It’s been a while since I checked in about our new house, so I figured it was about time to bring you guys up to speed on what’s been happening behind the scenes. The last few weeks have been MADNESS. Between work, the blog, the new house, the old house, and life in general… madness seems like the only accurate word to describe life right about now. And although it has been crazy busy at the new house, we haven’t gotten as much as we wanted done yet. I promise once we start making some “pretty” progress (ya know, posts with lots of before and afters) I’ll be sharing updates a lot more frequently!

But until then I’m still excited to check-in with a general overview of what we’ve been up to.

The First Week in the New House

The first week we closed was filled with lots of meetings with different professionals in order to secure their services. Of course I wish I could DIY everything myself but it’s not realistic to think I can do that while juggling everything else I have going on at the moment. Plus doing it myself means that I could only work on the house with my dad or Casey on nights and weekends. There is just way too much on our immediate to-do list to limit the work time to then. Especially with Baby Mac only a few months away, we needed to get this work done as soon as possible and that’s why I ultimately decided to call in the pros!

What Jobs Are We Hiring Out?

Our plan is to pay for a carpenter to replace the trim, door casings, and doors. We are going to pay an electrician to add can lighting (a job I would never DIY, even with the extra time). We’re also paying someone to refinish the floors, which is another job I am not qualified for. And then we decided to pay someone to replace the tile in the mudroom. This is a project I wish we could do ourselves, but the timeline (and current condition of the floor) made me nervous to try. The good news is that there are a few more tile projects (like three bathrooms and a fireplace) on my extended to-do list and I’m definitely eager to DIY those someday.

Figuring Out a Schedule

The hardest part from there was aligning these contractors’ schedules because all of them are super busy right now! That’s where some of the delay came in. Our carpenter, who needs to complete his work before the paint and floors start, was booked a month out so unfortunately he can’t start for a few more weeks. He only has about 3 days of work, and then the floor guy only has about 4 days of work, so hopefully once the carpenter starts we will start to see a lot more progress… quickly.

In the Meantime…

While we wait for them to start and finish, we have been busy prepping the basement for our move-in. Matt and I are actually moving into the basement of the new house this weekend and will “set up shop” down there until the upstairs is livable. We plan on being down there for at least a month. We will eventually move upstairs when the trim, doors, floors and paint are all done.

Decorating the basement isn’t my first priority, but I did want to get rid of the dark brown paint before we moved in. So we ditched the brown and painted the basement Benjamin Moore’s Silver Satin (flat). The ceiling, trim, and doors all got a fresh coat of white paint as well. It’s so much brighter and already makes the space feel far more “us”. Yay for new paint… and an AMAZING dad who insists I cannot be around the paint fumes and handled all of the hard work himself.

He also painted all of the storage rooms in the basement and painted the floors in those rooms to clean them up before we moved in. I NEVER would have thought there would be a before and after of these dingy old spaces, so I totally forgot to take before pictures (blogger fail). Take my word when I say they were very scary and look 1,000 times better than they did when we moved in.

We’ve also been busy…

… demoing EVERYTHING! We removed all of the base, all of the doors and door casings, and the wallpaper in the kitchen. We also painted a ton of paint samples on the walls, gave the landscaping a lot of TLC, and prepped the walls so they are ready for the contractors. It’s been busy, but every little bit of progress gets me more and more excited for what’s next!!

What’s Next?

But now that everything is painted down there, we’re not doing much else… for now! Of course I have big plans for the long haul of the basement, but I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew. And I’m pushing my luck already!

But speaking of more immediate plans — let’s talk about the mudroom! This is a space that I’m SO excited to refresh over the next month or so. I think the paint and tile decisions are set (eek!) and now it’s time to get started. I can’t wait to keep you guys updated as this unique room takes shape. I’m expecting a pretty dramatic makeover and I can hardly even wait!

More Progress to Come

Overall I wish I had more “before and after” updates to share with you today, but I promise they will be coming fairly soon. If you want to follow along in real time be sure to follow along on our instaStories. I’m trying to be better about updating those as we make progress. And hopefully next time I check in here on the blog, I’ll have lots more to share!

Bridget

P.S. If I miss any details over the course of this entire new house journey, please be sure to let me know! I’m happy to share whatever you want to know more about but I don’t want to bore you by sharing too many details… especially during this not so glamorous phase.