Operation: Green House

This past weekend, Drew, Andrew, and I drove up to Albertville for a wedding.  The bride looked gorgeous and the reception was stunning.  I pulled out my camera to take some pictures, but alas, my battery was dead.  What a bummer!  So you'll just have to believe me when I tell you how gorgeous it was.  This wedding made me feel extremely OLD!  All the friends of the bride were there.  Several of these gals were my dance students when they were in FIRST GRADE.  (like I said...OLD)  It was great catching up with all of them.


Our trip had another purpose as well.  My sister and brother-in-law are moving back home.  They'll be living in an old farmhouse on our land, known lovingly as "The Green House."

My Great-Grandfather bought this house back in 1954 (I think).  We don't know exactly when it was built, but it was long before electricity, central air, or BATHROOMS.  So over the years a bathroom was added on, as was electricity, and a window A/C unit.  This house is OLD, but very charming.  My Dad along with his brothers and sisters lived in this house until they built the house my Grandma lives in now.  Over the years, the Green House has turned into a storage unit for our family's unwanted furniture.  But all that has been cleaned out now and we're renovating/updating it for Annah and Jefforey to live in.
I love remodeling projects so I asked to stick around and help out.


The first couple of days, we were working on things that you couldn't necessarily "see" but needed to be done.  Dad had started working on the plumbing before I got there, but wasn't finished.  So we finished up the plumbing. I should have taken a picture of poor Dad covered in mud from crawling around under the house all day.  We got that finished up on Tuesday and now there is running water!  Hooray!    We also had to support some floorboards under the house, and reframe a couple of outside walls.


This room was an afterthought on this house.  It was originally the back porch and you can actually see the white porch post still there in the middle of the wall.  We gutted these two walls to reframe them and add insulation.  We also did away with the one window to maximize storage space.  (This will be the mud room/laundry room/half bath.

 getting ready for the new window

 Eventually all the windows will be replaced but since we were doing framing in this room, we had to replace this one now.

 making the new frame

 In the coming months, they will be replacing the siding on the exterior of the house as well.

Moving on to the bedrooms:  Jefforey had already primed all the rooms so all we had to do was paint.  The carpet will be coming out in both of the smaller rooms.

This will be the office. (before)

 (after paint)

Mom and I like to call this one the "imaginary baby room" because IF Annah and Jefforey ever make me an aunt, this is where the lil one will sleep. :)

 If they have a boy it'll be blue and brown....girl means pink and brown....so we painted it brown.

The master bedroom needed to have the walls washed and the ceiling painted.

We didn't do anything to the kitchen except wash half of the cabinet doors.

 We have no idea what the orange/yellow streaks are coming down the walls in the dining room?!  Don't worry...they came clean.

The living room got a fresh coat of paint.  It will also get new floors (at a later date in time)

 Let me know if you'd like to buy this piano!

And now the bathroom....that's really what I came for...to tile the bath tub.  If you remember, I told you this bathroom was added on to the house sometime in the late 50's.  The walls were covered in this black fiberglass stuff.  Jefforey had already done the demo and got that stuff out of the way.  We had to reframe the walls, add insulation, and add sheet rock.

(This closet used to house the hot water heater.  It will now be a linen closet.)

 Annah loves the retro feel of the mosaic tile, so it's staying. (It just needs a little cleaning)

 Finally the cement backer board went up so I could start tiling!

 At 11 pm that night, we stopped right there...

 The finished product...minus the grout.  I didn't get to totally finish before I had to leave. :(

 And I made sure to get out of town before they started the tape, putty, and sanding of the sheet rock...NO THANK YOU!  Count me out!  lol

I love the blue accent tile because it matches the cabinet top that will go in there. 

I can't wait to show you pictures when it's all said and done.  It's going to look great!