I had so much fun sharing my empty home tour with you guys yesterday. So, I wanted to share a quick update on what’s changed since shooting that video, which we shot about three weeks ago. You might be thinking, “Whoa, you’re not moved in yet?!?” I’ve been thinking the same thing. 🙂 Well, sort of. We decided to wait to move in until a few updates were completed. I’ll share more on that in a second.
First, the photo above pretty much sums up my life from the past few weeks (outside of work and a friend’s wedding we went to one weekend). I’ve spent about 40 hours painting over half our house. We’re waiting on a few other things too, so I decided to try and get all the painting in the living areas, my office and the kitchen done before we move in. We aren’t painting any of the bedrooms, bathrooms, or the mudroom/laundry room yet. I probably will in the next few years, but those rooms are easier to tackle one at a time without feeling like our whole world is getting painted. So I’m not worrying about them yet. I’m a slow decorator. I like to take my time and this also helps to spread out the expense. Speaking of expense, we saved over $2000 painting the house ourselves. Wahoo! Painting is seriously one of the best ways to save money in any renovation project, but it definitely takes time and you have to enjoy painting a little. I listened to both seasons of Start Up while painting the first two weeks and loved it. Then I ran out of episodes and I started to hate painting. Lesson learned: I need to listen to more podcasts or download an audio book.
What else has been going on while I’ve been painting? Well, we’re getting new kitchen counter tops. I got lots of samples and a few quotes and I’m excited to show you what I picked once they are installed! Sadly, they won’t be done until after our trip to Europe next month, so we won’t be moving in until then. But we already removed the old counter tops so we could paint. I’m having a painter (Tomy—he’s awesome) paint the kitchen cabinets. You can see he’s already working on the doors and has started sanding/prepping to paint.
Here’s our old counter tops. Shortly after I snapped this photo they were donated to the Habitat for Humanity Restore.
And here’s the main reason we haven’t moved in yet—we wanted to wait until our fence and dog door were complete. Our dogs are pretty spoiled and are used to a fenced in yard and dog door so they can go in and out pretty much all day long whenever they please. Our house had a chain link fence along the back of the property but no fence along the sides. So we’re getting that added this week.
Random updates, but just wanted to share! Hope you all are having an awesome weekend. I am finishing up painting, so I’ll be ready to rejoin society this coming week. 🙂 xo. Emma
Credits // Author and Photography: Emma Chapman. Photos edited with A Beautiful Mess actions.
wow what stunning floorboards, gunna be amazing when it’s finished! xx
http://art-love-fashion.blogspot.com.au
Favorite features are the wooden floors and parts of the ceiling
I love seeing the messy bits of the progress! Those wood ceilings are so great!
You guys are really getting in there and getting this work done fast! I love all these updates!
Paige
http://thehappyflammily.com
Yes, it’s right around $2000 for the labor and supplies. I have a LOT of cabinets so depending how much you have it could be less, or more depending on your city. Things tend to be fairly cheap in Missouri compared to, like Los Angeles or New York. Just FYI.
-Emma
It’s actually faux wood-lamiate. Still nice but I do wish they were actual hardwoods. Oh well, I have my ceilings to look up at. 🙂
-Emma
Whoa. Really?! I’ll see if we have that in my town, if so you may have just changed my life. Seriously.
-Emma
Oh man, thanks for the recs! I will for sure be checking them out. I was painting again this weekend and discovered Limetown and also Magic Lessons, both really good but very different. 😉
-Emma
We’re gonna rent it out. I’ve never owned a rental before but my grandfather used to own quite a few in his hometown and it was a good source of income for his family while my dad was growing up. So I thought we’d give it a try and see how we like it.
-Emma
Yes, it is a Rancher. I live in Springfield, Missouri which is smack dab in the middle of the country. 🙂
-Emma
Yes, I had one other reader suggest this. I have about ZERO graphic design skills but I’m going to see if I can get some help and get that made at some point so you’ll be able to better understand the layout.
Thanks for the thought!
-Emma
Thank you so much-glad you like the site and thanks for the nice words about my home. 🙂
Welcome!
-Emma
It’s gorgeous! Love the floors.
I listen to podcasts while I work too. Some other favorites to keep you going: TED Radio Hour (so good!), This American Life (of course), Tiny Sense of Accomplishment (for writers mostly), Criminal (if you like true crime stories)…there are so many great ones, but I always binge on them all at once, and then move on.
LOVE that fence!! This is awesome Emma!
For your trip to Amsterdam, you might want to read those two post I`ve written about my stay there 🙂
https://carolinespassion.wordpress.com/travel-2/amsterdam-part-i/
https://carolinespassion.wordpress.com/travel-2/amsterdam-part-ii/
Hope that helps!
Wow! I love the flooring!
http://www.sincerelybitter.com
It looks so great already! What color paint did you use?
Love it so far. http://www.hannamarielei.com
Yours and Trey’s house is gorgeous Emma! I can’t wait to see more!
I’m so glad you Guys are painting everything in the main area, especially the cabinets and trim! It’s such a great space but needs a lot of brightening up! (I’ve seen this house in person when it was on the market) So excited for you guys! I’m sure your arms are so tired from painting!