Master Bedroom Makeover

When we purchased our house in December, we knew that it would need a little (read: a lot) of love. While the previous owners had done a relatively good job of keeping it up, it was looking pretty dated! Unfortunately, some of the big projects that we wanted to do, like gutting the kitchen, were - and still are - not in the budget. So we went to the metaphorical drawing board!

December 21, 2012 - Right after closing! Note the plants in the front flowerbed.

Thinking about which project would make the biggest impact on the "comfort level" of our house, without making the biggest dent in our budget led us to remodeling the master bedroom. Naively, we expected the project to be quick and easy. Gorgeous, easy-to-install, laminate flooring, a couple of coats of "Thin Ice" colored paint, and the replacement of some flimsy closet doors and discolored blinds. Sounds simple, right?

Wrong.

Step one was to take out the flimsy old closet doors. No problem!

Step two involved us ripping up the old laminate flooring. Actually, it involved my DAD ripping up the old laminate flooring, with a little assistance from my Prince Charming (henceforth referred to as PC). This is where we made a "lovely" discovery. Shocking to all of us, there were little tiny roots from the plants GROWING THROUGH THE CONCRETE BLOCK WALL to soak up moisture, which had seeped into the concrete because the soil level in the flowerbed was higher than the foundation of the house.

Beautiful, yes? Cellphone photo courtesy of PC.

Thankfully, my PC has an uncle who has worked in the construction business for many years. After some conferring between PC's uncle and my Dad, they determined that the best course of action was to rip out the garden, relocate all of the excess dirt, and replace the bed with rocks. You might be surprised to find out that I was all for it! Replacing the bushes with a container garden was already on my list of "Things To Do Someday!"

While front garden demolition was in progress, we had time to repaint the bedroom with the help of PC's dad and replace all of the blinds. Immediately after that, the new flooring was purchased and installed by my Dad. (He's great! I'm so thankful that he lives around the corner and is willing to help with projects that Dustin and I aren't handy enough to do ourselves.)

From Instagram: Toby enjoying (holding down?) our new flooring!

It's taken a few months (and several trips to IKEA) to get everything arranged "just so," but I couldn't be happier with the final result.

Behold, our master bedroom!

June 9, 2013 - Finished at long last!

More projects to come soon, but for now, it's time for a little nap on my comfy bed in our beautiful new room!