If you guys have been following my blog for a while, you know that we bought a 1970’s 1400 square foot ranch on five acres last June.  We love our location and our property, but the home needed a lot of updating and more space.

So last fall, we began adding on to our ranch to create more space for our family of six.

We wrapped the addition in hardy board siding, and this is what it looks like now…

Please remember that the exterior of our home will take several years to get it to look like we want it to.

This Spring, we will be painting the entire exterior of our home an off white color.

Eventually, we will be adding a front porch and a two-car garage to the left of the house, both with gabled roofs to match the addition.

Now back to the inside of our  home.

This is what our den has looked like for a couple months…

The place where you see the stairs is where a small bedroom used to be, but now it is the entrance to the upstairs and the master bedroom downstairs.

Now that the weather is warmer, and we don’t have to worry about the non-heated addition space, we decided to go ahead and tear that wall down.

So Cy went at it with a hammer this week, and I LOVE how it really opened up the space!

Now you can see our staircase right when you walk through our front door!

I know it looks hideous right now ladies, but it’s gonna be fabulous when we are finished!

Can you picture gorgeous wood stairs with me?

The two doors in the picture below will be removed and patched up with drywall, so we will just have solid walls there.

We are also going to frame out the new opening in the wall with some beautiful thick molding.  It will add a lot of architectural detail.

Here’s what it looks like if you are standing behind the stairs.  (Ignore my hideous closet, please.)

Our den will get an entire new look as well, including the fireplace.  Yay!

So, here is the difference tearing down the wall made…

I am thrilled with the results!

Have you ever torn down a wall to create a more open feel?

Do you have a wall you would like to tear down?

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Remind me to never ask y’alls opinion about a decorating dilemma again!

Y’all done got me more confused!  (Yes, I know I am using improper English, but it just sounds better that way!)

I had over 100 comments on my post about whether to put one or two sinks in my vanity for the master bath.

Some of you felt very strongly about your opinion too.  :)

I tweeted with some of you about it.

And some of you even sent me inspiration pictures to help me make my decision!

Look at this “twinkie” that Susan found of my buffet!

How crazy is that?!!

Doesn’t it look great?!  And with one sink!

I tallied all the votes from the comments you left, and it was almost a complete tie!

There were about 10 more people who said to put only one sink in the vanity.

Here were many of the reasons you gave for only one sink:

1.  Only one sink to clean.

2.  Not sharing the space with your hubby as he shaves and spits. :)

3.  Less plumbing.  Less money.

4.  One sink fits better with the shape of the buffett.

5.  Do what fits best for my family NOW, and don’t worry about resale.

Here are many of the reasons you gave for two sinks:

1.  Can get ready with my hubby.

2.  Resale, resale, resale!

3.  I’ll regret having only one sink.

4.  Resale. resale. resale!

THANK YOU for taking the time to share your stories and experiences with me.

It really did help me with my decision.  And you helped me to think of things that I had never thought of before.

So here is what I’ve decided to do…

I will be adding one sink to the buffet for our master bath.

If I were dead set on having two sinks in my master bath, I wouldn’t use this piece of furniture.  I would try to find another antique piece with a straight front.

However, this buffet will look best with one sink, especially because of the bowed front.   One sink will also allow us to keep more of the drawers in the piece functional.

We do not have a lot of money to spend.  So the fact that I already have a beautiful piece that I can use for only 50 bucks just makes sense to me.

I also think that one sink goes with the “look” I am after.  What I mean is that I am trying to create an “old house” feel in my new addition.  Most older homes did not have two sinks in the master bath, and I love the simplicity of that look.

The main reason that many of you said I should do two sinks in the master bath is because of resale.  And I totally hear ya on that one!  I watch those home shows on HGTV too, and they always say that buyers love two sinks in the master bath.

But I will have to say that I am not worried about that at this point.  Mainly because I am blessed to be married to a handy man.  If we did have to sell our home (which I hope we won’t have to for a very long time!), my husband can add two sinks to the master bathroom in a day!  No problem.

So I feel we need to do what is best for us right now and not worry about the future.  Carpe Diem!  :)

I took some video of the doorway we will be adding in the brick wall between our new bathroom and our old bathroom.

If you would like to see what we are going to do, just click on the video below.

Thank you again, for all your kinds comments.  I love you guys to death!

And you are making this addition to our home so much more fun since I get to share the process with you.

BIG FAT HUGS AND KISSES!!!

Traci

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Hi, friends!

I am soooo excited to share with you a great deal we got on some old doors!

Ya’ll know that I love an old cottage/farmhouse feel in my home, and one of the ways I plan on creating that feel in our new addition is by adding old architectural elements.

The easiest way to do that is with old doors.

I love the look of old farmhouse doors.

So imagine my surprise when my husband came home from the Habitat Store with this stash!

I about peed my pants!

These babies are gorgeous!

And to make things even more exciting…guess how much he paid for these?…

NOTHING!   NADA!

Can you believe it?!

He was at the Habitat store picking up some used French Patio Doors for our master bedroom, and an antique door (the solid brown door in the picture below) for $100.00.  (The same patio doors sell for between $350-400 at Lowe’s!)

He ended up coming home with four more antique doors for free!  I explain the story behind them in my video…it’s a pretty cool story.

The white 5 panel wood doors will be used upstairs in the boys’ rooms.

They are exactly the type of doors I was looking for.  Look how much these sell for on ebay…

And some sell for even more than that!

My favorite door is this beautiful one…

This door is close to 100 years old.  Look at the beautiful detail on it…

We are hoping to use this door in our master bedroom, either as the bedroom door, or the bathroom door.  We are considering frosting the glass.

What would you use this door for?

And would you sand and paint the 5 panel white doors a new coat of white paint, or would you strip the paint and show the  natural wood color?

I am trying to decide what to do.  If you have any great inspirational pictures of old doors, please share them with me. :)

Anyway, here is the video I took the day we picked up the doors.  I was very excited about our “score” and had to share it with you.  (If you cannot see this video in your reader, please click on my post title to view it on my blog.)

Old Doors for our New Addition! from Beneath My Heart on Vimeo.

REMINDER:

Best DIY Projects of August

linky party goes up tomorrow night. 

Hope you can come!

**Because I feel like these doors were a simple blessing from God, who cares about every detail of our life, I am linking my post up to Richella’s linky party, Grace Imparted.

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Thanks to my husband, I am soooo happy to finally have stairs in our addition!!

I KNOW that I am so blessed to have married such an amazing handyman!

He  could really build this addition from the foundation to the roof, but since he has a full time job as a banker, that is NOT possible.  So has contracted out most of the work that has been completed so far on the exterior of the home, but will be completing the interior of the home by himself.

Every now and then, he calls for me to help him with something….

In the above picture, we were framing up the new wall that the stairs would be going up against.

Cy built these stairs this past Friday night.

He put some 2×4′s on the stringers as temporary treads.

To the left of the stairs, Cy studded up the entry to our new master bedroom (which I am soooooo excited about!)

Cy completed the stairs around 10:00 pm Friday night (while the boys and I ate popcorn and watched a movie.)

The boys were DYING to walk up the steps to see where their new rooms will be someday even though it was pitch black up there.

I video taped the moment and thought I would share it with you.

(I realize that I have been posting a lot of videos on my blog lately.  I am having fun shooting them, so I hope you enjoy watching them.  I think it will be neat for my boys to look back at these videos someday when they are all grown up.) :)

This video is “supposed” to be a spin on the movie, “The Blair Witch Project.”

The Stair Pitch Project from Beneath My Heart on Vimeo.

FYI:  All family members are alive and accounted for, including the dog. :)

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