House renovation is a never ending project… Or, at least in our case it is! We moved into our new home in Richardson Texas in late May 2018. The day we signed the papers, we drove straight to the house with our sledgehammers. It was demo-day! I know you’re probably thinking we’re a bit crazy for starting the work started right after picking up our keys, but we were READY. Ready to start a new chapter together, ready to get our hands dirty (and ready to see what we would have to hire out to some DFW remodeling bad-asses).
Main Floor Projects
Demolition in Kitchen and Dining Area
I don’t really have much to advise here… Mainly just a statement. DEMO IS FUN.
But also really draining on your body.
We had a few tools (sledge hammer, crow bar, hammer) loaned to us by Austin’s friends which saved us from having to spend a bunch on tools. I highly recommend you ask around to borrow things before throwing your dollar bills at tools you won’t use often. Sharing is caring. We tore out a few china cabinets to give us more room for a kitchen table, a pantry (because it was too small and affected what size of fridge we could buy) and an old school desk/shelf that phones sat on. Doesn’t sound like much, but it made a big difference in usable square footage.
The other demo we did was small in comparison… Removed some unnecessary doors, fake wood paneling on half a wall… I’m sure there was something else but that’s all I can pin point right now.
Main Floor Paint Colors
Okay you guys, painting, yeah, it is the real deal. It seems like an “easy and cheap” way to facelift your house… and technically it is, but it isn’t at the same time. It’s some real sweat labor. I wouldn’t do it any other way, because at the end of the day we are capable of painting our own walls and trim, but I wish I wasn’t so shocked by the pain I was in after day one of using a roller.
We checked out both Lowes and Sherwin Williams for paint. With a coupon, Sherwin Williams is a great place to pick up a few gallons, but without a coupon I can’t justify the price difference. Lowes has been the main source of all of the paint in our home. We love the staff at the Lowes Richardson Mall location.
When I tell you I tried every color under the sun, I really did. To this day I have 9 samples in our reno closet… NINE. All for just two rooms. I’m not sure I was indecisive, or just extra careful…
The colors we used for each room are…
Living Room/Kitchen Table Area: Savoury Beige
Laundry Room/Half Bath: Pink Chocolate
Office: Blue Patchwork
Trim/Cabinets: Ultra White
Painting Tools
We learned the hard way when it comes to the paint accessories… It’s better to invest in the more expensive tools vs try to save a few dollars. We ended up double buying everything from tape to brushes. Okay, mainly talking about tape and brushes, but you get the point. Again, BUY THE NICE TAPE, BRUSHES AND ROLLERS, then you don’t have to re-buy things (and re-do them when it doesn’t work out for ya). If that’s the only thing you remember when you start to do your own home, then I’ll feel like I did my job.
Also, there are plenty of DFW remodeling teams that offer paining services, but I don’t have a name for you (sorry!) based on personal experience. If you know of anyone, feel free to leave their info in the comments to share!
Main Floor Flooring
We figured that the demo wouldn’t be too out of our wheelhouse, so we ripped up the carpet on our own. The tile demo… not quite so easy. There are tons of YouTube videos out there, but we weighed the pros/cons of doing it ourselves or hiring a team, ultimately we decided to let the DFW remodeling experts take care of it.
We went with a VINYL WOOD FLOOR throughout the main level (kitchen, living, laundry, office and half bath). This came after tons, and I mean TONS, of research. We looked into all the various types of flooring, visited multiple flooring stores and all of the websites. It was a big financial investment and we were not taking it lightly. I was the crazy girl asking employees 99 questions about the brands, the types, new vs old… But I wouldn’t do it any other way! At the end of the day I had full confidence in our choice to go with a high end vinyl flooring.
Just like the demo, we went with an expert DFW remodeling team to install the flooring. Elite Flooring and Remodeling won our business. They did overwhelm me with vinyl wood samples, but luckily I had a pretty good vision for the look we wanted to achieve.
Fireplace Facelift
We did a lot of research on a cost effective way to give our fireplace a makeover. It was livable… but I knew it wasn’t living up to it’s potential. We were inspired to paint the whole thing white after seeing a few different blog posts about how easy the fix was. We went through a TON of paint (same color as our trim), and a decent amount of brushes were ruining in the process, but it was so worth it.
Master Bedroom Suite
Walk In Closet
I worked with Container Store to create the perfect walk in closet! It fits our functional needs and it’s aesthetically pleasing.
Master Bedroom
Master Bedroom Paint Color: Requisite Gray
Master Bath
More to come… stay tuned!
[…] we moved into our home, we were very aware it would be a renovation project. What I wasn’t privy to was the fact that our dreamy, walk in master bedroom closet was going […]