It’s been 12 days since Zach and I closed on our house and it’s already looking so different around here! DIY home renovation isn’t easy, but seeing our hard work pay off makes it all worth it. We’ve been over at the house every weeknight as well as the past two weekends chipping away at our first home projects. We aren’t in a rush to do everything all at once, but still, there are a few things we wanted to get started on before we move in. Here’s what we’ve been up to for the past week and a half:

WALLPAPER

At this point it pretty much feels like I’ve been removing 1990s wallpaper since I was born in 1990. It’s been…slow. The three upstairs bedrooms were covered floor to ceiling in some very busy, metallic, floral wallpaper. We knew when we toured our house the wallpaper would be the first thing to go, and it’s made a huge difference in how bright and airy the rooms now feel. We still have plenty of work to do before they’re finished, but the progress we’ve made so far feels amazing! I’m already writing a post that goes way more into detail for anyone interested in all the ups and downs of our wallpaper removal process.

PAINT

I’ll admit, I’m the Tom Haverford of white paint chips (They’re all black? Maybe to the layman, Jerry!) I grabbed every shade of white they had at Home Depot and stared at the subtle differences for way too long. I like the consistency of one paint color throughout the whole house, so it was important to find a neutral shade that would work everywhere. We decided on Bit of Sugar by Behr and love how much it brightens up each room! The previous homeowner told us he’d painted the majority of the interior with oil-based paint, so regular house paint wouldn’t stick. Because of that, we’re using four different types of paint — Behr Ultra Paint & Primer in an eggshell finish for the bedroom walls, Behr Ceiling Paint for the bedroom ceilings, Behr Cabinet & Trim Paint for the bedroom trim and kitchen cabinets, and Behr Urethane Alkyd Paint in a satin finish for the majority of other rooms painted with oil-based paint.

DOORS

Another thing we worked on this past week was the door situation. There were a lot of doors in places that felt unnecessary, so Zach took some down to make the space flow better. We now have open doorways from the entryway to the living room, the entryway to the kitchen, and the kitchen to the dining room. We still left plenty of doors in place (not taking down the bathroom doors!) but the few Zach took down made a big difference with how open it now feels.

Doorway from the living room to the entryway

Doorway from the kitchen to the entryway

FENCING

One issue we knew we’d have to solve early on was securing the wrought iron fence. Kirby basically has one wish in life and it’s to be outside constantly — she’s not a house cat. Even though she’s getting more used to hanging out nearby, she still wanders off sometimes to explore the neighborhood and that’s when we get nervous. Luckily jumping high distances isn’t her forte unlike most other cats, so our 4 ft fence height isn’t an issue. She can, however, walk straight through the bars. We found this rabbit fencing that we’re securing to the back of the iron fence to keep Kirby from squeezing through. It isn’t the prettiest, but it’ll give us so much peace of mind, and the hedge we’re planning to plant along the fence will help hide the wire as well.

KITCHEN

We just started on the kitchen renovation and it’s true when they say it’ll look worse before it looks better. A lot of people would probably knock down walls to open the kitchen to the dining room, but we love the layout how it is! Instead of doing major demolition work to completely change everything, our plan is to update the kitchen to make it more functional while still maintaining its original charm. With how small the space is, the gigantic upper cabinets painted dark blue felt like this heavy weight looming overhead. Living in California we never had the option for open shelving because of earthquakes, so that was something we really wanted to incorporate in our kitchen remodel. Zach pried the old cabinets off the wall in a matter of minutes, and even with it looking a bit like a disaster zone right now, it already feels so much more open. We have a lot in store for the kitchen and I’m planning to write a blog post with all the details soon!

I’m so happy with how much we’ve already accomplished in this crazy home renovation adventure. More to come!

Our First Home Projects

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