House is FOR SALE!

Not sure many of you read my post back in January about things that have been going on/us working towards...but we finally listed our house for sale last week and it goes out in the local newspaper this week! Eeek so exciting, nerve-racking, and bitter-sweet all at the same time!

The last couple months we've been busy going back & fourth with our future house stuff, got that contract signed, and waiting on the title company to do their thing. And we've also been busy getting our bathroom & kitchen redone/updated, plus other little things to get the house ready. In the middle of all of that, I've help hosted one of my besties (Mel) baby showers in KC (I'll do a post on that soon), we celebrated our 2nd anniversary this last weekend (crazy time is flying), seen George Strait in concert for the 4th time (and apparently the last), D busy with his Fire Fighter 1 classes & test, D passing his Fire Fighter 1 test (now he's certified and registered -- so unbelievably proud of my husband) and tried to stay completely sane while being so darn busy. Well we've survived, now just to get our house sold! :)

Oversized detached garage

living room area

Bathroom (you can't see all of our updates, but the toilet is one of them.
The shower/tub we completely ripped out and put a new tub & shower walls up. It looks so much better!

Bedroom

Kitchen - we added the backsplash finally, and we LOVE it! We wished we would've done it sooner!

Our home is a 2 bedroom, 1 bath, with oversized detached garage. The house has been recently renovated/updated, partial basement w/ crawl space, and completely fenced in backyard with a small garden shed. The oversized garage measures 30'x48', has concrete floors, heated, and was built 3 years ago. If you know anyone looking for a home in "smalltown" western ks, please have them contact me for more details.


© [Kayla] and [Small Town Lift], [2010-2014]. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to [Kayla] and [Small Town Life] with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Our 4th & Laundry!

It's Thursday and I'm just now writing "Hope you had an awesome 4th!!" blog post.  No, but seriously, I hope you all had a great one!  Ours was awesome, but I didn't capture any pictures.  =( 

Friday my Mom came into town; we went out for supper and beers with some friends, it was a lot of fun!  Saturday I realized that our washer & dryer were almost capootz, and we should probably go see if there were any fabulous deals going on for the 4th.  I'm so glad we did, because we got an awesome steal from Sears!!  They had a "Hot Buy" for the weekend, washer and dryer were marked down to $699 each!  That price was already 40% off of the original price, plus we got an additional 5% off our total if we used our Sears Card (which also lead us to 0% interest for 6 months)...SCORE!  But the steal didn't stop there...D was looking online at the store and realized that online had a promotion going on for when you purchase the washer & dryer at the same time, they'll take even more off of the washer.  So online the washer was marked down to like $429 (in that price range anyways).  The store manager didn't really like the idea of giving us that deal in the store, so we were about to purchase our set online.  We wanted to put it on our new Sears Credit Card, but needed the info...the call center wouldn't give us the expiration date or the code on the back.  There is a really good reason behind that...they didn't want us to think they would just give our info out to anyone that called in.  So, yes, thank you Sears Credit Card company for protecting us.  But we were back at square one.  We were getting a little discouraged, and I think the salesperson was too.  The store manager was looking online to see what promo we were talking about...he finally saw it with his own eyes.  I kept asking (mainly just for fun!) "are you sure you can't give us that deal?!", until he finally broke down.  The deal steal was ours!!!  OMG...we couldn't believe it...he actually gave into us!!  We practically got the washer for free when you look at the original price!  Now that's what I call WINNING!!!  Moral of the story...it doesn't hurt to keep asking for something you may/may not get!


Kenmore Elite Top Load Washer and Electric Dryer


We went last night to pick it up and I can't wait to get our old set out, and to hook up our new set!  We aren't going to know what to do with ourselves...it will actually be really quiet in our house when we're doing laundry!  And no more washer scooting across the room!!

Back to our weekend...Saturday night on our way back we stopped at the Casino for supper with family and friends, and to do a little gambling.  We didn't do very good, but I didn't put that much money in either.  I'm not a huge gambler, so like in an hour or so I'm finished!  Sunday, Mom and I got our food together for the pool party, potted a new hibiscus plant for our porch, watched a movie, and finally went to the pool.  D worked on their new water truck for the fire department all day, and joined us for a little bit before having to leave to go work the fire show.  The pool was a blast, and the firework show was ok.  Monday, we didn't do a whole lot, mainly rested up from the long weekend.  D got called out on 2 fires Monday afternoon, thankfully they were the only ones the whole weekend.

Did you guys do anything fun over the 4th?

Happy Anniversary...1 year of home ownership!! Before & Afters!!

1 year ago today, May 26th, 2010,  D and I closed on our first home!  I can't believe that it's been a whole year already!!!  We've already made a lot of memories in our home, had lots of visitors, and a couple of fun gatherings!  I guess what they say is right...Time flies by when you're having a good time!! 

We didn't actually move in until July 4th weekend, but the wait was well worth it!  In that time span we made a beauty shop into our HOME (I really wish I would've taken pictures with all of the salon stuff still in there)!!  There was a lot of sweat, blood, and tears that went into it.  During the week, we would work all day, and then go straight to the house working until 11pm most nights (some nights it was until the wee hours of the morning).   And on the weekends, that's all we did.  We did probably 90% of the work ourselves, with some help from family and friends along the way.  We had to hire a contractor in the beginning to knock down a couple columns and finish them out, and then hired a carpenter to install the carpet.

Here is what we all did to our home, along with some before and after shots (really long post, stay with me!):

Living Room/Dining Room-
*Knocked down 2 columns to make the living room bigger (aka so our huge couch would fit!)
*Tore down old tile ceiling (probably from the 60's) and put up a new dry wall ceiling, textured, and painted
*Replaced 1 old ceiling fan in the Living Room, and took down fluorescent lighting fixture in the Dining Room and installed a matching ceiling fan
*Painted all of the trim (it was a navy blue)
*Painted the wood paneling (including an accent wall!)
*Tore up laminate flooring, installed new pretty soft carpet
*Installed Crown Molding around ceiling (probably never again!)



Living Room - before
Notice the columns and flooring

Living Room - before
Her reception station was by the door



Dining Room - before (kind of)
Her hair stations were along the long wall



Living Room - after
Columns are gone, Trim is white, and no more laminate flooring

Living Room - after
No more Columns or Laminate Flooring...on looking Dining Room area



Living Room - after
Columns are gone, opened it up to 1 large room

Dining Room - after
This table is too big for the area, we know...we will be getting a new one soon!!

Guest Bedroom-
*Sanded and Painted wood paneling (hadn't ever been painted before)
*Textured ceiling and painted
*Painted small closet (it was ugly wood!)
*Tore up Berber carpet and installed new pretty soft carpet



Guest Bedroom - before
Used to be a tanning room with a paper mural on the walls
Notice Berber carpet



Guest Room - before
Ugly wood closet




Guest room - before



Guest room - after
No more Berber carpet, and painted paneling



Guest room - after
No more Ugly Wood Closet...Painted same color as accent wall



Guest room - after
Bernie had to sneak in the photo!



Guest room - after

 Our Bedroom-
*Repaired cracks in walls (mudded and sanded)
*Primed walls and ceiling with Kiltz Paint (walls were bright yellow, and ceiling was bright blue with clouds...tanning room!)
*Textured walls and ceiling
*Painted walls and ceiling (no more bright colors for that room!)
*Tore up Berber Carpet and installed new pretty soft carpet
*Replaced an old nasty ceiling fan with a new one
*Installed new window air conditioner



Our Bedroom - before
Used to be the other tanning room...yes, bright walls and cloud ceiling
And Berber carpet



Our Bedroom - before

Our Bedroom - before
Yep...pretty bright!



Our Bedroom - after
No more bright yellow walls or clouds on the ceiling!
No more Berber carpet




Our Bedroom - after




Our Bedroom - after
Look no more clouds and a new ceiling fan!

 Bathroom-
*Installed plumbing for shower head, and installed shower head
*Replaced faucet, and knobs to match shower head
*Installed matching medicine cabinet (matches the existing vanity)
*Textured walls and ceiling
*Painted walls and ceiling



Bathroom - before




Bathroom - before
Notice old medicine cabinet, probably from the 60's or 70's.




Bathroom - after
No pictures of the actual shower installed...sorry!




Bathroom - after
New Medicine Cabinet that matches vanity...and it's centered!




Bathroom - after
Just some cute decor!

 Kitchen-
*Tore down wall paper, just to find out how bad the plaster walls were
*Repaired cracks in walls (mudded and sanded...gotta love old plaster walls)
*Textured walls and painted
*Removed old free standing cabinets into the mud/pantry/laundry room to become our pantry
*Painted old stationary cabinets
*Tore off old laminate counter top, installed new counter top
*Installed new sink and faucet
*Installed new molding around ceiling (we damaged too much of the old stuff when we took it down)
*Purchased new Refrigerator and Stove



Kitchen - before
Notice old laminate counter top




Kitchen - before
These are the free standing cabinets that used to be in the kitchen
Notice the old laminate counter top and wallpaper




Kitchen - before
Empty wall with wallpaper




Kitchen - before




Kitchen - after
New counter top, new sink and faucet, new paint!




Kitchen - after
New Stove and Bakers Rack, new paint




Kitchen - after
New Refrigerator (on the empty wall)




Kitchen - after
Out little Bar!
No more wallpaper, textured walls, new paint!




Kitchen - after
New counter top, and new sink and faucet!

 Mud/Pantry/Laundry Room- (it was a nice color of paint already, didn't need any work) -no pictures, sorry!
*Installed free standing cabinet (with new counter top) for our pantry

So as you can tell from the list and pictures, we had a lot of work to do before we could move in!  There are still some other things we want to accomplish, but I'll save that for another post! 

Sorry the pictures aren't the best, but at least you've seen the before and afters!!! ;)


I'll be this up next week after we return home! 

Linking up too...
It's A Blog Party
The Girl Creative
Today's Creative Blog
The Shabby Chic Cottage
What Allie's Making Now
Somewhat Simple
Paisley's Passions
Lovely Crafty Home
The Sisters of the Wild West
Polka Dots on Parade
Purple Froggie Clay Stuff

Organizing: Basement - aka decrapifying!

BEFORE I GET DOWN TO THE NITTY GRITTY OF THIS POST, I WANT YOU ALL TO KNOW D AND I HAVE LIVED IN OUR {SMALL} TOWN FOR 1 YEAR!  LAST FRIDAY WAS EXACTLY 1 YEAR THAT WE HAVE LIVED HERE AND TUESDAY WAS OUR 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY WORKING FOR D'S DAD...WE LOVE IT HERE AND COULDN'T BE HAPPIER!! :) :)

Sunday after lunch, D and I set out to clean out our basement!  It was time.  The weather was gorge outside on Sunday, which got me in the cleaning mood (wish I was like that all the time - HA!).  We started on it at 1:00pm and didn't stop until 7:00pm.  Yeah.  It was that bad.  I already hated going down there, because it's really creepy, dark, gross, but before we cleaned and organized everything, it seriously looked like something you would see on Hoarders!  I am not joking people...it was EXTRA CREEPY, plain and simple.  Now it doesn't look to shabby!  We felt very accomplished with how everything turned out! 

Now, first, let me kind of explain our basement to you.  It is not a basement we'll ever be able to refinish, it's just for storage.  It's nothing pretty to look at (remember it's CREEEPY!) and it's old.  Our house was built back in the late 30's to early 40's, and for some reason they put the floor furnace right smack dab in the middle of the room, so you literally have to duck or go around it.  Plus there are beams and pipes going every which way, and the ceiling isn't very high.  On one side there is a crawl space (which is even creepier to look at, I think), and goes under the stairs and ends on a ledge thing.  The one side is covered in this 60's-70's nasty fabric (we're thinking one day, we'll redo that!), and the side by the stairs is open.  There is also one side of the basement where it looks like the side might cave in.  However, I guess it's been like that forever and the previous owners said it hasn't changed.  It does make me nervy, so I try not to look at it (we plan on eventually getting some jacks for support on that side).  So that is the low down before I start showing pictures!

We first moved everything over (or most everything) to one side of the room and started going through boxes of stuff.  Here are the befores (taken after we moved most everything to one side of the room and started going through stuff; taken on my phone)...

looks like an episode of Hoarders...eeek!

We put up shelving units (nope, none of them actually match...oops!) to house pantry/everyday items, Bernie's food, camping and hunting stuff, canning goods, etc.  We actually had a lot of almost empty and empty boxes down there from when we moved in, so we went through everything.  If we didn't have a use for it, if it was trash, or something we didn't need, we got rid of it by either putting it in a garage sale/goodwill pile, or throw away pile (there was a lot of that!).  We utilized empty tubs and those plastic rolling drawers to house certain items.  I even had to use the shop vac to suck up the dirt on the floors and cobwebs at the ceiling.  By the time we were done, there was a huge pile of empty boxes and a lot of stuff we tossed; I wish I would've taken a picture of that part.  So after all of the sorting, organizing, purging, decrapifying we did, it turned out pretty darn good!  Here is our basement after!


Random Chair, Red Tub, and pictures on back dresser
are part of the garage sale/goodwill pile

 

So organized and clean!



Labeled all of the tubs and remaining boxes
so we know what's in each container!

Some of D's hunting and camping/survival stuff



Our painting/house hardware cabinet

 
Eventually our shelves will be full of pantry stuff, but that is going to take some time (and $$).  We are also planting a garden this Spring, so hopefully we'll can some stuff.  2 Summers ago we had a small garden when we still lived in the big city, but we never did can anything.  We just froze it all and used the veggies as we went along.  I like the idea of canning much better!

Had to show you it's right in the middle!

 

Oh yeah...I hope I can do it!!

So this beaut was left here from the previous owners, which they said it was there when they purchased it 11 years ago!  So I'm thinking she's been down there for quite sometime now.  They tried moving it, but it was really heavy so they left it.  I doubt I'll be able to paint it if it's that heavy, and our stairs are way too steep to carry something like that up it.  Like I said, I don't like our basement, so if I am brave enough I want to clean her up, wipe all of the cob webs and dust off, and vacuum out the drawers.  I think she would be perfect for my craft and gift wrapping supplies.  What do you think?!  So stay tuned to see if I can work up enough courage to do it!!!

So do you have a creepy basement that you hate going down into, or is it just me?!


Linking up to...
The Shabby Chic Cottage
Somewhat Simple