So, here I sit writing our very first, very belated house update. It's been nearly a month since we closed, so in retrospect, it was pretty adorable that we thought this could be done in two months. Although Josh has been working tirelessly to demo the dang thing, there were things we didn't anticipate (just like on TV! wow!) and so here we are! I would say that the demo is almost all the way complete now, and we are starting to get the pros in there to give us estimates and lining up our budget.

I would say that so far, I'm not able to be as involved as I wanted to be, and Josh might tell you he's doing more work than he thought he was going to be doing. With two little ones, it's easy to be optimistic about your time / getting a babysitter, but it's not always the most realistic thing, and when "budget" is in your top 5 most used words in a given week, a babysitter isn't always doable. One solution we have made is to put Imogen into summer preschool 3 days a week, which besides being helpful to me in having more time to get work done (both on the house and doing my Dad's social media management), Imogen being in preschool is the best thing for her own needs! We are all super excited about this... her especially. She literally didn't care when I left this morning. I was being all needy mom, and she definitely didn't even say bye to me even though I said it like 5 times. How embarrassing for me.

The other complication in the process was juggling all of our ventures / life / kids and being a one-car-family. We are all VERY HAPPY TO REPORT that Josh is finally getting a truck tomorrow. VERY, VERY HAPPY.

Okay, so here's the actual flip progress! Are you ready?

We started with demolishing the back porch. It definitely was not built to code, and not even built well, at that (Basically, it was just pieces of faux wood panel that were glued together all hodge-podge, with a faux brick veneer fireplace stuck in the middle of it). The square footage wasn't included in the total, so we decided to lose it and create a larger outdoor space. Additionally, having those walls down would mean a lot more light into the living / dining area, and I'll NEVER turn down an opportunity for more natural light!

Somewhere in the process, I became determined to put an actual vintage malm fireplace on the back porch, too. But our budget for extra things is sooo tight so I put myself on about a $300 budget (which is CRAZY. You can't find a malm for that cheap!). BUT!! We found this one locally for $150. I hope you are properly shocked. Now we are just trying to figure out if we should keep it this green color, or have it sand blasted and powder coated a really bright red or orange color (or white!?).

Josh was able to expose the beam that separates the open living space from the dining space, and you guys, it's freaking so beautiful. The color of it is amazing! I'm so excited - it looks crazy good.

So our initial plan with the kitchen was to tile the walls of the kitchen area, floor to ceiling. When Josh was pulling out the cabinets (and that weird spacer box that they used to put above cabinets in the 50's and 60's - who knows why they did that?! I'm legitimately curious), he discovered that a) the cement brick behind the drywall is beautiful, and b) it continues into the dining room, and c) although the house is extremely well-insulated (it barely felt warm in there one day when it was 117 degrees!), there was no insulation between the brick and the drywall. Meaning.... why not just expose the brick? (Sadly, that means we WOULD have to get rid of this beautiful tree decal. Doubtful anything could replace its effortless elegance.)

So, that's what Josh did. I LOVE it. it brings a lot more character into the home and it's definitely something you don't see every day. There's a little bit of creative configuring we will have to do with it but it'll be worth it.

As far as my input goes, I've basically been at work planning the look of the space, and finding good fixtures for our budget, and decided what to go budget-friendly on, and what to splurge on! I initially drew up this budget for the master bath and I'm already laughing at it. LAUGHING, I TELL YOU.