So we've been in the new house over a month and a half and I know a few of you out there have been patiently waiting for some pictures. Well here's a few. Keep in mind there are still A LOT of projects to be done in everyroom. However, the house already looks a 1000 times better than before we moved in. Also, I haven't really put up any decorations. I keep looking at my box of decorations and I'm just not quite inspired yet. Naturally it would awesome if we could just out and buy all new things but that is pretty unrealistic right now especially taking into consideration what we've already spent on paint, new doors, and whatever other odds and ends. Plus we've got Christmas and 3 Birthdays coming up so a few things will have to hold out til next Spring.
So this is just part 1 because I didn't feel like cleaning up the basement to take pictures - so that will just have to wait for another day.
So our house is your basic split entry style. Right when you walk in our front door you have the option to go up or down. So upstairs first we have our living room. It's a good sized room. We got new couches since our old ones went downstairs in our family room. We have a nice gas fireplace - which I'm excited to use during the holiday season! We painted every inch of this room and did the accent wall with wallpaper. Somewhere we need to incorporate the yellow on the couch pillows in the rest of the room. The couches were the exact color I wanted but the pillows weren't - however that wasn't a deal breaker for us -they're just pillows.
Future plans for this room: decorations obviously and more lighting. There is no lighting in this room besides our single lamp. We do get some light from the entry ceiling fan but not quite enough to have a well lit room.
Next on our tour is the kitchen. It is so much lighter and brighter than before. The previous owners painted the kitchen Red, Peach, and a shade of Peanut Butter. It was interesting to say the least. I'm so mad I forgot to take before pictures so you'll just have to use your imagination. We did more painting in here. We painted over a "lovely" hand painted ivy design that covered the bricks. Painted the walls and ceiling and added the beadboard. We absolutely need new countertops and a new sink but that is a project that will have to wait a while.
Future projects: Previously mentioned countertops and sink, I would like new floors but the laminate is in good shape so I'll just have to like it for now. The cabinets really need to be sanded and painted. Even though the previous owners put up a fresh coat of paint before we bought the house they did a really poor job and the hardware is all half painted. So maybe next summer we'll get that done. New lighting - mainly the stylish flourcent piece!
We also added the beadboard with shelf in the dining space. Again needing decorations, currently it's used to set things up high and out of reach of little hands. The patio doors lead off to a small deck and to our pretty big fenced backyard. The doors have the blinds between the panes of glass which is awesome!
So if you leave the kitchen and enter the hallway you actually come to the bathroom first, the kids room and then ours last but somehow these got out of order. So here's our room. The room is actually pretty big but you can't tell from the picture, and again we don't really have the furniture to fill it. We don't have a bedroom set and haven't ever really needed one. I would like to find a cute nightstand and maybe a dresser. I've checked a few times on craigslist for something fun but haven't quite found what I'm looking for. Also, Reese insisted on being in most of the pictures.
Future plans: not really much needs to be done in here. Maybe some new lighting and some decor but that's about it.
There are 2 bathrooms in our house but sadly it's one up and one down. So we all share the upstairs for the most part. Todd actually uses the downstairs one to shower and get ready every morning so he doesn't wake up the kids. The bathroom used to have these horribly ugly glass doors with this huge etched swan design -- yeah they were one of the first things to go. So we painted the bathroom quite a bright shade of blue! The kids love it though -- we had recently bought a bathroom set and just decided to use their monster motif in the main bathroom. We also added the beadboard in here. This room only has about half of the painting done and we need to replace the molding on the top of the beadboard because I broke it trying to "fix" it.
Future plans: If I had my way all new tile on the floor and on the tub surround, new vanity with 2 sinks or two single vanities, and new lighting. This room still needs bit of work but it meets our needs right now so another day.
The kids bedroom. Since there are only 2 bedrooms upstairs they are currently sharing a room. Which has actually worked out pretty nice. They seem to wake up less during the night and it's really nice having all the toys downstairs so their room remains rather clean throughout the day.
Not much really needs to be done in here either. New lights like every other room and probably some new blinds like every other room as well. As well as decorations. We hung up a few things in here to suffice Reese's requests, but really haven't decorated. We'll probably get some bunk beds with our tax returns so I'll wait til they have matching beds that will be in semi permanent place before I start to really decorate. I need to figure out how I want to decorate first.
On a side note all of the rooms have rather large closets which is way nice. There definitely is a lot of storage in this house. There are also 3 utility/linen closets just in the hallway. Storage space was a must have on our list when we were looking at homes. Since we were looking at a lot of older homes it was pretty much non existent.
New doors! We've replaced all the interior doors upstairs, including closet doors and all the door hardware. Previously there were pretty banged up 70's style masonite doors - so it changed the feel and look of the upstairs a lot. We'll be doing the same to the downstairs but not for a while.
So that's the upstairs! We've come along way! A lot of painting! If any of you are in the mood to do some decorating -- please come on over!
We're definitely excited to be in our own place - it's amazing how in this short time it really feels like home. This house is working out great for our families needs and it's soooooooooooooo nice not being in an apartment! Yeah for privacy! Stay tuned sometime for The House part 2 - the basement!
We hosted Christmas Eve at our house for the 2nd year in a row. This is the day we spend with Todd's family. We've found it much easier doing it this way with the kids - so they can just go right to bed and do Christmas morning at their own house. We enjoyed a lot of treats and simple pizza dinner. Above: New Christmas jammies and slippers.
These are out of order. We let the kids open up one present this night - which contained all of the games we were going to play. Hot Potato was a big hit - especially with Boston! We also played Hello Kitty dominos and Scene it Comedy movies.
After all the games we read Luke 2 and the kids put on the pieces to the Nativity. We were happy to spend the evening with Grandma, Papa, Thomas and Tim.
