Built-Ins

Remember when we took ALL that wallpaper down after we bought the house back in March?? Well we have painted all the walls with a neutral color. YAY! We really like the built-ins upstairs, but it was all just so blah.  Here is a before picture (with the previous owner's stuff still in the shelves):

In all of its yellow glory!...

And after! (I had to shut the door because of the mess in the other side..)

 

Here is a full view

 

Brent put a fresh coat of white paint all over the wood and I painted the back the blue color.  We really like the way it makes the hand-made built-ins look a little bit newer (and cleaner)!

Super Easy Upgrade

Easy!! Yay!! Our house was built in 1966 and has a lot of 1960's quirks.  Our kitchen cabinets are hand-made, built-on-site cabinets, and they are definitely not perfect, but we are not planning on ripping them out any time soon.  We have heard the whole wall would probably come with them cause they're not simply nailed. SOO we have done a few things to try to make them livable.  The cornice over the kitchen sink was so incredibly dated, something HAD to be done.  Here it is before:

 

So country and old.  I decided that, since our cabinets have a lot of paneling anyway, maybe we could just cover it up with some plywood.  We went to Home Depot and bought some for about $4.

After some paint and a few nails, this is what the window looks like:

I'm so glad you can't see the top of the curtain anymore, and I think it looks so much less dated! What do you think??

Brent is a Beast

Since Brent's official diagnosis a few weeks ago, we have been in a bit of a whirlwind.  We had to deal with all the emotions of his diagnosis and had to figure out, mainly financially, how to take the next steps.  Hearing that Brent has MS is a lot like being told he had the tumor and that it was inoperable.  We don't know how he is going to feel day to day, and we don't know what the future will hold, but we can only do our best! For anyone with a chronic illness, finances can be difficult.  We are SO thankful that we have health insurance, even though it may not be ideal.  Did you know that, for someone without insurance, medication for MS costs over $4,000 a MONTH.  Our pharmacy benefit on our insurance will only cover up to $2,000 a YEAR.  Luckily, there are special programs to help you with cost and help you get the medication you need.  After a couple weeks of delay, Brent finally got his Copaxone shots this week.  The nurse from Shared Solutions came during my lunch break on Thursday, and she taught us how to do the injections.  Brent will have to give himself a shot every day from now on.  He needed 7 sites on his body to rotate between.  I know it comes as a shock, but Brent is a little on the thin side, so this was a tough task! There is an auto-inject he can use in some areas, but I will have to give him a manual shot a few times a week--lucky I did all that injection training in optometry school!
Brent did SUCH an amazing job learning how to do everything and I am just amazed at his positive attitude and optimism.  For those who don't know a lot about MS, the medication Brent is starting will hopefully reduce the number of new brain/spine lesions on MRI, and the number of relapses.  Only time will tell if he will respond well to it.  Please keep Brent in your thoughts and prayers as he starts this medicine.  Pray that he has minimal side effects, and that he can tolerate the daily shots.   I promise the next update will be about the house, as we have still managed to get a few things done here and there!

Brent: Updated

I will never forget how I felt when we had top neurosurgeons at Wake Forest and Duke look at Brent and say, "You have a tumor inside your spinal cord and it needs to come out sooner rather than later."  They told us that the surgery is so risky that he would have to learn how to walk again afterward (with a walker for a while) and that he would have chronic pain and numbness for the rest of his life.   We asked them both if they were sure this could not be MS or another neurological disease, and they both point-blank said "I am positive this is a tumor, there is no question."  We had basically scheduled Brent's surgery for October.  I had told work that I was going to have to take a week off (he would be in the hospital for 4 days) and that I would have to play my schedule by ear a little bit.  But, before we let these Johns Hopkins trained surgeons cut into Brent, we were going to make pretty darn sure these guys were right and that this scary surgery was really the only option.  
The feeling of amazement was only topped by the moment when I looked at the repeat MRI, 4 months after the first.  The latest MRI (he had it on Thursday) showed that the lesion was in fact an extremely inflamed MS lesion.  It is no longer inflamed and no longer shows up on a with-contrast MRI.  Dr. Skeen, a neurologist at Duke (who we set up an appointment with on our own) explained to us that he, too, would have thought that the lesion was a tumor.  HOW SCARY IS THAT.  It has been hard to shake the feeling that Brent would have had an extremely risky and completely unnecessary surgery.  If we had not insisted that we have a few more tests done, we would have taken the word of these talented surgeons and we would have put Brent's well being at risk for nothing. 
Brent is obviously not in the clear, and he will now start a life-long process of figuring out how to deal with MS.  The one thing that was a bit comforting about the surgery was that, when it was over, Brent was going to be how he was going to be.  No wondering or waiting.  MS will be a lot different.  Hopefully he will be one of the lucky ones! We are so thankful that we pushed so hard, and we would appreciate continued prayers as Brent and I start to deal with a new reality.

Brenton

Well, I feel like I have put off writing about Brent as long as I could.  We have gotten a lot of phone calls and cards recently, and also a lot of questions.  I know people are wanting more information about Brent’s status, so it seems it will be easier to write it here so everyone can get information if they want it!

Back in April/May, Brent started having some numbness from his waistline down.  He went to the chiropractor and she did an x-ray, but said everything seemed fine and he should try some therapy for a while.  For some reason, that just didn’t sit right with us, and we set up an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon who specialized in the spine.  He ordered an MRI right away, then 6 more MRIs the next day.  He then referred us on to a neurosurgeon who might be able to help us more.  It was explained to us that Brent has a benign tumor growing inside his spinal cord.  We have seen neurosurgeons here in Greensboro, at Wake Forest Baptist, and at Duke (and have realized how amazingly lucky we are to live in NC with such good hospitals!).  They have all said that surgery is imminent, but it is kind of up to us when we want to go ahead with it.  They will have to cut through the healthy part (sensory nerves) of his cord in order to get to the tumor, and will then get as much of the tumor that is possible and safe. They say they use a monitor that will sound an alarm if they start to damage motor nerves, and will stop the surgery if that starts to happen.  This is good because they try to decrease motor damage as much as possible, but it also means that they might not be able to get it all out, and it might come back in the future.  There are obviously a lot of scary side effects of the procedure, but the doctors have said he should expect increased numbness and probably chronic pain, at best.  If we leave it, he could eventually become paralyzed.

We think surgery will be the route Brent will need to take, but have also started exploring other routes—things like demyelinating disease (MS and Devic’s disease), even though the surgeons are "99.9% sure it's a tumor".  The neurologist ordered a visual evoked potential, some blood work, and yet another MRI (of the brain this time).  Brent is having the MRI this Wednesday and we will hopefully know more about the neurologist’s opinions soon.

Why am I telling this now? We had lunch with some great friends the other day, and they said to us “Seriously, tell us if you need anything.  It’s easy to be too proud to ask for help.”  They were right.  We have kept this from a lot of people, mainly because we are still trying to figure everything out, but also because we don’t want people to “freak out” on our behalf.  But, we are now asking for everyone’s help. WE NEED YOUR PRAYERS.  Not just for Brent’s health, but also that we will know what path to take.  That we will be confident in the decisions we make.  That the doctors we encounter will have the knowledge we need.  That we may feel a little bit of peace in a whole lot of overwhelming circumstances.  THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR SINCERE PRAYERS. 

Dining Room Done!

So, this is not a super exciting update, but the fact that we have one more room completely DONE is just exciting! It's so nice to come in the house and not feel like it is a total disaster.  Here was the dining room the day we closed on the house:

So yellow-ey and gold-ey.  Mom had taken down a light fixture from her kitchen a few years ago and just randomly decided to hold on to it in case someone could use it in the future.  We are so glad she did! With a little light changeroo and some paint, the room looks a lot more updated and a lot less 1980's. Check it out:

I love the paint color and the way it brings out the molding and the floors.  We are in the process of painting the whole downstairs, so there will be more to see soon!

Let There Be Storage!

Mom, Mammaw and Aunt Sherrie came up on Wednesday to see the house.  Sherrie lives in California, so we don't get to see each other very often, but I could tell she was an avid reader of the blog! It was so fun to show her the things we have been doing to the house, and she already knew what the before and after looked like, and what all we had to do to get it to look that way! So fun.  Well, she generously gave us a little house warming gift that could not have come at a better time! My sister moved out of her apartment in Charlotte almost a year ago.  Because of that, we inherited some of her old furniture.  She had a great Ikea dresser that we now have in our bedroom and always had plans to get more of the set.  Here is where I have been keeping some my clothes for the last couple months: 

So luxurious! Brent and I made a trip to Ikea yesterday to get the matching chest of drawers.  It was on sale (my favorite!) and it was "eat for free weekend".  Can you really beat that?? Ikea is not my favorite place in the world... It's so busy and loud and a bit overwhelming, but when you really need something like this piece of furniture, you just can't beat it.

We put the whole thing together in about 1 hour and 45 min, but then... the piece on the front was warped and the drawers wouldn't slide in.... UUUGGGHHH! So, the patient husband I have took the time to take the WHOLE THING BACK APART and move the slats around so they would work.  Amazing.  I would have just made Ikea send me a new one! But it worked fabulously! Here is the same nook after:

Yay! So much better.  Thank you to Aunt Sherrie for making this dresser possible!

"ReNew"ing the Sink!

We had wonderful weather these past few days is Pawleys Island, SC.  I am so thankful that my work let me take a couple days to "get away from it all" with my husband. It was much needed and much appreciated! 

The first thing Brent and I wanted to do when we got home was to put the downstairs bathroom sink back in working order (especially since Mom, Mammaw, and Aunt Sherrie are coming for a visit on Wednesday!). 

I bought this "sink fixing stuff" at Home Depot about a month ago:

ReNew Refinishing Kit

The instructions were so complicated, I wanted to just return it and try something else.  The instruction booklet folded out to be poster-sized, and had all sorts of "wait one hour, then..", "wait 3 hours, then..", and "wait FIVE days, then..".  I didn't know when I was going to have the time to do all the steps, but since we decided we were going to leave town for a few days, Brent thought that would be a great time for it to sit and cure.

Here is what our poor downstairs sink looked like before, sans gold faucet:

 The sink and tile are actually in great shape, and replacing the whole thing is obviously not a real option. I tried CLR on the rusty part of the drain hole, but it didn't do anything.  So, we finally found the courage to try the ReNew.  After about 3 hours of mixing the hot can and the cold can and yadda yadda, I taped around the sink and prepared it for the first coat.

Doesn't it look like a sour face?? This was the hardest part- taping the hole under the sink!

Ready to go!

This is what it looked like after one coat:

And this is the sink all done!

After 2 coats and 5 days of curing.

We also changed out the faucet from the gold-genie-in-a-bottle look to the welcome-to-the-21st-century look.  Quite a huge improvement! The best part is, it only cost us $30.  We will see if it holds up over time, but I think it feels really strong! I mean, if you're going to have a mauve-tiled bathroom, it can at least be fresh and clean!

Sneak Peek

Brent and I have really been busy bees lately.  The kitchen isn't quite done yet-- we still need to seal the grout of the back splash, caulk around the tile, get a better curtain over the window and put some shelves in and such. Here is what we have done so far.

The first thing we did was fix the wall where the 4" laminate back splash was ripped off.  Brent mudded it (is that a technical term??) and then started tiling. Here he is in that process:

look at the beautiful wallpaper border and paint color we uncovered!! ah!

Sadly, we didn't have a wet saw for the tile, so a lot of the cuts are kinda sketchy.  I bought some ginormous outlet covers online to help hide the weird tiles around the outlets and switches-- they helped a lot! We then had the wonderful job of grouting the tile.  We went to the 'Deep and bought all the lovely tools, but quickly realized this was going to be a really dirty job... It was so hard to get the sanded grout to stay in the grout lines, that we eventually had to just slap on the grout with our hands... When we were finally done, it looked like a sandcastle had exploded in our kitchen.  We also had severely over-exfoliated hands for about 2 weeks.  We were never really happy with the grout color, even after it dried, but it will do for now.  All along the way, my motto has been: if I still don't like it in a year, I will do it again. 

We then had to tackle the awful, outdated, way-too-bright flourescent light over the peninsula.  When Brent took the light down, this is what was underneath:

Awesome!.....

He tried to put a support bar in for the new light inbetween the joists in the ceiling.  Standard length is around 16"-24". Ours, of course, is 13.5", so Brent had to find another way to do it.  He put in a junction box, then patched the hole and mudded over it.

I was really impressed, as this was his first time doing anything like this. The light really turned out well!

Here is the (not so) lovely kitchen the day we bought the house:

And here is where we are with it today:

(ignore the ugly curtain)

We're still trying to figure out where to put all of our stuff and how we want the kitchen organized, but thanks to my wonderful mother, the dining room has gone from this:

To a place where we can actually sit and eat! (Thanks, Mom!)

We're In!! (kinda....)

Well, we have moved into the house, and it is a MESS! We have stuff everywhere and so many things on our to-do list.  We have still made some time to paint and do a couple other things, but not as much as we would have liked! Here are a few of the major changes that have happened recently.


Here is a before photo of the master bedroom:

Note the tangerine orange.

Here's a zoomed-in view of the safari valence...

I've always had a wish to have a blue-gray bedroom with white linens and hardwood floors.  Here is my chance! We obviously started with taking out those DRAPES! Fast-forward to the after:

SUCH a big difference with a couple coats of paint.. I can't get over how different the room feels.  I will take better pictures once our bed and dresser and boxes are not in the middle of the room.    

Oh, and we have FINISHED the den!! We still need to get the big doors painted and up, but we aren't missing them at all right now.  This is our favorite room in the house, and it was by far our least favorite when we bought it.  Here it is before:

 And after:

 I feel like this picture doesn't even do the room justice.  For most people who come to our house, this will just feel like a normal room-- what's the big deal? But to us, it is the first room that we have seen our ideas actually happen! It feels so good to be done with it! (PS- almost everything seen here is from Craig's List! Love it.) Oh, and here is the fireplace before and after:

We have also made strides in the kitchen. It's definitely not done.. We need to paint and tile the back-splash, but it's already so different, I just have to share. 


Before:

Green laminate, nasty cooktop, and GOLD handles (again with the brass?!)

Progress!:

We're going to paint the walls a light bluish-green (thanks for the suggestion, Trent!) and are planning to do a limestone-esque backsplash.  This has been an interesting process... The installation was delayed a couple times, and once it did get done, we then had to get a plumber to come out to hook up the sink.  Well, apparently plumbers don't really come when you need them, which we didn't know.  We have now been 5 days without a kitchen sink and with a dishwasher full of half-wet, dirty dishes (that's a WHOLE other story!). I think they are coming to hook everything up tomorrow and hopefully we will have some dishes soon! Oh, and I cannot end this post without thanking our friends Trent and Camden for their help priming the ex-wallpaper walls. Can't wait to get these painted. THANK YOU GUYS! :)

I will try to be better about posting updates now that things are a little more settled! Until Then!

Kiss My Brass

Phew! If y'all only knew the dedication this room is taking now! We're down to the knitty gritty in the den.  These are all the things that you don't think about when you start to redo a room.  Things like this:

 It's these little diddys that are so simple yet so time consuming to change! Here are some updated photos of our amazing den transformation:

(Ignore the broken shoe molding-- it was a casualty of removing the old register..)

This is my new favorite invention! All the outlets were a completely wrong cream color.. these outlet covers saved us so much time! All you do is screw it in over the exiting outlet.  They fit like a glove! Well worth a little extra money!

Painted brick!

We also changed out all the light switches.  We thought we knew what we were doing and went and bought two 2-way switches and two 3-way switches, but it turned out there was another random switch that had never worked before that also did the same light (which made the three of them 4-ways, ahhh!!). Brent got some great help at Home Depot (fondly known in our house now as "The Deep") on how to tell what's what.  I never knew these terms would be in my vocabulary! All the light switches work perfectly now which is a good thing because...drum roll please... remember this guy??

So gross.

We did one of my LEAST favorite things.. changed out the awful brass track light! It was (surprise..) full of dust and spider webs.  We debated about what to replace it with and decided on another track light (the electrical is all over on one side, so a normal over-head light was not a great option).  Why is this process always so much harder than you think it will be? But, as always, the end result was so worth it!

 We really hope to have this room completely done soon.  I am really anxious to get the fireplace doors back on, and we can't forget to paint the built-in doors and the actual doors.  Stay tuned for more later!