Progress Not Perfection | Davenport Fixer Upper Updates

“Do you have the guts to take on a fixer upper?”

I’m watching Fixer Upper as I prep this post, and I just heard Joanna say this at the start of the episode.

I kind of giggled.

I’m 60% proud that we had the guts and 40% sure we’re crazy.

Graycie watched all the craziness, but loves that she has 3 new rugs all to herself. Or so she thinks.

All in a good way though! We truly had no idea exactly what taking on a “fixer upper” would look like. Or maybe I didn’t’.  Having just moved to a new state together, starting new fulltime jobs and still nurturing our own photography business, we took on this fixer upper. We squeezed in many late nights and long days to get us living in our home before Christmas. We broke ground in October and finally slept in it the beginning of December when all we had were couches, a mattress and coffee pot. The minimal, you know.

But it made all the rest of the jobs so much easier to tackle while living here. I mean, it’s totally and completely functional. And as of this past weekend, we have décor! It took us 2 months after we started living in it to finally have the time and motivation to move out of storage.

I’ve been hesitant to post before and after pictures, because of fear of imperfection. You know, I still want to do this and that, add another frame or two here and cute Joanna-style sign there.

But let’s be real.  This project is going to be on-going and we will never truly be done.

So here’s to an update on the progress, not perfection on our dining and living area of our fixer upper!!

Yes, I totally pulled the “before” images off the internet, because life was too crazy on “demo day”!

We painted and put up new baseboards in the dining area–not to mention, knocked down the wall that separated the dining area from the living!

This is a wider aspect of our living area with all of the wood paneling. It was very dark, which is one reason why we wanted to knock down the wall we did. We took off half of the wood paneling to create wainscoting on two of the walls. Jordan encased the beams with new wood, new fan, wood floors, baseboards, and pretty much…everything. Nope, haven’t tackled the wet bar yet! Side note, that carpet–ick!

We white-washed our fireplace and painted the wood paneling above it, as well as the ceiling. Raise your hand if you hate painting ceilings…

We love that most of the furniture in our home is from both sides of our family–up to 3 generations ago!

And lastly, this view which shows some of the imperfection: still lacking a french door to be painted and a reno to take place in the wet bar, but…priorities.

Looking back, I’m so thankful that we took this on. I learned several lessons along the way, which you can catch up on here. 

Now that we’re living in our home with our fingerprints everywhere, it’s so sweet, special and worth it.

We’ve come so far from this point, and only had few minor frustrations.

We were faced with many new obstacles throughout the process, but you know, let’s just allow a little grace in the cracks and apply the same theme in our own lives: “progress not perfection”.

As long as we’re still growing, learning and making an effort in all the priority areas in our live, there is grace.

What area in your life should you strive for progress and not perfection?

It sure does take the pressure off when you phrase it that way, no?

Thanks for following our journey and being excited for us!  It’s been the coolest encouragement to hear from so many of you near and far and how you’ve enjoyed the updates! Next up, we’re taking on the kitchen!