Update

Still working on the half bath (preview post above), upstairs guest room/office and we are starting on the 2nd floor full bath. A new, possibly larger, deck is also in the works...

Foyer

Quick Before/After-ish of the Foyer
(mostly cosmetic changes)

Kitchen

The kitchen isn't finished yet but we haven't posted in a while so here's an update!

BEFORE PHOTOS:

The first thing we did was sand the cabinets down then paint them white (using painted on primer followed by a high sheen white paint in a sprayer). We also ripped the existing back splash out and painted the walls a light green color.

For the new back-splash we went with a glass tile (Home Depot). These tiles are thinner than most glass tiles and were only $5/sq foot. They come in 12"x12" sheets so application was fairly easy: apply thin set, apply tile sheets, mortar and wipe off. (many people asked if we applied each single tile, that would be awful!) One major mistake we made was forgetting to wipe the final mortar layer off in 2 hours...it was more like 22 hours however Zach was able to remove the hardened mortar with a steel brush on his drill.

The floors were installed (within two days!!) so we can now officially walk around the 1st floor without shoes on!We still need to apply quarter round to the perimeter of the flooring, install the new faucet, as well as purchase light fixtures, appliances, a new counter top, and something to put in the area where the old fridge used to sit. We are thinking of an IKEA cubby/bookshelf for storage.

This room by room unpacking thing is working for us!
Harley in front of our temporary "cooking station"
"Bob", the new fridge:
So happy to have food again!