Months after we closed on our fixer upper we noticed we had a slight, I mean massive, water problem in our backyard, the creek and our barn. Guess what… another project that needed attention right away.

This is what our backyard looks like on a non-rainy day. Once again, I love our creek that runs through our backyard.

Now, this is how it looks like when the rain starts.

A slight water problem – right!?! Our first thought was to widen the creek but it made us nervous to mess with Mother Nature that way. On to our second idea, call in the landscapers and and get their opinions on the problem.

So, what did we do. First thing, we replaced all the gutters and downspouts on the barn. Out with old and in with the new. Second, we took the approach of building a swell around the entire barn and redirect the water away from the barn and towards the creek. Lastly, we added a concrete apron around the front and sides of the barn to prevent any water from coming back in.

Let’s get our backyard torn up and get rid of the water!

This is what it looks like now.

This is the first time we were able to open up all of the doors on the barn. Definitely getting somewhere! Keeping our fingers crossed this will do the trick.

It seems that our projects never end but we getting somewhere.

Here is our newest find at our fixer upper in the barn.

Jason found this sign in our barn and he loved the idea of hanging it up. It looks great! I must be rubbing off on him 😉. We (meaning Jason) started doing some research to find out who/what Sylvandale Farm is and if it has any connection with our property. Anyone know who it is or any suggestions on who we can contact?

Love ya, Lisa

I figured it is time to get my butt into design gear and start doing some finishes on the inside of our fixer upper.

Lately, I have been slightly unmotivated to decorate our house. Partly because I just don’t know what I really want to do and I look at a lot of my old stuff and its just stuff. I did have a lot of family photos around our old house and now I look at all of those picture frames and I don’t want to put them anywhere. Anyways, I need to get moving… onto the Master Suite.

Besides our kitchen, this room has also made some dramatic changes from the original floor plan.

Here is where we started…

A lot to take in (especially wood paneling) but a ton of potential. Once again, the first thing we saw and loved was the view of our backyard. We absolutely love standing in our room and no matter what window we were looking out, we are surrounded by beautiful trees and a mixture wildlife.

Where to start? First thing, we did was clean everything out and make a big open rectangular space by taking the walls out from four rooms. The small den, 2 closets, a water closet, a couple of feet from the family room and the existing bedroom. This is where the floor plan got tricky. You would think it would be easy to figure out the floor plan but trying to plan a spacious room around 8 big windows and current plumbing is slightly tricky.

Here is our fixer upper’s Master Suite today.

I decided to place our bed between the two windows. It just felt like it made sense for the bed to go there. Jason wanted the bed to be on a different wall but sorry Jason, I won 😘. We had our bed custom made 8 years ago and I still love it – so it stays. I do want to change our bedding and add some more pillows but that will take some time. Slowly easing into it – remember.

Here is our view that we fell in love with. Our contractor recommended switching out the 4 casement style windows to 1 big picture window and a double hung window on either side. So glad he did – thank you Tim! The window bench is covering the radiators from our boiler system and I still plan on making a cushion and adding lots of pillow on top of it. The drapes are custom panels that I got through my mom. For those of you who don’t know, that is my Mom’s business. I love the black accents added to the room from the fabric, the rod and the window bench!

I used a barn door for our entrance and I love the look! We have a had our dresser and night stands for awhile and I don’t love them but I don’t hate them. It is not worth changing out and spending money on. They are staying. But after looking at this picture, I need some stuff on that dresser!

Here is closer look at our windows and coverings. I’m in love with my fabric choices!! Instead of blinds, I chose a Hunter Douglas custom roman shade. These shades are amazing and do a great job keeping the sun out but letting light in. Plus using fabric on the windows instead of wood gives the room some warmth. Jason and I decided on putting chunky moldings around all of our windows and doors. I love all the ledges on them.

Our Master Bathroom…

We decided on an 8ft double vanity sink with white and grey quartz countertops. Simple.

I utilized another barn door going into the walk-in closet. The door is always shut since it is slightly messy. I have my jewelry collection all over the floor. I still need to hang all of it up. I had it all displayed in my last closet and it was the best thing I did.

We did not put a tub in but an oversized shower was a must. We love the rain shower function in the middle.

Here is some of the hardware up close. I did do a combo of metals in the bathroom, using both pewter gold and oil rubbed bronze.

Our bathroom tile is all white but with different textures and patterns. I love using white tile! I can bleach the hell out of it and just feels and smells clean.

Frank also shares this space at night with us. We get to listen to him snore all night long or Jason and I can now blame our snoring on Frank 😂.

I know it takes time to make a house a home but slowly we are getting there and it is starting to feel like our new home. Finally!

Love ya, Lisa

As we wait for the rest of the Hardie Board to get ordered and shipped, they have started to work on the covered patio. Jason and I are so excited to have a covered patio facing the forest. We both love being outside and this will allow us to enjoy the outdoors even more.

I don’t have an exact inspiration photo to show what we are trying to have the covered patio resemble but I am giving the workers my ideas and they are trying to make it happen.

Although I don’t have an exact photo I am trying to copy and give to my contractor, we do have a covered patio wish list. Here is our list…

1. I love the idea of seeing straight through the patio towards the backyard from the kitchen window.

2. I do not want the deck to go across the entire back of the house. We only want it in front of the kitchen area. I wanted our view from the family room to not be obstructed.

3. I want to be able to have my grill, with a gas line connection, on the deck by the patio door for easier access to and from the kitchen.

4. Let’s try and not completely destroy the current patio below.

5. Jason’s must: a fan, canned lights, a tv connection and a heater.

6. PLEASE TRY AND USE THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER BEDROOM OFF THE BACK SOMEWHERE.

We are using the Trex product with a combo of grey flooring, white post and black spindles. Go figure, a grey/white/black combo. I’ll put some color out there with flowers, pillows and rugs. Kind of like this combo 👇🏻. Yes, another picture from Pinterest.

So where are we today…

These photos are kind of hard to visualize the final product but I’m slowly seeing it. Hopefully, the rain stays away next week so the roof can get up! I can’t wait to be able to sit out there and drink my morning tea.

Frank was hanging out with me while I blogged. I couldn’t resist to take his photo.

Love ya, Lisa

As we go into the month of June, the outside of our house is starting to look like a house from 2020. Slowly – thanks to a rainy May but getting there. Thank god!

Here is where we are…

You can tell we have had a rainy may. Look how green the grass is – crazy! Back to the updates, 75% of the Hardie Board is up on the front of the house and the dormers on the back are complete. The back of the house still has a lot of work that needs to be done. Our contractor wants to finish the front of the house before they start on the back. As long as it stays dries, that will get the back started next week.🤞🏻

Besides Hardie Board taking place where old vinyl shingles were, we are replacing all of the soffit, fascia and gutters on the house. The soffit and fascia will be black while the gutters will be white. Goodbye maroon!

If you look at the top of the of the house, you can see the left side was replaced while the right side is still the old wood soffit and fascia showing. As for the the unfinished siding, it will still be Hardie Board in a board and batten design – same color as below, arctic white. We plan on keeping the fireplace the original red brick. Why not?!? This all white house needs a little bit of color.

Kind of a boring update but progress is happening.

Another completed room inside the house. Our foyer…

Pretty simple. A farmhouse look – which shouldn’t have surprised anyone. Some of you may have seen this picture already from Instagram or Facebook. I made the “Zimmer” sign 5 years ago with reclaimed wood and metal letters from an antique store in Indiana. The window is from our fixer upper. It was from the garage and the color is original! I made the wreath when Hobby Lobby finally opened up and the bench was from our old mudroom but it was a cherry wood color – hello 2000 😂. I painted it white and distressed it while adding some other miscellaneous things to the area.

There you go! I did finally get some drapes and blinds ordered for the master bedroom. I will be excited when those get in. Hopefully in a couple of weeks. Then, I can get our bedroom looking finished.

Love ya, Lisa

It’s been a couple of weeks since I have written and my brain has been on overload during this time. My blog has been on the far end of my mental list – sorry.

Phase 2 has started and it is time to make the outside match the inside to our fixer upper. When Jason and I first took on this project it was very easy to come up with the outside vision we were thinking. At least, I thought so- lol! The original farmhouse was white with maroon siding and accents. We wanted to keep the main color of the house white but not using maroon for accents. I absolutely love the look of a white farmhouse with black accents. So guess what, that is what we are going to do. We are using the Hardie Board product for the outside with different patterns. Cedar horizontal planks on the bottom and batten board vertical planks for the upper sections of the house. Here is the original front and back of our fixer upper.

As normal, I leaned on Pinterest for inspiration and photos to give to my General Contractor (Tim take notes if you are reading this 😂). Yes, I’m obsessed with Pinterest.

Baby steps before we get to the pretty final product. There are some issues we have to attack on our 1950’s fixer upper. One of the biggest changes/fixing was moving the front door and to fix a drainage situation where the front door used to be.

Moving the front door was something we always thought about but tackled late during the inside project. The original front door was on the side of the house and I was never a big fan of it. Not only was it stuck in a corner and not a focal point on the house, there was a stinky vestibule you entered before you got to the actual front door to enter. I hated it and it always creeped me out. It was a good day when the vestibule was demoed!

Now, where do we stick the front door? The new front door is where the single window is on the left side in the above photo. That may be confusing but you will see the entire house in a later photo. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we decided to move the door late in the inside rehab process and I already purchased and installed a new window where the door is now going. Easy fix… we moved the new window to a blank wall in the kitchen. You can never have enough natural sunlight in a kitchen – done!

Next on the list is building of the new entrance on the front of the house. We are trying to mirror the current dormers on the house so the new entrance doesn’t look like a total afterthought.

We also had to fix a drainage issue when we demoed the ugly vestibule. When the workers took out the concrete pad, it was hallow underneath. Not good!

Take a look at the bottom right photo, Jason is wanting to put a sitting area there. I think it will look cute!

So what does the house look like today…

Tyvek is up and the front porch is halfway done. This stupid rain has got to stop so I can get some workers here to start putting up the siding, trim, gutters, etc. My contractor was right, it is definitely going to get uglier before it gets pretty.

Love ya, Lisa

Some people don’t put a lot of detail into a powder room but not me. I love using this room as a space to add a touch of flair or color. I am also a huge fan of wallpapering powder rooms. So, why not do it again!

Here is what the powder room looked like when we purchased our fixer upper. The smell wasn’t the best. The second photo was during taken during the expansion process.

Here is our current powder room.

I decided to go with a clean line white pedestal sink. Even though we expanded the powder room to 5’ x 5’8”, I didn’t want to take up room with a cabinet. Yes, I did say expanded 😂. The original size was 5’ x 4’. When you sat down to go to the bathroom your face was on top of the wall. It was very tight and creepy.

I love that black matte hardware is in style. This faucet has an older feel but modernized touch by having it black. I love it!

I’m still on the fence with the mirror. I love the size and shape but just not sure if it is too much. Jason loves it and feels that it brings character to this room and the house since you see it from the main hallway. My mom thinks it is too busy and I do value her opinion since she is in remolded homes all time with her business. The coolest part of this mirror is that it was left with the house. They originally had it at the top of the stairs going into the attic and it was gold. Such a cool mirror to place there for no one to see. I ended up doing a deep clean on all parts, painted it black and in the end it only cost me $7 – maybe that’s why Jason loves it 😂. What are your guys thoughts?

I love all the window and door casing we put in the house. It is a combination of farmhouse and craftsman style. When we were walking through the house before we bought it, I was so happy to have a window in this space. I’m a huge fan of natural light in every room.

The light fixture is also original to the house. It use to hang in the foyer and gold. I know gold is coming back in style but black made more sense in my design mind. A couple of hours of elbow grease went into this project to get it black but well worth it!!

80% of the doors in our fixer upper are the original solid wood 6 panel doors. We did have the painters paint all of them white to match the trim and change all the hardware to black. They turned out great. Some of the doors still have some imperfections on them but what do you expect, they are 70 years old. Now, I have a ton of old brass door nobs and I’m dying to do a project with them. Pinterest – here I come!

Finally, the floors. There was no way I was putting carpet back down in here so I chose a white and grey hexagon marble to put in the powder room. It was a small space and made budget sense to go fancy and slightly more expensive in here.

What about the wallpaper?!? What do you guys think? Is it what you thought I would go with? I absolutely love the blue color combo throughout the paper and this classic print is updated by the color. By the way, I hung the wallpaper with help from my mom. I’ve always hung my own wallpaper and it is an easy way to save some money during a remodel.

There is our fixer upper’s Powder Room. I love how it turned out. Now, I just need to get the toilet paper and towel holders up and it will be even better 😉.

Love ya, Lisa

Since majority of you mentioned that I can’t stop blogging at this point about our fixer upper, I figured I can go room by room as I get them in order.

We have been in week in our fixer upper for four days now and it is still in shambles with boxes, empty and full, everywhere. This is when I wished Joanna Gaines and her crew would walk thru my front door and just get everything unpacked and into place. Dreaming right?!? 😂 With us being in Mokena during a “stay at home” order and Joanna Gaines in Waco, it looks like it is just us and our old items finding their new place (your welcome Jason).

The first room that is complete is our Mudroom/Walk-in Pantry. These rooms could be my second favorite room of our fixer upper (probably because all the other ones are a hot mess). Let’s start with the before photo.

At first, we didn’t know what to do with the sunroom but we knew it needed help. Our first thought was to make it the laundry room but we took a hard pass right away since bringing plumbing to this location would be pricey. We figured it had to be the mudroom since it already had an exterior entrance located right off from where the future garage will be getting built.

While demo was being done and I was designing the kitchen layout, I realized that once again I am going to have a house without a walk-in pantry (complete bummer). As I was trying to figure out a layout with a walk-in pantry within the kitchen, I realized it wasn’t going to work out. That is when the 12 x 13 mudroom was going to have a walk-in pantry in it somewhere. Back to my drawings I went and decided to divid the room in half. Half of it will be the mudroom and the other half will be the spill over pantry and a coat and shoe closet. Viola – our new mudroom/pantry!

Here were my inspiration photo and drawings.

Let’s get to work!

Here is the pantry shelves filled with our stuff. It didn’t take long to fill them up.

Now onto the mudroom. This will probably be the cleanest it will ever be.

Fun fact: The two walls of shiplap are actually the original cedar plank walls that were covered all over the family room. I asked the guys who demo’ed to save all of the planks thinking I would try to use it at some point. I love that I found a place for some of them. We still have a ton more being saved in our attic or the future “she-attic.”

My favorite part of the mudroom is the original dutch door from the 1950s construction. The workers put a lot of elbow grease into this to get it working again. I ❤️ it!!!

That’s our mudroom. What are your thoughts? My second favorite room to my kitchen. Yes, I said my kitchen is my favorite room. As soon as I have that in order, I will share!

Love ya, Lisa

Phase 1 is complete and the day has finally arrived to move into our fixer upper. Go figure, it is rainy and cold on this spring day in Mokena, IL. Oh well, the show must go on. Isn’t there a saying that rain is suppose to be good luck on an event day or is that just for weddings?!? Who knows – lol! We are not pushing this day off any further, I have some very excited children who are dying to get back to house living.

Packing was quick with the townhouse since half of our items have been in storage for the last 7 months plus we gradually moved some stuff over by hand all week. It was nice to go through my clothes again and get rid of some stuff but I’m thinking I should get rid of more. My daily attire has definitely changed over the past couple of years and I love it!

We used an old connection of my Dad’s for the move. It was the same crew who moved us out of our old house and did an awesome job. The mover showed up a 7 am and whipped through our 2500 sqft townhouse in 2 hours and had a truck filled. Those guys were amazing!! It would have taken us days to do that. Now, onto The Ranch, as Jason has nicknamed our fixer upper.

Days leading up to our move, my Dad was very concerned with a handful of things. The biggest one was the length of our driveway and some trees that are near the entrance. He was nervous about the massive moving truck getting down our driveway – I wasn’t. I usually have a laidback positive approach and tend to think it will all work out in the end. I’m not the stress nut in the family. Guess what… the big ass truck got down our driveway like a champ. I had faith in the driver.

The rain continued to come down and these guys pushed through it like champs. Working in the rain sucks and now the fun begins!

The movers had me walk them through the house and give them a tour and place a name/label on each room. Then they had me stand in the entrance and directed them where to place all of our furniture and the never ending amount of boxes of crap we had to their final destination. After directing over a 150 boxes throughout the house and a ton of furniture, I can finally say, “ Jason you won. I have a shopping problem and we have too much crap.” I don’t even know what is in half of these boxes! It looks like a yard sale is going happen after this quarantine is done to get rid of a lot of unnecessary stuff.

After an additional 5 hours of unloading two trucks and putting furniture together, we are moved in. Well, kind of… this is where COVID-19 comes back into play and messes things up – again.

As soon as the last box was placed, Jason and I decided to take the kids and Frank to our lake house for a couple of days to let everything settle and take a break from the craziness. Move-in day was kind of hectic and their was a lot of people in and out of the house touching everything we own. Why not leave the house a hot mess and head out of town for a break – just in case. The lake was needed and great getaway!

Now comes the fun part. Unpacking all of these boxes and making our fixer upper our new house.

Here is the next question, I will still be blogging about Phase 2 of our project but do you want any pictures or videos of room by room once I get things unpacked? Or are you sick of this – hahahaha.

Love ya, Lisa

Phase 1 of our fixer upper is almost complete and it felt really good to actually schedule a move-in date. The count down is on!!!

For the past week, I have been doing multiple curbside pick ups from various home improvement stores (f/u COVID-19) and let me tell you, I have been loving not walking into stores to shop and find stuff! At first, I thought I would hate online shopping for home items but now I’m a HUGE fan. Sorry Jason! I even had 4 different tiles delivered to choose from for an area in the kitchen. Loving it!

So what’s been going on… our interior doors have handles and door stops, more decorative tile has been put up, finishing touches on my kitchen cabinets are almost complete, beams and mantel work looking beautiful, our stairs are not a trip hazard anymore, lots and lots of staining, the kitchen dutch door has been getting restored, under cabinet lighting installed, the kitchen hood is up (I ❤️ my hood), I now have a laundry room sink, the toilets flush (that one was a little messy and a lesson learned), amazing water pressure in the showers (thank god), and last but not least – the closet organizers are in. Holy shit, that was some list and I am sure I am missing a bunch!

The best part of this past week was the protective paper coverings being removed from the floors.It really looks like a livable house.

Now what? The floors are getting their final coats this week, the basement ceilings are getting sprayed as I type this and carpet installed. Last but not least… phase 2 is getting started – the outside!

Easter at our fixer upper: This past Easter was a different one for our family. Our normal routine is with my side of the family and all 9 cousins together. It usually is filled with lots of food, noise and our annual Eggolympics. This year, was a quite day at our fixer upper, or The Ranch as Jason named it, with an egg hunt for our three kids, lots of golf cart rides, a FaceTime house tour with my in-laws and Frank did lots of exploring. It was a great day but my kids definitely missed their cousins.

Love ya, Lisa

As my family and I sit in isolation and realize this is the new norm for awhile, where does that leave our project? Our fixer upper during Covid-19 is slowly moving along while our workers are keeping social distancing in mind and getting this house finished. Luckily, we are not living in our fixer upper during construction and we have kept it up to our workers to do what they feel comfortable with.

Me personally, I have stopped going into home improvement stores and have moved all my shopping to online. This is hard for me. I am one of those shoppers who want to physically touch and see the color in my hand. Thankfully, I already grabbed all of our lighting and plumbing fixtures weeks ago. Here are just a few…

Painters: Our painters kept away from each other while working in separate rooms and areas. They spent the last couple of days fixing spots and working on white washing one of the fireplaces.

HVAC: The HVAC guys were in for a day finalizing the system and fixing the boiler system. Hopefully, the boiler system will work this time. We have been having an issue with it staying on and guess what… it is cold in there. A cold house is not good when you are trying to get it painted. At one point, I was definitely f-bombing anyone and everyone (surprisingly in my head) just to get the dam thing fixed.

Water Purification System: One huge bonus with our fixer upper is that it is in unincorporated Mokena. HELLO LOWER TAXES but well water comes with it. We worked with a local company to clean out, update and add a reverse osmosis system to the house. They are promising me my hair will stay blond and not turn orange but time will tell.

Who knows what the next couple of week will hold. As our governor has put our state on a “stay at home” order, it seems that our fixer upper is on a day-to-day process. I know our workers want to work but safety first for everyone involved!

Love ya, Lisa