Picture Update

Thought you might enjoy a picture update.


The biggest news around here in a while (along with potty training Ellie) is that Bennett finally lost his first tooth. He will be 7 next month and all of his friends seemed to loose their first tooth already, so he was excited.



I assembled this buffet all by myself! I even had to drill new holes for the hinges because they didn't line up correctly. I was VERY proud to say the least! I think I conquered my fear of the power drill too. The kids couldn't believe that I did it myself either.



I never posted Christmas pictures, so here are a few.......








Rachel put a headband on Emma, and I think she looks like an 80s miniature gymnast!

Before and After- Kitchen/Family Room

This space was really a selling point for the house. One of my criteria for a new house was having a play/homeschool space separate from the sleeping spaces. I was constantly shushing everyone while the baby was sleeping, and no one could have any fun during naptimes. It was also hard to work in my kitchen because it was so close to the nappers. Now I can cook and do dishes whenever I want (oh joy!) These two spaces were some of the darkest "cave-like" spaces in the house. There was hardly any natural light coming through the windows and the family room only had one small light overhead for the whole room. The kitchen was a very dark sage grey color and brick orange weird one. The family room was dark chocolate brown. They are all colors that I like, they just didn't work in these spaces. Again, I took pictures before we finished some projects. The eat in area in the kitchen has a overhead chandelier and the family room has a flush mount fixture in the center of the room with more light. We have a matching stainless steel microwave to match the stove, but it just hasn't been put in yet. The island will go from brown to black eventually and I think I might keep the antiqued upper cabinets after all. My plan was to get new Shaker-style plain white doors, but the antiqued ones are growing on me. One conundrum I am having is what to do with the over the microwave hood. It is copper which doesn't match anything. I think it was custom made so would be hard to replace. Does anyone know if copper can be treated to turn a darker color, like a dark antiqued bronze look?


This the the old 1/2 bath off of the kitchen



New 1/2 bath. We had a 1/2 bath in our old house, and I really liked having one for the kids to wash up and use the bathroom before meals.


Old kitchen



New kitchen- I LOVE my big island. I had an island in our previous house, but it had the cooktop in it which made the island pretty unusable. This kitchen doesn't have much cabinet space, but the island holds quite a bit. The wall that you can't see in the left side of the picture has a pantry and double folding doors that house the washer, dryer, and more shelves. I really wanted a separate laundry room, but there is a possibility of moving it down the road. I had my laundry in my last kitchen, so I knew that I would have laundry all over my kitchen floor once a week. At least I have a really big washer now. The lady that bought our house traded me hers for mine. We had a stackable that fit perfectly in the space and hers were too big. I won in that deal, big time!



You can see how dark the family room used to be.



We put in 6 recessed lights, plus a couple more in the kitchen. I like light!



This is the old family room. I didn't have a good picture of the "new." We went back and forth on whether or not to paint the brick. I am glad that we did, it really lightens the room up. This room is the kid's playroom and holds my desk and is where we homeschool. The door in the left side of this picture goes to an addition. There are 2 more bedrooms and a bathroom. We don't need the space right now, so it is just storage. It isn't updated at all and doesn't have central heat and air. It is a project for down the road. We are thinking of making a 2nd master suite that could be used as a guest room or mother-in-law quarters someday.



We still plan on renovating the master bathroom and painting the outside of the house sometime in the next year. It is amazing how much my hubby accomplished, with the help of many friends, in 6 weeks. I am really enjoying my new house and am so blessed!

Before and After- Hall Bathroom

The main bathroom in our new house was gutted when we bought it. The previous owners had big plans for it, but for whatever reason, the plans never came to fruition. Their plan was to take the back half of the bathroom (which is long and narrow like a lane at the bowling alley) and give it to the master bathroom that it shares a wall with. The master bathroom is fairly small, so the idea was valid. We considered going through with their plans and enlarging the master bath, but the biggest obstacle was relocating all the plumbing. We really tried to do most of the work ourselves and didn't really hire much outside help, but relocating plumbing was outside the skill set. We decided just to put the bathroom back the way it was originally, and now we have somewhere to bowl :)


The original bathroom. It was an obstacle to find a bank willing to give us a loan with a gutted bathroom. Thank goodness for credit unions! Our real estate market is really strong here, so they don't have the same concerns with declining markets.



We planned on keeping the turquoise bathtub, but come to find out it had a hole in it that had been concealed.



New tile



It was pretty scary designing a whole space by myself. I found myself just praying, "Lord, please let this match," and then buying something. It was hard making decisions when I didn't have a sample of the countertop to take with me to buy tile, and will the light fixtures match the faucets and hardware and on and on and on. I am very happy how it all came together. The color we chose for the walls was a spa blue color- Sherwin Williams Tradewind.



We also chose to do wainscoting on the long wall and the one next to the toilet. The wall was so long, it needed some interest.

Before and After- Dining Room

The original dining room had 1970s crazy carpet and brick red walls.



We painted a more neutral color, updated the light fixture and put down new floors.