

LOL!

Later he said he'd see what he could do.

Too bad we didn't take measurements,
but I do have a picture with all the doors off during the demo.

That'll help, right?


{Hangs Head in Shame}

Anyhoo...

TODAY'S POST

Yesterday, I took you through what is probably 

the ugliest home tour in Blog land.

Today is going to be even worse.

LOL!

{You always want to keep reading when you see that, right?}

This year, KEEPING IT REAL is all about BEING HONEST.

What we've done to our home and what we haven't.

The upstairs needs even more done to it.

In our turn of the century home...

18 months...  9 total rooms. 2,400 square feet.

2 are complete.

4 are in some kind of progress.

3 haven't been touched.

ARGH!

First up...

THE STAIRWELL

Check out the vintage 1980's wallpaper and border when we moved in...

The one redeeming feature are these windows...

We haven't gotten very far on this space.

It's primed and painted.

I have dreams of beaded board from floor to ceiling.

This serves two purposes...

To cover a terrible plaster job on the right side and 

to encase the currently free hanging light switch.

Why is there a free hanging light switch?

I have no earthly idea.

I've come to the conclusion that a lot of DIYers 

that had no idea what they were doing 

have lived in this house over the last century.

This is what it looked like at Christmas...

The best thing I ever did was to paint the risers and woodwork white.

I know lovers of natural wood are cringing, 

but I must have light and bright in my home.

The dark is depressing.

I cannot wait until it's finished!

This next area is another one of my least favorite places in this house.

UPSTAIRS HALLWAY

It's narrow and dark.

It looks exactly the same.

There is no light fixture here and at night it's pitch black.

My plan is wainscoting and chair rail, 

and of course painting the trim white.

The doorway at the end is an ongoing debate.

I want to put in glass french doors to let the light in 

and build a second story porch over the roof of the back porch.

Scott wants to put in an upstairs laundry room.

We're still in discussion.

LOL!

BOYS BEDROOM

It started out as Eva's and Savanna's room, 

simply because of the wall paint and border...

Oh boy.

The 1990's totally lived here.

But the previous owner did a great job refinishing the floors.

I understand she did them herself.

Gotta give her props for that.

:)

Now, this room is a Boy Cave.

And I still have work to do here as well...

Especially since we've had a change of plan.

{More on that in a minute.}

Welcome to Hawkeye Country.

The room actually has been changed around since these pictures, 

but taking new pics would entail going into 

what I refer to as "The Dungeon".

The sign has replace the flat screen that pooped on us...

and there are three twin beds across the far wall now.

White headboards.

I have faith that you can imagine it.

:P

Taking current pictures would require cleaning "The Dungeon" 

and I only do that about once a month, 

when I can't stand it anymore.

LOL!!!

Their idea of clean and my idea of clean are two different things.

In short...

Teenage boys and especially Pre-Teen boys are pigs.

It's a little ummmmm...  Bright.

Which is going to be fun painting over...

In March.

I recently informed Scott that we were going to 

switch bedrooms with the boys.

I got a big, fat emphatic "No." on that one, 

but I can't say it's ever stopped me before.

Landon is too big to Co-Share with Eva now 

and there's no room for him in the current Boys' room.

Our room is twice as big.

Problem solved.

I mean, it's not like these old homes come with an on-suite bathroom.

He'll get over it.

;)

I dread painting the walls, 

but at least they have better views out of their windows.  

Needless to say, I won't be going all crazy
and Iowa Hawkeye in their new room.

And they're just going to have to like what I come up with.

;)

Next is Eva's room, which I'm sure you all are familiar with.

EVA'S ROOM

I won't waste a lot of time here.

When we moved in and it was the boys' room:

Now:

This would be the second room of the two that are completely done.

Next, is our room.

I haven't touched it.

March though...

BIG PLANS!

:)

OUR BEDROOM

Oh yeah...

There has been the addition of this sign above the bed...

Needless to say,  I can't wait to start painting furniture 

and moving everything out!

And finally...

What is SURELY the UGLIEST BATHROOM EVER!

UPSTAIRS BATHROOM

For some reason, I don't have a picture of the wall the vanity is on...

Let's just say the wall paper matches the curtains...

EXACTLY.

GAG.

Let's talk about everything that is wrong with this room.

1) Layout.

2) Design.

3)  Colors.

It's hard to ignore when I'm taking a bath.

But, it does have a really nice jacuzzi tub, which was an unexpected perk.

I had really missed the one we had in our house in NC.

Lots of ideas for this room, that I won't get into.

It's at the bottom of the list right now.

But I do have a vintage mirrored dresser  that is going to make an awesome vanity.

;)

The one HUGE perk is the walk up attic, 

which gives us another additional 1,200 square feet, 

bringing the total square footage of our house 

to 3,600 square feet  - not including the full basement.

This is a "One Day" project.

As in "One day I want to..."

You know like, maybe before we die.

LOL!

These pictures are terrible too because it's really dark up there, 

but you can see how much space we'll have to turn it into either 

a giant room for the boys... Or more than likely...  

Our grandchildren.

West Gable

East Gable

Plus, the entire north front of the house, including the cupola.

It would make an awesome Master Bedroom, 

but I'm afraid by the time we get it done, 

I'll be too old to climb 2 sets of stairs.

LOL!!!

Yes, I get frustrated by everything we have to do.

Yes, I try to remain positive about what we've been able to accomplish.

Yes, it's hard to be patient.

But, sometimes I'm really glad that we've moved as slow as we have...

1)  Because my taste used to be atrocious!

My whole house would look like the boys' room or something.

HA!

2)  It's taken me the last 18 months to nail down "my style".

And I have learned a lot about doing a lot myself.

3)  We're personally debt free.

In today's economy that's a great thing.

4)  When we get it done, we'll truly be able to appreciate it 

because we've lived with it this way for as long as we have.

{At least that's what I keep telling myself.}

So, I'm definitely not going to be getting any raves 

over how our house looks for a long time.

But, if I give just one person hope...

Show just one person that they can change their space 

one room at a time with a little time and lots of elbow grease...

Well, then blogging about it and being honest about it 

will be completely worth it.