Project List: Big D Style

Everything is BIGGER in Dallas.....even project list. So after a visit with S & A in Dallas my project list is on overload. Thank god for the inspiration board --I do need S back for the quality paper printing (I could do but more fun to have her here!) So taking a break from the year in review at Waterside, here is what is on the list at the Manda house and a few extras I learned.

1. Change the Upstairs guest room. Add 2 double beds, paint the room, new furniture, make the head boards, and the list list goes on. The best thing learned in Dallas was framing paper...love it! Cheap, looks great, and can easily be switched in the future

2. Move Jay's office and go with the idea of sophisticated and traveled --adding built ins with file cabinets, looking for a new piece for books/tv ect., backing the world & US map with magnetic board, framing (yes another piece of paper..I lOVE PaperSource) Paris monument maps, and the doors from Europe

3. Boob Lights...what? Those lights with the glass dome and screw to hold them on. Easily replaced with a lamp shade. The shade will fit on the same screw that holds the dome and then you can add fabric on the bottom (using fabric glue to glue inside the shade or outside the shade and cover with a ribbon)

4. Jay's Turning 30...late summer, preppy, classic, flare, fresh, spirited, friends, refreshing..party is in store (A&S!!)

5. Remove the cabinet fronts from a few of my kitchen cabinets --a touch of modern style to a kitchen that desperately needs to be overhauled. Gives a fresh look with white cabinets and white dishes.

6. New pendant lights in the kitchen --another touch of modern flare to help the kitchen. Love the shades, don't like how much light they block out. Should I go with the motto: Its not about the function but how they look...they are lights though.

7. New bathroom mirror and added picture behind the toilet. The paper technique again. So excited for this picture. We have been searching for the right thing since we wallpapered the room.

Along with the list from the Big D, we have what I call the long list (because we are not setting a time frame yet on these). I hope they all come sooner rather than later!
1. Master Bath
2. Hardwood floors upstairs
3. Kitchen

**Still new to this, I can't figure out how to upload the pictures....I need a blog help desk. I will work on it. SO PROUD!! I figure it out.

Project List: Before and After on the Main Level

So sticking with the main floor, its now time for before and after.

Kitchen: As I stated in the last post we didn't change much in the kitchen. Hopefully in 2011 or 2012 we will tackle this project. We painted the walls and added new appliances. Jay did some master work finding our new double stove. He went to an auction from a pie store and found us a perfect fit!




Dining Room: We were lucky in this room because this was the only room on the main level that did not have popcorn ceiling and we liked the crown molding. We removed the carpet and changed out the chandelier. In March we thought we were done, but Jay was not pleased with the window trim that they had around the big window. We removed the casing and added the wider casing and crown molding with dentil work around the top.

Front Room: When we moved in we called this room he study and my sister always laughed at me...so its the study or the front room! This room we added the chair rail, removed he carpet, and new ceiling fan

Half Bath: We removed the strange toilet, new cabinet fronts, new granite counter top, new sink, and wall papered the walls

Entry Way: We replaced the chandelier. Jay did some great work on this light and the light in the dining room. This entry light we painted black to go with the look of our house. We painted the hand rails and re-did the steps. We had to take all the steps out and then stained the top part to match our floor and then painted the kick boards white. We had the entry way painted with the subtle strips using the polyurethane. We also had the ceilings touched up...it was so hard to scrape since they were so high. Nobody could get good footing on the ladder so high up.

Great Room: This room was were the most work took place. Well there was a lot of work everywhere but this room looks completely different. In Feb of 2009 Jay built built-ins in our living room on Katy Lane. I loved them so much. When we looked at this house we just knew that the great room would look great with a similar built-in cabinet. He learned a lot from the first build so these were even better. He added many new touches, with the glass front drawers under the stoop for the TV box. In this house we also did not need the desk side so we did cabinets on both. They look great! Jay did all the building, he routered to give it that polished touch. He also did all the wiring for the TV. We also added the piece of molding under the crown molding. We took this idea from our house in Katy! One thing our house on Katy had that we did not have to do was a lot of crown molding. Along with the shelves Jay built the mantle and stoop. He bricked the stoop and around the fireplace. In March after we thought the room was done (same time we did the dining room), Jay decided the windows needed wider casing so we re-did the window trim in this room.

More projects to come....

Project List: Moving Inside

The first weekend was spent in the yard but there was lots of work to be done inside the house. The decor inside Waterside on July 2009 was 80s modern... the one good thing is that all the walls had been painted white. I am not sure I could get a vision if the walls were not white because the flooring, windows, lighting were all terrible.


So here was the run down when you came into the first floor through the front door. The entry way through to the great room and the kitchen were white tile. All the door knobs and door jams were brass. All the ceilings were popcorn ceiling.

The Dining room: tan carpet, brass light fixture, white/yellowish vertical blinds
Front room: tan carpet, black and gold ceiling fan, white/yellowish vertical blinds

Great Room: White tile, with a cheap mantle tripped with wood

Kitchen: We left most of this as is for now. There was a circle hand towel holder (like for the bathroom) attached to the cabinet and an apartment size oven. The oven could not even hold an cookie sheet.

Half Bath: Had mirrors on 2 walls, a white particle board vanity, a dark gray short European toilet

Master Bed Room: Popcorn ceiling on not only the ceiling but also tiered section, black vertical blinds, and carpet.

So the first floor and the Master bed was our main focus to start. We started with taking out the flooring except in the kitchen. We kept the kitchen as is to see what type of kitchen flow we would like and because kitchens are expensive!! So under the carpet we did find a cat pee smell....happy the carpet was coming out because we were able to treat the spots. The tile floor was going to be some simple demolition. This was not the case. The tile floor had 100s of staples every square foot. I mean it was terrible! I was not even strong enough to pull them out. We actually hired a few door guys from FH to help, after 2 afternoons they were no longer interested. It was a manual pull on each and every staple. So finally with the floor out we were able to begin painting and the ceiling removal. With Scott's help we were able to paint the dining room (Pizza Pie) and the master bed room during that week. Thanks Scott!! I just loved pizza pie, it got me so excited for this new home with the southern flare!!

The weekend before the movers we had help from my parents and Jay's parents and sister. It was such a huge relief. We were able to get sooo much down with there help. Our main focus was finishing the ceiling removal and the painting. Jay had to spray all the ceilings on the first floor, upstairs hallway, and master bed room. We painted the kitchen, the great room (Bull Frog), and the Study. Gil also spent all of Sunday changing out all the door knobs and door jams to a brush nickel, he did every door (around 35 doors). They made great headway on the hardwood in the master bed room and decided we would have to bring in a professional for the crown molding in that room due to the uneven walls. One project note: Jay loves things square and measures things until they are perfect. So this was very frustrating to him. The professional came and taught him so tricks for crown molding. Good thing because I love molding!! My dad and I hung the shutters on the front of the house. Him and I on the ladder trying to hold these level. We were also able to get the popcorn off the entry way. These high ceilings created quite a project. Thanks for the help Frank! All of this down in a weekends work...I was loving it!!

We had one more week left before we had to be out of Katy Lane. We spent many late nights at Waterside and enjoyed many Sonic or Wendy's dinners. We woke up sore and went to bed very tired during this last week. We decided that we were going to be able to get hardwood floor laid in the entry way and the 2 front rooms before move in day. We would wait on the great room because Jay was going to build built-in cabinets first and then we would put floor down. Jay is quite the worker and it the floor went down in about 3 to 4 days. We were as ready as we were going to be and the movers were coming. Best investment along with the chipper were the movers! We were just moving down the street but they were such a huge help. We were all moved in about 4 hours. I even had them move Jay's heavy tool box and put in our basement. Well worth the $$! So next up I will walk through our house and show the before and after of each room. Project list continues....

The Project List: Backyard

One of the best parts of our new house was the view from the backyard... or should I say the potential view. On Day 2 we took to the chopping and chipping of all the over grown trees and shrubs. It literally was shrub on top of shrub, none of which had been trimmed in years. We were still blessed with the cool temps and the yard work began. We actually had to wear ear plugs because the chipper was so loud.



So after many hours of work the back yard view was unveiled!!


We were so excited to actually see the dock! But of course the project list did not stop there. We could now see all the work that was ahead of us. It was not something we started then but jump forward to April of 2010 and the work on the yard begins. Jay and friends (Scott and John) first started on the dock. Before we had moved in there was a tree that had fallen on the dock causing part to dip down. The best part of this fix was Jay got to get some waders...he was so excited!! First they poured concrete piers and then jacked the dock up on the piers and then worked to make it level. Jay was in the water in his waders of course and John and Scott were the forman on land. Next the cut the metal railings off and replaced with wooden rails. It looks completely different!! That was the start. We then moved into May and the big work began... Jay rented a mini excavator and to start tearing out all the railroad ties. Well mother nature had something else in mind for the weekend...it rained on the mini excavator all weekend. So with the delay and the wet mud we finally started a on Wednesday. I would show the pictures but I made a computer error and deleted those photos (yes I cried). So after 1 week of removal we brought in the professionals for the concrete work to begin. That part of the project will be its own post...but below is our finished yard!!

Project List: The Start of Waterside Drive

Last July we decided to take on a large project list...we moved from our home on 1909 Katy Lane to our new home at 2508 Waterside Drive (just down the street!) We closed on our new house on July 17, 2009 and had to move out of Katy Lane on July 3oth. This was faster than we had planned but we are not complaining. We were very happy to sell our house so fast, only took around 2 months!!

Goodbye Katy Lane! Many first memories in this house.

This gave us us 2 short weeks to get the projects started and completed. It was a very busy 2 weeks with many projects completed and many more waiting for us when we moved in.

So the work began...we closed at 10am on the 17th and by noon we were at our new house ready to tear out the trees and shrubs. We worked hard and were driven by excitement!! It was so fun to see the house appearing from behind the overgrown shurbs. The neighbors came over full of excitement and anticipation. It was the middle of July and ususally it is hot and humid but were blessed with low humidity and 80 degree temps. On the 2nd day we decided to rent a chipper...best idea ever! This thing saved us so much time and we were able to get some mulch (we actually used the mulch as filler later on). Even with the fabulous weather it was a long weekend of hard work and the project list has just begun...

Before... After the removal process...

Jump forward to July of 2010 and we have a new front to our house. We have a new roof, new gutters, added black shutters, removed the gold lights and replaced with black, we painted the door and removed the gold knobs/knockers and replaced with brush nickel, we landscaped the front yard, not pictured but we removed the mound of dirt in the front side yard and seeded with grass, we added a stone wall around the center drive garden and landscaped. Here is the front of the house a year later...

More projects updates to come....

The Mandas

The Manda Family! So against my husband (he will come around), I am starting a blog. I have been wanting to blog for awhile and finally I am going to start. We are all about projects and what better way to capture all the memories and moments. Over the past few months I have started reading my favorite blogs daily and I love it .....I am all out the DIY projects, the reality, the captured moments, and the reflection while you blog. So here I go. Lots more to figure out with this template but more posts to come. Up next our largest project ever update....