Home Makeover: Parents' House

It all comes down to Hubby and I watching too many home makeover shows.  Oh who am I kidding?  Is there such a thing as too many?  They really got us to thinking.  I couldn't think of anyone more deserving than my parents for a home makeover.  Hubby is actually the one that brought it up. My parents work so hard  and deserved a nice surprise. I know it's easy to get overwhelmed and feel like there's know way you can change something in your house or get it cleaned up or get it the way you want it to.  It was quite an undertaking.  We put in about 40 hours of work in one week's time.  We had lots of help though from a couple of family members and my friend with Rayah Sunshine and her husband. 

  We started out working in the living room with tearing out the carpet.  There was beautiful cherry finished hardwood floors hidden beneath the blue carpet.  Parents had already torn the carpet out of the dining room and so we made the living room match!  The only thign we had to do to the floor was pull up the staples that had been holding down the carpet pad, then polishing it with wood cleaner.  Grandma made new valances out of curtains that we found at Ross.  I'll be putting up more pictures as I have the time. 
    For the dining room, it was really just a matter of organizing.  We hung all the pictures in a wall collage that had been sitting on top of the piano.  This cleared off the top and made it seem less cluttered.  Hubby hung the collage as I told him where to go.  To his probable frustration, there was a lot of, "ooh a little more to the left, a little more, oh too much, just a bit more...etc."  But he did a wonderful job hanging them! 
[Before]                                                              [After]

The kitchen was another story.  This is where the most work was done, as you can see.  I'll be adding more progress pictures odwn the road as well.  It was amazing.  A lot of sweat and tears went into it.  The tears being from me getting so frustrated with trying to get all the cabinet doors back on.  **note to self: if you are doing a project that requires removing all of the cabinet doors, be sure to label where they go back!  My eyeballing size compariosn only got me so far.**  I lost count of the number of times that I got a door up on the hinges thinking it was the right size, when in reality it was not the right one!

My parents like to collect colorful bottles.  I loved these.  They got to stay.  And most of the colors actually matched our new color scheme.  It's like they knew!  One thing that was taking up a lot of space on the counters were cookboks.  We solved that by getting a bookshelf to put in there.  (Bookshelf donated by our cousin, Lauren.)  It also allowed me to get some of the teapots that had been on top of the fridge down where they could be seen.  But I'm getting ahead of myself!

Before we could do anything to the countertops, we had to finish everything above them. That included scraping the layers of old wallpaper off the section above the cabinets, and sanding.  We made sure to wear our protective gear!  *Note: It might be better to use actual industrial facemasks that you can get at Lowes, Home Depot or any other home improvement store.* 

All of the kitchen tile had to go.  There were some loose tiles coming up that were a big tripping and toe stubbing hazard.  Underneath those tiles was a layer of tar-like soaked felt rolled out.  The tiles themselves were easy to pull up.  Even though the flooring we had was what you would call floating flooring, we still swept the floor really well and removed as much dust as possible.  It was made so much easier by using a shop vac to get everything up! 

The countertops I think were one of my favorite features! Whereas before, they were green linoleum, we painted them to look like granite!  This process was so easy, and under $50 to do!!  For a tutorial, go Here.  All you'll need is a big bottle of black acrylic paint, glitter paint that dries clear, and about 3 other neutral colors. (I used a medium gray, darker tan, and a vanilla color.)  You will also need a sea sponge that you can tear apart, (Sea sponges have the best and most varied texture,) and a clear polyeurothane coat.  (Though if you wanted to do a lighter background color, you might want to get a different type of clear coating, as this one might yellow with age.  But it doesn't matter if you have the darker base.)  And *poof* granite counter tops!

Thisis the finished product of the kitchen.  Like I've mentioned before, I'll have to come back and add more detailed pictures and different angles so you can get the full effect.  With painting the cabinets white, and laying down light flooring a little lighter than the ceiling (which Daddy put up all by himself!) it really opened up the room!  The next thing is to get an island to go in the middle!  My husband and I got one at Big Lots last Black Friday and have loved it!  My parents recently went on a trip to North Carolina and brought back a pie safe and an old drying station that came from the family farm.  Either one of them would make a perfect island!

In another picture I will include later, I made my parents a coffee corner.  We are a big coffee drinking faimly, so I thought it only appropriate!

All in all, it was such a rewarding experience!  We got to help some deserving people with some changes to their house that might have never been able to be done without a little help.  They have always been so good with providing for us.  I figured it was time we gave back.  They got back Tuesday evening, returning to a new house!  Mama said they must have walked into a stranger's house!  They loved all of it.  At first glance, they thought the counters were granite as well.  So I'd say our work was accomplished.  We loved having been able to make a difference in our parents' lives.  They were such deserving people!!