Chaos Eye Candy

This is partially a response to everyone who thinks that our home is always clean, organized and ‘in order’ (Umm.. No.) and partially to show the progress we’ve been making lately!

First, the addition. This may not look like progress, and I am kicking myself for not taking a before photo, but this is serious upgrade. This room was serving as toy central for the girls. It was temporary, and we never intended for it to get out of control. But it did. And now we’ve paid for it, after spending several hours removing everything and racking our brains to come up with storage options, without overwhelming the rest of the house with toys. We did a lot of purging and donating and took full advantage of all the new storage in the dining room. We still have plenty of work to do before demo begins, but here’s where we’re currently standing.

We’re going to work as many of the remaining furniture pieces into the rest of the house, and store the others.. somewhere?

Sorry for the project blinder above. We couldn’t have any makeover spoiling

We’re playing around with the idea of holding onto this fireplace and using it outdoors in the future. Some big plans are in the works for next summer outdoors, and this guy would be so cozy in an outdoor living area!

Obviously, this room was a bit of a dumping ground.

But.. the real issue at hand is behind those doors. This room. It served as a ‘tool room’ while we renovated the main areas of the house, and now… well, now it has anything from lamps to rocking horses to giant leftover foam pieces. Spring can not come soon enough. Time for a yard sale. Except the addition reno is starting now. So… we have to figure something out here. Quick.

Basically, we’ve done some clearing. Maybe half. Plenty more to do before demo can begin. Which actually works out in our advantage for another reason. We’re hoping to have the first half of the house complete, construction wise, before we start ripping apart the second half. So two things on our checklist: crown molding in the bedrooms and renovating the laundry room. We’ll work simultaneously on that checklist as we continue to clear out the addition. Nothing like sending our minds into ten different directions at once. I feel like we’re beginning to master that to some degree.

Now, the second half of this post – the laundry room progress. The last few times we checked in we’d installed drywall, demo’d, and replaced the appliances. See our original plans for the room here. This past week or so, Ricky has been tackling the finishing stages of the drywall. The walls in here were a disaster. Not sure what went down with previous owners, but ultimately, we decided to skim coat the entire room, versus patching the holes individually. The walls and ceiling. Good times.

He also added in a recessed can light in the smaller area of the space and wired the option for a ceiling light in the main room. We haven’t settled on a specific light just yet, but I’m hoping to do something fun! Maybe even a DIY project? We’ll see

You’ll also notice that we finished moving the washing machine and dryer to their new homes. The room feels twice the size, just by doing this step. You can see where they were previously here.

We’re planning a floor to ceiling cleaning/storage cabinet just to the left of the washing machine and open shelves above the appliances themselves. The cabinet will completely disguise all of the pipes running vertically along the wall.

Building the mudroom portion of the room will probably come at a later time, but just to give you an idea, we’re thinking a bench of some sort with hooks above for the wall below (with the ladder).

I’ve already finished priming the entire room at this point and we’re hoping to wrap up paint this weekend. Fingers crossed!

Then we’re ready for floors, doors, trim, the good stuff! Oh yeaaa.

It’s always entertaining to see a decorated room in the background of this chaos.