Next Up! Dining Room and Living Room Facelifts!

With the kitchen renovation finally finished, it was time to turn our attention to the dining room and living room. The dining room definitely needed to be painted, but the living room was in pretty good shape and we really liked the color that was already there. We felt there was no reason to paint it just for the sake of painting it.

For the dining room, we chose Agreeable Gray, which was the same color we used in the kitchen. We also decided to paint the walls in the hallway leading to the bedroom. Just painting over all the little grooves and imperfections I had to spackle after removing the splines that ran up and down the walls made a huge difference. The room looked so much better and actually seemed to open up the space quite a bit.

To finish off the dining room, we added a light fixture to the ceiling fan. This appeared to be a pretty easy job, but let me tell you, it was a pain in the butt! Of course, while I was at it, I also replaced a few broken electrical outlets. 

While all of this was going on, Sharon was using ChatGPT to help us figure out how to decorate both the dining room and living room. We already had a beautiful dining table, so we really just needed to figure out what to put around it. Before we could put the finishing touches on the dining room, though, we needed a new sofa. The one that came with the place had seen better days. It took us a while to finally find one we liked, and even after we bought it, we still had the old sofa sitting there until we figured out exactly where we wanted everything to go.

We also bought a couple of ottomans to make the swivel chairs a little more comfortable. We decided to keep the chairs already there when we bought the place because they were really nice. Once the major pieces of furniture were in place, it was back to ChatGPT for more interior decorating advice. It gave us lots of ideas for using things we already had and also gave us some suggestions for things we didn't have.

There's a boutique/thrift store nearby we  heard about, and one Monday everything in the store was half price. Let me tell you, it was amazing! We found so many things there that we could use to decorate the house. We had been looking for artwork for the living room for quite a while, and we really scored. We found lots of artwork at some seriously discounted prices.

Once we brought our bounty home, we started putting everything together. We moved things from one place to another, moved them back again, and consulted ChatGPT along the way. Eventually, we finally placed everything where we wanted it. We only had to buy one more piece of artwork, which we found on Facebook Marketplace, and then we were done. And I have to say, it's starting to feel a lot more like our home!

    

We still have plans to paint and decorate our bedroom and the spare room. The bathroom, however, is going to have to wait a while so the budget can recover! But for now, Phase 1 of our redo is finished.

It's amazing how much of a difference some paint, furniture, artwork and a few other changes can make. When we first moved in, it still felt like somebody else's place. Now, little by little, it is starting to feel like ours. Of course, we won't be sticking around to enjoy it for too long. We're going to escape the desert heat and head to North Carolina to visit our daughter and our grandkids.

And that's not a bad way to celebrate finishing Phase 1!

Kitchen Renovation - It's a wrap!

With the walls and cabinets in our newly acquired home finally painted, it was time to turn our attention to the rest of the kitchen remodel. Before having the new countertops installed, I wanted to replace the two windows over the sink. The original single-pane windows faced west, and since we plan to live here year-round, upgrading to double-pane windows made sense. They would be much more energy efficient thus keeping the kitchen more comfortable during the hot Arizona summers.

Replacing the windows turned out to be a fairly easy project. They were secured with screws from the outside, so I simply removed the screws, scored the old caulk with a utility knife, and carefully worked each window out of the opening.

The hardest part of the job was removing all of the old caulk. Once that was finished, I set the new windows in place, made sure they were level both horizontally and vertically, and fastened them with screws. A generous bead of exterior caulk around the perimeter sealed everything to prevent any future leaks.

With the windows finished, it was time for the countertops. We found a local fabricator who offered a solid-surface product similar to Corian. After he came out to measure everything, a few weeks passed before he returned to install the new countertops along with our  larger single-basin undermount sink.

Once the installers finished, all I had left to do was reconnect the plumbing under the sink. Then it was on to the next project—the backsplash.

We decided on a simple white subway tile. During a trip to Lowe's, we got lucky and found the tile on clearance for just seven cents a piece. In fact, the tile, mortar, and grout together cost about the same as the tile saw I had to buy to complete the installation.

The kitchen has now become exactly what we envisioned. Someday we'll probably replace the refrigerator, but for now we're very happy with it. We also found a few finishing touches on Facebook Marketplace which helped pull everything together without spending a fortune.

Looking back, this was one of those projects that made a dramatic difference in the look and feel of our park model. Best of all, we were able to accomplish it without breaking the bank.