Piano Bench Upcylce

Months ago my mother in-law had brought me a piano bench, which I stuck in the corner not knowing what I was going to do with it.  

These are the kind of projects I love doing because when you start you have an idea of what you are going to do but you just keep adding to it until it is perfect.  

After adding a decorative back piece and some stained wood pieces to the front, I fell in love with it. 

What do you think, is she pretty or what?

Ranch House Exterior Renovation

When we purchased our Ranch style house we knew that there was going to be lots of work involved in this renovation.  We have renovated a few houses but this one would be our biggest to date.  We loved that it sits just outside town on 3 acres which is exactly what we were looking for.  We had also spent years looking for the perfect place that wasn't going to cost an arm and a leg and that wasn't going to be 20 minutes just to get into town, and trust me those options are few and far between.  Most of them are older and needed attention and this house was no exception, it was ugly and dated.  The inside wasn't to bad, the kitchen and bathrooms need a total gut and the rest is more cosmetic but we loved the layout and the potential that could come with it. 

Once it was ours the hardest part was trying to figure out what to do with it.  with all the search options on Pinterest there was surprisingly not a lot of resources that lined up with what we wanted to do with our house so we ended up finding a garage plan that we thought would work best and then like any renovation we just had to sit back and wait to see if it was all going to work.

Once the garage frame was up it was a lot higher that then house which we knew it would be but it was a little concerning and we started to question our choice, I mean really there is not turning back.  At this point we had to decide whether to drop down the porch roof or do a continuous line to the house to make it look like one unified piece.  

Once the porch was on we completely lucked out that the roof lines worked out perfectly so we could have the roof line go straight across and the garage and house was starting to look uniformed.  This summer we will add a peak to the original house and finish the roofing to have it all match.  

One of the things I disliked about this house was the front door.  With the old garage door being at a lower level, and the main door had this really pretty plywood deck it just looked confusing to me.  I wanted to raise the old garage man door up so that they would both be at the same level, making it possible to do a deck across the whole front of the house. 

This served as two purposed. One it has a better flow with more usable space.  Two, it covered up the old pitted concrete that would have been a lot of work to rip up.  This year we will clean it up with lattice and flower beds.  

 So with the new garage, siding, soffit, eaves troughs, deck, windows and doors.  Ha, it seems like not to much when you say it quickly.  The outside of the house is starting to come together.  We still have the three other sides of the house to do this summer and that will involve moving and arranging doors and windows differently but with the short time frame of the warm months I think we did pretty good getting to this point. 

My motto with design is that "Just because it has always been this way doesn't mean you can't do something different."  I think that we have kept with that motto on this project and transformed it into a beautiful house. 

Paisley Table

When I got this little table it was chipped and worn out and to some headed for the dumpster but with a bit of sanding and some new paint she was transformed into a cute piece. 

I wanted something bright and fun for this table.  I used Coral, red and teal which I am loving  together. 

For the top I wanted to use a paisley pattern so I searched my favorite source Etsy and found this Boho Paisley pattern. 

I am so happy with its transformation and how it will stand out in any room.

Exterior Home Renovation Part 1

As we head into our final weeks of summer break I feel like I haven't come close to getting all the boxes checked off my to-do list.  In this past week we decided we are going to finish the front of the house and complete the rest next year.  Isn't it hard telling yourself that you just can't do it all but since we have made the decision I have been able to look back and really see how much we have actually completed in such a short time and really it is pretty incredible.  

We have taken this house that has been very well loved for the past 30 years and have been bringing it back to life and really seeing the potential it has to be our forever home.  I mean really after all this work I am not moving till I am old and grey. 

We moved into our new house last October and during the winter we took the time to build a new bedroom in the basement so all our boys could be downstairs and fix up some unfinished items that should have been done long ago.  Working mostly on getting the basement up to where we would like it as the main level is going to take much more work than one winter can handle.  We had many conversations on which side of the house we should build our extension onto as well as how big, is it to small, is it to big.  How do we lay it out so that it matches well with the existing house.  So 

many decisions.  

This is where we started, I know not very pretty right?

While the garage works better as a shed and oddly there is no access to it from the main house.  The existing house has really good bones and a great layout, perfect for our family.

What we knew we wanted to add to this house since the day we first looked at it was a garage and with the space we have in the country we wanted to make sure we had room to grown still. Our fist decision was whether we put the new garage on the right side of the house attaching to the existing garage.  With this became a problem of creating an access to the main level and making a proper boot room in the old garage.  There was also the problem of all our main lines running underground on this side and having to change the way the lane came into the house.  Or we could go on the left side and make the back bedroom into a boot room, this would leave us with one less bedroom, but with the new room in the basement it is still a 5 bedroom house.  Ahhhh we went back and forward so many times and finally decided for the look of the house from the front and how the yard and trees are layed out we would put in on the left side.

This was an exciting day, the first sign of construction starting 

Because the garage was being attached to the house we needed to do a 4ft frost wall.

Time to start framing

This was really the scary part, trusting someone else to not hit the house.

  They got it all and and with no incidents

This is where we started to question our design, once the roof was on the garage there was a huge difference in the height and we were not sure how they were going to match and look like it should have been built like this from the star.  

Stay tuned for more.

I Am Back

Wow I can't believe it has been a year since I decided to step away from Creative Raisins.  It was nice to take time for family and to build on my own career path.  Last year at this time we were in the depths of renovating, birthday parties and trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grow up. 

Renovations can be fun and stressful and a great way to rejuvenate your space.  Much like people who evolve and change as the years grow on so do our styles.  The feel of your house has to match who you have become.  Now my husband would say different, he could live with the same white walled boring space for years.  

Our main focus was the flooring as the carpets had been well loved over the 8 years we lived there.  I am actually surprised how well they held up to 3 crazy, busy boys.  What we learned was that carpet is one of the easiest things to take out and sub-floor was one of those projects you never want to take out again.  Many blisters were created pulling out these staples.   See those boxes of hardwood flooring, we never thought we would get through them all. 

Once the floors were done we wanted to change our island counter top to make it more functional and we loved it, I will never do another raised counter again.  The cabinets had also seen better days and the color just didn't go with my style anymore, so I used a stain from the Saman line to go over top of the existing color.  So super easy and I loved the end result.  For an extra pop we trimmed and painted out the island.

Whew finally all done and just in time to sell.  Who would have thought after 4 years of searching for an acreage property that we would find one shortly after doing renovation. That really is our luck.  But I couldn't have been happier with the results and it showed really well and only took us 7 days to sell. 

After looking at properties and putting offers in on a few others we had finally found the one.  Close enough to town that I could make it there in under 10 minutes with enough space for our kiddies to run, play and ride their dirt bikes.

This is one of my favorite things, the lane is long and lined with beautiful trees on both sides.  We moved in October so we really only got a sneak peek of it when we first came to look at the house.  I can't wait to see this yard in full bloom this summer. 

This is our house, and while some look at it as a eye sore (well I do too) but I also look at it as a challenge.  It is a challenge I am ready to take on.  Lots of the house has original features but the layout we love.  I will be sharing the reno process with you as we go forward.  This spring summer we are hoping to transform this house in a way you may not be expecting, so keep and eye out. 

I am glad to be back and can't wait to catch up with you all. 

Where has the time gone

Wow it has been awhile since I have been on here but I really can't believe it is already more the half way through March.  Didn't New Years just happen.  This is really turning out to be one of those in a blink of an eye kind of years.  

Since the start of the year I had made an unexpected trip across Canada to my grandmothers funeral, painted a friends rental house, just about bought a piece of land but ended up losing it.  Although it did help us to get the last of the renovations done on the house which is a plus.  

We celebrated two of our boys birthdays, really I cannot believe that my oldest child is 10 years old. We took 15 grade 1 & 4's to the movies, and really what kind of cake should there be for a movie birthday, well a movie cake of course.

But the most exciting thing that has really kept me busy is a new venture I have been doing.  I have teamed up with a friend to share all her talent and mine and we have been busy preparing for our first craft show at the start of May.  

We are really excited about what we have in store for us and have some bigger plans we hope to share in the future.  If you want to follow our adventures you can pop of to our facebook page Two Girls Redesigning Life https://www.facebook.com/2girlsredesigninglife?ref=hl

Entertainment Unit With a New Purpose

This beautiful entertainment unit was handmade by my dad when we first moved into our house.  I love all the molding and detail that are on it.  When we renovated our house we decided to hang the tv on the wall but we could not get rid of this beauty.

I love how all the detail really shows up with the paint on it.  Also  adding doors gives it a new life and purpose, and it is really a beautiful piece.  It now houses all of our precious family photos inside.