What It Looks Like Living in a Home During Major Renovations

It’s hard to believe that we closed on our house less than five months ago. During the last few months, we cleaned up a good portion of the land and have renovated the majority of the interior of the house. Some days I feel overwhelmed by the amount of projects we have remaining–the walls that need painted, the quarter round that needs added, the weeds that need pulled, the flowers that need planted–but then Carson reminds me just how much we have accomplished in just a few short months.

This month, we have been in major-renovation-mode with converting our upstairs bedroom into a second bathroom. This project has affected the majority of our home because we had to have the dining room ceiling dropped in order to make room for the bathroom pipes. We are also enclosing our loft for safety reasons and to qualify as a third bedroom since we are losing a bedroom with the addition of the bathroom. We’ve gotten used to moving our furniture about every other week, and Carson and I have been working in different places in the house.

We hired SB Home Improvement (Shayne and Dillon) and Scooter’s Plumbing (Scott) for these very-large jobs. We highly recommend both of these companies–they show up on time, do really good work, and charge a fair price. We had to make a few changes to our original plans once some of the walls were opened up, and they explained the reasoning and provided several alternative options that would work for us. They problem solved and were both creative and innovative with these projects.

Here’s some progress photos! I’m holding off on sharing the finished rooms, because 1) we still need to add some details and 2) I will be sharing the completed projects room by room!

Dining Room

When we bought our house, it had three upstairs bedrooms, a loft, and one bathroom downstairs right off of the kitchen. We knew that we wanted to try and add a second bathroom upstairs, and our contractor and plumber met with us multiple times to come up with a plan. This was a BIG job and they far exceeded our expectations. Originally, we thought we could convert the loft into a bathroom, but because of the layout of our house, the most feasible option was turning the bedroom above the dining room into a bathroom.

In order to do this, they had to drop the ceiling by about a foot and build a box to conceal the pipes. Our ceilings were really tall to begin with, so I don’t think anyone would notice these changes unless they knew to look for it!

Shayne also added beadboard and trim to bring back some of the vintage charm that was renovated out of the house! He actually told us that there was evidence that beadboard had been there many years before.

Carson and I painted the trim, beadboard, and ceiling and primed the walls. We are planning on installing wallpaper above the beadboard, and Shayne installed a beautiful vintage chandelier above our dining room table that belonged to my great-great grandma. Carson cut down and installed a gorgeous door that we got for free on Facebook Marketplace that was taken out of an old farmhouse about an hour from where we live. It was originally too wide for the space, so he sawed off about a quarter inch and made some other adjustments. I want to show you the room in its entirety–but not until we get the wallpaper up!

Second Floor Bathroom

We do not have a tub in our first floor bathroom, but we are making up for it upstairs! We ordered a gorgeous double-slipper clawfoot tub; however, it has been backordered for several months. In the meantime, Scott plumbed out where the tub, vanity, and toilet would go and Shayne and Dillon have been working on the tile, walls, and electrical.

The original tile that I loved put us out of our budget, so we found this gorgeous marble that was a third of the price. I actually like it more than what we originally picked out!

Here’s a sneak peek of the tile and the vintage chandelier we found in Kansas City! Shayne is also going to install beadboard and trim in this bathroom. Here’s a link to our original plans for this space.

Loft Conversion

We decided to enclose the loft for a variety of reasons.

Safety Issues – The wall above the bench was open and not the safest option for little kids who like to climb!
Noise Cancellation – This is Carson’s office and my workspace. Not having walls or doors during meetings was somewhat of a challenge, and the noise from my sewing machines kept waking Lincoln up at night. The room is much more sound proof now that it has walls!
Space – We are hoping and praying for our family to grow, and if it does–we will eventually use this space as a kid’s bedroom. We have already talked through where we will move our office and workspace if we need to use this room as a bedroom.
Resale Value – We have no intentions to move ever again or anytime soon for that matter, but if we do–having three bedrooms will significantly up the value of our home.

Shayne and Dillon helped us come up with a plan for where to add walls. The bench was not in direct alignment with the opposite wall, so some of the bench is outside of the new wall. We will use this as a little seat for now and maybe add some built-in shelves someday! We are so happy with how the room is coming together and know it is much safer for little ones now!

Shayne did an excellent job matching the trim to the original woodworking. We found this door on Facebook Marketplace–it is almost an exact match to the other doors except in width.

Carson is really good at making the most of a space and arranging furniture, and he helped me plan out how we will set this space up. We are planning on adding my fabric shelf on top of the bench–anchoring it to the wall and reducing wasted space. Carson sold his desk and got a new standing desk to use in its place, and he is going to build me a fold-up cutting table for my workspace along the wall with the outlet.

Living in a house during major renovation is interesting to say the least, but we think it will 100% be worth the wait!

Adding the Finishing Touches

Once Shayne, Dillon, and Scott are done, we will have a lot of painting to do to finish up these spaces! In the meantime, we are enjoying seeing all of the pieces come together, and I am trying to decide on paint colors. Stay tuned for our dining room, office, and bathroom renovation reveals over the next few months!