Before and After

Now that the rental project is complete on the inside it is fun for me to reflect on the before pictures and see how far we came with the progress. The thing that I am most proud of is the hardwood floors. The floors were 1950's oak and have never been redone. There were lots of dents, dings, and years of filth on them. I wanted to bring them back to life. There is only one hardwood floor person in Pocatello, and he was too busy to do our project, so we decided to tackle it ourselves. It was hard work! We sanded and sanded and got dust everywhere. Once the phases of sanding were done I got to put the stain on and then the polyurethane. I am so proud of how they turned out. The blisters I developed on my knees were worth it.

Sanding hardwood floors

Staining hardwood floors

Bedroom #1 floors before

Bedroom #1 after

Bedroom #2 Floors before

Bedroom #2 after

I also enjoyed learning how to tile. My Mom is so talented and I'm glad she could teach me!  I did the kitchen subway tile back splash and the tile floors in the kitchen. We had a flipper come and give us pointers on refinishing hardwood floors because he has done that himself. While he was there he asked who we had hired to do the back splash in the kitchen and wanted their number to hire them for his projects. I got a good laugh, and he was surprised when I told him it was me. 

Kate was great at helping me get the spacers out the next morning after the floors had a night to dry.
 Look at those straight lines!

There was so much work to be done on the walls in the house. At some point someone put this sunflower texturing on thick in the living room and the hallway. We tried to texture over it but the sunflower still showed through. We had to manually scrape the walls. It was so difficult and time consuming. But thank goodness the sunflowers are gone!
I told Joe that I never want him to buy me any sunflowers ever again.

The dreaded sunflower texturing in the living room and hallway

Entry Before

Entry After- We also had an electrician put in a ceiling fan light

What was left of this kitchen was a rust bucket. This was what was left of the original 1950's kitchen. I was so happy to see it go. The kitchen has a very small footprint and so to maximize space and have it flow better we had to have a plummer and an electrician come in and move things around.

Kitchen Before

Kitchen after

Kitchen After

 

Hallway after

Stairwell After

I wish I would have gotten a picture of the stairway to the backyard and the unfinished basement before we did work. The back door was boarded up, the walls had some holes, there was no stair railing. There was no half wall on the left, just a dangerous edge. It was a creepy stair well before. I know it doesn't look too exciting, but I worked hard on it and needed to add this to the post.

We completed the remodel in just under 3 months. It was hard work! All the vent covers, light switch face plates and outlets got switched out to new ones as well as all the door nobs were replaced. When we were all done it felt like this place was brand new.

Good thing our kids were good sports most of the time...

Usually Harvey wanted to be working right by my side, If He wasn't by me then he was causing trouble

My favorite picture of my little helper. He loved watching me work. He always had to have a tool in his hand. (The floor his feet is on I was about to install, but just put a fresh coat of paint on the stairs) 

Now this spring we get to work on the yard that has been totally neglected! Wish us luck!

Income property-The help

Joe and I did a crazy thing and bought an income property in October. My parents own multiple income properties and make being a landlord look easy. Joe is always looking at MLS listings and sometimes can talk me into looking at one. This property had been on the market for over a year and just took a drastic price cut. It is a duplex property with one side habitable but the other side needed so much work just so someone could live there. I'm not kidding... If the kids dropped things on the floor and the thing would get thrown away or placed separate to get washed. It was a real fixer upper. We knew we would put a lot of time and sweat into this project. I love how it turned out, but first here are some pictures of the people who helped us. 

For demolition Joe's brothers Tom, and Sam and his Dad Tim came into town for the morning and helped us rip out the rusty metal kitchen and all the sub floor underneath. As well as moldy sheet rock in the kitchen. It was a big help!

 My parents are amazing and came up multiple times from Salt Lake to give us a huge hand. The condition of these walls were horrible. The house was built in 1950 and has had so many tenants over the years who destroyed them (I should have considered re sheet rocking). My parents worked their magic and with a lot of mud made them look as good as new. My Dad did a great job leading painting. I enjoyed working along side him and learning all his tips. I thought he would fire me because I give a terrible straight edge, man is he patient.

My mom would often say, "Come here Sarah, I want to show you something." and then she would teach me what she has learned for 30+ years of being a landlord. She taught me everything from fixing a painted shut window, tiling, custom fitting blinds, repairing holes in dry wall and anything else that she could pass on.

 Harvey and Kate were amazing during the renovation. We would usually go up and work in the morning and Harvey would nap for a little while in his car seat. We would come home for lunch and Harvey's afternoon nap and then head back up to work. We would usually meet Joe after work there and then one of us took the kids home while the other stayed and worked. It was a horrible schedule but the kids were troopers.

Harvey got stuck in the new kitchen cabinet, and when I saw his face I grabbed my camera instead of rescuing him!

In this picture my Mom is passing down one of her many talents. She successfully
 taught me how to size a blind to fit a window properly

Poor Harvey spent half the project stuck in the pack and play until I could get the floors redone. I could not imagine my baby crawling around on the disgusting floors. 

Nonna rescued Harvey from the Pack and Play for a cuddle. 

My brother Jeff came up during Christmas break and installed a brand new front door. It looks amazing and sets the tone for the whole apartment. We also had to rip out all the baseboards and Jeff installed new ones. He is amazing! Thanks for all the help! I can't wait to show you the before and after!

Harvey's birthday

In November we got to celebrate Harvey's 1st birthday! We were lucky enough to have my parents visiting for the weekend and some of the Preston's came over to celebrate with us. 

Harvey is wired differently from Kate. He loves to suck the faces of all of her princesses but prefers to play with tools, trucks, cars, trains and airplanes. It seemed only fitting to have a construction theme birthday party for him. 

 

Harvey made quick work of the smash cake I prepared for him. I have never seen a child destroy something so quickly and completely. He only even wanted to taste one piece

His party was the night before his actual birthday, so on his actual birthday we kept the party alive and did some of his favorite things. He loves french fries from 5 guys and swimming in the warm kid pool of Lava hot springs.

Harvey is small is stature but big on personality. At his year mark he was just shy of 18 pounds (4%), and 28 inches tall (2%). The doctor said he is hitting all his milestones and not to be worried about his small size. He started taking a few steps near his birthday, and quickly picked up the pace to running and now it is hard for me to keep up with him! We love you Harvey!

Halloween 2016

Halloween was super easy this year because Kate wanted to be the same thing she was the previous year, Rapunzel!. Harvey wore a BYU cougar outfit for a trunk or treating, and was then a cow on the official night. These kids got a lot of bonus candy because people thought they were too cute!

Harvey was a cow which is the same outfit Kate wore when she was 14 months old for Halloween that year. I loved taking a quick flip down memory lane by looking up an old photo of Kate dressed up. 

Harvey Halloween 2016

Kate Halloween 2014

 Kate was so excited to go trick or treating with her Dad who she had dress up as Flynn Ryder again. She was so sad that I didn't get Harvey a Pascal costume and that I didn't dress up as Mother Gothel.

Kate loves going to preschool twice a week. She was so excited for her Halloween Party at school. She wanted to dress up as Sleeping Beauty for this party, which was easy because we already own that dress. The party included games, crafts, and candy. She has the most adorable teacher who is on the right in the picture below. She loved being there all dressed up. 

Kate's Preschool class 2016 at the Halloween party