I want things to look beautiful, but doing things on a small budget is a beast. At least that’s how it is here at KerrTara (the name of our home – inspired by the hilarious, short novel “Please Don’t Eat The Daisies” and Margaret Mitchell’s renowned “Gone With The Wind”). We try to not let our low budget stand in the way…
I sure don’t envy those who do this job everyday! I thought after helping Kenney stomp and paint the kitchen ceiling that my neck was broke, and my head would fall off. lol But the pain was truly worth the gain! This texture is called a “knock-down” which is obviously more textured than a flat ceiling,…
There is something idealistic and nostalgic about a front porch. I love sitting in my rocker in the morning…taking in the fresh spring air, hearing the birds sing their morning chorus, and the occasional “hello” from neighbors on their morning walks. So completing the porch has been therapeutic for me. After sipping down a tall glass of cold…
The return air duct seemed to be way over my head, and I just was so uninterested in it every time Kenney brought it up. He was always planning and buying parts and eventually addressed me seriously one day about it. We were going to install the return air vent the next day, starting bright and early. I thought, Great!…
Hello strangers! I’m not even going to look at the date of my last post, but it has certainly been a while…Wow! That long ago, really? You’re probably expecting to find the house fully transformed by now. So I’m on here to post final “After” shots right? Huh! I wish. As usual though, I’m very…
Join me for a walk through our house. I’m just dying to show you our new bathroom! First, follow me around back to the side entrance, because the front porch and door still need replacing. Kick your shoes off and come on in! :) On second thought, you better leave them on. The bare plywood is…
Here is to checking off work on our Master Bedroom! I recently posted about some wiring and insulation being done in this room and am excited to be able to state its finished, as well as the floor joists and plywood! Of course in our humble abode, “finished” simply means that it’s time to move on to another phase of…
We were finally able to take down our Christmas lights! Well, we’re West Virginia hillbillies which means it’s normal to still have lights up in March, right? lol Just kidding. But seriously, we just took down our Christmas lights that hung along the kitchen walls inside! The house had no electric when we bought it. We quickly added…
I’m not sure if it’s because we are always on the go and having to stop in the middle of projects, or because certain projects seem like priorities until others come along and take precidence, but we have been very bad about starting many different tasks over these past couple of winter months and not actually…
Since the dawn of man, we’ve heated our bodies and homes around a wood fire. Call us old fashion, but that’s exactly what we plan to do! We’ve been working towards installing a wood furnace since we bought the house a year and a half ago. You have no idea how good it feels to…
We recently left for and returned from vacation with Ken’s parents and the kids to Orlando, FL. The week prior to vacation though, we made some progress in renovating the bathroom. So that was nice to come back home to! My husband put a beautiful texture on our bathroom ceiling called a “knock down”. He…
We recently made a BIG purchase that caused foyer renovations to be that much more pressing. How BIG can a baby be though? Unless it’s followed by grand and is a piano, then it’s pretty big! That’s right. The new addition to our family is a John Wanamaker baby grand piano! So what does this have to…
I wanted to share how we managed to hang a rope swing so easily without a ladder or climbing the tree! This project was so easy, a single person could do it on their own even if you’re afraid of heights! This ingenious plan was my Dad’s. The children are so thankful…everyday…for hours. lol First,…
This will likely be the last room we actually finish, but the master bath is something I’m really looking forward to. We just happened to make some small progress in here recently. The transformation is hardly worth posting over…Its not like the after picture looks any better than the before! lol At the same time though,…
Today’s post will likely read more like a book review than a casual post on the transformation of our home, but I’ll take that risk. Besides, I plan to end on a note about the house anyway. No, I’m not talking about Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet either (from which my title comes from). The book I’m referring…
Don’t get too excited. I meant, finishing the drywall in the bathroom. We revisited work on the bathroom when we applied the joint compound to the drywall. Of course, the kids thought this was truly interesting considering it was called “mud” but was white and o.k. to put on the walls (unlike the stuff they bring in…
This past weekend was a lot of fun, because friends joined us in gutting the master bedroom above the kitchen. Five people made light work of a heavy project. I used to think gutting was fun. I thought, Yeah! We get to go in there with hammers and just have fun ripping and tearing everything…
Transforming a house 