Built by Jessie

Transforming a house into a home and showing you how.

Categories: DIY, Home Improvement, One Room Challenge

One Room Challenge – Week 2 | Laminate Flooring Installation, Part One

This week I am sharing the part of laminate flooring installation that so far, I loath most of all – Prep work.

Hello again! So, the One Room Challenge adventures continue! 

After emptying it out the room, it was time to pull up the carpet to prepare the room/subfloors for laminate floor installation. 

This is my First. Time. Ever. installing laminate flooring. I’ve seen tutorials galore, I’ve read, read, and read instructions like a gazillion times. So I felt confident enough to try it. So, here’s me trying it.

Have you ever installed laminate flooring before?

Steps involved – rip up the carpet. To get out of the room in a not-break-your-back-fashion, I broke it up into 3 strips to carry downstairs to hold for bulk trash day. The padding was underneath, this is the grossest part. And this I did not break into 3 pieces, this stuff is flimsy anyways so it tore plenty, but I taped it up and used the muscle (my teenage son) to carry it downstairs. 

Once the carpet and padding was up, I inspected the subfloor. I expected wood. But it was concrete and it wasn’t in the worst shape –  I was thankful for that. Do you want to know what I was not NOT thankful for??? That would be the builders embedding nails in the concrete which I had to grind off so I could lay the underlayment down for the flooring. 

After getting over the terror of using an angle grinder for the first time, I then laid the underlayment. Note to all: lay with tape facing up. I didn’t do that the first time through so I had to pull it up, play musical underlayment and lay it down again. Then it was off to the laminate flooring installation races.

But as a weekend warrior and full time employee and mom, that really has taken me forever. I think I hope to be done with the floors this week. I have to hustle. These have certainly taken me more than anticipated. 

Read more about the ONE ROOM CHALLENGE by clicking here. There are a lot of folks working on room transformations, be sure to check them out. 

Categories: DIY, Home Improvement, One Room Challenge

One Room Challenge – Week 1 | The Multi-Duty Spare Room

This year I decided to do something wild, something unexpected, something AWESOME!!! I decided to challenge myself in joining the One Room Challenge as a Guest Participant to share my room transformation. 

If you don’t know what the One Room Challenge is all about, read about it here. Basically, it is a place/challenge where room renovators take on a space to give a new look.

The challenge will enable me to meet new individuals transforming their space and will give me a chance to work with a purpose and an endgame in mind. 

It’s going to be a crazy ride, but it should be a fun one nonetheless. 

So if you are here for the first time… WELCOME!!! and thanks for stopping by. I’m Jessie. I work full-time, mom 3 boys and married my partner in crime. In my spare time (which is not much, mind you), I like to DIY and woodwork. I love transforming spaces, so this seemed like a great challenge to try.

  • One Room Challenge - Nursery
  • One Room Challenge - Room for Littles

So, here is my space. It is a spare room in our house. This used to be our Littles (my two youngest boys) room until I moved them out.

One Room Challenge Empty Room

With me having an empty room with no purpose, I figured it would be nice to change things up so it doesn’t remain the toy dumping ground it quickly became.

Now that we’ve been down memory lane, here are a few images that have sparked my interest and have inspired me to change things up.

The room is not large by any means. It has 2 doors on one wall, a window on another and a closet across from that. I only have one solid door to work with.

The room has been emptied and now it is time to remove the carpet to start laying new laminate flooring. It will be a first for me, but here’s hoping for a smooth process.

I hope to be here each week to share the good, the bad, and the unexpected craziness life throws in because the real life home renovations are

certainly NOT what we see on TV!

Read more about the ONE ROOM CHALLENGE by clicking here. There are a lot of folks working on room transformations, be sure to check them out.

Categories: Home Improvement, Woodworking

DIY GRAY AND WHITE DINING ROOM

I find inspiration all over – this room is a mix of classic, traditional, and modern. So basically it is an eclectic space that we call the dining room. Here we gather, as a family, for meals and funny conversations.

Boy oh, boy! Did this room get an update?!? We lived with these walls as they were the day we moved in for 5 to 6 years. We take our time when it comes to updates.

Finally, finding inspiration and guidance/tips from bloggers and builders, I bit the bullet and took action! I added board and batten along with crown molding to this room. I painted the walls a dramatic grey to help the architectural features pop. I take a lot of pleasure and pride in knowing I made this room into what it is all by myself (with the help of some handy tools, of course). I refinished the furniture using chalk paint to give it new life. And added a pop of color to make it a little more fun – no need to be so serious. 

  • gray and white dining room
  • gray and white dining room

When designing a space I want something that enables me to use what I already have (to keep the costs down), build something with my hands (because #agirlsgottabuild), and splurge on some things we’ve saved for.

“something coral”

This room has a lot of #somethingnew and a lot of #somethingold. There is no #somethingblue, but certainly something coral ;).

And because I’m sure you’ll enjoy a before and after… Here are a few before and during the renovation process. Things get real ugly before they get any better.

Categories: Home Improvement

THIS IS HOME

This is where our adventure begins. Let’s turn this house into a home.

We moved into our current home on March 2010. The house was a foreclosure which didn’t appear need much other than some cosmetic work. The house passed inspection without major issues. That was a total plus.

The previous owners had a lot of colors which make me think of southwestern theme. There were some orange like colors on the walls along with a green wall in the family room. The kitchen had orange-like cabinets which were actually honey maple like color. I wasn’t a fan, but since everything was in working order we weren’t about to jump into renovation mode knowing new homes are sure to present their “surprises”. I’m a firm believer in living with a space in order to get a good scene as to  what we need and what will fit into our lifestyle.


Check out those colors. Green on the walls. Burt orange on another wall. Aaah. Memories.

Here is the floor plan for the first floor of our house. It is here where we’ll start to make some updates (because that’s what people see when they first come to our home).

First Floor

 

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Categories: DIY, Home Improvement

HELLO AND WELCOME

… and so it begins.

Starting this blog to document the projects I make. It can be something for the home – mine or someone else’s.

photo of house listing
Our Home (2010)

It can be to share some tips I picked up along the way. I like making personalized wood signs, so there can be a lot of that here. There can even be some DIY fun at home – because who doesn’t love a good ‘ol DIY??

Stay tuned as I share my adventures in building and DIY-ing!

Find me on Instagram as @builtbyjessie sharing the ups and downs of DIY.