I have been wanting to write a post about our house for a while but of course I have not had time. This post is mainly for my memory and for all my thoughts and pictures to be in one place. I am sorry if it is long and boring!!
The story began a while ago but it took time for all the details to fall into place. Last summer Nate and I moved from our first house bc we basically ran out of room. All 975 sq feet of that house was used with 2 babies. We moved into our new house in June of 2013. In September of 2013 my grandfather passed away and we had to move my grandmother to assisted living. I had always joked with them that I needed them to sell me their house but they would not move. The house that we purchased was 3 streets away from my grandparents house.
Fast forward to last Spring... my mom and uncle had kinda decided it was time to sell the house. I told Nate I really wanted us to look at it even though we had just moved. We went a couple of times and looked and just pushed it in the back of our mind I guess. I started getting some quotes on doing the work that needed to be done and it was a lot more than we expected. Nate decided with the purchase price plus the cost to put into it that it was just too much. I had told him that I was going to let him make this decision for our family. A month or so later I just said I really think we are making a mistake. So we brought the idea back to life. We found a contractor who was much lower than the initial quotes I got and so now we had to sell our house. We both decided that we would pray about it A LOT and if it was supposed to happen then our house would sell. We put our house on the market in September 2014. We got a great contract on it literally less than 24 hours later. It was absolutely meant to be.
Since we were buying it from family we were thankfully able to go ahead with construction. The plan was to paint every surface in the house, rip up all the carpet, knock down the wall between the kitchen and the den, completely gut the kitchen and refinish the hardwoods. We will eventually re-do the master bathroom but it is completely fine for now!
We moved in with my parents for the month of November and moved in at the very end of November of 2014.
I love it! I love everything about this home. It is one level like I have always wanted and it is just a very warm home. I am a VERY traditional person.
These are some of my thoughts about the stuff we did. All of these are just my opinions and what I like and took away from the project :)
The main work was the kitchen..... We knocked down the wall between the kitchen and the den to make it a little more open. I am not a huge fan of open floor plans. I like cozy, warm rooms. Thankfully with just taking down this wall it did not make it feel too big and open. It probably helps that the ceilings are only 8ft. I knew the exact look I wanted for the kitchen. I knew I wanted black counter tops with a marble island, white(creamy) cabinets and an undermount fireclay sink. I chose absolute black granite in a brushed finish for the outer counter tops. Brushed means it is not shiny and it is a little rough. The marble on the island is honed which means it is not shiny either. I am thrilled with the outcome of the counters. One thing I am very glad I did was NOT putting marble everywhere. The boys sit at the counter and spill EVERYTHING on it. I do not have to worry about it at all. I can clean them with anything and they do not scratch. I love the marble on the island and I am glad I have it but it is so nice to not have it everywhere. I am not even one of those who cares if it gets stained.
Some of the other things I am glad I did: having an undermount sink bc I literally just wipe everything into it. It is huge and I can pile up dishes and not see them. I debated on my faucet BIG TIME. I wanted a beautiful bridge faucet but I am SOOOOOOOO glad I went with one that has a pull down sprayer. It makes cleaning so much easier and the one I got was very traditional and reasonably priced!
If you have read this far then I am super impressed! Below are tons of pictures. I want to remember how it was before and after. Now, please let me preface this with the fact that the house is not decorated at all. There is not a picture on the wall anywhere, no pillows/fabric, no furniture that has been recovered, etc. I am not putting this here for my decor :)
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| Very traditional rancher |
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| This is the "playroom" There are french doors to the right of the window. That is the entrance we use daily. |
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| One step up from the playroom is the kitchen. |
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| Their breakfast area |
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| Kitchen- the appliances are all on the right wall which is the wall we removed |
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| Looking back into the kitchen from the "den" doorway |
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| Dining Room. From the first picture of the kitchen you can see the doorway to the DR |
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| Huge living room. This picture looks from the entrance hall into the living room with the dining room in the back. This room is totally empty right now. One day we will fill it with some furniture :) |
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| This is the den. I skipped the entrance hall but this picture is standing from the entrance hall looking into the den. To the left of the vent in the picture is the doorway into the kitchen. |
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| There is a long hallway off the entrance hall that has all the bedrooms. This is the hall bath and the boys bathroom. There is a lot of pink tile behind the saloon doors that I painted. |
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| This is my mom's room growing up.... now Whit's room |
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| My uncle's old room... Now Charlie's. To the left there is an alcove where I have a dresser |
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| Our very long master bedroom. There are 4 doors on the left wall. The first is the laundry room, bathroom, my closet and Nate's closet. This room was added onto at some point to add the big bay window and 2 closets. | |
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Now on to a couple of demo shots.....
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| The master bedroom.... All the carpets in the house had beautiful hardwood underneath. We were so grateful for that! All we did was sand and stain them all to match. The only part that did not have hardwood is the back of our bedroom that was added onto. We just matched the existing. |
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| Wall taken down between the kitchen and den |
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| Coming together. Here you can see we put the range on the wall where their old "breakfast" area was |
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| Looking into the kitchen from playroom door |
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Finally the after shots. Again please do not judge the lack of decorating skill or decor at all for that matter. This house is definitely going to take me time to do bc I hope to be here a while!!
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| Playroom- most decorated bc it actually has curtains. Best Christmas gift ever from my mother in law! You can see we put wall to wall seagrass out here bc it was just concrete underneath the carpet. I love the seagrass so far! |
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| Step up into the kitchen from the playroom. I had to keep the dutch door! |
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| From the den looking into the kitchen. I had the hardest time finding pendants to fit bc of the 8 ft ceilings. I love the ones I finally got though!! |
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| Little closer shot into the kitchen. I am so happy with everything! |
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| Here is the den. I cannot wait to decorate this room and get curtains and a new couch. I want it to be warm and cozy! |
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| This is the dining room. You can see the opening to the kitchen was made bigger. This was a fantastic change that was made. I did not want to have a formal dining room bc we would never have used it. So making the opening bigger made it "closer" to the kitchen. My amazing husband surprised me with this beautiful table for Christmas. I had shown him a picture of it in a store and just said this is the look I want bc it isn't too formal but it is not too casual either. It is a gorgeous oval antique table that fits perfect! We eat dinner in here every night! |
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| The living room. PLEASE ignore the lack of furniture and couch fabric. This is the couch my grandmother had in this spot and it fits great and is comfortable so one day I will get it recovered |
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| Entrance Hall. |
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| Here is the hall bath/ boys. I painted the shower part with tile paint and it worked out so well! |
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| Whit's room |
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| Charlie's room |
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| Our room. It is so empty bc it is such a big room. One day we will have a king size bed and a pretty sitting area at the end! |
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I think that concludes this long post! I am so happy to have all this in one place!
