The first reveal

I'm sure you've been wondering. After all, I talked a lot about it. And then...nothing.

I'm talking about our home renovation.

When we bought this house, we knew it needed a lot of work. How much work, however, we, um, just slightly underestimated.

Every day a little more gets done on the house. Mostly due to Keith. As I am off saving lives. (Or more accurately, wishing that I could be in the trauma room helping save lives, but am instead handling the patients with constipation and headaches that still need taking care of while everyone else is in the trauma room.)

Anyways.

A lot of work has been done, but I haven't posted any pictures because no room is completely done. We are getting carpet upstairs next week, so I will be able to post pictures of our upstairs rooms then. (Do you have any idea how excited we are for carpet! We have been living on carpet pad for over a month!)

I do have a reveal today!

Today, I would like to reveal our family room.

This was by far the worst room in the house (well, besides the unfinished basement with the tornado shelter. That's just creepy.)

Our family room looked like this when we bought the house.



And then, if you remember, when we removed the carpet, we found this...


We let the water completely dry out. We killed all the mold (the smell of bleach is just now fading.) We sealed some cracks.

Step one: Raised subfloor underlay.


It looks like a big sheet of legos. It raises the subfloor up about 3/4 inch, so that it is off the damp, cold concrete floor. It prevents dampness from ruining the final floor, and helps keep rooms warmer in the winter.


Step two: Subfloor.


Step three: Pergo and tile and trim!



Step four: Step back, look at how great it looks, and cry a little because of how happy I am to have our own home, and have it looking this good!


We bought this shelving unit from IKEA (back when there was an IKEA 20 minutes away instead of 4 hours away.) We thought it would be enough to hold the boys toys, books, and movies. But I think we had forgotten just how many toys they have. It's nearly full, and we haven't even unpacked their books. But it still looks great.


It feels so good to have this room finally usable (and not smelling like mold.)

It still isn't completely done. We plan on tiling around the fireplace (we've already got the tile picked out). We will also install a big white mantel above the fireplace, hopefully before Christmas. And replace the stairs (next month?)

And someday, someday, there will actually be furniture in the room.