Demo Day!
We signed the pile of mortgage docs and now we own a farm!! Time to move in, right? Ummm, not exactly.
After buying the property, with a small farmhouse on it, the day finally came where we could take the boys to see our new place! I had been to the farmhouse and knew there was work to be done, however, this time, when we walked in, it was now MY farmhouse with a TON OF WORK TO BE DONE! As I walked around, I started making a mental checklist… I then went and grabbed some paper and made a real checklist! From day one, I couldn’t get my mind off of all the fun projects in store for us.
Rhett wanted to move right in, and I said, “NO WAY!” I wanted this to feel like home when we came here for relaxing weekends. This was our home now and it needed to feel as nice as our home in the city. So we agreed to work on it and make it a beautiful getaway before we moved in.
The first time we went, before buying the property, I took a ton of pictures. I took pictures of doors, floors, and even got on all fours! (My inner Dr. Suess just came out there…) I had wanted to remember what I was working with and everything that needed to be done. With pictures in hand and a checklist I had written, I got out the architectural plans and started red-lining right away. Here’s the start to my to-do list.
- demo all bedroom closets and bookcases
- tear out all doors, casing, and moldings
- tear out carpet and padding
- get a bid on moving the electrical panel
- move doorway to the master bathroom
- tear out closets in the mudroom
- cover old doorway to the bathroom
- remove large pantry in kitchen
- make the entrance to kitchen larger
- take out the wood burning stove
- replace toilets
- pick out paint colors
- pick out flooring
- order interior and exterior lighting
- design new mudroom
- prune tree overtaking front deck
- order a new hot tub cover.
Here is the BEFORE picture of one of the bedrooms. As you can see this room was very cramped for the previous owners. My plan is to take out the bookcases so that I can make the room bigger.
Here is the BEFORE picture of what will be the boy’s bunk room. The room is very cramped and so I have decided to eliminate the built-in closet.
The bedrooms were very small and needed to be more space efficient. I couldn’t add on to the rooms so I decided to take out the built-in closets and bookcases so that I could create more space. I even considered building a loft due to the high ceilings and A-frame style. I let that idea go for the moment, as we just wanted it to be ready to move in sooner than later. Maybe in the future…
Bookcases are out!
The kitchen cabinets were only a couple of years old and so they would stay for now but it won’t take long for my husband to like what I have in mind!! Plus we have a cabinet manufacturing company so why not!!
The bathrooms were outdated and needed some TLC. The doors and moldings needed to be modernized and we figured to make it a lovely home, those would just have to be thrown out and replaced with brand new.
So here’s the crazy thing, for the first time since I can remember, I had something else to think about besides my work at The Cabinet Gallery. My work always took over my thoughts and it was so hard for me to escape it. My sister Karen would tease me by saying, “cabinets! cabinets! cabinets!” In otherwords, please talk about something other than work!!
Once we took possession of the property, working weekends at the office was a thing of the past. We had a great staff in the showroom, and for the first time, I felt like I could delegate and step away on the weekends (something my husband had been telling me to do for years, but I just couldn’t do it). We only had the weekends at the farm, and we had a lot to accomplish before we could move in.
We spent our first weekend at the farm putting a plan together, and by the next weekend, we had a dumpster delivered and got to work! Rhett, me, and our four boys were ripping out everything we could get our hands on. The boys were loving getting to use a sledgehammer and they were taking turns knocking down walls. When one was on the sledgehammer, the other three were working just as hard ripping up flooring and loading the dumpster.
To be honest, I’ve never seen my boys work so hard. They were laughing and having so much fun while working together! I stood back at one point, taking the camera away from my face, wiping the sweat off my forehead, and thought about how wonderful life has become.
Since the closet has been removed it will be the perfect spot for a full sized bunk bed. There will also be plenty of floor space to add a dresser and still have enough room for the boys to play.
It wasn’t just my boys. My 76-year-old mother was making sure she was getting in on the action. Within that first day, we had bookcases, bedroom carpets, doors, and moldings out of the house and in the dumpster, ready to be hauled away. It was quite a mission and I am still surprised at how much we got done.
The closet, doors, moldings, and carpet are out! Thanks to my 76-year-old mom for kicking butt!!
Here is the BEFORE picture of the master bedroom. There is a huge closet which is over two feet deep. Once the closet is removed I will have an ideal place to put a king-sized bed. Since we won’t have any room for nightstands I am going to add pendant lights on each side of the bed. As for the closet space, I’ve got plans which will be revealed soon. Stay tuned, this room is going to look amazing and feel so much bigger!!
With Demo Day 1 behind us, we have still got a long way to go. What I have learned is that demo is the easy part. Check in on our next posts to see what comes next!
