Home on the Rangely in Dallas!

Bathroom Tub Overhaul ...

2012-01-19T19:55:00.000-06:00

So the project that we just completed at our house, is a tub to shower makeover! I have received mixed reviews on this, and it is obvious who is a bath tub lover versus a shower lover ... it is kind of like mayo, you either love it or hate it, and everyone has their reasons why.

My reason for this conversion is this bathroom serves 2 of our guest bedrooms, and I felt bad making our guests always bathe versus shower, and so I decided prior to Thanksgiving when my house was going to fill with guests, I needed to get this done!

BEFORE:

Oh and I forgot to mention that the walls were yellow and white striped and clouds were painted on the ceiling, and there were these "princess-y" looking shelves that went around the tub - HIDEOUS! So the tub and princess-y shelves have come down, and the walls have been primed (so the stripes are gone), but I now need to get the walls textured, and then painted! So much work, for such a little room ...

AFTER:

Enjoy!

Why it took us 3 months to move in-

2011-12-20T22:18:00.000-06:00

We decided that the kitchen was too '80s for us!
So we updated:

The cabinets from blond wood to black (new fixtures)
White counter tops to Granite
Tile back splash to Travertine back splash
Porcelain white sink divided to a black unmount trough (new fixtures)
Tile floor to Travertine (thanks to Brian's hard work)
Sunny yellow walls to a neutral
Changed the trash compactor to a wine fridge
Updated the appliances

Check it out!
Before:

After:

Sunny yellow walls, and chandelier:

As you can see below, the chandelier has not been changed yet ... still trying to find the perfect one. If you find one for me, send me a message with the URL link, thanks!

Before, tile floors:

After, travertine:

It was nice to have the kitchen finished when we moved it, but there are still more rooms to go! At least this kitchen has seen and fed many people. Two Thanksgivings in a row now (2010 and 2011) this kitchen has fed more than 20 people each year!

Dallas We Have Arrived...

2011-12-19T20:31:00.001-06:00

Ok so this may be a year and a few months overdue (or more), since that is how long we have been in Dallas now; however as I look at the last post, that was the day after my 28th birthday, and I am now 2 months into being 30! So I am in a huge way overdue in posting to this blog.

WHY?

Mainly due to the fact, that this blog was called "Home on the Rangely" and I was using this platform to highlight my down to the bone remodel of my home in Houston, and when we sold it to a great couple- who ended up knowing all of our friends (I am sure I will blog about them later), I wasn't quite sure what to post on here. What would be interesting? I have no more remodel pictures. Maybe none of this.

Also I have been extremely busy; with nothing in particular, just life. No kids or anything. It takes me about a year to become myself again, I have decided, after a move. I never admit that to any one, but there is so much more to get in order then just your house during a move. And since 2005, I have moved every 6 months until moving to Dallas, and landing on Krohn Court (I have lived here now since July 2010). I have decided to keep the name of my blog the same, and the content fairly consistent with before- but moving forward, as I move, and life changes, I will just become Home on the Rangely of where ever I am!

I have a feeling Dallas will not be my last stop. So needless to say, I am back. We will see how consistently. I do have major before/after pictures of this house on Krohn. I did not take it to the studs, but it has been a room by room, slow project by slow project, grass getting laid twice, kind of house ... and if you stay with me, you will see ...

Front Door prior to Purchase

Black Door after Purchase (fuzzy- with my phone)

Super Bowl 2011 Snow Day ... Black Door open, so anyone can come visit!

Carving Pumpkins. 2 Hours. Gross Ending.

2009-10-25T21:08:00.003-05:00

This is my ghost.
Brian carving his scary skeleton.
Look how well it turned out. True artists!

Looking good on the front porch ... sure to scare some kids!

Last Sunday Brian and I thought it would be a great idea to buy pumpkins at the grocery store, and carve them so that we could get in the Halloween spirit. We bought the 2 best pumpkins, and a carving kit. We used these templates to make the most amazing ghost and skeleton (in remembrance of the ACL skull). I truly believe they turned out wonderful! We immediately put them on our front porch, after all of our hard work, to show them off to the world. The next day Brian had some buddies over, and they commented on our scary pumpkins. So Brian and I went out to have a look, and sure enough there sat the two SCARIEST pumpkins I had ever seen! Thanks to Houston's humidity and 80 degree heat, our pumpkins had grown fuzzy, furry, gray mold. It was every where ... crawling out of all the holes we had carved ... it looked like my ghost, and Brian's skeleton had grown beards. It was disgusting! Brian almost threw up as he instantly carried them to the trash can. All that hard work just to be thrown away. We now know not to carve pumpkins in Houston. Next year we will just draw on them. Lesson learned. We still had a great time carving...

The Little Things

2009-10-11T13:58:00.003-05:00

Brian putzed in the yard, I mean, worked very hard in the yard yesterday. Trimming bushes, removing branches that had blown in the yard, etc. When he came in the house he presented me with the following ... they were presented to me exactly how you see them below ... In a beautiful vase, with small stones at the bottom, and purple foliage to add to the color of the amazing pink miniature roses. They smelled wonderful. It is amazing that such a small flower could produce such a smell. It made my day. The rose bush (I have photographed and posted earlier) was given to us by the McNally's, and is now in a place in our yard, where it is really blooming! I have decided to dedicate the flowers below to my Papa. He loved roses, and spent many of his days tending to them. I miss you! Enjoy the pictures ...

Yes, they are in a St. Arnold's Beer glass. If you haven't been to the local micro brew in Houston, it is really worth going too.

FINALLY Organizing

2009-10-10T11:12:00.008-05:00

I know I should be the organized one, but sadly, it is easier to organize others than it is to organize yourself. However, I got on a cooking kick the other week, and realized how disorganized my kitchen was, and how it made cooking unbareable. Poor Brian has been cooking for months with a horrible mess of a kitchen, and hasn't complained once. So I should really say I did it for him! So after 10 months of living at Rangely I decided to step it up a notch and start (key word) organizing ... it isn't any where near finished yet.

So off I went to The Container Store (oh how terrible), and came back with some wonderful goodies.

I can't believe I am showing this, but this is under my kitchen sink: What a MESS!
After: (I purchased the plastic bag container on the right hand side, so they don't fly around under there) Before: My pots and pans were thrown in random stacks...

After: I bought these pot racks that slide out (so you can see all the pots you have), and a lid holder that slides out ... Yes I had to use a drill to install these...

Before: My pantry is tall and deep, and hides many things that I may never see again...

After: I bought the Elfa Shelf drawers that slide out, and show us exactly what kind of yummy food we have ... I still need to figure out the top shelves...

Before/After of a few of my drawers ... now we can find all utensils.

So this was the start. There will be more to come! I was frightened to open up the cabinets underneath my kitchen island, but I will tackle it one day!

Beautiful Yard!

2009-09-12T17:31:00.008-05:00

So after our initial planting when we moved in months ago, we haven't done a whole lot except water the yard and flower beds. And even watering we killed quite a few of the Rosemary plants in our front bed, and we felt very discouraged. So last Sunday was yard day!

We put on our yard working clothes, plugged the iPod speakers up, and went to work! After hunting at Houston Garden Center for a couple of hours we found the plants we thought were most beautiful, and could withstand the amount of sun that our yard would give them. The best part is that everything was on sale!

So we pulled up the Rosemary that was still alive, and planted it in a pot that would give it more sun...

Brian's mom had a plant that she gave us, so we planted it, in the pot that matched... Both these pots sit on our back porch beside our French doors.

Then where the Rosemary had been, we planted the coolest plants (I think) :) I liked the contrasting purplish-green plants, and the light grey plant. They line our front porch:

I think it looks wonderful!

I even moved our pretty rose bush from Mr. and Mrs. McNally to the right side of our garage door, and it will get the sun and rain it needs:

Finished House Pics ... Long overdue...

2009-06-07T22:30:00.003-05:00

Can I show off my beautiful niece and precious nephew?

2008-12-30T19:57:00.003-06:00

This is called cheezin' and it is what happens when you squinsh (is that a word?) your face up and it is generated from the feeling you get when you get a new car on Christmas morning ...

Kitchen Granite and Backsplash

2008-12-28T20:38:00.001-06:00

Bathrooms Done!

2008-12-28T20:31:00.002-06:00

Hard Woods, beautiful!

2008-12-28T20:19:00.003-06:00

Front Door is on ...

2008-12-20T22:45:00.002-06:00

Garage prior to being stained!

2008-12-20T22:43:00.001-06:00

Granite ...

2008-12-20T22:41:00.001-06:00

Hard to see ... but we can't take the plastic off yet ...

Our Fans ...

2008-12-20T22:18:00.001-06:00

Kitchen, Doors, Wood work Painted ...

2008-12-13T12:45:00.004-06:00

(l): From piano room into kitchen (r): From living room into kitchen

(l): Looking into piano room (r): Looking out of Study

Living Room

(l): Looking into entry way (r): Looking out of 3rd Bedroom

(l): Master closet (r): Down the hall to the rooms

(r): Garage

Nothing to do with the House ... but I am Proud!

2008-12-13T12:29:00.004-06:00

Enough Said...

Painted Walls ...

2008-12-09T10:07:00.005-06:00

What color should our kitchen cabinets be?? We need some suggestions!!

Our Finished Kitchen cabinets and island!

2008-12-05T10:02:00.010-06:00

This is the kitchen ... the door on the right is to the garage. Then moving left is the pantry, then where the fridge is going, then the oven... The doors on the front of the island will be glass so I can show case my pretties!

This side of the island will have two bar stools, and the far left side of the kitchen will have the built in wine fridge. Whahoo!!

These are my laundry room shelves ...

Oh yeah, and here is the wine cooler he picked out ...

2008-12-04T08:51:00.002-06:00

Who wants to come over for some wine, dinner, and good conversation?

Our Garage

2008-12-04T08:43:00.001-06:00

Check out the beautiful garage Brian picked out ...

Our Appliances...

2008-11-30T13:07:00.004-06:00

So Brian said we should move in and sleep in sleeping bags ... I like my in-laws house too much to do that ... I will wait until the house is finished... Check out our kitchen appliances ...

I could move in RIGHT NOW!!

2008-11-29T10:55:00.008-06:00

We love our Cabinetry guy, Manuel! He is so good, and works so fast. The pictures below he did in TWO days! He has done all the base boards, crown moulding, doors, door frames, window casings, and cabinetry. And it all looks great! We can see our house coming together now... Take a look, and let us know what you think!

Front of the House during the day ...

2008-11-28T20:45:00.006-06:00

Well every day is HUGE progress on the house! Check out the front of the house during the day ...

YAY!! Our ungly light post is finally torn down ...

Dry Wall is UP, and it looks Great!

2008-11-23T20:36:00.011-06:00

Sorry to make you all wait! It's been way to long since I have written.

One reason for that, without going into too much detail, is that I had a medical emergency on November 10th. I appreciate and am thankful for all the prayers, thoughts, calls, flowers, emails, and cards!

Now take a look at the house:
looking down the hall

looking into the entry way

The Kitchen

The Living Room

The door from the dining room to the kitchen

The Dining Room

Living Room #2

The Entry Way

The Study

As you can see it is getting closer! We are really excited ... Love to all!

Stone on the front Columns...

2008-10-12T13:20:00.005-05:00

Latest update ...

So we have been a few weeks delayed due to the hurricane, but we are now back full force working on the house!! We are still looking to get into the house sometime in December.

This week the front four columns had stone work added to the bottom, and all of our concrete sidewalk (front and back) and back porch have been torn up in preparation for the new concrete to be laid for a bigger front and back porch and a new sidewalk to be put from the front door to the street.

The electricians have been working around the clock all weekend, to finish bringing the electrical work up to code.

Tell us what you think of the new stone ...

Hurricane IKE!!

2008-09-19T12:15:00.004-05:00

So ... We never would have imagined in a million years that we would have had to prepare for TWO hurricanes through the process of remodeling our home ... but I guess living in Houston I need to get used to that!

Even though we didn't really need to prepare for Hurricane Gustav, Ike on the other hand needed to be prepared for.

This was a killer storm, and so we thank God that we are safe, our family and friends are safe, and that our home did not sustain any damage.

I was out of town during the storm, but Brian was awake and in Houston during it, and has some great footage that I will try to get on this site.

Below is a picure of what DID happen to our house ... it looks like we lost the tops of both of our tress out front and may need to cut one (the Magnolia) down. But those big limbs missed our roof and windows, so all looks well. We havn't been inside yet ... so time will tell.

The picture is a little deceiving ... the limbs just look like little pieces of broccoli, but they are huge, and Brian can't move most of them ... they go all the way up to our roof!!

We will update more soon. Much Love - M&B

Brian's Video ...

2008-09-06T14:53:00.004-05:00

He didn't talk the whole time he was filming ... haha

Preparing for Hurricane Gustav

2008-09-01T21:10:00.004-05:00

Brian and I felt the need to prepare for Hurricane Gustav today, and so we drove all the way from The Woodlands to our House, and closed all the windows, moved pieces of debris and ply-wood into the trash. Brian hauled bags of cement in front of the doors that didn't have locks yet so they wouldn't fly open due to high winds. Brian also rigged up a string pulley sort of device over the back door for double safety so it wouldn't fly open.

Needless to say, the storm never came, and after looking at the inside of our house it already looked like a hurricane had hit it, so I don't know what we were trying to save it from!!

On a more fun note, the number block for the front of the house was put in place. Take a look:

Week 2: New Windows, New Cedar Columns, New Arches in the House

2008-08-30T13:37:00.006-05:00

The new back patio doors and windows!

The New framing for the doors to the study.

The new wider entrance to the living areas

The formal living looking into the dining (widers arches lead into all the rooms now).

The Kitchen and family room now open to the formal living...

This is where it starts getting fun!! We are building now ...

Demolition Time - Week 1

2008-08-30T12:15:00.006-05:00

Bathroom #2

This is standing in the family room looking at the laundry room and dining room.

This is standing on the edge of the kitchen looking at the formal living room.

This is standing in the formal living room looking into the family room.

This is standing in the formal living looking at the entryway and the study.

Bathroom #1

The carport is now gone in front of the garage!! Yeah!

The Dumpster we had to rent!

The back porch knocked down.

The bricks from the Family room brick wall.

Standing in the family room looking at the kitchen.

More 1950s styled house Pictures ...

2008-08-30T11:29:00.001-05:00

The Family Room. Notice the bricks in the right corner, you will get a taste of more further down. The kitchen is straight ahead.

The Family Room Brick wall. The Kitchen in the background, and through that door to the right of the Kitchen, is the laundry room, and to the right of the laundry room is the Dining room. On the other side of the Brick wall is the formal living.

The kitchen ... lovin the blue speckled formica! Look at that stove!

The hinges on the cabinets I am using in my renovated house ... just kidding!

This stove doesn't even hold a turkey!

Get excited for the construction pictures to come!!

Pre-Construction Photos

2008-08-30T11:17:00.001-05:00

You will not believe the way this house looked on the inside:

The Front of the House

The Front Porch

The Entry way (I am standing in the formal living room)

The Formal Living Room (I am standing in the Dining Room)

The Family Room looking into the Kitchen

More to come ...

We have purchased our first home

2008-08-28T22:33:00.000-05:00

We did it!

After 8 years of living in apartments, we plunged in, and purchased our first home. We are so excited, and have seen God's hand already in the process of the purchase.

It all started March of this year, with our friend's Dwayne and Dawn Bohac and their 4 kids. Dawn is a part of Daughters of Liberty with me (Megan), and they go to Second Baptist, where Brian and I have started attending. I had expressed to Dawn, that Brian and I really wanted to live in the same part of Houston they did, an area called Spring Branch.

It is a sought after neighborhood that is located off of I-10 mintutes from downtown Houston. It has a great school district Spring Branch ISD (which is independent of HISD), beautiful trees, huge lots, close to shopping, wonderful restaurants and the arts, and has a great family feel.

Most of the homes in Spring Branch were built in the 50s-60s, but in the last 5 years many have been reinvated or torn down to use the large lot size for building bigger newer homes.

Immediately Dawn knew of a house that was not yet for sale right across the street from them, but she knew it would be on the market soon, and priced real low, because it was already vacant and needed some renovation. So she said if we were interested we would need to act fast.

So Brian and I went and looked at the house, and I LOVED it, but Brian did not feel the same way. The floorplan was just what I wanted, but the house was in rare form, it still had all the original 50s fixtures, appliances, and it smelled! But I could see the potential. Now I just needed to convince Brian that the potential was actually there.

I didn't do a good job. He said no! So instead we got a realtor and for the next 2 months, started looking at houses all over the place.

What we realized in those months was that Spring Branch really was the place to see instant equity in your home, and a great place to raise a family. And Brian slowly started realizing that if we could get that home across the street from the Bohacs for that great deal, and renovate it the way we wanted, we would be getting a steal of a deal!

So after months of looking elsewhere, we went back to the Bohacs, and said we were interested again. They said that three offers had been placed on the house in the past few months, and that one of the offers had been accepted. We were so bummed!

I especially had to control my emotions. I knew I had wanted that house from the beginning, and I felt because we had acted so slow, we had missed out on a great opportunity.

Brian kept telling me that we still made the right decision, that it wouldn't have been good to rush into purchasing our first home, and that the right home will come along eventually. I didn't know if I believed him!

A few hours later, I received this text message from Dawn, "Megan, Call me or Dwayne asap. The house is available!!! God is opening a door." That was May 9, 2008.

What happened was Dwayne felt he should just double check and make sure that the house had actually sold, and that everything was final with the contract. When he did, he found out it wasn't!

Brian and I couldn't believe it! Brian quickly wrote up the contract and got all the paperwork together, and on May 11, 2008 the house was ours! We were now officially home owners of
9211 Rangely Road!

Let the work begin!

We now had a long renovation road ahead of us.