Four years ago, my husband, John, and I knew we had outgrown our turn of the century cottage on Main Street, USA. We were ready for more space, more yard, and more peace and quiet.

When you live in rural Kentucky, there is a direct correlation between how loud your truck is and the size of your manhood, apparently. To make matters worse, we lived next to one of only two stop lights in town. There was some serious revving of engines on red, followed by squealing tires on green, topped with a side of “flooring it” for the next quarter mile. When this would happen, it made it completely impossible to hear any conversation outside, even if the person was standing in front of my face. Nope, I wish I was kidding! Reminds me of a Willie Nelson song you’ve probably never heard of- “Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be rednecks” or something like that…

So my husband happens to be a pretty phenomenal general contractor if I do say so myself. John specializes in lakefront homes and custom builds. He’s even had the pleasure of working with Pete Nelson from Treehouse Masters on a build that is nothing short of incredible. Lots of talented people working together with an amazing couple who had such a cool vision! The final product turned out to be a fan favorite of the show. I’ll stop with the name dropping but super amazing experience for John to be part of! If you watch the episode, you may just catch a glimpse or two of our family in it.

As for me, I love design. I love color. I love art. In fact, I wanted to be an interior designer but my dad thought I’d starve to death and told encouraged me to go to nursing school. So here I am! LOL Side note, my dad was the best and just wanted to make sure I had job security. 😉

When you combine a seasoned general contractor with a wife who knows exactly what she wants in a home, it can be very trying AMAZING! So there was a LOT little bit of head butting. There may have been a battle of the wills more times than I can count. But we hashed it out, and we’re still married. So if we can do it, you can too! Wink!

Our original plan was to build, and we had even purchased our house plans. Before we broke ground, I happened to run across a house for sale that had a lot of space, a lot of yard, and the price was right. But the pictures made it very evident that the home needed a lot of updating and some TLC.

This just happened to occur during the prime of the “Fixer Upper” revolution, which changed the face of real estate. Suddenly, everyone (including myself) wanted to be the next Chip and Joanna because they’re adorable obviously, and who doesn’t love a good before and after? I could see past the mauve carpeted kitchen and the green laminate counters to realize the house had a ton of potential. The inside had the perfect bones for a home to entertain in. John took a bit of convincing because it would be a heck of a lot of work for him, but he agreed that we could get into a remodel quicker than we could a “build from scratch” home. Time was of essence because we were feeling cramped, and it was long overdue.

So we did it! We bought the house and two years later, we moved in. Yeah, I’m not kidding. God thought I needed a lesson in patience because Lord knows I had room for growth when it came to this project! It was ONE LONG LESSON but I couldn’t be happier with the (almost) finished product. To be fair to John, he did most of the work on his own after hours when he was tired and would rather have been watching reruns of “Cops.” Can’t say I blame him there. He had a ton of work to do.

Now that you know the backstory behind our lives and why we chose a remodel, I plan to get to the fun part in the weeks to come. I’ll break it down room by room, with before and afters and suggestions/tips that you may find helpful. Come join me on the journey! Each post will feature a different room so time to get off here and start tidying up. Thanks for stopping in and until next time! xo, Christy