The Lake House Renovation - Flooring, Deck, and Shower Progress

Today, we started searching for (and ended up buying) our flooring.

My requirements - stand up to our dog, stand up to our toddler, and look pretty (obviously).  Oh, and the closer to $2 a foot, the better.

We started at Lumber Liquidators.  They offer installation for $3 - $4.50 installation depending on what you get.

I found several that I liked...

I ended up landing on these three...

We took samples and headed to Floor and Decor.  

I started gravitating toward these styles.

Finally, we landed on this one...

We decided to go for and it and purchased it!

Floor and Decor does not offer installation, but they do have a list of names of people we can call.

Some of the floor is still in Houston, so we will pick it up next week.

Can't wait!

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I forgot to show pictures of our deck repairs yesterday.  This is a picture of our deck before the repairs.  The spindles were 8 inches apart.

Here, Michael's parents are checking out the view of the lake.  This was taken before we closed on the house.  

Now, our spindles are 4 inches apart.  We can't paint until the temperature is above a certain degree for an extended amount of time.  So, for now, we will go with this look.

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Our showers also needed an overhaul.  As of right now, in additional to getting rid of the wallpaper, we must also deal with this glass.  I don't know why it was bothering me so much.  Probably because our last shower had a much cleaner look since the glass was completely transparent without the markings and ripples.  I'm not even sure what you call that look.  

While my mom was over at my house today, she said that she didn't think it would be that difficult to take it off, so we went for it.  

The sides unscrewed and were removed easily.  

The bottom portion was on there tight.  But, it was nothing a hammer couldn't handle.  

The only problem after getting that off was a few flaws in the tile.  Eventually, I want to redo that whole bathroom and turn it into a second master bath.  For now, this will have to do.  Now, back to the wallpaper removal!

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PS!  I really like this white backsplash for our kitchen.  

I also like the middle tile for our mudroom.  

Hope you have a great holiday!

The Lake House Renovation - Oh Christmas Tree

We put our Christmas tree upstairs (which is really our main floor) last week.  Now that we have finalized our plan with our contractor, walls could come down as soon as next week.

That means, our living area and kitchen area are going to be a mess.

Therefore, we had to move our fully decorated Christmas tree downstairs.

That was fun.

Michael is a good sport.  

It barely fit down the stair hallway.  

Finally, downstairs and in tact...sorta.  

The Lake House Renovation - Wallpaper

UGHHHHHHHHH!

I hate wallpaper.  Officially.  In case there was ever a question.  It's an absolute truth.  Wallpaper is the devil.

This lovely pattern can be found in our downstairs guest bathroom.  Doesn't it look like a Magic Eye image?

In our house's case, most of the wallpaper appears to be stuck straight on the sheetrock.  Double UGHHHHH to that.

After about two hours of working on our living room wall, I was left with this scene and several holes in the sheetrock.  At this point, I was using a wallpaper scorer and a wallpaper remover spray.  As you can tell, it worked like a charm.

I turned to (Where else?!) youtube.com.

I found this dude.  

While his method for getting off the lower paper worked, my paper continues to come off in pieces even without using a scorer.  

So, I'm still struggling with our living room and upstairs guest bath.

Now, for the Christmas miracle.  The downstairs guest bathroom wallpaper is coming off pretty easily.  So far, I've only started peeling the top layer, but it is coming off in huge chunks.  This is incredible and puts a smile on my face.

Now, I still have to go back and remove the bottom layer, but I think it will be pretty straightforward.

At least the wallpaper removal is helping me make some fun memories with Presley!

The Lake House Renovation - Introduction

Summer 2016 - I'm offered a job in Lakeland, Tennessee.  My family was living in Germantown, Tennessee.


August 2016 - After about a month on the job and after many hours spent stopping at red lights on Germantown Parkway, I tell my husband that we've got to start looking for a house closer to work. We had always planned to move there at the end of the 2016-2017 school year, but I just can't handle the drive each day and my hours are just not working with Presley's day care.  It was time to move.

September 2016 - We start prepping our house to sell.

October 2016 - Our house goes on the market and sells in three days.  We start scrambling to find a house.  After looking at Garner Lake, we decide it is the only place we want to live.

We fall in love with one house on the lake, but get out bid.  It was a FSBO, so the owner selling his house tells us about his neighbor's home that's about to go on the market.  We visit it, fall in love with it, even thought it's a major fixer upper.  It's got everything we need, plus a bunch of 1986 wallpaper, bad lighting, and walls that we don't need.  We decide to go for it and start the process of buying the house.

The buyer of our house has financing issues.  Our house goes back on the market.  At this point, we are in the process of purchasing our lake house.  We start to panic.

Thankfully, the panic is only temporary.  Our house sells two weeks later.

November 2016 - We move into our new home.