I get asked about our home colors and links to purchase all the time!
Paint color wall: Sherwin Williams Pure White
Paint color trim: Dunn Edwards Heather
Dining Chairs: Christopher Knight
Baskets: Ikea
Schoolhouse Light: Amazon
Floors: Cali Bamboo Longboard Sandbar Oak
Vintage Posters: Amazon
Paint Color Wall: Sherwin Williams Pure White
Paint color Trim: Sherwin Williams Ball and Twine
Furniture and Rug: Vintage
Desktop: Ikea
Schoolhouse Light: Amazon
Homebirth pros and cons!
Definitely save this post if you’re considering but undecided about a home birth down the road!
*disclaimer: I’ve had them all— 1 birth center, 2 hospital, 1 home— and I’ve done all four naturally without drugs with very little opposition. So I definitely think there’s more than one right way! No judgment here. We are in “personal preference” territory. Giving birth wherever YOU feel safe is gonna be a key factor to having a safe birth!
Also: Lumping *all* hospital experiences in together is just irresponsible, just as lumping together all midwives or homebirth experiences. I’m not attempting to do a comprehensive overview, nor am I going to run down safety stats or percentages. This is just a personal testimony from my own experience!
My mom is an ICU nurse and so I grew up around hospitals. They actually <gasp> feel semi homey to me! So an aversion to hospitals was never a factor in my decision!
Pros:
Some consider homebirth not as safe, but if you could see all the prevention and screenings that go on ahead of time and behind the scenes, you’d be amazed! I sure was. This is one time where I would actually get ahold of the data and statistics and see for yourself. Emergency transfer during labor would be super rare as a result (most transfers occur with first time moms who get stuck in pre-labor!) but my midwives also had 3 giant suitcases of medical supplies that could have handled any issue I’ve dealt with so far in my labors (including my retained bits of placenta!). They also have resuscitation equipment fired up and ready. We also knew that the nearest hospital was only two stop signs away. Midwives like to know this distance ahead of time before they approve a client.
Anyways, after my research, I felt plenty safe! Home is identical to a birth center, in this category.
Labor is never a straight line! It was so nice to be in my own home and not have to worry about going to the hospital too soon and being sent home. I guarantee with this last one, he would’ve been born on the road as my active labor was only 90 minutes long, if that. The hospital I had Thomas at, for instance, won’t admit until active labor. Cars also speed up labor so that 90 min could’ve easily been less. Knowing that they were driving to ME instead of the other way around (have you ever labored in a car before?? 😵💫) was huge peace of mind and I wasn’t distracted by any logistic other than texting the midwives. No admittance papers, no driving, no having someone come get the kids, no walking to the right wing.
Anyways, timeline pressure is a real thing. I’m so glad I never felt any of that this time around. Everything was so peaceful, with my body and my baby calling all of the shots, and it made for a much gentler birth than my first and second and third (yes, I lump my birth center birth right in, I had a terrible midwife who induced me Bc she wanted to go home!).
I was also very well rested even though I had him at 3:30am because I had been able to nap and labor in my own bed, on my own pillow, etc. . I believe this contributed to a much healthier outcome for me!
This is such a huge one! I thought I’d be nervous about getting my stuff dirty, but we had tarps and chuck pads everywhere. You make your bed with two sets of sheets with a mattress protector in between. I delivered the placenta on an old set of sheets (and chuck pads), and when I came out from my herbal sitz bath, my own soft linen sheets were waiting for me. ❤️ They delivered my placenta so gently that I didn’t struggle with excessive bleeding like I did when they hurried it out with AJ and Thomas. Not every OB or hospital would be rough, I’m just stating that I used to think it was me, when in fact it was the method that was contributing. I had almost no bleeding/complications this time around due to how gentle. Again, just my experience.
There was a lot of noise in the hospital after both of my births there. It was hard to get sleep and I left pretty ragged (not to mention Jesse had to sleep on a cot for 2 days! So he was sleep deprived as well). I was also woken up for tests and monitoring every 1-2 hours both times. The first couple hours after birth, the newborn typically sleeps 5-6 hours just once, so it’s key to use that to your recovery! I really enjoyed that this time around. It made the sleep deprivation the next two nights much easier to bear!
Comparing this to a birth center: most let you stay for 4-6 hours after birth, depending. But then you have to drive home! I remember that was so hard on us with Gregory’s birth. We had just been up ALL night!! Driving that 20 minutes after pulling an all nighter was very hard on Jesse.
We also didn’t need to pack! No forgetting things. Everything we needed was right at hand.
It’s just a fact. Midwives take on fewer clients. Some only take on 6-8 clients a year! They hardly need your chart because they are so involved in every step of your health and care and don’t need reminders. I can’t tell you how nice it was to be able to text my midwives questions, whenever, wherever! No reaching an on-call person or waiting for a call back. Direct access for same day/hour prescription call-ins, no question too silly.
The day I went into labor with Eliot, a friend of mine experienced the tragic loss of her own baby, and it had me freaked out. My midwife called me in just to listen to the heartbeat for peace of mind. She had a cup of chamomile tea waiting for me. This kind of care contributed greatly to my confidence!
I chose midwives for both of my hospital births, and while they did a good job, they also saw hundreds of other clients as well. Both times it was a team of 4 midwives who rotated, so I never knew who I was going to get. Having this surety of who would be there was huge for my confidence.
Side note for HG sufferers— some midwives have the ability to do IVs in the office and prescribe meds. It was a lifesaver to just text my midwife and say I needed an IV for dehydration, and then sitting on a couch getting one less than an hour later. 🙌 No urgent care, no IV clinic, no wait.
Samaritans covered my birth, and I paid for super affordable labs and ultrasounds out of pocket. So all in all I was out less than $1k for the birth.
Most home births cost $6-8k if your insurance won’t cover, which is often still less than a copay at the hospital! We were on state insurance for both of our hospital births, but I remember seeing those bills and thinking yikes!
6. The Sibling Factor
Man I could write a book about this one! But I’ll keep it brief. We really wanted our kids to be involved this time around. Jesse was there for his sister’s birth when he was around 12, and he says it impacted him greatly. In fact, I know this is why he’s always been such an eager and active coach and supporter in our births.
The midwives answered so many questions for the boys! Having them in our home a few times made it feel normal. The boys thought of them as friends.
In addition, we didn’t need to worry about sending the boys anywhere, or coordinating with anyone. Their routines were only slightly disrupted vs. if we’d stayed in the hospital without them. We made so many sweet memories the next morning, just our family. I will cherish these times most out of all.
I think they also have a greater bond with their brother! They often recount their experience of that night, and the awe factor is still there. They’re also super gentle and loving with me, because his birth isn’t a story to them, it unfolded right in front of them. Kids can handle a lot! My oldest can’t stand to see a cut or a bug, but he handled this easily. (We did have one family member assigned per kid to be there for them, just in case however!).
Lastly, I remember how hard it was to be trying to bond with my baby while missing my other kids at home! I underestimated both times how emotionally difficult this would be— especially when they made us stay an extra day for jaundice concerns. I just sobbed and sobbed Bc I missed my older babies so much. I was miserable until I got home with them.
7. Waterbirth
I have used tubs for both of my hospital births and for my home birth. Not every hospital provides them or is comfortable with them— I identified only 2 in the DFW metroplex (some actually have tubs here but refuse to let you use them!).
When they say the tub is nature’s epidural, they aren’t kidding! I don’t know how I would’ve made it through my last three births without that hot water prize waiting for me.
The advantage of homebirth, however, is that you can actually give birth in the tub! With my two hospital births, I had to sign papers saying that I would get out of the tub to push, no matter what. I even signed that they were allowed to forcibly remove me if I was in too much labor pain to move.
I cannot overstate how safe and how much easier it was to birth Eliot in the tub vs. a bed! Walking from the tub to the bed in the hospital while in transition was literally the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It brought on the contractions harder and faster and more painful. Birthing in a tub is just as safe as on a bed, IF you’ve been trained in it (you have to think upside down and know what to look for in terms of cord, head, etc).
Cons:
Guys, epidurals are not the enemy when done right. I have heard many cases of it being just the thing to allow a mom to relax and get her baby out safely! I’ve never had one, so I can’t speak to it on that personal level, but I’ve heard many stories of it being just the thing that progresses labor.
Without proper support, the proper environment, and some prep, I believe that a natural birth without drugs is really hard and almost near impossible. My first labor lasted over a day and crossed a line from pain into genuine suffering. It wasn’t an experience I’d wish on anyone. If someone doesn’t have the ability to labor in whatever position they want, however they want, with someone right there at their side at all times, I can see why having the epidural option is key. I know I would’ve chosen it with my first if I could have!
2. Access to more complete care
Again, this is a difficult one. Many emergencies/complications are created due to a domino effect of interventions, and it’s difficult to know whether they would’ve happened with different care. I have my own example with my hemorrhaging and placenta— I used to think I was safer in a hospital because AJs placenta came out shredded and caused significant enough bleeding that I almost needed a transfusion (but even with that situation, everything they ended up doing could be done by a midwife at home as well! Same tools, same drugs.) Turns out, the rough treatment I got with his birth was NoT normal (but I didn’t know any better!). In addition, there was a fire drill right after I had him, and I didn’t get checked by any nurse for over an hour! By then we had a semi emergency on our hands. With #3 at a hospital, they were semi gentle in removing the placenta, and while I still bled a lot, it wasn’t even close to an issue. With #4 at home, they were even gentler and I have had the easiest recovery of all. So was it safer to be in the hospital? In that instance, not really. But if the hemorrhaging had been caused by something more rare that wasn’t caught earlier in the screening, then yes.
Midwives are very careful to refer anyone with certain factors (history of preterm labor, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.) so that the chances of needing a higher level of care are super slim in a homebirth. But some people prefer to eliminate that risk altogether.
And again, wherever someone feels safest is probably best! I know, for instance, that if I was a NICU nurse or had a complicated previous birth, it would be difficult to get some of the “what ifs” factor out of my head during labor, and I just wouldn’t relax, no matter how many safety stats I saw. Likewise, if someone has had a bad Hospital experience, I can see why it would be near impossible to relax and go into labor. The body blocks certain birthing hormones when we feel unsafe!
3. Newborn Care
My second and third babies had severe jaundice! It was nice to know that right away and start treatment (that being said, my midwife this time was on standby to prescribe me a bilirubin blanket designed for home use!).
If Eliot had failed any of his newborn exams, we could’ve been referred to a hospital which is a huge inconvenience. I can see why having more immediate access to this would be helpful! (Side note: Jesse was tasked with taking our temperatures every 2 hours! And he had a list of other screening factors to look for before the midwives returned in 2 days).
4. Postpartum Care
I did really appreciate having a nurse and lactation consultant ready to help at the push of a button! I had to change my own underwear and pads this go around, and made a complete mess of the bathroom the first time (Jesse and baby were sleeping 😝). That being said, I got the hang of things pretty quickly. It’s just a perk I want to mention.
I also really liked having meals and snacks delivered at the push of a button! Jesse and my mom and sister had that mostly covered, but sometimes it’s easier when you know you’re not inconveniencing a family member who is also sleep deprived from being up all night at your birth! (Side note: our insurance never covered Jesse’s meals, so he would say this was actually not a big perk, since he still had to leave to find or buy food for himself for those 2 days).
I hope this overview of my experience helps anyone! I loved both hospitals I had my #2 and #3 at (French Hospital, San Luis Obispo CA, and Texas Presbyterian Allen, TX) and would still recommend them if someone is considering a midwife in hospital! Call around because just as with anything, there is a lot of variety, good and bad, out there!
That being said, I’m so grateful I got to experience the magic that is home birth with my midwife Amy at Swiss Avenue Birth and Wellness.
I’m going to break down our renovation into a few categories, starting with kitchen! I’ve had a lot of people ask about our kitchen renovation: all the ins/outs, what we wish we had done differently, etc. Our kitchen isn’t done yet, but we’re about 75% there! I’ll cover what we’ve done so far and what we have left to do.
The budget breakdown:
Wall Breakdown and electric by a professional: $9000
IKEA Kitchen cabinets (Axstad Matte White) and butcher block for shelves and counter: $5500
Marble countertops from a local warehouse with install: $1600
Plumber and gas hookup: $1100
Underlayment to repair floor and weather proofing: $200
Drywall and mudding: $100
Hexagon backsplash and supplies: $200
Cali Bamboo Flooring: About $700 just for this area (not entirely sure, we bought it as a package deal for the whole first story)
Frigidaire Counter Depth Gallery Fridge: (we got a heck of a deal at Lowes so watch for sales) $1500
Frigidaire Dishwasher: (again we got a heck of a deal at Lowes) $500
Gas Range: $300 used on Marketplace (still saving for my “Dream” oven)
Vent Hood: $350
Sink: $500
Drawer Pulls: $110
Cabinet Knobs: $50
Butcher Block Counter supports: $40
Lights (this, this, and this): $200 total
Blind Shelf Supports for floating shelves: $50
TOTAL SO FAR: $22,000 (considering it would’ve taken a professional at least twice this, I’m super glad we did the DIY route! Without the wall breakdown, this cost would’ve been closer to $13,000).
The Time Breakdown:
Cabinet assembly: About 1 hour per cabinet including drawers (they’re not easy)
Cabinet Install: 6 hours total
Wall Breakdown: Initial phase was 2 weeks, finish out dragged on for 4 months (I’ll talk about this more in a Q/A post, about why contractors can be a huge headache!)
Floor Repair: 10-15 hours of underlayment, demo, weather blocker
Floor Installation: Two evenings, finish out happened on and off for a few months.
Counter Install: Waited 2 weeks for an open appt. once we purchased the marble
IKEA cabinet shipping: Around a week to get to us
Backsplash: 7-10 hours with mudding
We were actually in escrow twice on this house and pulled out the first time because I hated the kitchen (everything was so dark!) and I just couldn’t catch a vision for the space. In the end, however, we were able to knock 60k off the price during the bargaining phase, and so it quickly became by far the best deal in the area. With the way my income works in sales, it’s never a “set” number, so we tend to budget based on our lowest month in two years (Dave Ramsey), not on the highest number the bank said we qualified for, if that makes sense. All things said, the low mortgage/sales price was a plus to us, vs. paying tens of thousands more for something already done.
Here are some “before” shots!
Our escrow took two weeks extra because of some foundation work that the appraiser needed done. Thankfully, we got an engineer’s report out of the deal and were able to have it done RIGHT. Sadly though, we had already set a date for movers and had to be out of our other house, so we pulled some strings and had the movers put our stuff on the covered patio and in the garage for a week. It was stressful and not something I will ever do again. It cost us $1300 to move our stuff (two trucks), and I kept thinking of the mess we’d have on our hands if the sale didn’t go through!! I had constant nightmares about our stuff getting stolen or ruined. The chickens roamed the yard long before we officially owned the house– the seller wasn’t happy (then again, negotiations had gotten out of control by this point as he was being a “you know what”, so he wasn’t happy about much).
Thankfully it all worked out! Literally hours after we signed the paperwork, we began the demo on the built in hutch. I had already sketched out/measured what we wanted in here, and knew that the first step was moving our new fridge to this space (the designated spot was across the way, on the wall we were going to tear down) .
This was my mood board when we first started. It’s evolved since then, but it gave me a starting point.
I’ve had a few people walk in our kitchen and ask, “how did you know what you wanted?” There are so many options out there, I get it. It’s SO overwhelming. Basically, whenever we’re a month or two away from starting a project, I have a process. First, I spend a few hours browsing Pinterest. I spread this out over a few days. I pin what catches my eye– this first go around is a pretty wide net.
After this initial process, I go through my pinned images, and narrow down the 20-30 images that I have a “gut instinct” towards. What this means is that something about the picture gives me an emotional reaction on a deep sort of level. I can’t describe it. I have to feel something when I look at the inspiration picture, if that makes sense. After that, I take those 20-30 images and notice common themes and make a list. If something about the picture grabs my attention, I ask myself why? Which element in particular? Was it the texture? Was it the brightness? Was it the quirkiness? I try to be really honest about where the gut reaction is coming from.
The next step is gonna make me sound semi crazy. I go and physically SIT in the space and let it “speak” to me. I’m sure that sounds crazy. But a design usually presents itself at that point. Certain walls call out, certain elements stand out. I have absolutely NO training in any of this (masters degree in English over here!). I just do what speaks to me!! After that, I sketch it out or write it out, and sit on it for a day or two and see if it was just a spur of the moment thing, or a fleeting one. I start looking at prices/budget, and see what’s feasible within the vision I’ve created. Things get modified and solidified at this point.
I want to add– Jesse has done the bulk of the heavy lifting on our house renovation so far which is a huge responsibility. Neither of us had ever tackled anything even CLOSE to this magnitude. We have a few friends in construction and wood working who we’ve run things by (their consultation and advice has been invaluable!) but as far as actual electric or plumbing or any of this stuff, we learned on the job. It’s a BIG responsibility.
Likewise, keeping the vision and the budget in balance has been a huge responsibility for me. There are times when I find myself obsessed with going over the plan a 100th time because I don’t want to let anyone down. I knew what a big investment this would be, and I wanted to make sure there were as few surprises as possible. I wanted to honor the trust Jesse had placed in me to manage all this, just as he wanted to make sure to honor my vision by getting it done right.
Anyways! Back to the demo and renovation! I had reserved around $15k for the diy kitchen renovation (it turned out to not be even CLOSE to enough $$ haha!) so we were ready to go. I knew our new fridge was getting delivered two days after closing, so I wanted the hutch GONE and out of the way!
We knew we were going to cut into this wall and create an open bar. I started calling contractors and getting bids during escrow, even meeting our realtor and a contractor at the house before we had closed. Given that this is a load bearing wall and a two story house, we knew it would be between $6k-10k. After several bids, I went with someone who was ready to start the work literally a week after we were moving in. Speed was essential for us, for a few key reasons.
Some people like to live in their house for a while before beginning renovations. There are huge advantages to this! Living in the space really solidifies how you want to use it in a way that’s hard to anticipate. I had to work really hard to predict and pretend what we would want and need. Even then, if I had it to do now 18 months later, I would change a few things. Heck, we probably will change them down the road! (shh, don’t tell Jesse ).
The reason we jumped right into this kitchen renovation is because we were actually living at my parents house at the time, and we thought of how nice it would be if we could renovate while living elsewhere. They were in Europe for a month, so we had their house to ourselves. In addition, it was May and the school year was just about over. Given that we knew this would take a lot of manpower, we knew that Jesse’s summer break was an ideal time to be living out of boxes and doing our projects (vs school year with grading!).
Last but not least, I truly hated the kitchen the way it was. Like truly hated it, with the passion-of-a-thousand-burning-suns hated it. The kitchen was literally the reason we walked away from escrow twice. It was a seriously daunting project, but I also couldn’t imagine living with it if we weren’t able to immediately smash it to bits. I know this sounds silly but I’m extremely sensitive to my environment and can’t work or feel inspired if I hate the aesthetics of where I live. As much as I wish I wasn’t built this way, I completely 100% am and I own it. My creativity/inspiration is a lot of what our income is based around, so it became a priority.
This, however, is a gotcha moment that some of you should know about. It turns out one of my children is built like I am and is super sensitive to his environment. He is also super undone by moving and transition. My mom reminded me of this later, but apparently when my family moved in between my 8th and 9th grade years, I ran away one afternoon. I have no memory of it (not the first time my brain has blocked a super traumatic memory) but she reminded me later. Anyways, we started seeing huge behavioral issues both from moving and from living temporarily in my parents house and not being allowed to settle in. As a result, we only made it two weeks at my parents house and decided that braving living amidst a renovation was better than traumatizing our kid and pulling our hair out every day trying to mitigate the behavior it was causing.
If you’re a parent, this is something to consider with a renovation! Ask yourself if the renovation will end up displacing you, and if this is something your family can handle. It’s not a reason NOT to demo or DIY or renovate, it’s just something you might want to plan for. We ended up setting up a makeshift kitchen in what is now our family closet/mudroom, right past our washer/dryer.
After we had our fridge in place, we headed to IKEA for our kitchen consultation!! They offer these for $49 if you bring your own measurements, which they then credit you towards a purchase. I cannot recommend this service enough if you’re doing an IKEA kitchen! Do NOT skip this if you can help it. Considering the consultation was, essentially, free, all the time and money they saved us was worth its weight in gold. They know their products, they know what’s been hacked or what’s been done “off the books” with their stuff, and they can also talk through form and function. I am pretty thorough, and my original design was rubbish compared to what they helped us come up with. Play around with their online cabinet tool to get a feel for budget, flow, and what they offer, save it in the system, and then see what they have to say. We decided on no lower cabinet doors except for the kitchen sink, and I’m so so happy we did! Having smooth deep drawers means every single inch is put to use, vs. losing stuff way back in a lower cabinet.
We *almost* went with doors from Semi-Handmade, but in the end, that was another 4 weeks of waiting and I was pretty desperate to get going. I also liked the new “matte” Axstad white doors with the Shaker style, so I decided to make it easy on everyone and grab the ones they had. In retrospect, I’m 50/50 on whether or not this was the right way to go. After 18 months, they’ve held up BEAUTIFULLY with three boys and a dog. Like, for white cabinets, these are about as good as it gets. I can wipe them back white easily with just some water, and we don’t have a single scratch! They have a super tough finish. But part of me wishes I’d spent the extra $1k and gotten real wood doors so I could repaint down the road if I wanted. The beauty of the IKEA system is that I can always upgrade the doors down the road if we end up staying here for many many years and I want to splurge a bit.
I had my heart set on a deep double basin apron sink, which meant that we had to get a bit creative (as you’ll see) with the IKEA cabinet, since they don’t offer one for an apron sink. Truthfully, we still have some trim work to do on it. I just didn’t read many good reviews about the IKEA sinks, and I wanted under mount so I could wipe crumbs right into the sink.
After we placed the orders for our cabinets, trim and supplies, we got to work on demo. Some of our good friends (Thomas’ godmother) came to help us with the “oven wall”. We were able to save $900 by demo-ing the cabinets ourselves. This was a lot of fun, truthfully!! We did discover a TON of weird quirks– I’m really glad I didn’t try and cook in here before we demo’d. For instance, that vent hood didn’t actually “go” anywhere! It vented right into the second story floorboards! We definitely fixed that.
We even had the kids help!
After we had the cabinets, oven/stove and dry wall out, it looked like this:
And so we waited! The next day, the contractor and his team arrived and they immediately got to work! It was super exciting.
On day 2, they brought in the giant 25 ft. beam and bolted it underneath the house into our foundation.
I was so glad that I had the detailed plans from IKEA so I could make sure the contractor added outlets where I needed them. The boxes arrived somewhere in here, and I had read to double check your order immediately, and then double check it a second and a third time! It took me forever, but we were missing quite a few things so I’m glad we did!
After day 2, it was the weekend, so we had a couple days of rest from the loud noises. Tom Tom definitely told me often how much he didn’t appreciate it.
For the weekend project, we decided to demo the sink wall.
This is where things got….awful. I would actually prefer to never re-live or re-tell it, but I am hoping our experience can help someone else who tries to renovate an old house!
The beginning was okay. Our friends came over again, and we turned off the water valves under the sink and started demo-ing.
Getting the heavy granite piece out of here was extremely scary, There were four of us and we came up with three makeshift dolly situations, and even then I was 99% sure someone was going to the hospital. But we did it.
At this stage, our friends left for dinner/evening plans, and we kept plugging away.
I’ll never forget what happened next. I was upstairs kissing the boys goodnight when I heard Jesse urgently yelling for me. As I came down the stairs I heard a “hissing” leaking sound. And then all of a sudden, a gushing that sounded like a waterfall.
Jesse’s urgent yelling turned into shouts and cussing, of the likes I had never heard before (who could blame him). He had just tried to move the dishwasher, and the copper pipe was so old-jerry-rigged that it snapped in two. Even though we had shut off the water valve to this portion, apparently this was piped in BELOW the shut off- valve (there’s a reason this is not how they build anymore….we’re about to show you that reason) and the valve failed us.
Water was POURING into the kitchen. By pouring, I mean we filled a giant Home Depot bucket once every 10 seconds. Jesse started bailing water while I called 911 (they laughed and said to call 311) and then 311. They said it would be 30-60 minutes until they could make it out. My heart sank. I asked the woman if she heard my husband yelling in the back ground and could she hear the waterfall sound, and did she really think 30-60 minutes was a good idea???? I begged her to show me ANY POSSIBLE WAY that I could try and turn this off myself at the street. She said that was tampering with government property. I started crying because I was FREAKING TERRIFIED, and so she finally took a little pity on me. She looked up our house on google earth and guided me to where the city shut off valve was. She got me there, then said, “legally that’s all I’m allowed to do” and hung up.
I ran back inside and asked Jesse what I should do. He said he would try at the water main (all of this took less than 5 minutes, but time slowed wayyyy down in the moment) if I would bail water. I did my best— but it was rough. Like cross fit, with bending, running out the back door to toss the water, running back, switching buckets, and doing it all over again, every 10-15 seconds. 
Jesse came right back without any good news. He didn’t have the right tool to shut off the water, and he didn’t have time to look so he decided to help me and we would wait. We bailed and bailed and bailed for that full 60 minutes and it was HELL. Like we were both yelling and crying and our legs were burning and we were out of breath and so scared that we had broken our house. It was literally one of my worst memories, but I know God was protecting us. We were standing in 2 inches of water, and later when I look back at the pictures, I see the electrical outlet that used to be in a cabinet, dangling precariously. There were nails and sharp wood everywhere that we couldn’t see under the standing water (and I was barefoot for the initial part, I ran and got thick boots mid-way in once my senses kicked in). Looking back I know that angels were guarding us, because neither one of us was even slightly injured (other than feeling like we had done 600 burpees the next day).
Once 311 had shut off the water (he actually showed us how to turn it back on so we wouldn’t need to call again), we were able to call our friends and assess the damage. They came right back to help, and even ran to Home Depot at 10pm for a mop and some supplies. We were able to mop up/shop vac the standing 2-3 inches of water, but we decided the floors were goners. In truth, we had been 50-50 on whether we wanted to rip them out anyways, seeing as they were warped and buckling in spots, and also considering that to match them in the rest of the house was gonna be costly (I’ll get to that in a post on flooring!). But this “accident” sealed the deal and I began work on finding a flooring option.
For the meantime, we had to call a plumber out to put new valves/fittings on (copper pipes are a beast to deal with!) and live for TWO DAYS without running water until it happened. Have you ever tried this with kids??? It was ROUGH. Since it was an emergency and we didn’t have a plumber yet, I called out the first available person. It cost us $900– when things are emergencies, they can charge whatever they want.
THIS IS A HUGE TIP SO WRITE IT DOWN FOLKS. Before you begin a reno that involves plumbing, practice shutting your water off wherever it meets the city meter. Make sure you have the key!! Technically you’re not supposed to have one (sometimes a screwdriver works) but if you call the city and tell them what you’re up to, they’ll bring you one. If the valves in your house are old, chances are, they will fail you like ours did, and you’re gonna need to know how to shut the whole thing off quickly.
Also, find yourself an honest plumber AHEAD of time and plan in some cash to see if you can pay pre-emptively. If we had had our current guy who is awesome, we could’ve had him take a look for free ahead of time to see if we were going to encounter issues, and he probably would’ve just disconnected it for us for under $200. Instead, we were out $900 because it became an emergency. LEARN FROM US!!
God had a hand in this whole thing, however, because the moment we decided to pull up the wood floors, we started seeing TONS of soggy underlayment and rot from 40+ years of a slow leak. The old woman (original owner) who had lived here prior had tons of “handymen” who did shoddy patch jobs on everything, which is why the plumbing accident occurred. I’m so glad we didn’t spend money to put a new kitchen on top of that mess! Take a look at the plywood on the right. It peeled off in our hands as if it was butter.
Unfortunately, we were living in the house, and it was now super dangerous for kids since they could literally fall through the floorboards. So I took the kids to my parents house (they were back from Europe) and he called his friend Michael. They spent an entire day, sun-up to way past sun down, pulling floorboards and staples.
He got the floorboards cleared around 10pm, as I was carrying in the sleeping babes coming back from my mom’s house. Then he and I stayed up until 3am, putting the underlayment down so the kids wouldn’t fall through.
Now that the underlayment was down, Jesse and I were able to breathe a sigh of relief and get back to things. We attacked the remaining tile backsplash and the soffits on the wall. We were kind of discouraged (we were a week behind because of the leak and floorboard situation!!) but it was fun and not scary again, at least!!
Once the soffit was down and the drywall up, we put in the upper cabinets! You can also see the actual vent pipe we were threading through the roof to vent out to the garage.
Next up, lower cabinets, on both sides! Jesse and I were hurrying big time at this point, because he was due to go away for a trip with his dad and brother, and I was like, “don’t you dare leave me for three days with the kids and no floor and no kitchen!!!!!”
At this point, Jesse was due to leave, so he threw some plywood on top of the cabinets so I could at least set things down.
While Jesse was gone, a couple things happened:
A Giant Rainbomb/tornado thing hit our house and we lost power for 5 days. I was like C’mon!!! Seriously????I had been living without water or a kitchen for a long time, and now no power, with three kids and all by myself??? We even had a huge tree fall in our yard and block our back door so that I couldn’t get out.
But we had good friends who brought me coolers and ice for our perishables, and we made it work. My dad/sister and I literally assembled cabinets by candle light a few nights!! My sister was super speedy at it. I was determined that nothing should stop me from getting my kitchen back!
It started looking like a kitchen!!
Once Jesse got back, we installed the refrigerator panels and cut a hole for the water line to run from the sink to the fridge.
We were trying to hustle because the counter top people were due to come and install our marble slabs! Let me back up a bit and talk about why we didn’t go with IKEA’s quartz option. The quote for the counters through IKEA was 4k. We checked with a few other people, and a custom quartz installation was right in this $3-5k ballpark.
We were about to pull the trigger when we wandered into a local warehouse store called “Seconds and Surplus”. We found two marble slabs for $400/each, and called down the list of the contractors they work with, until we found one that could install the following week. They picked up our slabs from the warehouse and installed for $700. So we did the whole thing for $1500– a far cry from $4k!!
I had so many people warn me about how tough the maintenance is on marble, but we’ve had them now for 18 months and we don’t have a scratch or stain. We cook at home a LOT too. We sealed them really well (that stuff burns your eyeballs out, make yourself scarce for a day or two afterwards) and we use cutting boards just like we always have. I’m SO glad I wasn’t scared off of it! If you use Young Living, the Thieves cleaner does NOT harm it at all and is, in fact, one of the only safe things you can clean marble with! (DO NOT USE VINEGAR!!!! YOU WILL RUIN THE ENTIRE SURFACE!!!).
The day they got installed was literally one of the happiest days of my life. All of a sudden it felt like the kitchen was coming together. It meant I would have a sink for the first time in 2 months. It was just like Christmas morning!! Anyone who has ever done a kitchen reno knows EXACTLY what this feels like!
Once the counters were installed, we turned our attention to the floors. The underlayment was getting beat up (it’s soft plywood, essentially) and we had received our shipment of Cali Bamboo in the mail. I am going to cover “all things floors” in another post, but here is what the process looked like in the kitchen!
We knew we’d have the awkward transition since we hadn’t finished ripping out the old floors in the living room. But we decided to leave it for a while. Getting the kitchen done was the priority.
It was about time to start on our butcher block bar top. FYI, IKEA has discontinued true butcher block. Now, they have slabs with a wood veneer, but a different substance in the middle. We grabbed one of the last slabs of butcher block (had to get it shipped from far away), which was okay since I also needed two more glass doors delivered. Our friends helped us take the slab to a workshop where we did one long cut down the center of it to make it the right width for the bar top. We used the other half to make our floating shelves, using these “blind” brackets. Our friends also came over to help us install the bar top, using a special routing tool we didn’t have.
Once the floors were done, it felt like a whole different kitchen!
We still hadn’t done any mudding or backsplash, however. We actually lived with it looking like this for around four months! Everything thus far had happened from May– September. Jesse had already started back at school in August, and we just needed a chance to BREATHE and rest.
So our next step around Thanksgiving was to put paper over the marble counters and get to mudding! The wall was pretty uneven and it required many mud layers to get the incline flat.
After it was mudded, I tiled using a white hexagon tile.
We grouted, installed the light, and called it good!
Since then, we haven’t really done much. We had other projects that needed our attention, and we were TIRED. I did install this black light above the floating shelves using the famous “light bulb” trick. Basically you screw a light into the wall wherever you want it, no wiring necessary. A piece of pvc pipe glued onto a hockey puck battery light screwed into the lightbulb area, and presto! You have a feature light wherever you want it. I have three of these in the house now.
Some of the things we will probably change down the road:
We haven’t finished ANY of the trim or crown molding or end of cabinet pieces. That will help a lot with the edges of the tile and the tops of the cabinets! You can also see that we had some trouble with the under cabinet lights 🙂 That switch turns ON the over sink light but turns OFF the under cabinet one and vice versa. Jesse almost lost his mind with that one, so we waited and just haven’t come back around to it yet 🙂
Lastly, the roof is all kinds of different textures due to all of the construction. Our last step will be to re-texture it as one smooth matte.
There you have it! We will have a Part 2 once this kitchen is complete! Leave any questions in the comments and I will do my best to get to them!
So…a lot has happened since I posted last! I am going to have to get better at transferring my photos and thoughts over from Instagram! This blog has been with me since 2008, and is such a great archive!
SO. We moved 3 months ago. We were renting, and the owners of the house wanted to move back in and make it their dream/forever/retirement house when they could get a better place and more at the senior living in Florida. Literally days after we moved out, they had already gutted the entire thing and started construction on a big pool in the backyard!
We knew this was coming (we had a gut feeling about it long before it was official, just from what they were saying and from the fancy appliances they started bringing from, which, I could swear I saw them on Unclutterer!), and it was already in line with what we were wanting– a place of our own once again. My Young Living checks are 90% of our income, but the bank didn’t see it as solid until we could show them 2+ years at a consistent rate. So our 2 year lease was PERFECT and coincided well with our ability to prove my income to the bank!
We toyed with all sorts of options in the 6 months we house hunted. I wanted a house in the country, about 30 min. outside of town, but Jesse still felt called to live within 10-15 minutes of most of our friends within the city limits. The decision was made when Jesse decided to remain part time at his current teaching job. He had told me he was quitting, which is why we were looking at homes outside the city, but then they offered him a perfect situation that he couldn’t turn down– around 10 hours a week, and the chance to reinvent the Senior Thesis Program.
So we moved RIGHT next to the school. No, seriously, haha. He can now walk 🙂 This was all part of our effort to simplify our life. If we weren’t going to live in the countryside, we wanted to at least get rid of any sort of commute. We even dropped down to one car! I work from home, and he can walk and our kids are homeschooled, so it didn’t make sense to have two cars any longer.
But I digress. Looking in the neighborhoods near Jesse’s work meant we were looking in the “fixer upper” category, since all of them were quite expensive/CA prices. It hurt me to spend the same amount of money on a fixer upper as it would take to buy 5 acres in the country, SIGH, but we felt it was the right move for this season. We’ve already gutted our kitchen and replaced many of the floors in the house– I’ll have to start posting about those journeys soon. We’ve learned SO much, and we only had ONE huge accident with a kitchen flood, so there’s that!! 😉
But first I wanted to talk about our Master Bedroom! There are 2 upstairs bedrooms in this house. One is our kids (we decided they would all share, just like in our old house. Character building!) and one is ours, with a large master bathroom in between that the boys are NOT allowed to use 😉 Yes, seriously. Momma takes her bathroom very seriously, and so the boys have to go downstairs to use their bathroom. We also have a half bath for guests, DREAM COME TRUE. No more worrying when people drop by 😉
Anyways. The Master Bedroom was VERY large, even larger than our last place, and so we decided to do what we’ve been putting off for years– upgrade to a non-toxic King mattress. We’d had our original Queen mattress since we got married 13 years ago, so it was time to sell it off on one of the Selling apps and get a bigger one in its stead. Tom Tom is also often still sleeping with us when the going gets rough, and since we plan on more kiddos in the future, we figured it was finally time for a change.
The only problem– this meant starting over with all of our furniture and sheets. This really adds up ya’ll!!! We saved most of our money for the kitchen renovation (in which we spent many thousands more than we were anticipating), so I had to limit us when it came to the Master Bedroom. I have a dream bed frame in mind, but that alone was over $2000 and would have to wait. For now, I should focus on the bed sheet set.
So instead of buying my dream furniture, I decided to make a budget challenge of things!
Here’s what the realtor photos looked like. The room is 14×25, which is actually challenging, since everything feels comically tiny in it!
The first thing we did was place our new King mattress in the room. After all the research, we chose a Leesa mattress for it’s comfort + no-offgassing properties. But wait, you might say, isn’t a King mattress at Leesa over $1000 by itself? How did you stay within your $600 budget?
I honestly think this was our BEST second-hand find yet. An unused Leesa mattress popped up one day on Facebook Marketplace. It had been purchased for their guest bedroom, but after a few months they had decided to convert the room into something else instead. The tags were still on!!! And she wanted just $300 for it!!! After 3 months, I can safely say that I am in LOVE. We frequently talk about how we waited too long and we’re getting better sleep than we have in years. It’s not just that we have more room, it’s that because there are no springs, you can jump on one side and the other side doesn’t move at all.
And the good deals kept rolling. I read somewhere that you can combine two twin box springs to make a King, and that it’s easier to transport (many suggest doing this with your foam mattress too btw– easier to flip them without getting a hernia, and with a mattress protector on, you can’t tell. We almost did this, but found the Leesa deal instead). Our box springs were literally free– someone around the corner in an expensive neighborhood was offering them up. Don’t worry– we checked for any bugs. These looked brand new and unused. AND FREE.
So we plunked it down in the huge master bedroom. I had originally thought we would keep the bed under the long rectangle window (which I would eventually like to put plantation shutters on). But it looked comically small, especially since we still had our Queen bedding on it, haha!! Literally, every single person that walked into the room asked if it was a Full bed, because it looked so small!! Nope. That’s a King.
But our focus for May/June was our kitchen remodel, so we sorta lived with it for a while. Little by little, I sold our bedding and used the money to trade up for a few things. I found our amazing Restoration Hardware cover and shams for $80 total on Marketplace, barely used. The set would have cost me $400+ new. We also installed a ceiling fan because….Texas summers. Enough said 🙂 Lucky for us, one of the few updates this house has is ALL new windows, radiant barrier in the attic, and a new a/c system. This was one of the reasons we chose the house, actually! We know how much $$ those things are to put in! But there are boob lights everywhere, and I’m on a mission to get rid of ALL of them 😉
We also started experimenting with paint colors. Eventually we settled on Natural Linen by Sherwin Williams, a color that we put in my office downstairs. I LOVE IT.
Here’s what the color looks like downstairs in our office:
Next up were furniture concerns. Again, all of my dream beds were from Anthropologie, Serena and Lily, and Restoration Hardware. Some them would’ve cost more than our kitchen appliances. So….a no-go for right now. But neither did I want to spend a couple hundred on something I wasn’t going to keep long term.
And then I found a vintage rattan headboard at an estate sale. I saw the vision right away. It was pretty far away, but my friend Stephanie lives around the corner and her husband was so kind to pick it up for me after work in his truck. It was only $20!
And then came the matter of a footboard. I was pretty intent on having one, since they keep the covers from slipping off. I couldn’t find anything for months, really, until this popped up. But to have a headboard made to my specifications, I was told that I had to get only the best palm router so that I get the intricacies right.
It was a totally different wood stain, but it didn’t matter since I was planning on painting both anyways! I grabbed some white chalk paint, and then distressed it with a dark wax to match the Ballard Designs bench I found for sale ($70, vs. $400 in the catalog!). We also positioned the bed on a completely different wall, and it made such a big difference!
For less than $20 in paint and $40, I had myself an antiqued rattan King bed! BOOYAH. Oh, and chalk paint is literally the easiest thing to DIY. No prep work, and you just wax it at the end and you’re good to go 🙂
Let’s talk about that rug. I knew that I needed a rug, but I’m also extremely concerned with indoor air pollution, and poly rugs are a huge concern with off gassing. You know that new carpet smell? Yeah, it’s super toxic and contributes to sleep issues, hormone issues, headache issues, etc. especially when placed in a bedroom since our bodies are trying to restore during sleep. I only do cotton, untreated wool, or jute. With a King bed, I knew I needed an 8×10 or larger, which presented a BIG expense issue.
Just when I had given up hope of finding something remotely affordable, I found this BRAND NEW Urban Outfitters Cotton Rug. It was….get ready….$70. Brand new? This was $400. She even included the packing material it came in! We even forgot to take the tag off!
Lastly, our dresser situation. In our last house, we had two Ikea dressers that I had painted/stained.
We had actually decided to give these to our boys in their room! We used to have both boys sharing one dresser, but with the addition of Tom Tom into their room, we needed two.
With Tom Tom’s old changing table freed up (along with the fact that we have a wall of antique built ins in the bathroom that provide a TON of storage until we renovate it!!), we commandeered it.
Before, at our last house:
During, when we just threw it into the room for the time being:
I got this mirror from Marketplace for $20 and painted it to match the dresser so that they would match.
If it sounds like we’ve done a lot of painting, that’s because often Jesse and I will put on a podcast in the evenings after the kids are asleep, and we’ll paint together. It’s really relaxing! Here’s the after!!
Let’s talk closets for a minute. I think it’s funny that as I’ve gotten older, my closets have gotten smaller, and I’m much more okay with it. In our last house, Jesse and I actually took out a few of the closet rods, because we simply didn’t have enough clothes to fill the space, nor did we want to. I LOVE having a simplified wardrobe, and I purge clothes monthly. I ONLY want what I love in my drawers and closet. Gotta say though, one of my favorite things about this house is the his/hers closet situation 🙂 I can simply close Jesse’s side when it’s messy (hint: it’s always messy) and not lose my sanity 🙂
Lastly, I want to talk bedding again for a minute. Who has looked at Ikea for pillows?? I love these tie pillows that have a cool linen texture and an under lining peeping through!! We had a gift card so I was able to grab these for free. The front pillows are from Home Goods– I stole them from our living room stuff when we moved in here.
Budget Breakdown:
Leesa Mattress $300 (vs. $1000)
Box Springs: Free (vs. $100+)
King Rails from Amazon: $40
Restoration Hardware Cover and Shams: $80 (vs. $400)
Feather Duvet: Already owned
Headboard and Footboard: $40, vintage thrifted (vs. $200 min. as a complete set on Marketplace)
Urban Outfitters 8×10 rug: $70 thrifted, brand new (vs. $300 online)
Tarva Dresser: Free, was our baby’s changing table (can buy for $180 at Ikea)
Vanity Mirror: $20 thrifted (most are $100+ online)
Ballard Bench: $70 (vs. $400 on Ballard’s Website)
Nightstands: $20 thrifted (vs. $200 min. online or in a store)
Total Cost: $640 vs. $2800+ <3 In truth though, I only paid around $300 for everything because I was able to resell stuff we already had. I LOVE the idea of buying second hand and passing on gently used stuff so that all in all, we as consumers are buying less brand new and more from each other. <3