Today I have a guest post from Chelsey @ CleanEatingChelsey. Chels is my sister-in-law, and she’ll be discussing her ‘fond’ memories of the total gut and remodel of the house my brother and her bought last year.
I’m doing a guest post over on her blog, so be sure to head over there and read about my adventures in the kitchen.
I’m going to come out and say it right now – I feel like a fraud for writing a post on Kevin’s blog. While Kevin is guest posting for me today on my blog
Clean Eating Chelsey, he is entitled to do this. Kevin eats, therefore he can food blog if he wishes. But, this is a renovation blog – a DIY blog – and I don’t renovate… or do it myself…. ever.
One thing you must know about me is that I am married to Kevin’s younger brother, John.
That rightfully makes me his sister in law. Whether he likes it or not, we’re related. But I’m going to come right out and tell you he loves it – because this is my blog post, and I can write what I want to. So, if you’re quick (I’m crossing my fingers you are) you have already put two and two together that Kevin’s dad (My
Dad’s shoes) is my father in law.
It’s a good thing I married into Kevin’s family. They’re Dutch, which means a lot of things. I won’t go into what that all means because I don’t want to create any tension among family members. What I will tell you is after the Husband and I had been dating for about 6 months, he found out I wasn’t Dutch. With that came a heated conversation followed with a
“okay, so why am I dating you again?” coming from his mouth. Ouch – I speak for myself on this one, but I have no ill regards against mussing up the blood line after that conversation.
However, that is neither here nor there. In the Dutch community, if you don’t know how to do something, you probably have a family member that does. While my father always tried to do quick fixes himself, he is what the Husband and I like to call a “happy homeowner” (sorry Dad). In return, my mom likes to have the Handy Man on speed dial… just in case. Thankfully for her, that Handy Man is now my father in law.
In February 2010, my husband and I bought our first home together. It was a 1950’s prefab home built after World War II and was transported into our lovely neighborhood. Our home was owned by, as we like to call him, “Old Man Tom” and I can proudly tell you he gave us a great deal because we were a young couple on the brink of marriage. All we had to do was look lovingly into each other’s eyes, talk about raising babies, and Old Man Tom was like putty in our hands.
Although we loved our home, it was in need of a few little “updates”. Although the photos below might hint that I was a bit help in this department, don’t be deceived.
Please notice that I am wearing the same outfit in both of those pictures. That’s because it was the same day… and may have been one of the only days I was any “help” to the other crew.
By “crew”, I mean our poor family and friends who were roped into helping us renovate our home.
Thankfully, my husband is pretty handy. And if he doesn’t know how to do something, his dad will. Might I remind you once again that this dad I speak of is the same dad Kevin’s blog is about? Right… moving on.
I took on the role of the delegator. The inspector. Or as others may have called me “That demanding woman who comes here every day after work and tells us we’re not doing our job fast enough” – I would proudly respond to all of those names if called.
One thing I never realized when getting into this whole renovation process was just how much we would be doing to the house. Although, that’s always how it goes right? It started with just the bathroom. In fact, we were
just going to renovate the bathroom, replace some carpet, and call it a day. With time and with money, we were slowly going to renovate the entire house.
But we were going to start with the bathroom. I think we can all agree that it really needed some help.
Well, one day I stopped by after work and that entire wall was gone – GONE!!! I never knew it was part of the plan, but apparently the plumbing needed to be redone.
And you know what they say? If you’re going to do the plumbing… you might as well do the electric while you’re at it.
And since you’ve already knocked down one wall, what’s another?
But since the walls are all getting knocked down – let’s just go ahead and rip up the flooring in the entire house.
Every day I would be afraid to stop by on my way home from work. Every day I would walk in and something else would be demolished. It was not a pretty sight. No, not my house – me! I was a crazy lady (which is.. completely normal). I learned a few valuable lessons in all of this.
It will never be “just” the bathroom in the world of home renovations.
My Husband enjoys watching me freak out.
I have the most handy husband and father in law in the world.
While I went a little batty during the home renovating, I can proudly say that I am absolutely in love the the end results, and I am so glad we did it all at once.
And my husband’s favorite piece of decor:
Just joking – that totally didn’t make it up on the wall. If there’s anything you should be taking away from this post right now, it is that I do not condone Corona bottles on my living room walls…. and that I don’t renovate – ever.
And if you like food, you can find me at
Clean Eating Chelsey. I promise I won’t do any home repairs in the near future though.
Question: What is the biggest renovation job you have ever done? Was it more work than you expected?
