Sprucing Up The Homestead

We've lived in our house for 8 years now, and we've been remodeling it that whole time. Our house needed a lot of work when we moved in- mostly cosmetic things but some of the work was absolutely necessary (like updating the wiring and putting a firm foundation under it). Well, we've finally come to the light at the end of the tunnel. This year will be the last push on the remodel and we'll be putting our house for sale late summer or early fall. We're very excited to be finishing things up and to finally live in a draft free, kitchen floor having, painted, tile on the counter tops, finished wood floor house. We're also very excited to start a new chapter and move on, but that's a story for another day. 

The sconce set sup

Our house has very high ceilings (9 feet tall in the downstairs, 8 feet in the second story) and our windows always looked a little odd because there was so much space above them. I'm not a fan of floor to ceiling curtains, so I took some time one day and looked at a lot of different window trims and ways we could dress up our plain windows. I was getting ready to paint the walls so changing the window trim at the same time only made sense. I found a lot of inspiration on Pinterest (you can find all of my boards by clicking the link) and we decided on a window trim/sconce combo we thought would look nice. 

Wall color, new trim and sconce

First, we painted our wide, flat window trim. While that was drying, Kevin drilled a 1 1/4 inch hole through the solid part of this shelf sconce. The hole is for a 1 inch dowel that we are using in lieu of a curtain rod. Next, the sconce was painted as well as a piece of 1x8 for the shelf above the window. Now that the window is done, we have decided to replace the 1x8 with 2x8 shelving material for a more substantial look. Learn from our mistake! Kevin nailed the window trim to the window casing and it was painted once again. When it dried we attached the window sconces to the window trim, not to the side, and put the curtain on the rod and through the holes we drilled. The shelf went on top and we had a nice solution to our window issues that I love and I think will be appealing to buyers when the house is for sale. 

Crooked picture, oops!

Remodeling on a tight and sometimes non-existent budget has been challenging at the best of times and frustrating at the worst times, but we've learned a lot about how we would do things again, what we would pay someone else to do, what we have no interest in tackling again and how to do everything on the cheap. Our home is going to be lovely when it's finished, and I'll be happy to have it done but it's time to be DONE. We are so looking forward to all of the little things that are left to do and seeing all of our hard work come together. 

I'll keep you updated....you'll probably see a lot of home improvement projects over the next few months. Sorry!