The Nellie Mae Project

 I can finally say we are getting near the end over here…. now the outside is starting to look more like the inside, ha!

I wish I could say we are done with projects, but this summer we will hopefully put up a fence and build a deck…. I’ll keep you posted on that. Tim is about to break into the busiest season of the year with HVAC.

We are VERY pleased with how the yard is coming. Everything is a baby here: baby grass, baby plants, and baby shrubs! So, I’m spending a lot of time watering, fertilizing, and I am going to have to overseed the lawn just to thicken the grass up.

Our grand total for the house renovation was $19,997.48. Not bad, huh?

We are hoping to spend $800 for the fence (obviously Tim’s building it himself) and around $600 for the deck (yep, Tim).

And the complete Yard Re-Haul was right at $1000. That included : A bobcat, 3 dumptruck loads of topsoil, 2 dumptruck loads of slag rock for the driveway, FREE mulch from Cobb EMC, and some grass seed and hay.

All in all, our final budget on the house will hit right under $24,000. And that’s with the un-necessary fence and deck we just feel like adding on here! It will definitely make it nice now and nice for the re-sell later!

Happy Summertime Nellie Mae! We have a love/hate relationship with you because you have many joys, but bring us many pains!

Oh, and dang it. We will re-roof this fall with surplus shingles for $400. I’m going to stop blogging before I think of something else.

Since it’s springtime, we’ve decided to take on our yard! Once again, it was a much bigger job than we thought!

Our lot is 1 acre. We left the woods alone and mainly focused on the front and back yard. The problems were that our yard was un-level and we had massive roots everywhere. We also only had weeds!

So, we called a hauling and grading company and they helped us out! We had 3 dumptruck loads of topsoil dropped and 2 dumptruck loads of slag rock poured for a driveway. A bobcat came along with them and completely re-graded our yard!

The next phase was our job to get some grass growing! I took on this task for a few days during the kids naptime and while Tim was at work. It included:

1. Spreading starter fertilizer everywhere so that when seeds were planted they would grow fast!

2. Spreading a one time bag of Rye grass. This grass germinates the quickest and gives you instant grass coverage until fescue makes its debut.

3. Spreading tons of Kentucky 31 Fescue!!

4. Covering our entire lot with hay. This helps keep the seeds in place and birds from eating it.

5. WATER!!! Main goal is to keep the soil moist. Too much water will rot the seed and too little water will dry it out. The grass has been my baby to take care of every day!

These pics are from a few weeks ago, so I can’t wait to post pics hopefully this week of our transformed yard! Once again, our hard work paid off!! I have never been more excited about grass =)

This is our latest and greatest project at Nellie Mae. Before…. it was just a huge blank wall and for the left side, my Christmas tree looked good there for a while! We were in desperate need of storage and these cabinets and built ins saved our life!!

Tim, once again was the master mind behind this. I showed him a picture of what I wanted and BAM, here it is!!

The project only cost us $125. Which is kinda ridiculous! These are probably worth $2,500.

We found the cabinets on craigslist for $40, and the rest of the wood and paint came from Home Depot. I had a 10% off coupon of course. I decorated with everything we already had.

*Tim might be mad I posted this b/c he has one piece of trim left to put on the bottom. It’s okay, I’m all about the big picture.

Here is our wedding bouquet, unity candle, and photo album. The other side is a family pic, basket, and my great grandmother’s tea kettle. My huge fork and spoon I found at a yard sale this summer for $1 each. They sell at Pottery Barn for $150. Other than that, this serves as our bookshelf housing all of our books. The left side is also a mini desk area with our printer and laptop!

Thanks so much Tim, storage is the way to my heart and he has it =) We have big projects to come. Theme: YARD.

Getting down on the farm!!! We live about 5 miles from the Marietta Square, but across the street there is a horse farm, ha! And everyone on our street has a barn or shed. And I have a little secret….

We have one too. I have always left it out of pictures until we could “deal” with it! It was the only one we left standing on the property and we figured we could use it for storage and tools.

So, here is the lovely before and after pictures. Praise God He has blocked out all the memories of what was in this shed. I honestly don’t even remember. Tim built some doors and we painted it this weekend, and I finished the trim today. Not too shabby, huh? Any old barn looks better with a fresh coat of paint. Our shack is shapin up!

Since my last post, life has been going at full speed. Our HVAC was the last major project on the house. With Tim hitting the busy season (14+ hour days) at his job and finishing up his finals and school, our system temporarily got put on hold. He finally got a break last weekend and installed our system. It’s amazing! Since he was in our attic so much, I took the kids on field trips to the attic. As you can tell by Tim’s face, he was ready for them to leave, haha! That was the day I put our dog up there too…. Anyway, after the system was installed and hooked up, we had to immediately insulate the attic. If not, all your heat will just disappear! So, we rented the machine from Home Depot, 12 bags of insulation, and a 100ft pipe and blew the attic full of insulation!! And yes, I was a vital role. lol.

The kids were extremely entertained because Pink Panther was the insulation brand and he was all over the bags, ha!

We are now snug and cozy at nellie mae! We are also having a huge Open House on Sunday, January 2 if any of my readers would like to come, please email me! I’ll be posting pictures soon of the house all decorated for Christmas!

 Here is the master bedroom!

Before:

After:

Last room to come is the nursury!

So, it always takes more time than you think. That is what I’ve learned. I’ve also learned that as long as we live in this house, I will constantly be working on the next project. I think this may be a truth no matter where you live!

So, we have 3 bedrooms. Yes, to answer people’s questions, we have been living here since Labor Day. Projects slowed down when we moved in due to unpacking/organizing/purging.

Here is bedroom number 1! It is our 4 year old son’s room. It’s actually pretty big and will one day be a shared room with him and our daughter . I’m thinking bunk beds for them. You can’t see it, but behind the entry door is where I store all of their toys. In a huge cube wall shelf. His closet also has toys (and even under his bed!)

Before/After

That darn garbage truck keeps making it in all the photos!! Okay, I will try to post the last 2 bedrooms asap! That Master and the Nursury is coming up!

It’s hard to blog when you do not have internet!! We signed up with AT & T and are still waiting!! I wish I could say I’ve been slacking off, but that is not the case. I have been a mad woman unpacking, organizing, and simplifying our life. We have moved in and unpacked in phases. Each phase we get rid of tons of stuff. It has taken a long time to go through everything we own and make it work at Nellie Mae. We had a yard sale and now I am happy to say we are about 96% done with the house. We have crappy details left. Like here is a secret, below in the pics half my knobs are not on the cabinets. It’s not perfect, but neither are we =)

Here is the kitchen!!

Also, an update on our budget. The grand total of the renovation so far is $19,000. We will finish and stay right under $20,000. We are $5,000 over what we thought, but its not bad for basically rebuilding and entire house. Plus we are fencing in a large portion of the 1 acre lot. The HVAC system is what put us over a little, but a brand new system installed by my man is worth every penny to me =) It’s unbelievable to me how you can stretch that amount of money.

Kitchen breakdown:

Pot rack – $20, craigslist

Cabinets- $25 each, craigslist = $250 total = ridiculousness

Countertops- $25 each per slab = $50, Lowes clearance

Appliance package- $795, craigslist

Kitchen sink/ faucet/ detachable sprayer on faucet- $60, craigslist

Tile- $70

Recessed lighting- $15, Yard Sale

I pretty much love our whole kitchen is under $1500. In the words of Usher, O.M.G.  Thank you Craigslist.

Here are the before and after pics of the kitchen!

       Here is our family room!! We are actually thankful for those 3 layers of linoleum that were on all the floors because they are what protected to floors for 61 years! We spend a lot of time in this room and the dining room because it is one big open area. You’ll have to look past my mistakes with these because yes, those are temporary blinds and yes, that is my son’s dump truck in the last picture. Oh well, it makes it authentic=)

We have the 3 bedrooms left to finish decorating and the KITCHEN! I’ll post them soon, but we are taking the week off to catch our breath! Thanks again to everyone!!

And a say a little completion because we still have our hands full! We have completed some rooms I want to share. Other than staying up until 5am a few nights this week and dropping a gallon of paint on my toe and breaking it this morning…. it has been a great week! My son is turning 4 this weekend so I wanted to be ready for some friends and family to come over! Praise the Lord for Tim, he is a super star. I’ve gone a little nuts and don’t sleep anymore and he is our rock over here. I love you Tim! Pics below.

Things we are still living without: HVAC, arrived today… getting hooked up as soon as my man can do it! Hot water- he is running the gas lines for it tomorrow. Little details- miscellaneous trim work throughout the house, random paint touchups, and lots of boxes to unpack.

The Dining Room Before and After.

Our dining room table was made out of Cherry Wood by Tim’s father, Chef. Chef also brings me flowers almost every time he comes over and those are my first beautiful flowers from him.

Nellie Mae is even more special now because this China Cabinet was my mom and dad’s when they first got married. They bought it from their landlord for $10 35 years ago. I think it’s beautiful and it sits perfect in our little 1950s home.

Dining room cost: everything given to us except my silk curtains = $60 for the set. A sweet friend of ours owns a silk drapery company.

This is our half bath that did not exist before. It was a hallway to the bedrooms that Tim closed off and made separate entrances so we could have 2 bathrooms.

Sink- $13, Craigslist

Faucet- $80, Home Depot… not on sale. I splurged.

Mirror- $11, Home Depot Clearance

Vanity- $80 from Lowes Clearance, originally $350. I did antique it my self though for $10 with paint and sand paper. It was a light wood honey color and I love dark wood.

Fixture- free from our cousin Elizabeth!

Total cost of half bath- $184. Real value of half bath- $580.

 I will have more of the tour up soon. We  haven’t ordered cable or internet yet, mainly b/c we have no time for either! We are so excited about our progress and the house!