jwfarmhouseproject

Our journey renovating.

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  • Big Changes This Week

    This week feels like the week our renovation went from our little DIY renovations to major renovations.

    Our general contractor came in and started working on some of the bigger projects. I was able to do one of the fun parts: picking out tile for both bathrooms! THE ONLY issue is that TIME has NOT been on my side–between gymnastics for the girls/coaching AND my full time job in travel…where is the time?!

    Anyway, we are completely redoing both bathrooms. The master bathroom had this enclosed shower that honestly felt a little like stepping into a tomb. 😂 We are opening that entire area up (taking out the shelves) and putting a glass shower across the side of the bathroom, which should make the room feel SO much bigger and brighter.

    The girls’ bathroom is getting a major change, too. The previous owner had her parents living with her and needed accessibility features, so the bathroom had an ADA-style accessible tub and shower setup. Since we don’t need those features, we’re replacing it with a traditional tub and shower for the girls/guests.

    I’m trying to be smart about where we spend money, so we’re keeping the existing cabinets in both bathrooms. Once all of the construction is finished, we will the hardware and fixtures to give the vanities a fresh look without replacing perfectly usable cabinets. I may have them painted but have not decided as of yet.

    My oldest daughter’s bedroom had two large closets, and directly behind them were two hallway storage closets. It was honestly more closet space than we needed (we have larger closets and the huge workshop on the property), especially when both my husband and I work from home pretty often. So we decided to knock out that entire area and make it into another room–a home office! 💻 We will need smaller desks in there but with some nice shelving for storage space etc. it will work out nicely.

    The back entrance room/family room/den has also come a LONG way. All of the old paneling is officially GONE and new drywall is up. Just seeing clean walls in there has completely changed the space. Also we discovered tile under the vinyl flooring that had been in there. We will have to have it removed vs. putting flooring over it as its damaged in many places.

    And then there’s the kitchen…

    We decided to knock out the wall between the kitchen and living room and expand the doorway opening.

    I knew opening the kitchen would make a difference, but I wasn’t prepared for just how different the entire house would feel. It honestly looks SO MUCH BIGGER now. That one change opened everything up and completely changed the flow of the house.

    We’re going to add a bar-height countertop in the new opening, and part of that area will become additional seating. I can already picture everyone being able to hang out together while someone is cooking instead of the kitchen feeling closed off from the rest of the house.

    After weeks of cleaning, demoing, changing lights, swapping hardware and doing all of those smaller projects ourselves, it is exciting to finally see the bigger pieces of our vision starting to come together.

  • Quick Update: Lights, Fans & Getting Ready for the REAL Demo

    Quick Update: Lights, Fans & Getting Ready for the REAL Demo

    We finally settled on a contractor! 🎉 And with demo officially starting this week, we spent Sunday knocking out some of the smaller projects we could do ourselves before the bigger renovations begin.

    One thing we’ve learned through this whole process is that we are capable of doing a lot more ourselves than we originally thought.

    After learning how to replace light fixtures (thanks to our electrician, ChatGPT, and YouTube), my husband, decided to tackle a ceiling fan. Well really I convinced him that we could do it—he wanted nothing to do with it.

    When we first opened the box and looked at all the pieces, he was convinced it was going to be way too complicated. I went through the instructions with him, we figured it out step by step, and somehow by the end of it… we had a working ceiling fan!

    Fan before
    Fan After

    We also said goodbye to the ugly box light in the kitchen (thank God). I found a really cool replacement fixture on Amazon that completely changes the look of the room that wasn’t too costly.

    I wanted decorative Edison-style bulbs to go with it. The ones I had ordered for the fans weren’t quite decorative enough—through the glass of the fixture they didn’t look fancy enough, and I didn’t want to wait for another Amazon delivery, so I ran to Home Depot.

    I ended up almost spending as much light bulbs than I did on the actual light fixture. 🤦🏾‍♀️BUT these supposedly will last 13 years…we will see.

    Lesson learned. From now on, I will be ordering my pretty light bulbs from Amazon and patiently waiting for them to arrive.

    Old fixture

    At this point, we’ve replaced almost every light fixture in the house that makes sense to replace right now. We’re leaving the bathroom lights and fixtures in a few of the rooms alone because those spaces are going to have walls removed or be completely renovated. We’ll come back and finish those once all of the major construction is done.

    This weeks light-work—replaced old recessed lighting with new, new fan, new kitchen fixture; repurposed ceiling fans

    We made some progress outside this weekend, too! We finally cleaned out the shop, which was a project all by itself, and we’re getting it ready to actually be a usable space. One of the next upgrades will be having a metal roll-up door installed on the back, which should make the shop much more functional.

    We also tackled some of the seriously overgrown weeds along the side of the property. When we first bought the house, parts of the property were so overgrown that it was hard to even tell what was back there, much less walk around and enjoy it. Now that we’ve cleared some of it out, we can finally walk more of the property and actually start seeing what we have to work with. It’s been fun discovering the land little by little and starting to imagine what we might eventually do with all of the outdoor space.

    Shop before

    So I think we’ve officially reached the point where we’ve done just about everything we can do before our contractor comes in and starts the real demo this week.

    I do still have a few smaller projects on my list. I want to replace the older light switches with updated paddle switches, swap some of the regular outlets for ones with built-in USB/charging ports, and continue updating some of the little hardware throughout the house.

    We’ll leave the GFCI outlet work to our electrician, and I will also have him install dimmer switches on some of the lights.

  • Weekend 3: We Learned How To Change Light Fixtures

    Weekend 3: We Learned How To Change Light Fixtures

    This weekend we learned something new!

    We had an electrician out to replace our breaker box and complete some electrical work around the house. While he was there, I asked him if he could install a few of our new light fixtures. Instead, he looked at me and said, “You can do these yourself.” He walked us through the process, gave us some tips, and even told me to FaceTime him if I got stuck. (And yes… I absolutely sent him photos and asked a few questions along the way! 😂)

    I wanted the clean look of recessed lighting without having to tear into the ceilings, so I ordered ultra-thin LED disk lights (suggested by the electrician). They are amazing! They sit almost flush with the ceiling, have adjustable color temperatures so you can choose the warmth or brightness of the light, and instantly modernized the rooms.

    We replaced several of the old “boob lights” throughout the house along with the outdated closet fixtures, and I honestly couldn’t be happier with how they turned out.

    My husband installed the first couple–even though he said that he would never touch electrical work. After watching him, I decided to try and installed one by myself.

    Scary wires…not so scary anymore
    Before Replacement in Hallway
    After Replacement Hallway
    Before Replacement in Closet
    After Replacement Closet
    After Replacement Closet

    Outside, I pressure washed the wooden porch swing, and I couldn’t believe the difference. Years of dirt disappeared, and it almost looks brand new. Now I’m thinking about staining it.

    Swing Before Pressure Wash
    Swing After Pressure Wash

    I also finished swapping the old frosted glass shades on two more ceiling fans, including the master bedroom and one of my daughters’ rooms. My next project is figuring out whether the yellowing on the fan blades can be cleaned off or if it’s time to order replacement blades.

    On Amazon I ordered an outdoor swing for the kids. While we’re painting, installing lights, etc., this gives them something to do. They seem to really like it!

  • Weekend 2: Little DIYs

    Weekend 2: Little DIYs

    This past weekend we did a lot of small things that made a big difference at least for me.

    We had some electrical work done (breaker box redo—wiring etc) so we got the electrician to also swap out the front porch lights for beautiful black farmhouse lanterns that I found on Amazon. I loved the look so much that I got the matching smaller version and got it installed by the back door as well. The lights have a built in sensor and turn on when it gets darker outside. That instantly made the front porch look more modern. I also put in some warm white candle bulbs that look beautiful.

    Before changing the lights
    After changing the lights

    Next came one of the biggest transformations for the smallest investment: painting the front door matte black. It’s amazing how a simple coat of paint can completely change the look of an entryway.

    We also pulled out the pressure washer and cleaned the walkway leading up to the porch. I didn’t get to the entire front porch this weekend, I did the pathway first. 1/2 of the porch Sunday and this week will finish the other 1/2. The difference is night and day!

    Inside of the house the girls and I kept the DIY projects going. I taught my 13 & 10 year old how to use a drill properly (working on theatre sets for years gave me a handy skill set). I had them remove every hinge from the interior doors that we’re keeping and replace them with matte black hinges. Then we swapped out all of the old door knobs for modern lever-style handles. They loved working on this surprisingly. The hinges and doorknobs (we bought the keyless lock ones for bedrooms and the ones without locks for closets and pantry etc). were super affordable on Amazon.

    None of this weekends projects were huge— but we are progressing along. It’s exciting to watch it all slowly transform.

  • Quick Update: A Simple Upgrade

    My favorite projects are turning out to be the most simple projects lol. Since our budget is a bit limited, I wanted to preserve some of the fans that came with the house, but they were very dated and I thought that the lighting that was in them was definitely dating them even more.

    Instead of replacing two perfectly good ceiling fans, we decided to give them a quick refresh. We swapped out the old frosted glass shades for clear glass, and the change instantly made the fans look more modern and let a lot more light into the rooms.

    I love finding little budget-friendly updates like this because they help stretch our renovation dollars while still giving the house a fresh, updated feel.

    One simple swap, a little time, and a whole new look. On to the next project! 🏡

    I used this glass from Amazon, which I liked a lot. It came in really quick. I liked the weathered look and I did these Edison bulbs.

    This one was a tiny upgrade. Everything together was about $70, but it helped me to preserve the fans that were already there not have to switch out any type of fixture or mess with any electrical and once the paneling is gone and the room is painted it should fit right in.