You Ask, I Answer - Part Two

How long do you expect the renovation at The Fixer Upper to take?

The great part about Alex’s parents moving into The Fixer Upper in a semi-unfinished state is that Alex and his dad can work on it little by little over the course of the next year. His dad is pretty handy and will be able to work on the house a few hours a day during the week while Alex is at work. On the weekends, they will be able to tackle the bigger projects together.

We are hoping to get a few major exterior projects done on the outside of the house while the weather is still warm enough (rebuild front porch, support side entry with sauna tubes, siding, exterior doors, etc.). During the winter we’ll be able to work on some interior projects (the rest of the door trim and baseboards, flooring in the back, finishing the main floor bathroom, etc.). 

So, while we hope to get a lot accomplished this coming fall / winter / spring, I’m sure there will be no shortage of work after that. You’ve seen the pictures, right? Hahaha.

Are you going to decorate your new house?

It would be absolutely DREAMY to decorate a totally different house. There’s something so exciting about starting from a blank slate and being able to choose absolutely everything that goes into a space. If I was going to decorate the house, I think I would go for a modern cottage kind of vibe with lots of neutrals, white, and warm wood tones - something a little different from my own house. Just for fun. ;)

Modern Country Living Room. Yum.
Pinterest

However, Alex’s parents will be renting the house and they have a very different style than I do – very traditional. They also already have all of their furniture and accessories!

My role in decorating The Fixer Upper will be more about choosing the finishes (flooring, trim, doors, siding colour, light fixtures, etc.) which is still pretty awesome.

(My lovely in-laws did let me choose the paint colours for the house. Yippeeeee! I’m already working on a post about the paint colours I chose so stay tuned for that.)

Do you secretly want to move into The Fixer Upper?

This was a great question and made me laugh out loud. I think this question ties in with my answer above a little bit. A new house just has so many possibilities. It’s exciting to dream up new plans for a completely new space. In reality though, I love our own house. (Even with its long list of unfinished projects and hideous kitchen.) It’s quite a bit bigger than The Fixer Upper, has a great layout, has a bigger yard, and is on a quieter street. So while the thought of moving in to The Fixer Upper to decorate it and make it my own sounds pretty fun, I still love our own house and am not ready to leave it just yet. J

Where did you get that picture of the front door you have on your site... ‘cause that is EXACTLY what I need for my house.

I can’t remember exactly how I found that particular image; I think I was just randomly searching Google images for a craftsman exterior door. There are lots of variations if you look, but my favourite is the two panel, 6-pane, solid wood door (and I wrote about it here).

Dreamy.

The site where I found the image can be found here, although I have no idea if the company that manufactures them is any good or not. Basically I was just looking for an inspiration photo and they had a perfect one!

How is your giant window box doing?

Our giant windowbox is one of my favourite things that we've added to the exterior of our home. It has held up really well so far and hasn't warped at all. It's so big and so heavy once it's filled with soil and flowers that we made sure to support it underneath with five large brackets. This has worked really well.

Alex did good.

The only teensy problem with the window box is that someone (not mentioning any names) decided to paint it with flat exterior paint. Ummmm, I wouldn't recommend this (obviously, what was I thinking?!?) as leaves and dirt that get stuck to the painted wood tend to leave marks / stains. When it comes time to give the box a new paint job, I'll make sure to use a more durable finish. Silly me.

I haven't forgotten that I promised a tutorial on how to make those window boxes. 

:S

I was waiting until we built another one (for the side of the house) so we could take all of the step-by-step pictures. That project kinda got put on the backburner. Hopefully one day we'll get around to it so that I can hook you up with a good tutorial.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I still have lots of your juicy questions to answer. I'll finish up soon. If you missed the other related posts you can find them here:

Ask Me a Question, M'Kay?

You Ask, I Answer - Part One 

Have a wonderful weekend! It's supposed to rain all weekend over here but hey! at least it's not hail.

;)