Suzannah Hamlin Stanley's Blog, page 69

#Stanley90sreno week 5 update: MOVING IN! Plus more trim painting, and exploring the crawlspace

The biggest news of the week is that we moved into the fixer upper this weekend. We didn't intend to spend 4 weeks living at my parents' place but it was just so comfortable there compared to our construction zone with no heating, half-painted doors everywhere, and no furniture... but we got some projects wrapped up last week and are so happy to be moved into our home, half-done and all!


The to-do list for this last weekend was (finished items crossed off):

Paint trimPut up doors (1/2)Put up cu...

Grain-free, gluten-free salted caramel apple pie recipe (Paleo)

I am excited for baking season! As I shared on Instagram the other day, I got totally in the mood for baking and I had a potluck to go to that night, so somehow I got in my head that I should make an apple pie. But we were working at the house all day before the party, and it has very limited kitchen functionality.

So, like a crazy person, I brought a bunch of tools and extra ingredients from my parents' house where we're staying to the fixer upper. On a break from working, I made this pi...

#Stanley90sreno week 4 update: partial kitchen demo, painting trim and doors, and installing stuff

Hoooo boy, things are moving at the #stanley90sreno. Lots of little things, it feels like. At first we did huge stuff, like rip out all the carpet and then texture and paint all the walls, and now we've got several more medium-scale projects going on!

Our goals for the weekend were (completed items crossed out, some things 1/2 done):
Prime all of the window and door trim (1/2)Paint all of the doors and trim (1/2)DEEP clean kitchen (1/2)Remove extraneous cabinetsGet out bed, couch, table, kitche...

Finally: the house tour (the 'before'!)

Things are moving along pretty well at our fixer upper! One of the things I really wanted to make sure we did, since I knew we'd be doing a lot of renovations pretty fast once we got the keys, was take lots of "before" photos and do a video tour. (Since I dream of sharing a glamorous video tour of it with you when it's all done, and how fun would that be to compare?!)


I figured out the video editing and everything and got it up. I'm really excited since I know videos are so useful and fun some...

Finally: the house tour (the "before"!)

Things are moving along pretty well at our fixer upper! One of the things I really wanted to make sure we did, since I knew we'd be doing a lot of renovations pretty fast once we got the keys, was take lots of "before" photos and do a video tour. (Since I dream of sharing a glamorous video tour of it with you when it's all done, and how fun would that be to compare?!)


I figured out the video editing and everything and got it up. I'm really excited since I know videos are so useful and fun some...

#Stanley90sreno week 3 update: lighting, trim, and more carpet staples

Another week, another weekend, more progress at the fixer upper!

We had a long list of goals for the weekend and we did pretty well. The results aren't quite as dramatic as last week or the week before where we did HUGE things throughout the house, but we're working on some of the essential details we need before we can move in. Plus some fun things I was just really excited to do. Our goals were (finished items noted):


Paint closet shelves Put up lights (dining room and entryway)Clean kit...

Our powder room makeover moodboard (in progress--what would you do?)

Since we've made so much progress on the new house in the past two weeks!!, I'm feeling optimistic and have moved on from obsessing about the paint color, floors, lighting, and kitchen and am now getting excited for what will be a second-tier, but still soon, project: redoing all 2.5 bathrooms.

I think we're going to start with the half-bath (powder room) downstairs. It's not a super critical room to redo since it's currently functional, but oh-so-ugly and so far a room we've used a lot! And i...

#Stanley90sreno week 2 update: wall repair, texture, and painting the entire house

It is amazing how far we've come in less than 2 weeks of owning our house. I'm calling this the week 2 update but really the week 1 one was only a few days in. We've made SO much progress! I bet you'll even be able to tell from these photos!


We wanted to paint right away, but the walls were so damaged we had to do a massive effort of patching and texturing first.

We filled holes with 40-minute setting compound ("hot mud"), which we had to wait to dry for a day. Some areas were just large nail,...

One BIG decision for the whole house: the floors

It's beyond time for us to choose a floor color, and it's such a big decision, I'm wavering a little. I could  use some help!

When we picked out the finishes for our townhouse 4+ years ago, I knew I wanted three things: grey walls, white cabinets, and dark floors.


The builder and our realtor talked me out of the grey walls because it's cloudy in Oregon and we didn't have any side windows. We ended up with the lightest grey on the paint card which looks like white. I'm very happy with it no...

#Stanley90sreno week 1 update: move-in, paint prep, flooring #demoday (and video!)

It's finally here! We've been full of anticipation for undertaking this huge fixer upper project and now, we're in the thick of it. We got our keys last Thursday, moved on Friday and Saturday, and started renovations right away. I'm excited to finally have photos and even a Fixer Upper-inspired video about the house to share with you!!


I want to be real with you guys about this project. For a year and a half now I've been wishing for a "cosmetic fixer" we could update with paint, flooring, lig...