Lots of Projects

Summer has officially been kicked off for us with lots and lots of home improvement projects.
Our first project was opening up a wall from the kitchen to the dining room. I have been dying to knock down this wall ever since the first day that we moved into this house! It made the kitchen feel so cramped and it was really quite pointless to have the wall there. So many times I was tempted to just start tearing down the wall myself but I knew that Marc would think I was totally crazy. It was so exciting to finally get out the hammer and start smashing up the wall. Nick was thoroughly enjoying it! (I told him that that was the only wall he would ever be able to hit in our house with a hammer). I think it turned out so much better! It has a much more open and airy feeling now and we get more light in the kitchen.
Here is a before shot of the wall:

During (It made such a huge mess - Marc is not too fond of DIY projects but I think he actually enjoyed this part!):


The After:


Notice how Nick is continuing the smashing up of the wall. I thought the wall needed to be open a little more but unfortunately we hit a snag. I hadn't even thought about how the cold air return vent that is in the wall came from the floor. Anyways, to make a long story short - we're now patching up that little section. (Kind of frustrating to make more work for ourselves) If you've ever put up drywall, you'll know how tedious it is to make it nice and smooth again. I've been working on that now and it is extremely tedious! Oh well, live and learn.

The biggest project so far has been our wood floor. Thankfully we didn't do it ourselves (that would have taken us like three years to do ourselves and a lot of stress!!) So while the kids and I went to visit my family in Utah, some guys came and ripped up two layers of vinyl flooring (yes, two layers!), teal carpet, and all of the particle board under the carpet and vinyl (you can see why it would have taken us three years to do it!) Unfortuneately, Marc had to stay home for work but he was able to see all the progress each day (he was very thankful he didn't have to do it).
Here is a picture of the teal carpet before (it was actually in like new condition but not my thing)I don't have a picture of the vinyl but trust me when I say that it was UGLY! I think I wanted to get rid of it so bad that I never thought of even taking a picture of it!



The dining room before: (The carpet in here was already totally trashed from the kids)



During:




After:


I've also been working on painting the dining room table black - actually I've just done a couple of chairs. I'm not sure how much I like it - I think I like it but since our set is nothing fancy, it will be good till we get a new one in a few years.

Here is a before shot of a chair (I still have to upholster them):


After:


I also bought this little red desk chair at Salvation Army for 6 bucks. I wish I had taken a picture of it before (it was really sad looking but I knew it had potential because it was solid wood and sturdy). I spray painted it a colonial red - I think it turned out really cute! I love the red.


Of course right now I am finishing up the last touches on that wall and also prepping all the baseboards which means I am removing all the nails and tons of old caulk, filling in nails holes and priming and painting them all again in preparation to put them back up again. I also have big plans for our rec room downstairs. I want to paint the two ugly old laminate bookshelves and add trim to it to make it nicer. I'll post pics of those as soon as I get a start on it. It's overwhelming to think about doing it all but I make lists and take it one day at a time - then it seems a little less intimidating because it seems I'm accomplishing something. I get so inpatient and just want to finish it all at once! Once I finish everything, I'll put up pictures of everything. Hopefully I can get it all done before the baby is here- that is my goal(couple more months)!