December 2021 – Finally getting to work on our Master!
December 2021, I finally got to tackle our second floor! There was a lot that needed to get done around here since Lodi moved in so you guys know the master went on my back burner years ago. Not anymore though! I’m thrilled to say that earlier this month we got the entire master bedroom painted out and *drumroll please* for the first time ever, the master officially even has a door. It really is about the little things… Though perhaps a door on your bedroom is not so little a thing!? The other half of the floor (closet and bathroom) still needs to be painted out and tackled but one room at a time. Here are some sneak peeks – I can’t wait to show you guys all of it when its done!
Meanwhile we had some really beautiful weather for most of December 2021 except for that couple of days when we somehow had a winter storm warning and a tornado warning simultaneously…
Over December 14th and 15th something happened weather-wise I can’t ever remember happening in my life in northern MN. It was 40 degrees with the thickest fog I have ever seen all day and then it down poured for three hours that evening.
Hearing rain pouring down on the roof in December was so bizarre!
Unfortunately it came with a 30 mile an hour north wind that plummeted our tempts down to single digits. We watched that down pour turn to ice and finally snow.
Driving around those couple of days was incredibly unpleasant…
One weekend this December Lodi helped me finish painting out the master bedroom and I helped him tie up some loose ends in the basement.
The refrigerator down there has needed to be repainted forever, the closet floor also needed to be painted and the crawl space needed a new door to cover it up. Not to mention lots of other little things which all make such a difference!
We’re going to be hosting a holiday party for his family next weekend with many of them staying the night so, of course, we want the whole house to look as nice as possible. He also picked up a rug for the basement kitchen and a sweet little mat for in front of our new chest freezer in the basement closet.
We also (for the third time I think…) moved the furniture around in the basement living room.
December 2021 our basement isn’t huge to begin with and the living room has FOUR separate entrances / doors off of it. Putting the tv in front of the chimney down there really felt like the only place we could put it…
Our couches and table and chairs pretty much fill the space.
We moved the table to the back wall and lined the couches up along the side wall. I usually don’t like lining rooms in furniture – it can often make the space feel smaller than it actually is…
However, in this case, because the basement living room is so obviously a theater, the two couches, side by side along the wall with perfect viewing of the tv, actually makes a lot more sense. And moving the table to the back means no longer walking down to a piece of furniture but to an open space.
(a couple more sneak peeks…)
December 2021, our basement living room actually feels bigger and more inviting now!
A whole day can easily be taken up by those little jobs but it is the small details that really bring a space together and also sure do make us feel better too. I swear those loose ends just nag and nag and nag and slowly drive me insane…
Lodi loves light and last year hung the first Xmas lights ever here at Grandma’s house.
We hung up more lights this year and, though I admit to not being one to decorate much, I do really like them. We also got our rooster weather vane installed on the top of the garage.
I purchased it this spring and totally forgot about it!
(Here’s the Amazon product link.)
With the outside of our garage (with its new addition) finally complete and looking so nice it was just the perfect cherry on top. I think it legitimately looks like it belongs here and I love that.
You know you’re finally getting somewhere when you can start accessorizing…
December 2021 we had a lovely quiet Xmas with a four day weekend for me to take full advantage of. No, I did not work the entire weekend but I did do some puttering around our master bedroom just loving having finally reached the point where I can start redesigning the space.
I forgot to tell you guys in November that Lodi harvested a deer for us. Oh how I missed venison SO MUCH!
I was raised almost exclusively on venison and haven’t had any for a few years now. What a wonderful gift ๐ We cleaned it and butchered it ourselves – using as much of the animal as we possibly could.
With just one deer I didn’t feel there was enough meat to bother getting out the grinder to make burger so we get to look forward to several roasts giving us wonderful shredded venison leftovers for sandwiches, nachos, quesadillas etc.
Pretty exciting!
I hope you all had a wonderful December and were able to relax at least a little over the holidays!
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I’m Tarah!
It’s been a hell of a ride since I started this blog and renovated and moved into this old farm house back in 2015. I got married, divorced, lost my doggo soul mate, spent two years as a single gal, remodeled everything, threw my back out countless times and was even found by an amazing guy in my own backyard! (The story behind Storyhardt Farm.)
Around here we’re totally fearless when it comes to bettering our home. We love to refinish old furniture, re-purpose old pieces, build it from scratch and totally renovate anything that needs it! If we can do it – so can you. We’ve got some serious plans for this old farm and, for first time ever, I have a real partner!
This is gonna be so much fun!
You can also find out more about the amazing Grandma behind this blog who moved in to this old farmhouse with my Grandpa nearly 70 years ago!
I love how your basement living room turned out! It is awesome!
Thank you Amy!
Tarah,
You (and now Lodi) have done amazing things with your grandmother’s house! I drilled down from this last posting and looked at quite a bit of your old postings and saw that you had the expanding foam insulation sprayed in. I have a question: have you had any unpleasant off-gassing at all with this kind of insulation? I am considering using the same thing in my grandparent’s 82 year-old farmhouse that I just purchased from my mom’s remaining brother and sister. I am also curious if you encountered any termite or other wood destroying insect damage in your renovations?
Thank so much for being online,
Richard in Southeast North Carolina
Hi Richard! Yes the spray foam absolutely stunk big time when it first went up but I would say the smell disappeared within a week – a lot of it we had covered with sheet rock at that point besides. But I honestly didn’t worry too much about it – the majority of the smell came when they were spraying it. Once it fully dried there was almost no odor present. Yes I did run into a nest of carpenter ants and we still see them come around once in a while if the weather is damp but never more than a couple. I found them under the south facing windows but the damage was minimal and easily replaced. One thing about living this far in northern MN we don’t have a lot of issues with critters like that. Good luck on your renovation!
Tarah, Grandma’s house is really shaping up! Love what you did with the basement. Can’t wait to see the finished master.
Thank you so much Jean! Happy New Years!
Tarah, I love how your personality comes out in each article. I feel like I’m talking to my best friend. We have been remodeling. I just got my cabinets refinished in our master bath and now I’m looking for ideas to switch up our master bed. I am excited to see how it turns out!
Thank you Rachel, hope you have a good new year!!