Whole House versus Room By Room Renovation

Whole house or room by room renovation? Do you have a fixer upper? Are you trying to figure out how to tackle it? Look no further. I will guide you through the different approaches to home renovations and give the advantages and disadvantages to each.

First I want to explain that the difference between a renovation and redecoration. Redecoration is changing color and design elements of a room (paint, curtains), and a renovation changing the structure, ie flooring, structures etc. I will use the term renovation in this article, but redecorating can apply as well.
What is a room by room renovation?
A room by room renovation is when individual rooms are tackled. ie this summer the bedroom is done, next summer the kitchen, next winter the master bathroom. I personally do not like room by room renovations because they end up looking super choppy and disrupt the flow of the home. It feels too completely different when going from one area to another.
What is a whole house renovation?
A whole house renovation is one that is usually seen on the HGTV shows. They look at the big picture and gather a vision for the house. Elements from each room are tied in with one another and everything is done at once.  I prefer whole house renovations because they really tie a home together, create a sense of coziness and can add that extra wow factor to a home.
Why do either one? 
A whole house renovation can be EXPENSIVE and needs to be done in order...ie If the floors are being redone then the baseboard needs to be removed. Painting the baseboards before removing would be a mistake, trust me I did this one.

A room by room renovation can be less expensive, but it may cost more in the long run and may not make the house as cohesive.

I suggest PLANNING a whole house renovation for the major items, but making a plan and focusing on various elements one at a time. Here are some elements to focus on to plan a whole house renovation:

1. Find a color scheme for the house. This will help out soooooo much with so many decisions. When we moved to our house we decided to make it light and airy by painting our kitchen and bathroom cabinets and bathrooms, our walls gray,  a white wash wood flooring, gray laminate and gray carpet. We decided to do elements of green and blue throughout the house. While doing painting our kitchen cabinets our appliances were black. *PICTURE OF KITCHEN*We did not want to invest the money to change them out because they were in good working order. We antagonized over changing the hardware in the kitchen, they were old and starting to rust. We settled on black. Because we made that decision we are going to change all our door handles, hinges, lighting, towel racks, shower curtains and so on black. It makes it super easy. When we were looking for rugs, shower curtains, window hinges etc for our home we knew what colors we wanted. It is coming nicely and looks super cohesive.



This was my inspiration color scheme for my home.

2. Make a plan. Plan out each step of the project and make sure things are done in order. Do not make a mistake and paint the baseboards just to have them ripped off and looking terrible the next week.
3. Take it one step at a time. We have slowly replaced/renovated one step at a time. We focused on flooring one month replacing the flooring in most of the house. We were super lucky to do this before we moved our household goods in. Another month we worked on painting the entire house. Another month we found rugs for the whole house. Another month I focused on bathroom shower rods and curtains. Another month door hinges. Another month baseboard heaters. Another month we focused on mold in the basement and fixing the entire basement up. And I want to add that finding a good shower rod is next to impossible!!! Target finally had the winner. In the coming months or years we will replace doors, replace door handles, pick out drapes and paint our trim inside our house. Every little step brings us closer to our dream house. It can be cheaper overall this way because items can be bought in bulk, a contractor can come out and do the job all at once instead of for each room, sometimes items can not be bought except in large quantities.
4. Be patient. Whole house renovations can be antagonizing especially if everything can not be done at once. But keep a head up because they will get done eventually.

For bathrooms and kitchens I would love to recommend a whole house renovation, but this is not always possible. These areas can be soooo expensive to renovate especially if major changes are being made. Small changes such as light fixtures, mirrors, towels and decor are easy, but changing layouts, cabinetry, flooring and such can be so expensive and hard to do all at once.

For these reasons bathroom and kitchens I recommend room by room renovations with a few caveats.

1. Still make a plan and a color scheme. Even if the bathrooms and kitchens will be done in different years make a plan. Create a cohesive element for the home. Look at matching or complimentary cabinet styles, tiles for the bathroom, countertops etc.
2. If there is an element desired in both or many places buy extra and save it for the other location. For example if there is an amazing tile for a backsplash but also for an accent in a bathroom, just buy extra and save for the other location. If there is a flooring desired for both rooms buy extra of the flooring and save it for the other location. Trust me if it is not bought at the time there is a very good likely it will be gone when doing the other location. Trends change sooo  much. Buy those matching handles and save them.
3. If it is affordable do the renovations at the same time. This can help save money on time and materials.

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EASY 4th of July Cupcake Toppers

Do you want to give your cupcakes that extra pizzazz? Look no further. I have the solution and it is super easy.

Want to know why the cupcakes in the bakery look so much better for some reason? They do not necessarily taste better, but many times they have cupcake toppers. These toppers add a little extra decor to the cupcakes to make them look like a star.  These took me 5 minutes to make and will for sure be a big hit on whatever cupcakes you make. I have put toppers on my cupcakes, along with sprinkles for years and people always say they look professionally done.

The supplies for this project include:

• Glue (I used school glue because it was the closest thing I could find, but other glue would work too and would probably be better leaving no residue or warping)
• Cardstock-Red and Blue
• Skewer sticks
• Scissors
• Tape
• Cricut or two different sized stars

Here are the steps:

1. Make and cut two different sized stars with a Cricut machine.
2. Glue the small star to the big star.
3. Cut the skewer sticks to length leaving the pointy end for the cupcake.
4. Tape the skewer stick to the back of the star.
5. Put them in the cupcakes! and it is done!

What did I tell you? Super easy right, but these little toppers will dress up any cupcake in a flash and be the hit of the party. The stars could also be covered in glitter to add that even extra pizzazz.

See these other amazing DIY craft projects to make your 4th of July stunning!

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Renovating Our Home

When we were looking for a house we could not find anything that was perfect, especially where we were looking, upstate New York. The winters are super hard on houses up here. There is soooo much snow. Then the summers are super humid. It can cause a lot of problems like; roof damage, mold, rotting wood, flooding...the list goes on an on. Every house we looked at had some of these problems. This house we found had the least amount of problems, but we still had a lot of work to do.

Follow along on our adventures as I share everything we have done. I will be updating this blog post with all of your adventures. Follow along to see the transformation.

Here are our before pictures. What would you change?

Kitchen

Family Room

Den

Hallways

Front Door

Bathroom

Living Room and Dining Room

Fireplace

Foyer

Bathroom

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Bedroom

Bedroom

Bathroom

Laundry

Bedroom

Bedroom

Entertainment Room

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The Best Snickerdoodles

Do you like Snickerdoodle cookies? We love them here at our house. They are the perfect blend of cinnamon and sugar with chewy cookie goodness. They are one of my sons and daughters favorite cookies. They make it all the time.

Here is the recipe, I hope you enjoy!

The Best Snickerdoodles

Super Soft Delicious Flavorful Cookies

Author: Jennifer Crowther

Yield: 36

Prep Time: 10 Min Cook time: 14 Minutes 

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cream of tarter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Take the butter and egg out of the fridge 1 hour before starting the cookie batter to bring to room temperature
2. Make sure the butter is soft, cream the butter.
3. Add the sugars and cream the mixture.
4. Beat in the egg. Mix until fluffy.
5. Add vanilla and mix.
6. Combine the dry ingredients, flour, salt, baking soda, and cream of tarter.
7. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix until they are mixed in.
8. Store in fridge for 30-60 minutes before baking.
9. Bake at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 12-14 minutes. Remove before they appear golden brown, they will be overbaked at that time.

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HGTV Shows versus Reality

Who likes HGTV? I love watching all the home renovations shows, from "Fixer Upper" to "Flip or Flop" to "Property Brothers". When we bought our home last April I binged watched all these shows to get ready to do our own flip. I was pregnant and could not move around much so it was perfect. In April we started our home renovation. Started is a good word because unlike the HGTV shows I have found that home renovations take time, not 30 minutes or an hour of life, or three weeks like happens in the shows. Why? Read on to find out how they compare and what I have learned about home renovations.

1. The biggest factor in all the HGTV shows is MONEY. And money will influence a lot of factors in the speed, timing and quality of the renovation. On the shows buyers usually come in with $100,000 dollars extra to spend on their renovation. Maybe this is the case for some, but it was not for us. When we bought our house we qualified for more, but we could not access the funds. The reason? The bank only wants to loan what the house is worth. If the house is undervalued there may be room to ask for some back from the sellers. But if it is undervalued there is a risk of the sellers wanting more for the house depending on the type of market it is. The best way to do a quick high quality renovation is to have the money saved up to spend on it.

We did not have the extra money to spend on the house. Therefore the renovations are not happening as quickly as they would on a show. And what I have learned is that is okay. As long as there is a plan the plans will happen.

2. One of the first things we did when we were planning our renovations was to MAKE A LIST of all the ideas we had for the house. Just write them down. We wrote down everything even if it seemed silly. We found sometimes the silly things were things we both wanted. It really helped me and my husband be on the same page with the renovations. After we wrote them all down we prioritized them. What was the most important and what could wait? And what was a pipe dream?

3. DRAW IT OUT AND PLAN. The HGTV shows do this really well. They make schedules and have a plan. I made a 3-D model of our house using home by me. It was really easy to change wall colors and flooring. We were able to get an idea for what we wanted our house to look like. I wish changing all those things in real life was that easy :)

The before picture

The after, we still have some planning to do ;)

4. RESEARCH. Before renovations start research everything. This will help if you DIY or if you hire contractors. I worked at a home improvement store in college and studied engineering. This helped me immensely when talking to the contractors that were helping us. I also as stated above watched a ton of home improvement shows. This helped me find lots of ideas and know how to fix issues that arose during our improvements.

5. Figure out the ORDER for each project. What do I mean by this? We wanted to paint the whole house first. We elected to paint all our oak trim instead of getting rid of it. But we also wanted to replace our floors. In order to replace floors baseboards need to be taken off quite often. In one room we painted them first and the other rooms we did not. The baseboards in the kitchen got removed 3 times. And guess what they looked horrible and needed to be painted again. The baseboards in areas that did not need to be painted again look good. I wish we had waited to paint those baseboards.

Make a flow chart of what needs to get done first. Sometimes it will be a toss up, should carpet be put down or the room painted first? Other times it will definitely be an order. Replace sink with vanity. For example for us we removed mold first, then did sheetrock repairs and then put down the flooring. Then we put the baseboards up.

6. After we wrote down our ideas WRITE A TENTATIVE SCHEDULE. This schedule will most definitely be changed with time as problems come up with the renovation and they will. But with this schedule in mind there can be a plan.

7. After we wrote down our ideas I started PRICING OUT EVERYTHING. Why is this important? It helps fine tune the schedule and helps know what can be done according to the money that is available. Start talking to contractors and ask them for estimates. Are they affordable? Or would some of the things be good as a DIY?

At first we were going to paint our whole house. The more I researched it I realized pregnant women should not paint and I did not want my husband to do it all by himself. We started asking contractors and found an affordable and awesome painter. She was way under what we thought it was going to be. We elected to do some of the shelving and closet design ourselves because it did not seem as complicated or time consuming. Find out what works for the situation.

8. Always have EXTRA FUNDS for issues that will definitely come up, especially when ripping up walls or flooring. That is one thing the shows definitely get right. Issues will come up that affect the budget and will change the schedule. When we were planning our house before we moved in we did not know what issues we would encounter. When did we find these issues? When we were ripping up carpet to put in flooring the next day, and found mold. When we took out a window and found the sill down was rotted out. When we moved in and found lots of pests (carpenter ants, wasps, and mice) and had to call pest control. When we went to clean our dryer vent, but instead we found it improperly connected and had to replace the whole thing. When we painted our house and realized our ceilings were not white, but cream. All of these issues we uncovered and took more money out of our pocket.

9. MAKE A BUDGET. After we found out what we wanted to have happen we budgeted our funds. This helped us make clear goals about when we could do things and save up for what we wanted done.

10. BE PATIENT AND FLEXIBLE. This is probably the most important thing I have learned during the renovation. Unless there are unlimited funds there is no way to do every thing all at once. And projects will have to be moved around. We need our trim to be painted, our doors replaced light fixtures replaced. But we have also done so much, replaced our flooring, replaced some windows, updated our venting system, and painted our whole house.

Good luck with your renovation and remember even if you can not do it as fast as the shows, you can transform your house and make it your home. I can not wait to share with you everything we have done to our home!

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