Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Favorite Project- The Lil House That Could

Today’s “My Favorite Project” post is written by Rebecca over at The Lil House That Could

Lil, huh?

I enjoy Rebecca’s blog because her and her husband are also “fixing up” a new construction home. I use her as an example when Nate thinks I’m crazy for redoing something that we just installed less than 3 years ago.  Like carpeting on the stairs….let’s see if Rebecca can convince Nate that ripping up the carpet on our stairs would be a wonderfully fabulous decision….

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Hey everyone! I'm Rebecca from The Lil House That Could. Though after finding Michelle's blog, I'm mad that I didn't name my blog The Casa and the Cats. Michelle is clearly more clever with blog naming :)

Anyway, I, like Michelle, have a new construction home. However, my husband and I bought with a major builder in a new development, so our experiences were a little different. Like the ridiculous costs of upgraded materials and the limited choices they had for standard materials. Case in point, the flooring options.

We added hardwood throughout most of our downstairs and decided we would carpet the entire upstairs. The problem was that the only "free" carpets the builder offered were gold, white, blue or pink. Seriously. We were on a very tight budget with our wedding just around the corner and decided to suck it up and go with the gold. After we moved in and painted our walls a greige color, the gold irked us even more.

 hallway_before1

 staircase_before2

Throw in the fact that my cats were slowly shredding the carpet seams and we decided it was time to give the carpet the boot. We removed the carpet in just the hallway and our master, since we don't really use our spare bedrooms and we could do those in stages. A contractor friend of ours did the work and it was a fraction of what the builder would have charged us!

 hallway_progress3

We matched the hardwoods exactly to the ones the builder installed throughout our downstairs- Bruce wide plank oak floors in cherry. We decided that while we were at it, we'd match the baseboards to the thicker ones downstairs.

 new_baseboard4

After these changes, we felt like our upstairs hallway/entryway were missing something. One random Saturday we decided to install some chair railing. We had no clue what we were doing, but I think it worked out okay :)

 chair_rail_15

 chair_rail_26

 chair_rail_38

 chair_rail_49

Our plan is to match the wainscoting we have in our formal living room and dining rooms, which open to the entryway. We're working in slow stages with full time jobs and graduate school, so the walls have been primed and waiting for some paint for a couple of months. After that we'll add the picture frame portion of the molding.

 primed_110

 primed_211

 primed_312

Once all of our trim work is up, we would like to add gallery walls in the upstairs hallway, down the stairs and along the entryway walls. Here is my inspiration, from Sandra at Sawdust and Paper Scraps.

  SawdustPaperScraps_Stairway13

We've already begun collecting some frames to gear up. I cannot wait to get some frames on the wall! In fact, I can't wait so much that we recently started painting the trim we have so far with a semi-gloss paint.

 painting_walls14

Hopefully, our entryway/hallway makeover will be complete soon and summer will quit interrupting us. Though that's not really a bad thing, now is it? :)

Thanks so much for having me, Michelle!

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Okay, so Nate isn’t completely on board yet but we’re getting closer….thanks, Rebecca! Be sure to head over to The Lil House That Could!

**Stop by The Mustard Ceiling and share your blog at the Mix and Mingle Party! Who doesn’t need more blogs to read/people to read your blog?**

15 comments:

  1. The pictures don't load for me, but I had a look at the photos on The Lil House that Could and what can I say, I'd love a Lil House like yours...

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  2. i am not able to see the pictures either. and yeah, i'd take a lil house like that, too. i think my house could fit in there times three or four.

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  3. Hi there! I just wanted to let you know I featured your blog today in my All Things Loved in June post. Every month I pick a new blog that I discovered and it was you! :)

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  4. I still can't see the pics, but her blog looks awesome!

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  5. Happy to see the pictures working now, and to see The Lil House featured! I love Rebecca&Mike's blog, and I love the way she explains the name The Lil House. Their gallery wall inspiration picture is lovely!

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  6. LOVE their house! We are redoing a house that we bought as a foreclosure, and I'm already ready to undo and redo some of the work we've done.

    Can we please band together and figure out a way to convince husbands that this is completely reasonable, normal and a smart use of funds?

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  7. Great house! Love the picture display along the staircase..visiting via The Mustard Ceiling, adding to my blogroll

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  8. What a beautiful home. The staircase is going to look great! Thanks for introducing me to The Lil House That Could. I'm going to check them out!

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  9. Thanks for the intro. to Lil House that Could...the changes Rebecca and her husband are making look great. I love to see how homeowners customize their new homes.

    Thanks for linking up at mix and mingle this week.

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  10. Found you over at the Mustard Ceiling Mix and Mingle- great pics! Thanks for sharing!
    Joanne
    http://homestyling101.blogspot.com/

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  11. what a gorgeous place. seriously drooling over those beautiful floors!

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  12. I always tease my parents for all the work the do on their new house, but I don't think you can go wrong with adding upgrades. The wood floors and chair rail look awesome and go a long way to give character to a new home.

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  13. LOVE Rebecca and her "lil'" house! :) Her projects are wonderful and her home is gorgeous! And the gallery wall above is amazing! Love the little pops of color!

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