Lets train: Tour

Showing posts with label Tour. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Home Tour Main Floor updates

To say that we've done a lot of work and a lot of decorating/furnishing on our main level is an understatement. Lots of pictures in this one, hope it doesn't slow down the ol' blog too much!

Family room:
We are LOVING this long, skinny room that serves as our family room/office area. Ta Da!!

familyroom

Let me back up a bit and go into detail before I get to the classic 'before & after' shots. One thing I really wanted (why do I feel like I've typed that phrase a lot lately?) was a new couch for our new house. Our old couches have served us very well for the past 7 years, since I got them right when I graduated with my masters in 2005. Those babies have seen enough dog/baby poop and dog/baby barf to last a lifetime. We splurged on this new 'L-shaped' beauty that provides us with about twice as much seating compared to our old overstuffed couch and loveseat combo. I really wanted a dark gray couch this time but the khaki on this fabric was too pretty to pass up. And I think dark gray with the blue walls and rug would have been too many cool tones. At first I was going to get an Ikea couch but we ended up finding this one at a local store in Milwaukee called Colder's and I know the name brand is called England.

Although we custom chose 4 throw pillows to come with our couch, I ended up hating them. And so I had to go and buy a ton of new ones at Target, Pier 1, and also Bed/Bath/Beyond. Poor me, right? Um, SO MUCH FUN!!
family1

We started with the chevron rug, then painted the walls and woodwork and ceiling. After the couch arrived and I chose the throw pillows, I picked out navy panel curtains from Target to make our official color scheme Blue & Yellow. Love it. Also love the gunmetal curtain rods from Target and the fun new lamps we bought there, too.

And can I just say that I LOVE having a mantel to decorate? I feel like this is going to change around a lot over time. And I love having enough space to really display all of my family photo albums. The mantel before and after:
mantel

And the main part of the family room, before and after (but we still have to get those navy Roman shades up over the two bare windows---can you picture how pulled together it will be then?)
family2

Side view, where you can walk into the dining room or up to the stairs, or into the kitchen. And yes, all of my picture frames are blank now. Waiting on a shipment of new prints that I ordered! :
family1

And the back wall, right where the front door comes in. We are using this little area as an office and I still love having our main computer in our main room:

family3

Projects completed on this room:
Refinished floors
painted all walls
painted ceiling
painted crown molding and all woodwork white
bought new 8x10 rug
bought couch/pillows
bought all panels/curtain rods (goodbye hideous heavy draperies!)
bought all new faux white wood blinds
bought new lamps
hung TV and picture frames
organized crazy cords coming from said TV

Projects left to complete in family room:
get mom's last set of navy Roman shades hung near mantel
purchase a new office chair
put pictures in frames

Sunroom:

This is basically one giant playroom for Truman and his future sister. We love having this extra space to confine toys and let T go nuts in his own little domain. Ta Da!

Those green paneled curtains are something my mom and Aunt whipped up when they visited, after I purchased the fabric at 50% off at Joanns. And Nate is super excited to have a second TV in our home, since we've always been a one-TV family. I really love how it all turned out!

Projects completed in sunroom:
refinished floors
painted all walls and ceiling
painted crown molding and all woodwork white
bought new faux wood blinds
bought fabric to make curtain panels
bought curtain rods
bought new TV
bought baskets for existing shelves to store toys
bought rug

Projects left to do:
paint and hang French doors
buy two nice upholstered chairs for adult seating (since the random dining room chair and lounge chair aren't cutting it)

Dining Room:

Love having a big, formal dining room with tons of storage in that built-in buffet!

dining1

I have asked my grandpa to make us a new, bigger oak dining room table so we are using our existing one right now without any problems. We have been able to seat 7 adults and one kid for a few big dinners so far which is so much fun! And I scored those six amazing oak dining chairs for only $100 on Craigslist, and I plan to recover them from the existing cream into a fun print---our custom Pepaw table will be made to match these chairs. Our buffet gets used as a storage area a lot so I want to get some organizing bins to set up there but it works for now. And I have big plans for those ugly roll up shades on our pretty little windows, too. Anyone ever try to use fabric to cover existing roll up shades? I think it would be so pretty to have a printed, colored fabric up there.

Projects completed in dining room:
refinished floors
painted walls
painted crown molding and woodwork white (keeping buffet natural---you are welcome:) )
took down ugly drapes and all hardware over buffet

Projects to complete:
spray paint chandelier silver, get rid of ugly glass shades
get new table, new tablecloth?
reupholster dining room chairs into a fun pattern
cover little windows with fabric roll ups or just do more Roman shades:)
Buy two or three giant canvases of our family to hang on empty wall by kitchen

Half bath:
Love having an extra bathroom! This one was added in the 1970s by the previous owners, thank goodness, or we'd be stuck going up and down steps every time we have to go. Nate has done a ton of work on this baby, as you can see:
halfbath

And a during shot, plus an up-close shot of my fave St. Lucia poster. Could our honeymoon really have been 5 years ago??
halfbath2

Projects completed in half bath:
tore up linoleum floors
laid and grouted new tile (had to re-do the grout once after a frustrating experience with pre-mixed thinset)
painted all walls a bright 'Harbor' blue by Behr
added all wainscotting
bought new faucet (attempted to buy a new sink but they don't make them small enough anymore and we have to be able to shut our door!)
bought new mirror
bought new cabinet
spray painted black frame white to add our St. Lucia print
bought new TP holder and towel holder (that is really a robe hook---love it!)

Projects left to do:
get new above sink light

So that is it! Besides our kitchen which is going to get it's own reveal post once a few final projects are completed. I can't believe how much work we've done in this house since we bought it in February. And we've only lived here for 1 month? Insane. Feels like it's been our home forever.

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Show Tell Tuesday Home Tour

I don't know about you, but I LOVE looking at other peoples houses.
I love going to Open Houses, I love looking at houses on the internet.
It's not just because I am nosey (well, maybe a little bit!) I just really love seeing how other people live & how other people decorate. I love how everyone's styles are so different & unique.
I have blogged about most of our house before, but today I am updating some of the rooms ...plus our Living Room/Dining Room Before & After that I have yet to post!

Thanks for the fun link up Andrea!

Let's start with the kitchen, since this is where I spend most of my time!

Here is our Kitchen/Family Room:

Opposite View:

Kitchen Table & Eating Area:

The photo above was taken last summer.
We are actually in the middle of construction right now....we had to get a new french door because the one that the previous owner installed 10 years ago was installed incorrectly, it was leaking & causing dry rot.
This picture was taken today....Construction Zone!!!

I got a smaller French Door & had it moved over 18 inches so that next time we update our kitchen, I will have 2 more feet to put in counters & cabinets (we don't have a lot of counter space or storage in our kitchen)

We also had to get a new kitchen window as well, since it was also leaking (I got rid of the garden style window & just put in a flat picture frame window)

It was also leaking & causing dry rot.
We are hoping to have the trim work & painting completed this week!
Fingers crossed.
Family Room:

Another view of Family Room:

If you want to see Before & Afters of the Kitchen/Family Room from when we first moved in, check them out HERE

Here is our Master Bedroom:

You can see the Before & Afters from our Master Bedroom Re-do HERE

(Last year we actually took out the hardwood floor in our room & put in carpet in our room, so that is another change we made since I posted the Before & After of our room)

Kate's Room:

She got this new comforter for her birthday in January.

This is the 3rd time we have given her room a facelift.
You can see the Before & Afters and more pics of Kate's room HERE

Claire's Room:

Claire wants a new comforter for her birthday, since Kate had this one for her first big girl bed and Claire has had it for 4 years. She says it's too "babyish"

You can see more of Claire's Room and some Before & Afters HERE

Luke's Room:

The other side of the room:

We will probably get rid of his crib later this summer & put him in a big boy bed. Sigh.
You can see more of Luke's Room HERE

Here is our Guest Room/Office:

The other side of the room "the office"

You can see more of our Guest Room/Office Before & After HERE

Here is a BEFORE of our Living Room/Dining Room:

Our house was built in the 1970's when conversation pits were all the rage.
The conversation pit was right in the middle of the living room & dining room. Totally awkward & waste of space. For the first 4 years we lived here, I just put all the kids toys in the pit, so it was like their playroom.

Even more awkward, this is where our fire place was & it was wall of painted white brick:

Last Fall, I had saved up a lot of my Rodan + Fields earnings and we got rid of it of the pit!

Kevin ripped the floors and took out the wall of white brick:

The pit was about a foot lower than the rest of the living room/dining room, such a weird design. I don't know what builders were thinking in the 1970's

Then Kevin took out all the horrible railings that surrounded the pit:

Then our contractor built up the floor to the same level as the rest of the room:

And added dry wall around the old fireplace:

The next phase was adding a new fireplace, we went with a gas insert

And a simple mantle:

The next phase was ripping out part of the wall so that we could add a French Door to the backyard. We have a lot of parties, so we wanted more access to the backyard to keep good flow going through the house (Our door had to be ordered & it took about a month to get in)

Framing up for the new door:

New door in:

Then, we had to add more flooring so that it continued on with the original living room & dining room floor:

Of course, the original flooring had been discontinued, so we re-used the boards that were in the pit AND we took out the hard wood floor in our bedroom (and put in carpet) and used some of those floor boards for the new area:

Kevin did all the flooring himself and he did an amazing job! Eventually, we want to re-do all of our floors with a dark hardwood, but since the majority of our house is hardwood, we are going to wait, because that is going to be a huge project!

Here is the final reveal:

I also moved the direction of our dining room table:

Got a new rug for the living room & some new throw pillows:

This room is SO much more user friendly now!!

This project was started the last weekend in August & was completed the day before Thanksgiving! It was a labor of love.

I am so thankful for Kevin's hard work with parts of this project & I am thankful that my side gig of Rodan + Fields paid for the new door & the new fireplace..and the new rugs & pillows.... :)

The final stop in our home tour..... our backyard:

Another view:

And, our side yard where the garden is:

These pics were taken 2 years ago, that is why our grass is so green. Now, our grass is DEAD since we are on water restrictions because of the major California drought we are in right now :(
You can see more Before & Afters from our Backyard HERE

Hope you enjoyed our house tour!
We have lived here for 5 years and have done TONS of work on our house, but we like doing house projects :)
Be sure & check out the Before & Afters to see what it looked like when we first moved in.
If you want to see our old house, HERE is that home tour :)

As you can see from these pics, I am VERY simple (and kind of boring) with my decor.
I don't like clutter, so I try and keep things light & simple!
Thanks for coming along on the tour & I can't wait to go check out your houses!

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And, don't forget to enter my $250 Nordstrom Gift Card Giveaway {HERE}
Giveaway ends on Friday!