Breaking Walls and Building Dreams

As I mentioned in my previous post, we bought Sarah in July last year. We have done a lot of remodeling to the home since it was purchased. Here is a list of all the things that we've done so far, hopefully, I will be able to put pictures in another post for your viewing pleasure.

• Took down wallpaper - ugly 1970's wallpaper.
• With the help of a contractor, we tore down a wall between the laundry room and "third bedroom". I write it with quotes because it was just a small craft room off of the laundry room that had a cabinet taken out of the laundry room and put into the small yellow room so that the realtor could call it a third bedroom. The house is actually a 2 bedroom house. We combined the craft room with the laundry room to make a larger room which we call the "command center". It's part office, laundry room, and kids play area.
• Took out a broken window in the back of the house and installed a 6' sliding-glass door in it's place. This door looks AWESOME in our command center and it makes the backyard so much easier for my children to access. Before, we would have to go in the driveway and around to fence to get to the gate to get into the backyard.
• Took the siding from off the back of the house to install glass door. then used excess siding from where the door went to patch a random door on the side of the house that went to nowhere from the previous home-owners' remodel. Took the door off and patched the siding. The door went onto our front door as a screen door.
• Painted the interior. Lots and lots of painting. Every room in the house and every closet (except for the bathroom which we will update in the future). We painted every ceiling and all the trim as well as patched holes in the walls.
• Installed fencing along the back of the house, which is against a field. In this field there is a cell tower, a gravel quarry, and an active train track line.
• Removed the old clunky, red-flagged by the gas company for being outdated and dangerous, furnace. Replaced said furnace with a brand-spanking-new 95% efficiency gas furnace. Apparently, it will pay for itself in the energy savings within 10 years of owning it. Plus, it keeps our house oh-so-warm in the cold winter months.
• Removed all the old STINKY carpet.
• Replaced said carpet with new laminate wood flooring for every room in the house (except the bathroom). It took a log time but was well worth the effort. Installing the wood flooring really helped to recapture the farmhouse feel that we were going for.
• We had to do a lot of electrical work to replace the knob and tube wiring. Plus move some light sockets to better locations, add electrical outlets to rooms that needed more than 1 socket in the room. We added a cadet heater and thermostat in the "command center" because of the remodel. It had horribly inefficient wall heaters before that needed to be replaced.
• We switched out a lot of the lighting for new and updated lighting. We installed LED lights and a ceiling fan in the command center. We changed out the light for a modern lamp in the mud room. We put in a pendant light above the sink in the kitchen, and we added flood lights in the back yard next to the sliding door.

This house has been a labor of love over the past 10 months that we've been home owners. We've done a lot of work to make it livable, but we want to do more that just live here. We want to excel here.