You guys... I can' t believe it. Today marks ONE YEAR of being in our house. On one hand it feels like we just moved in yesterday, but on the other hand thinking about all we've done in the past year makes it seems like we've been here for much longer! What an experience this past year has been. Luke and I have grown so much, both individually and together as a couple as we've planned, worked on, and completed SO many projects together. I am constantly reminded of how lucky I am to have such a handy-man for a husband who, let's be honest, is the reason our house is the way it is today. Such a stud.
Anyways... in honor of our one year, I decided to go down memory-lane and post some before, during and after pics.
We'll start in the kitchen.
So much was wrong here. The stove was awful, and didn't even work. The grapes painted on the wall were just...ugly and not for us.
This little peninsula thing was horribly placed, making the kitchen too big and the eating area far too small. This wall had to be moved 18 inches to the right, making the kitchen a more reasonable size and allowing us to fit a table in the eating area.
Here is our kitchen now. Laminate floor has been replaced with tile. We installed a back splash, got new countertops, hardware on the drawers and cabinets, crown molding all around, all new appliances including microwave, oven, fridge, sink, dishwasher. It is now a more functional size.
Next we'll go to the front living and dining rooms.
The colors in these rooms were awful. Carpet was nasty and smelled like cats, the tile in the front entry way was one of 3 flooring styles in the downstairs and was orange-ish and ugly. All of this had to go.
I had envisioned these rooms a blue-gray color with wainscoting all around, so we got to work. Well, first we removed the carpet, installed hard wood floors, painted the walls, then began on the wainscoting.
Last came the crown molding (which you can see on the upper right hand corner isn't complete yet) and baseboards. Both the baseboard and crown molding still need to be painted a crisper white to match the wainscoting. I have yet to hang the curtains which are sitting on the chair and hang a silver sunburst mirror above the couch.
This is the neighboring room which was designed to be a dining room. The hanging chandelier light has been replaced with a ceiling fan. Crown molding and baseboard need to be painted here too. We have yet to decide if we will use this as an office or kids' play room.
Next is the family room, where I think the biggest transformation took place.
We started with these awful colors, and nasty, nasty carpet which again smelled like cats.
We started by adding a ceiling fan where there previously was no light, and painting the walls.
Next was crown molding.
Then out came the carpet and in went the hardwood floors.
Next: baseboard.
And here it is now. All we need now is a giant area rug so that I can have a soft place to lay Baby Boy for tummy time, etc.
Our latest addition was new carpet! Yay yay yay! We just had it installed about 2 weeks ago and I just love it. Our old carpet was flat and matted down and stained and gross. This carpet is soft and fluffy and pretty. It extends up stairs and all throughout the second floor.
Now we'll go to what I used to call the Purple Room, although it clearly was more than just that. What is this!?!
The Master bedroom hasn't changed much. This room had the most "livable" colors, meaning they weren't so odd and unbearable that we felt they needed to be changed right away. We have been so busy working on the rest of the house that our room has received the least attention. We're fine with it for now.
All we've done in our Master is gotten a new bed and bed set including the night stands, a dresser and media stand.
I'll end with the Nursery, not only because it's one that I'm really excited about, but because it was seriously AMAZING how awful this room was. It was bad.
I don't think I need to say anything about the colors. The pictures say enough about that. The seashell stickers wee plastered all over the room and despite my best efforts in soaking, scrubbing, scratching, and all other methods, these suckers were not coming down. The stupid straw wallpaper was my nightmare. I spent days scraping at that stuff too and finally gave up, realizing that it was not coming down and we would have to come up with a resolution to cover it.
Here is proof of my scraping efforts in trying to get the wall paper off.
I painted this room I think the week we moved in. I painted it the same color as we painted the rest of the house, knowing that I would eventually paint it a different color when this room became a nursery but I could not live with the blue/yellow, so paint was the first thing to happen here. Months later we beadboarded over the remaining wallpaper which also entailed baseboard and a chair rail.
I debated with this mustard yellow, but we eventually decided on the blue-gray below. Luke and I are both happy with our color choice.
Luke also cased both windows. Don't they look fab?
We've purchased a crib, bedding (aside from a mattress), a dresser and hutch which aren't pictured, and the stroller and carseat. Yay! I plan to do an airplane theme for the nursery. Airplanes are harder to come by than I thought, but my vision for this room stands and it will be super cute by the time Baby Boy gets here.
And that concludes our tour! We feel so blessed to have this house, and to have had the last year transforming it into our home, one which will hopefully provide many years of happiness to us and our growing family :)
