House Tour : Two years Later

We closed on this house on March 30, 2015 and spent about a month painting it. So it's been about two years now that we've lived here.

Guys, I LOVE this house. I love it. Every time I get home, I am kind of in awe as to how perfect it is. It's so full of light - I love all the windows and doors. I love how it's exactly the right mix of open concept and separate rooms. From any room on the first floor, you can look through to see every other room - yet they're all separate spaces.  While every room and space is distinct, they all flow together beautifully. I love how the first floor is a big loop and the kids can run laps from the kitchen through the dining room through the sitting room through the entry through the family room and back to the kitchen. They burn so much energy doing that every single day. And the neighborhood is amazing, with great neighbors.

Obviously there are things I don't love - the mix of flooring on the first floor, that dang tile in the family room, the several windows or window frames that are broken (SIGH) (BUT THEY'RE GETTING FIXED! GOODBYE MONEY!). And it's still very bare in places. Now that the painting is done, we HAVE to start finishing the decor - curtains and wall hangings and real (versus temporary Craigslist) furniture. Why does all that cost so much money??

Even without most of the rooms being done, decor-wise, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at all we've done over the last two years.

Here's a video (pictures will follow the videos, so if videos aren't your thing, skip down) that I took in December 2014 - months before we'd even put an offer in on it. I took it to show my mom, who wasn't able to get into town to see it. The video is absolutely terrible quality. Like TERRIBLE. It's shaky and misses an entire floor (the basement) and doesn't really give that great of an overview, but it's all I have, and it kind of gives an idea of the layout.

Look for appearances by toddling, just-turned-one Emmeline (as well as Chris, Carys, my mother-in-law, and our realtor)!

Holy heck was that a lot of oak. Having finished painting most of the trim before we even moved in - so never getting used to it - I kind of forgot about how the entire house was reddish orange. I'm kind of proud of us for seeing past the orange and imagining what a little bit LOT of paint could do.  Here's the updated video house tour. Remember this isn't one of those curated, picture-perfect blogs that makes you wonder how anyone lives like that. We DO have two small kids who leave swathes of destruction in their midst. I haven't cleaned the baseboards...ever. This is real life. So excuse the sippy cups floating around (we go through like a dozen a day, I swear) and the dust.
As you can see, we've done a ton on that first floor, and not so much on the second floor. On the first floor, every room but the kitchen has been painted (although we did get the window and door trim done in there), and we replaced the dining room floor. On the second floor, we haven't touched a single thing in our bedroom, in our bathroom, or in the playroom, but we've painted the walls in both girls' bedrooms and completed a few updates in the shared bathroom. 
Here are some pictures to look at the differences and updates room-by-room. 

EXTERIOR

Before

One Month Later

Current

I'm not going to detail all the changes for every room, but since we've only done two things that are visible from the exterior and they're both subtle...the front door is white (instead of wood) and the small decorative plum tree right in the middle of the house has been cut down (it had to go because it was planted too close to the foundation). 

XXXXXXXX

ENTRYWAY

Before

One Month Later

Current

Removed the glass from the chandelier and gave it cute bulbs. Eventually it will be replaced completely.

Before - One Month Later - Current

 

LAUNDRY ROOM/BATHROOM

Before - One Month Later - Current

FAMILY ROOM 

Before

One Month Later

Current

XXXXXXXXX

Before

One Month Later

Current

That tile floor HAS GOT TO GO. It is the bane of my existence in this house. If I get NOTHING else done in the next year, I would be happy as long as that floor was gone. The rug goes a long way to help disguise it, but that room really needs the depth of color and warmth that the engineered wood floors will bring in. We also desperately need something over the couch - but that wall is HUGE (like 21' long) so finding a large-scale art piece to fill it has been hard. I might DIY something. Whatever I do, it will bring in a lot of color. 

XXXXXXXXXX

 SUNROOM

Before

One Month Later

Current

XXXXXXXX

KITCHEN

Before

One Month Later

Current

XXXXXXXX

Before

One Month Later

Current

XXXXXXXXX

Before

One Month Later

Current

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

DINING ROOM

Before

One Month Later

Current

XXXXXXXXX

SITTING ROOM

Before

One Month Later

Current

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

UPSTAIRS HALL

Before - One Month Later - Current

CARYS'S ROOM

Before

One Month Later

Six months later
I had this room cleaned 10 minutes before I took this picture, I swear.

BATHROOM

Before - One Month Later

Current
Eventually the wave tile and blue floor tile will go, and we'll repaint the bright blue upper walls and paint or replace the cabinet vanity. 

EMMELINE'S ROOM

Before

One Month Later

Six Months Later

PLAYROOM

Before

One Month Later

Current (going the other direction)

Again, I swear this was clean before I went to take the picture.

BACKYARD

Before

One Month Later

Current

XXXXXXX

I think the only that that is different is that I pulled all the plants from in front of the deck (I'm thinking about using that space as a veggie garden next year) and we got the willow trim (at the top of the picture) trimmed.

MASTER BEDROOM

Before

Six months later

(AKA We've done nothing. We're going to paint and replace the fan, to start with. Someday.)

MASTER BATH

Before

Current

Nothing done here either. Lots of plans. Definitely want to frame out the mirror and lose the carpet. I hate carpeted bathrooms (but not as much as tiled family rooms!). 

BASEMENT

Before

Current

XXXXXXXXXXXx

Before

Current
At some point, this will be less of a "storage/drop-off" area and have a second television and comfy pull-out couch to act as a kid's media area that doubles as a guest room.

XXXXXXXX

Before

Current

Again, we've done nothing to the basement. The walls were painted by the previous owners while it was still on the market, but after the pics had been taken. Thank you, previous homeowners!  We need more shelves and I need to finish sorting the clothes out. I actually need to just donate or sell all of them since we're 95% done having kids but I can't bring myself to do it yet. 

We have come SO INCREDIBLY far - there are even changes you can't even see in the pics, like two of the toilets have been replaced (or maybe you really ARE that observant?) and we took the remotes out of fans and replaced a bazillion light bulbs with LED ones and stuff like that. But there is 

still.

so.

much.

to.

do.

Sigh. Like I said above, my number one goal is the family room flooring. We added a rug and that helped a ton, but getting the dark engineered wood from the dining room will really be a huge change in that room.  Then the rest of the flooring can stay for a little while while I turn my attention to other things. Chandeliers. Light fixtures. Painting the trim in the upstairs bedrooms. Painting OUR bedroom. Painting our bathroom. Replacing the rest of the door handles. But our list of things "to do" is getting smaller and smaller, and our crossed-out list amazes even me (I did like a crap ton of it by myself and have the sore back to prove it...but I still can't believe it!). Slowly but surely, we're getting there. 

(someday I'll finish this post)

Sitting Room : CURTAINS!

Guys, our sitting room is desperate for some curtains. At night it's like a big flashlight pointing into our house and you can see every detail from the street, which a) isn't safe, obviously, and b) highlights the lack of "done-ness" of the room and c) means I have to keep the room spotless, lest our neighbors think we're the cluttered sort (hint: we're the cluttered sort).

AS USUAL I just have no idea what I want.

SO HALP.

Refer to my always-on-point Photoshopped renderings below and help me decide! (Note: these pictures are from a month or so ago when we first finished the sitting room - the buffet/middle space looks more like this now.)

____________________________________________

OPTION ONE

Do I want to pull in the colors of the dining room and the accent wall behind the built-ins with a soft blue-green? 

 OPTION TWO

Do I want to go for a fun pop of color to draw your eyes to those beautiful windows and take the house into less neutral territory? If I go with this one, my plans for the canvas would have to change a bit.

OPTION THREE

Do I highlight the gray walls and bring a darker tone into the room to match the buffet?

OPTION FOUR

Do I go for the ultimate neutral - a light, bright white - to keep the room open and airy? 

___________________________________________

Option one is a little too traditional/boring/safe, I think. Do I think that? Maybe? I don't know?

I WANT desperately to love option two, but...is it too out there? If I went with that option, I'd definitely bring the orange in elsewhere in the room (furniture, etc). Am I too in love with the idea of a fun pop of color and not able to see that it's garish and ugly? IS IT GARISH AND UGLY? Please tell me.

Option three and four seem to be the safe options - not safe as in boring, but safe as in "either would work." I like the way three brings some depth and darkness to the room, and I like the crispness of four (which somehow isn't as boring as number one!)