Our Current House

Since this baby’s still in its early stages (we moved in sixteen months ago), we don’t have “after pics” yet. Not even close (our last house took us 4.5 years to finish). So here are a bunch of “before” and “in-progress pics” for your viewing pleasure. Oh and these might come in handy too:

an interior and exterior floor plan for reference
a paint color breakdown
a where-we-got-it source list
a semi-recent video tour

This is the exterior as it looked when we bought the house, giant house-blocking magnolia and all:

And here’s the exterior now, after we limbed up that house-dwarfing magnolia, painted the front door, and transplanted a ton of fence-like bushes that completely obscured the view. It’s still desperately in need of tons of work, but at least the view out the front isn’t a mass o’ leaves and we can finally see the now-cheerful front door from the curb (don’t mind the black feather Halloween wreath):

We’re so glad to have a cozy little porch, but it unfortunately looked like this before we did anything with it:

Now the porch looks like this thanks to adding some simple greenery (and an already-owned bench and planters) and painting the front door. But we still have some big plans, like removing the scalloped porch header, framing out the columns so they’re chunky & square, transplanting the too-large bushes crowding the path, painting the siding and trim, and possibly staining the concrete porch floor.

Here’s the room that had us at hello when we first laid eyes on this house. It’s actually a formal living room with a dining room behind those built-ins, but we converted the formal living room part into an entryway/dining room by adding a huge opening on the left wall that leads into our eat-in kitchen. And that back room that was once the dining room became our home office thanks to the addition of a big built-in desk.

Here’s the dining room looking into the kitchen and converted office now, thanks to arranging those shelves and painting the built-ins. We also added a giant 70″ table, some $25 craigslist chairs with cheap slipcovers that we dyed, and some homemade curtains with a fun bold print. But the biggest change by far is the eight foot opening that we added to connect the dining room and kitchen (more on that project here and here).

Here’s a before look of that room from the other direction back at the front door:

Here’s a similar POV now (we still have to add a defined entryway area by the front door, hang art, etc):

Here’s the office that you can see beyond the formal-living-room-turned-dining-room (this space was the home’s original dining room):

And here’s the office now that we added a built-in double desk that goes from wall to wall (it only set us back $125 thanks to some $6 thrift store cabinets). We also updated the old chandelier by painting it a rich indigo color and adding a large drum shade, stenciled the walls, painted and reupholstered our thrift store desk chairs, and added sentimental art. We still want to bring in window treatments and a better rug, but in the meantime it’s nice to have a big desk with some happy chairs/art for blogging the days away.

Here’s the long eat-in kitchen before. The eight foot opening to the new dining room wasn’t there yet (but from the very first day that we saw the house, we knew we wanted to add it).

After nearly a year of planning and saving our pennies, we started the reno. For a while it looked crazy in there while we DIYed nearly every single part of the remodel over the course of four months. Sometimes progress is ugggggllly. And although before and afters are fun, they definitely don’t happen overnight (at least not for us). So we like to share the chaotic in-between stuff too, just to keep it real.

Here’s the kitchen now. We painted the fireplace, removed a desk and cabinet, and painted the paneling. Oh yeah and we added the eight foot opening to the dining room (more on that project here and here). Then we built a peninsula, got new Corian counters, primed and painted the cabinets, tiled the backsplash with gray penny tile all the way to the ceiling to create an accent wall, redid the lighting, hung a range hood and built a range hood cover, added open shelves, hung crown molding, and redid the floors with mocha cork. It took us about four months, but we chugged along. Here’s the reveal post with a ton of budget and source details.

Here are some other before and after shots from different angles:

Here’s a closer look at the fireplace before we removed the old wood stove, painted the brick, and painted the paneling:

And here’s the fireplace now thanks to our cheap primer and paint transformation:

This was the view of the kitchen from the office when we moved in:

And here’s the view now that we’re almost done in there. It’s so much more open without heavy dark cabinetry everywhere.

Here’s another one of those nice wide doorways that leads down the hallway (this was taken with my back to the master bedroom facing the front door). Burger likey.

And here’s the hallway from the other side (with your back to the front door, facing the bedroom):

Here’s the hallway now, where we’ve hung a ton of frames (see how we did that here and here) on both sides of the wall for a playful wallpapered-with-frames effect.

Here’s the living room (we realized with a room this big, we didn’t also need a formal living room, which is why we converted that space into what is now our dining room).

This is the living room now, after painting the walls, painting the trim, painting the beams, building a console table for behind the sectional (see it all accessorized here), hanging some subtle patterned curtains, and bring in a new rug, ottoman, and desk chair. We’d still love to add more art, double side the fireplace, bring in some new ceiling fixtures, build a larger/deeper media cabinet, and someday refinish the wooden parquet floors in a deep rich tone. Should be fun…

Here’s the sunroom that was added on to the house more recently (around 15 years ago). The challenge here will be making it feel more integrated with the rest of the house since it’s so modern and new when compared to the rest of the rooms, most of which were built half a century before.

The other side of the sunroom has an off-center window and some dark brick that we can’t wait to transform.

Here’s the sunroom now, but nothing much has changed except we plopped down some existing furniture. Someday we’ll get there…

Here’s the master bedroom. It’s a really generously sized room to us (16 x 16′), and the reclaimed pine floors with super wide-planks are pretty special, so we can’t wait to show them some love.

Here’s the master bedroom now, since getting a new bed along with whipping up some no-sew curtains with discount fabric. We also switched out the light fixture, hung some yard sale botanicals & free DIY art, and got a new rug. We still have a lot to do in here (we want to add a cabinet/armoire to the nook on the left of the bed, a lighter & longer homemade bench at the foot of the bed, and refinish the floors – more on that here). But it’s coming along.

Here’s the sink nook as it looked when we first moved in. It’s actually located on the far side of the bedroom (with a shower and a toilet in a room to the right and a walk-in closet to the left). It’s definitely a challenge to make a sink that’s visible from the bed feel integrated (let alone romantic) but we do love a challenge…

Here’s the sink nook now, after we removed the bi-fold doors, demo’d the backsplash around the sink (to make it look more like a piece of furniture and less bathroom-y) and switched out that awkward medicine cabinet to the right of the sink (neck-cramp anyone?) for a mirror that hangs right over the window. We love how it looks more integrated, and of course we appreciate the function. Now we can actually look straight ahead while we brush our teeth or do our hair.

Here’s the master bathroom before, which is located right off of the nook with the sink above. We immediately hung an extra long shower curtain to add height and lighten things up in this beige-on-beige room, but then we stalled for about 15 months.

Here’s the master bathroom now, after we painted the walls (to add contrast and take down the beige-factor), replaced the old boob light with a pretty blue glass pendant from a local outlet, painted the cream trim white, added some homemade art, and replaced the squat almond toilet with a lighter (and cleaner looking) white one. Still have a few more things to tackle down the line (like switching out the sketchy tree border tiles with frosted glass subway tile) but it’s a nice start.

Here’s the hall bath that’s back near the other three bedrooms. We love that it’s so similar to the original full bath in our first house (and the tile is luckily in much better shape, so we can’t wait to work with it).

Here’s the hall bathroom now (we remembered to white balance the camera, hence the brighter pic). So far we’ve removed the weird off-centered bar under the window, added some window trim for balance, and raised the shower curtain for some extra drama and height. Can’t wait to get some color on the walls, add art, DIY a window shade, and bring in some accessories.

Here’s Clara’s nursery on the day that we moved in (it’s almost exactly the same size as her old one):

And here’s Clara’s room now (after we painted the walls, hung all of her art, and rearranged some stuff):

We also updated Clara’s closet, which was previously concealed by a basic bi-fold door.

Here’s Clara’s closet now, after turning it into a reading nook by removing the bi-folds, hanging a homemade curtain, painting and stamping the walls with metallic paint (and a potato), and bringing in books & pillows to create a little reading nook:

Here’s the middle bedroom that we’re calling the playroom (it’ll become another kids bedroom when our family grows someday):

Right now it just looks like a hot mess because its full of stuff that we have to figure out how to use (or sell in a giant yard sale):

Here’s the guest bedroom that was looking pretty generic when we moved in:

Here’s the guest room now, after adding some bold peacock blue paint on the walls along with some curtains, a bed, bedding, colorful accessories, and a DIYed luggage rack side table (more on that here). Still on the agenda: adding crown molding, hanging art, etc.

And here’s the funny little yellow-beige guest bathroom which is attached to the guest bedroom. The plan was to take a crack at working with the vintage tile (but losing the dated and dingy look).

We still have a ways to go, but here’s the guest bathroom now, after switching out the old medicine cabinet for a mirror, hanging some towel hooks on the door (which used to have a large mirror that reflected whoever was on the toilet- ack), upgrading the light fixture, and introducing a bright shower curtain (that ties into the adjoined guest room) along with a graphic hotel-ish bath mat. Still more to d0 (paint, art, window treatment, etc) but it’s getting there.

And here’s the little laundry room (it’s just 3.5′ wide!) that we couldn’t wait to perk up:

Here’s the laundry room now, which we’ve upgraded by bringing in energy efficient front loaders (scored at one of the deepest discounts we’ve ever stumbled upon), painting the walls, building some shelving to make the most of that nook to the right of the washer/dryer, and DIYing a chandelier out of clothespins (along with a few other updates explained here).

It’s amazing how much the view from the kitchen into the laundry room (with the office to the right) has changed since we moved in. Here’s the before pic from that POV:

And here’s an after shot taken from the same spot:

Oh and we have a separate entry basement under the living room which is a complete disaster (it’s full of tools, scrap wood, and a million other things we’re not proud of). Since there has been zero progress in here (in fact we’ve made it worse) that explains the lack of a progress pic quite yet.

One the side of the house, located just off of the sunroom and living room, we had a fenced in area that was overrun with liriope:

We decided that building our own 300 square foot paver patio would make much better use of the space. All of the hard work paid off (you can read about the process here). Here’s the side of the house now:

Here’s our backyard on the day we moved in (we woke up to a surprise snowstorm, and had quite the adventure with the moving truck). It’s definitely a lot more scenic when it’s covered in snow since it hides all the weeds and overgrown gardens that we can’t wait to tackle. Someday…