New House: Before and After

Last week my good buddy Tiff posted about her farmhouse renovation, and I just loved her post--I'm a total sucker for before and after pictures.  Then I got to thinking...although we didn't renovate our new house that we moved into late last fall, we sure did do some major updating and TLC to it before we moved in!

So I decided I'd do my own "before and after" tour of our new house...which isn't so "new" anymore, seeing as we moved in last November...but, hey, who cares, right?!  The point is I'm blogging about it, isn't it?!

Anyways, a little background on our house before I reveal the before and after pics.  We bought it from the original owner's daughter and son-in-law: the original owner passed away last summer (at the age of 92!!) and he was actually the designer and architect for the house (as well as a lot of the other houses on our street as well).  It is in the town that both Mike and I grew up in, on a cute little cul-de-sac, and about 5 minutes away from each of the grandparents' houses.  Our house was built in the 1960s and we kept all of the original "stuff" flooring, walls, built in shelving, etc...--we just updated it a bit (tore out the carpet, refinished the never exposed GORGEOUS hardwood floors underneath, took down the wallpaper seeming everywhere and replaced with fresh coats of paint).  I'm sure over the next several years we will continue to do little updates and improvements (cause we are NEVER EVER moving again!  This house is plenty big for a few more kids...and if it ever becomes too small, we will add on before we move! I love this house and neighborhood and don't want to be anywhere else!), but for now, we are super happy with our house and what we've done to it!

living room before...

living room now! We tore up the (grosssss) carpet and refinished the gorgeous never-exposed hardwood underneath.  We painted the walls the same light brownish color we had painted our old living/family room at our other house.  We also took down the window treatments and had plantation shutters put in on all 3 of the big windows.  The furniture and china cabinet and buffet were all given to us from my awesome aunt and uncle, and most of the wall art (Gone with the Wind plates, etc...) were given to us from my Grandma Goose.  We call this the "free" room, since we didn't pay for nearly anything in it--it was all a gift!

entry way before...

entry way now!  I actually really liked the stripped wallpaper look, but when you got close it was very icky so we elected to take it down and paint it the same color as the living room.  I also slapped a ton of artwork all over the entryway and some heavy duty rugs to try and contain the outside from coming too far into our house.

family room before...

family room now!  This room we pretty much left alone; we kept the wood paneling (which I kinda like: makes me feel like I live in a cabin!) and this was the only room with hardwood floor exposed (which we went ahead and refinished too).  We got a new rug and brought over our furniture, but this definitely is the room that most looks like the original!

kitchen before... (not the greatest pic...& there's 4 month old Patrick! #tbt!)

kitchen now!  We loved the tile floor, so we kept it!  And we painted the kitchen a little darker shade of yellow.  The chalkboard wall use to be a wallpapered accent wall, but that wallpaper was icky so we took it down and made it into a chalkboard wall which I LOVE!  My mom whipped up some new curtains (that pull back and reveal a wall-size sliding door) to keep the sun out.

hallway before...(check out that carpet! ick!)

hallway now!  Gorgeous hardwood throughout the entire house instead of carpet now.  I just love it!  So much easier to keep clean!

hall/Patrick's bathroom before...(those curtains! OMG.)

hall bathroom now!  We didn't change much in here--I loved the throwback "riptide" color of the sink/toilet/bathtub, and the wallpaper was in very good condition.  We decided to put up our own fun kid's shower curtain (that went with the bathroom's owl theme) instead of the, um, rather larger one that was there.

Guest bedroom before...(which was an office)

Guest bedroom now!  A very Cardinals' themed bedroom (which we love), and with a double bed in there is quite cozy.  We'll probably eventually move Patrick in there with a toddler or twin size bed so it'll give him more space.  We just painted this room white and got Fathead Cardinals decals for the walls to decorate it--and it's easily changeable if we want to use it for another type of room down the road.

Patrick's room before...

Patrick's room now!  A very Muppet-overloaded room!  And much different from the pink room it was :)  I would eventually like to put plantation shutters in this room too--but those will come down the line (cause they're flippin' expensive!!).  I love his hardwood floors and giant Seasme Street rug--gives him a soft area to play.

Master/our bedroom before...

Master/our bedroom now!  First off, the view!! EEEEKKK!  That's my favorite part :)  We painted the room a light blue (to match the curtains and bedspread) and then really have just hung a few pieces of artwork up around the room that family members have given us.  The hardwood floors really make the room pop--and I just love that!

Master bathroom/closet/suite before...

Master bathroom/closet/suite now!  The bathroom is England themed (the giant picture frame on the wall is from Mike and my's London adventure back in 2011 when we got engaged) and we have a lot of British stuff (trashcan, pictures) strewn about.  The wall color is the same as the hallway--a lighter tanish color.

Secret laundry room before...

Secret laundry room now!  Pretty much the exact same!  Haha!  Just with less stuff...but I'm sure we'll accumulate more in there eventually.  It's a great storage room that no one notices since it's in an addition behind our bedroom, and unless you were looking for it, you wouldn't know it was there!  (This is probably one of my favorite parts of our house!  I love our first floor laundry!)

basement before...

basement now!  Definitely has transformed into our party/entertaining/play space.  I'd guesstimate it's about 1500sq ft down here, and with most of it finished (and a built in bar and kitchenette area!) and a 1/2 bath, it really makes for the perfect entertaining space.  We love hosing parties and love this huge space--that has a walkout to a back patio area behind the curtain by the TV.

Well, that does it for our house transformation tour!  Definitely some major changes, but I really like how we kept the basic characteristics and layout of the house--just as Darwin (the original owner and architect) would have I'm sure liked.  I hope you've enjoyed this tour of our little abode!  You know I'll be blogging away any major house remodels/changes in the future...if they should happen!