Gem update;

I knows it's been absolutely FOREVER since I have blogged about our gem! It just so happened to come a long way once the 100 degree weather cooled off and the fall rolled in.

We have stripped everything down the the bones and are right down to the detailed cleaning! The blown in insulation has officially clogged 3 shop vacs. BUT we're going to try a new filter to keep the cleaning moving. Majorly, the past two weeks we got my brother-in-law on the job and with everyone's help to pull it together the front of the house is looking beautiful and unique. This is my dream come true!

So I'm falling more in love each day and getting motivated to continue cleaning! I will have more picture and details in the next post! Just wanted to give a little something since its been so long! :)

Just the Beginning

Inside details;

Living Room Before

Revealed the new, improved, and beautiful living room ceiling hiding under all that plaster!

Another living room shot from the other direction! (in the process of stripping, the fog is plaster and insulation)
You can see the old lath board revealed!

view from the front window area
(look at that old wallpaper)

better view of the ceilings downstairs in the front of the house

You can see the barnwood beams, I love these ceilings. I will probably pluck all of the tiny nails out, clean them up and leave them just as they are!

kitchen sink view

We are moving the kitchen into a room connected to the living room so that you can be in the kitchen and still socialize with whoever is in your living area! I love that!

The kitchen cabinets that we had carefully taken off so that we can salvage and re-use them! HUGE money saving tip! :) A fresh coat of paint and these will look like new!

Not the paint job I was expecting!? EVEN BETTER. There will be no greater story than this one; being proposed to in our new home/new adventure together! How romantic and meaningful :')


So these are mostly before pictures of the downstairs, the very start of the house. Our slate is almost completely clean.. We will have a fresh canvas to work with, what's more exciting than that!? I can't help but be so grateful for this oppurtunity we have been given! I plan to take complete advantage of it, vowing not to do anything traditional and everything original! 

Salvaged; Turning this house into a Home!

Diamond in the Rough

Official Before Picture

Here she is! My "Diamond in the Rough"

This is a house a grew up loving, living next door to this house at one point in my childhood and thinking of how cute it was and how I wished it was my house!

Now here I am about 10 years later and the house is mine! The house burnt when the previous owner lived there and my parents bought it for a mere $2,000. The fire did mostly cosmetic damage and all the bones were still in tact!

This house is going to be my, my fiance, and daughter's first home, done debt free and salvaged!

No loans. No new. No mortgage aka "death sentence"!

I will be rummage, picking, diving, and antiqueing for all of the houses furnishings. Putting character and life back into this house, putting myself and my touch into the house.

Restored and Reclaimed.

For the last month and a half we have been stripping every area of the house down to the studs and blessed to be given almost enough windows to replace each broken window in the house! We have done a ton of tearing out and cleaning ourselves to save money. This old houses bones are barn wood and under the aweful soot covered carpets in all of the house we found beautiful wood floors in pine and oak that we cannot wait to reveal and bring back to life!

Upstairs wood flooring!

This houses layers have peeled off like an onion with old wallpaper, lath board, plaster, panelling everywhere! We have stripped it all. What a job but it has been SO worth it!

This is all for now...I have to go dream about my house ;)

Thanking Jesus and my parents for this oppurtunity and gift that most don't invision or recieve!