Exciting times at the 'ole homestead

I have started this post many times over the last month or so, and yes I apologize for the delay on the "creepy bathroom reveal" I will post that next. It's mid October and the weather in Texas is getting cooler- well, as cool as the beginning of fall in Texas gets. I woke up yesterday at 4:30 am completely psyched about the house. I know, this realization almost knocked me over too; after so much bitching and complaining (and you haven't even heard the whole "Tom the contractor" story)  I realized something very important. We are on the downhill slope, it's incredibly overwhelming, and actually as I type this my eyes are filled with happy tears.

Preston and I bought this house thinking "we totally got this", it's not that bad", "we can get this done in about a year or so and be the baddest of them all". Luckily we were unaware of just how naive we were. Many people, including our realtor, said "I don't know guys, this is an awful big undertaking", "you guys are crazy" and my personal favorite, "dude, yall must be out of your damn minds. Do you even KNOW how to fix any of the problems this house has?!" None of it phased us in the slightest. You see, Preston and I are, oh what's the word......stubborn as hell. I am a Taurus, and fit it to a tee. T? T-ee? whatever, you know what I mean. Ask my mother, she'll tell you some awesome stubborn Bailey stories. Preston is stubborn too, and that, in this case is the best thing ever.

You see, we don't get hung up on the little things like, neither one of us had ever done any plumbing, tiling, drywall, foundation, electrical, you know, that kind of little thing. We just knew deep down, together we could do anything. And this still holds true. We are also just crazy enough to try anything, and if we can't do it ourselves, we'll think about hiring someone. One of our motto's during this renovation is: let's give it a try, because we can't mess it up any worse than it already is.

Something to keep in mind. At the time of buying/beginning to renovate our home there weren't really any TV shows about it, no Chip and Joanna Gaines, no Nicole Curtis. Nope, it wasn't "popular" yet. There was a show called Renovation Realities which is amazing, I strongly suggest you watch it. If I could only go back in time and tell HGTV, hey -  our renovation is something yall really need to film, I would. Those shows like Fixer Upper and whatnot are nice to watch, however it's not a true representation of a real renovation at all. Chip and Joanna get to go home at the end of the day to their gorgeous farmhouse, don't have to worry about sleeping in a different room with just a mattress on the floor because the room that was their "bedroom" last week has been demoed, and don't have to be stressed all week because their actual job is renovating - not a 9 - 5 job which means most of the renovation can only happen on the weekends. If I'm not mistaken, Chip and Jojo lived with her parents while renovating their farmhouse, so again, not actually living a renovation. I am way off track now, but I felt that was important to say.

So as I get back to my original point of the downhill slope, I think of our to-do list. The last really major thing is painting the exterior of the house. At first, we were like, cool! This shouldn't take long. Well, throughout this renovation we have learned something very important. Do it half ass or 90% and you'll find yourself doing it again but the right way in about a year. *cough* downstairs creepy bathroom. *cough*. So we began researching how to prep and paint an all wooden exterior - mad credit to Google and YouTube, thanks guys. Getting the siding ready for paint is the hardest part. The actual painting will be a walk in the freaking park in comparison.

Currently this weekend we are removing the nailed in metal strips along the outline of the windows. doors and corners of the house, (2nd story corners are super scary) that used to hold the old siding (most likely filled with asbestos) and figuring out just how much work the siding needs before we can paint. While we were on the roof taking care of all that, we figured why not go ahead and use the leaf blower to clean the gutters? You know, since we were already up there. Today we tackle the rest of the metal, blow the garage roof/gutters, and clean the siding on the garage. This is really exciting to me, hence why I have gotten up for the past two mornings at 4:30 am psyched and just too excited to sleep. It's finally time to see some real pretty changes and knowing this is the last big hurdle before just the little things, is truly more exciting to me than almost anything that comes to mind.

Metal hanging on for dear life

Grave yard of metal strips

Here's the point where I will ask for your help. Pretty please.

I will post a picture of our garage (as that is the starting point of the painting) we are trying to decide whether to:

1. Paint the house AND trim white as it was originally.
2. Paint the trim white and the house grey.
3. If the garage will look stupid with the white garage door, white trim and white siding.

So please, take a look at this picture, show it to your friends, family, co-workers, the mailman, grocery store checker and tell me your thoughts. I thank you in advance.

More to come soon!

<3 B