the hole in the wall gang

*This post is dedicated to my sister-in-law Mandi, who has been waiting for it for a very long time.


Three Saturdays ago I gave Zach a list of possible activities for the day:
Replace the kitchen faucet
Remove the toilet so I can clean under it (because that's the only thing I can think of that might remove the pee smell from the bathroom... WHY?????)
Paint our bedroom...

You get the idea.  Fairly reasonable options.  But instead Zach said, "Why don't we knock a hole in the wall??"  He said, why not?  And then I said, why not?? And pretty soon the whole group said, WHY NOT?  So here we are.  (that was a movie quote, in case you're wondering)

This is the room formerly known as "The Casita", accessible through a door on the front porch OR through a window in my sewing room.  Totally normal, right?  We knocked out the wall below the window. 

 Here Zach is adding the trim around the new opening.  Just in case you're wondering, brick, old drywall, and "wood" paneling is a total pain to work with.  And Zach has TOTALLY gotten his money's worth out of those knee pads he bought 6 years ago.  One of our smartest purchases ever.

 All trimmed out and looking pretty fancy!  Zach did a great job getting it to match the other door frames in the house.  It was a bit of a fiasco, but we persevered.  And I have to say, a few years ago we couldn't have done a project like this together without fighting.  But I can honestly say there was not a single disagreement through this whole process. Amazing.

Then the second Saturday in we had this conversation:
Zach: "So how bad is that carpet"
Katie: "It's pretty bad.  Low quality.  Stained (with Edison vomit).  It's really bad."
Zach:  "Well, we might as well rip it out.... I'll get started on that now."

(And yes, Oliver puts up with A LOT from his brothers)

Within an hour the carpet was gone!  We were very happy to see that the floor had been painted before which meant painting it again wouldn't be too much of a problem. 

For the walls I just wanted white, white, white.  Weird how I always dreamed of having a colorful house one day, and then when it came time to paint our bedroom all I wanted was bright white.  Whatever.  It's Behr Paint With Primer in eggshell and it's called White Fur (makes me laugh every time I say it).  All the trim in the room is the same except in semi gloss.
On the floor we removed all the random nails and staples, gave it a light sanding, wiped it all down, filled the holes and dents (some of them quite large), and then it was ready for a coat of Kilz and two coats of Behr Espresso Bean floor and porch paint.  Here's where we are right this second (Like, I just took these pictures and didn't even bother making things look nice - the bed was already made) (take note - Ollie crawling, Max and the sword, and his pants are on backwards):

We still have quite a bit to do.  Like, we just gave up our GIANT closet so that the boys could take over our old bedroom (nothing fancy there - we just moved all their stuff in.  we'll paint and do all that fun stuff another time), so we have a bit of a clothes storage issue right now.  We converted a tall bookshelf into a wardrobe type thing for Zach's suits, and that'll do for now, but we're looking for better (prettier) options. We're also looking for another dresser, curtains, bedding (eventually.... which means, maybe in the next five years), artwork.... Which we will probably make or refinish ourselves, since that's how we roll.  I think we'll try stripping the paint off of the closet and bedroom doors and see what's underneath (exciting!).  Oh, and of course putting back together all the other rooms in the house now (sewing room in the casita, guestroom in the boys' old room, fixing up the boys' new room....).  In other words, we just turned our house upside down.  Weee!