Back tracking project

Okay guys...GOOD MORNING!

I am sitting here with my coffee beside me and finally a list of pictures from the projects we have done.

When I say something is a "small project", I am referring to the fact that it is less expensive or in a very small area.

The one I am posting about today was a small area, being it was our downstairs foyer and half bath. However, it took me 2 days to complete this.

I loath a popcorn ceiling!!! Obviously whoever thought these were a good idea never thought it through. These are just cobweb holders, lets be real here folks...They discolor over the years because you can not really ever clean them, and if there is a vent in your ceiling or a ceiling fan then over time it will become dirty around it from the build up of dust. These came to be because they are "cheap", there is no finishing required and a builder can just spray this over the drywall and it is done. That is why they exist.

Now because of this, after wetting and scrapping drywall that is not finished underneath it tears up the drywall in little places, which means it needs to be skim coated with the mud and sanded down to make it nice and smooth.

Then we did something that we have only ever done 1 time before...we hired someone to come fix the walls.

My husband knows a guy that does great work, so we hired him to come by and skim coat the walls for us. Then we did the painting. We don't usually pay people to do things we can do ourselves. My husband can do the skim coating but it would take us a month to get it all done. We don't either one of us do it enough to be good at it...and I can promise you it wouldn't look as good as it does now with a professional doing it, hahaha. 

The only thing you need to do this project is hot water in a spray bottle ( I used a pump sprayer this time), a large scrapper, plastic to drape your furniture, and usually the flooring, and most important thing...a MASK! (I learned this lesson the hard way when I scrapped the ceiling the year prior in the den without one.)  For us, we just had concrete flooring at the time down there, so I didn't worry about covering it. I just swept and used the shop vac to get it up.

This project somewhat became a family affair, my girls would come scrape a little to give my arms a break, and the little one helped by cleaning the floors for me as we went. My husband painted it when all was done.

I will post the pictures of it from beginning to end below. In the last two photos, you will notice there is flooring in the area. That post is coming, these were the photos I have of it all pretty though 😁

walls in half bath before

walls in half bath before

ceiling in foyer before

Ceiling before

me all masked up

little one double masked, haha

me scrapping

floors with no covering

daughter spraying

Foyer finished, even floors, that post is coming....

1/2 bath finished, floor post to come. 

Surprise!

Yep! It is me...I didn't fall down a rabbit hole or accidentally flush myself, hahaha, but life has just been more than we could handle at times.

I have been working 2 jobs for over a year, switched real estate companies, and still temping in dental and medical. 

Don't worry, you haven't missed too much. We had to put most projects on hold until the last couple of months here.

I have had a lot of people in the last six months though to say we should put our house online, showing the differences...then some have told me I should be a blogger...well, I have done both, just not in a long time as you can see from the times of post.

After talking with my daughter who is a blogger, and so many people asking to put the improvements on line, well I have decided to bring my blog back alive, but not just on the house...it will show all the things we do here on the house, and still on a shoestring budget, but I am going to add some other things to my blogging as well.

My blog here will also start covering day to day life with a family and a budget. It will be a way to hopefully help others with things such as feeding a family of 4-7 on a budget. Really any size family can learn from it and get some kind of take away.

With the holidays coming, you will even be carried along with me to decorate the house from top to bottom. So when the videos go up you may hear a colorful word or two as you see some of the cleaning, decorating or building. I will try to keep myself in check with it though. :-)

I hope that all of you who were following me before will stick around to see all that will be posted. This blog is about to fill up with all kinds of good stuff.

The projects that we have done since last post were the stone tile floors, a fence for the back yard, removal of brick backsplash in the kitchen, some paint, some trim, new stair treads this week (still not finished there or with the trim work). There will be tons of pics to come this week and some extra blog post on budgeting for family life.

Something else to come, we are about to start a refinance of our house and the plan is to take you on the ride for that as well. As real estate brokers we understand the process well, but the general public doesn't. So I thought it may be a good idea to show the process.

When I post some things you guys please feel free to comment on the post. The feedback lets me know what you guys think of it, as well as some things that you may have done on a budget that have worked for you.