Demolition Day

For those of you who know us well, you know that sometimes we're known to fly by the seat of our pants and make decisions a little too quickly for some. Somehow, it just seems to work for us.

We met and were engaged within 6 months. Wedding? NO problem - planned in 3 months. "Let's get a dog!" 2 days later a furry little yellow lab steals our heart.
Let's get a horse (currently working on that one). But you get the idea.

Things just happen full-speed around here! I guess we figure we have to act fast or we'll get too busy and forget what we had set out to accomplish in the first place.

Demolition day for our downstairs renovation was no different.

On a recent five hour flight to California, Michael and I decided downstairs needed to STOP being the catch-all for the mounds of "unwanteds" (furniture from our single days, clothes that MIGHT come back in style, college textbooks for our kids one day? Really what we were thinking?) It was awful! When we finally realized that our downstairs was no longer part of our cozy home, but a horrible example of hoarders about to happen, we had to get to work.
The long range plan is a master suite downstairs with a screened porch, a large master and even a downstairs kitchen (just in case we have long term guests if a Baby Knotts were ever to arrive)

So back to the flight....in those ever-so-comfy seats, we got busy designing a floor plan. My incredibly talented husband gets the credit for this one. He had a vision and by the time we landed in San-Fran, he had created a 3D image of it on his iPad! He's impressive to no end.

For those of you with this kind of spatial ability, I applaud you! I couldn't do it if my life (and shoes) depended on it!

So with a rough sketch in place, we were ready leave home behind and enjoy a week of being spoiled rotten in Napa Valley and San Fran!

On the flight home, it was time to create the budget and SHOCKINGLY we came in WAY over!
(fingers crossed Michael padded those numbers more than my airplane seat!)

You have no idea how MUCH I wish this post were a complete before and after and I could type: "Surprise, Y'all....It's DONE!" Truthfully, it's nowhere NEAR complete - but I did want to show you some before and in the middle pictures. I just have to warn you - none of it is pretty and I can guarantee you that NONE of these pictures will appear on your Pinterest boards!

But life's not always pretty and it's GOOD sometimes to see the "real world" behind all of those perfectly staged Pinterest pics.

Here's our real world right now:

Scary hallway before made everything feel closed in and boxy!

Well...those walls, they came crashing down and now we have this lovely look:

If you look REALLY closely you can see my ONLY diamond in the rough at the moment.

See that big, thick, knotted wooden beam? Michael picked that guy up (literally) at an old warehouse that was being torn down, threw him in the truck, and brought him on home!

Love that man!

This gorgeous picture was our inspiration: