We have lived in this house for 17 years now and have started upgrading and remodeling. After remodeling both bathrooms, now we are moving on to the rest of the house.
We started by painting the brick in the living room. That was a huge decision because once you paint it, there’s no unpainting it! But we loved LOVED it and it has spurned us on to really tackle stuff we’ve put up with or ignored for years.
Next on the list is new flooring. I would love to pull everything out all at once but we just don’t have the funds for that right now. (Remember we have two kids in college!) So we are starting with the living room. It was an add-on (before we bought the house) and when we first moved in we pulled out the sliding glass doors that were still in there and framed out the doorways. We pulled out the indoor/outdoor carpet and laid a strip of ceramic tile and put carpet in the rest. Now it’s time to pull that tile and carpet out and lay new flooring. I am so happy to be getting rid of the carpet!
We debated between “wood” porcelain tile and luxury vinyl and decided to go with the vinyl. This great post helped me tremendously! Thank you to all of you who weighed in with your vote! We decided to go with the grey one. Eventually we will carry that through the whole house, minus the kitchen and dining room space. I’m really itching to do that area too but that calls for some serious jack which we just don’t have right now.
Step one: remove furniture!
Here’s what we started with. (Warning: many pictures ahead!)
Actually I was itching to get started so you can see that the bookcase in the background is already empty and one couch is already pulled out. Then I remembered that I needed “before” pictures!
Slowly emptying out this room. I didn’t think we’d have enough room to put all this stuff since college kids are home with all their stuff and the garage is already full of Bedder Covers stuff. But little by little we piled it up in the fireplace room. See?
It’s amazing how much this small room can hold when you pile it up! Good thing we have vaulted ceilings! Haha!
Man this is a big room! We just love it!
The desk didn’t make it. As three of us were moving it, it started falling apart! So my brother, his son, Jacob, and I took it apart and my dad will use the pieces for attic flooring in their new house.
I got dad and his buddy Tom (who remodeled our bathrooms) to take down the old track lighting. I’m hoping to put in recessed lighting. We’ll see
This is NOT a sponsored post; it’s just what we ended up getting – luxury vinyl from Floor and Decor. My mother in law recently installed it in her new house and she loves it.
Step two: remove carpet and padding
Our buddy JP arrived from Orlando and we got right to work. He cut the carpet up and removed it as well as the pad. We were happy to see that they didn’t use a ton of glue so the floor was in pretty good shape.
Then he popped up the nail strips.
Step three: remove tile and brick
And used a jack hammer to pull up the tile. It popped right up!
He also pulled out the brick step. The guys had to figure out how to handle the transition.
Step four: create step
After some brainstorming and a trip to Lowe’s, they knew what they had to do. Use a 4X4 to create the base for a new, same-level step.
It worked! Tomorrow the floor gets laid! Woot!!!!
So excited for you! Can’t wait to see the finished room. (And of course all the blog posts of the progress!)
Denise
JP says it will be done tomorrow so feel free to stop by and see it IRL!
So cool! I’m excited for you! Can’t wait to seeit in real life!
Yes! When can you come down??
You and me both! Haha!!
You guys are amazing! Quite the project! Can’t wait to see pictures of the final project!
Can’t wait to show you! 😉
Wow. I am excited to see the transformation. Looks like you have some help that knows what they are doing too.
We are doing a massive kitchen remodel right now. It is going to look so different. It already does after just one week. We are also using luxury vinyl planking in our kitchen. I’ve heard great things.
I want to do my kitchen too but that will have to wait til we save up some more money! I wanna see yours!
Glad to see Dani sharing her remodel with you. So exciting but such hard work and expense. You will both have beautiful spaces when everything is in place. Love the pics of your painted brick and the flooring.
I’m loving it!!
Looks great so far! We need to do some remodeling to our house, but it never seems to be the right time. I need to just do it!
That’s what I had to do! Just pull the trigger!
I’m exhausted just reading this!! I’m excited to see what the floor looks like:)
Thanks Nicole! It was a lot of work but oh so worth it!
We have lived in our house almost 17 years – and our bathroom is getting a remodel this summer. That looks like a big flooring project – can’t wait to see the finished room.
Lisa
Daily Style Finds
We did our bathrooms a few years back. Love them now! Our house needed a little TLC.
Oh, I’m so happy for you! I saw your sneak peek over Instagram and I loved how it looks. Even bigger, which I think it’s always a good thing! 🙂
Looking forward to see more of this room makeover.