Inspiration Pt. 2 - Our Home Renovation

Today I am sharing long overdue updates from our home renovation! We closed on this house on December 22nd of 2016 and we are STILL adding the last few finishing touches. Props to Chip and Joanna Gaines for making it look so easy!    

 

HOUSE BEFORE

HOUSE AFTER

This house was built in 1963 and had never been renovated. We bought it from the sweeeetest family who inherited this house from their parents. They told us on closing day, "Do whatever you want to the house.. just have us over for dinner when it is complete so we can see." And then we actually found out later that Nathan's family grew up in church with them, and his parents taught the children in Sunday school. So neat!

Fun Fact: Nate and I moved in July of 2017 when everything was "ready" enough to move in.. (We literally didn't even have our kitchen cabinets installed yet). But, only two months later got the surprise we were pregnant! So I would call this a lucky house ;) God is good!

FIRST THINGS FIRST

What I didn't love about the house:
·There was BROWN. Everywhere.

·Wall paneling

·Very outdated

·So. Many. Walls.

What I did love about the house:

·Side garage
·All Brick

·Basement

·Master on Main

·Large lot

The first thing we did after closing was, of course, DEMO "day".. or weeks...or maybe months. Haha. The house was covered with tons of BROWN. Brown floors, brown paneled walls, brown trim and crown molding..you name it- there was brown on it. It was so much fun taking away all the dated brown and making decisions with Nathan to bring the house back to life with brightness and light. If you look closely, I think our pups enjoyed it too.😉 I lovee looking at homes and exploring decorating styles. So, except for the constant mess from months of demo, I was right in my element making plans for this house!

DEMO PICTURES:

          

One common trend of houses built in the 60's was that they often had two living room spaces. The first major change we made to the house was knocking down the wall between these two living spaces to create one large open living room right as you enter the house. We had to have several people come out to make sure this wall was not a "load bearing" wall, and luckily, it wasn't. This meant we were able to create the open concept we were hoping for!

 LIVING ROOM BEFORE & AFTER:

Master Suite:

Another huge (and my personal favorite) change we made to the house was combining two of the main level bedrooms to make one huge master suite. We knocked down the wall between the master and the room beside it. We then made the master room larger, and the rest of the space into my literal dream walk in closet with my own vanity and lighting inside. I truly feel like a princess every morning when I get ready. To add a little more character to the master, we created a hallway instead of a door that opens up into the closet space. Nathan is the best and he installed all the built in shelving himself. 😍 Lots of pictures on this one, if ya can't tell it's my favorite part of the house! 

BEDROOM/ BATHROOM BEFORE:

BEDROOM/BATHROOM AFTER:

   

Kitchen and Pantry:

Our kitchen area is another favorite of mine. To start, a very simple and silly thing that I have always wanted was a window in front of my kitchen sink. There's just something about that cute plant (whatever it may be) sitting on the window seal that can brighten a day. I loved that this was part of the home's original layout.

As for renovations, you can tell from the pictures below that we completely gutted the kitchen and got new cabinets, appliances, and re-did the flooring. We decided to carry the same flooring along from the living room to create an even and open flow throughout the upstairs. We also added glass shelving to the main section of cabinets for a more classy look as you enter in from the back porch.

Next, is the pantry we added. Before, the pantry area was very small and did not have any extra storage. I grew up with a large walk-in pantry in my parents house, so when I realized there was space to add one in this house, I was all in! The pantry still needs work in the organization category (future blog post to come!!) but the space is perfect. Fun fact about me- I lovveeee organizing, so I get super excited planning out how I will organize the pantry space. You can never have too many baskets! I can't wait to share with y'all.

KITCHEN BEFORE

                                                               
                                                           

KITCHEN AFTER

Other Updates:

A few other fun updates we made to the house were painting the exterior brick, adding additional driveway space (we love having friends and family over), updating the mother-in-law suite/kitchen in the basement, building a cozy back porch, and fencing in the back yard so our puppies have a safe place to play. The updates might have taken a lot longer than we expected, but we are so happy with the way everything turned out! There a quite a few hilarious (major marriage building moment) stories I could tell you about, but we will save that for another day. 😜 Just ask me about my cute hubs and the dumpster and I'll tell ya the rest. 🙈 Anyways, we feel incredibly blessed to have bought this home from such a sweet family, and are thrilled to start our family here in just a few weeks. Major shout out to my handsome husband and his best friend Tyler for all of their hard work along the way!

Also in the kitchen, we decided to turn a large window into an exit door. This door would exit from the kitchen out onto a large patio space. So excited warm weather is here so we can enjoy it!

                         

OUTDOOR PATIO SPACE

  Stay tuned for more posts, I will be sharing baby nursery details next week! Let me know if there is anything in particular you want to see. Thanks so much for reading. Love y'all!