Home Sweet Home

We did it- we're finally in our new home! Thanks to everyone who helped us with the move- what an exhausting and crazy past couple of weeks it's been.

This house is incredible, and we are so excited to renovate it and make it our dream home. Since we are getting tons of calls and emails about what we're doing, I decided to put it all in this online blog for you all (I just can't say ya'll yet!) to check out.


We still haven't even completely unpacked yet, so there won't be much going on until we get settled in. We do find time to have some fun- including naked baby swimming in the front yard! We got TONS of honks and waves from the little old ladies leaving a church meeting today!


The house is a 1920 Craftsman bungalow in an historic neighborhood. We're currently using 3200 square feet, and have about 800 more square feet upstairs that can be converted into living space. It has 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and 4 fireplaces. We also have a side garden and a fenced-in backyard for the hot dogs.

Here's a rundown on what we'd like to do: (All of these pictures are the BEFORE pictures- they were taken when the previous owners still lived here, so you'll see all of their furniture and belongings, not ours)

The previous owners had recently completely renovated the kitchen, and it looks great. I would like to replace the lighting fixtures, replace the faucet and sink fixtures, and get rid of the clock above the door.

Kitchen

We just bought a brand new refrigerator, built-in microwave, and a gorgeous baker's rack.

Living room

Update the fireplace and paint the walls and trim. Buy window treatments.

Sunroom

Update the fireplace and eventually have the chimney rebuilt (the previous owners had the chimney capped). Paint walls and buy window treatments.

Downstairs Hallway

This hallway is enormous! It reminds me of an art gallery. I would love to make it a showplace for our family pictures. It needs paint and new lighting. I would love any ideas if anyone has any.

Downstairs Guest Bedroom
You might have noticed already that there is a color theme running throughout the home. For some reason, the previous owners loved mustard yellow and ketchup red. We prefer mustard and ketchup on our hotdogs, not our walls.

(by hotdogs we mean the food, not the dog-Oscar was looking a little worried)

So in this room we will paint walls and trim, and buy new mattress & bedding. We'll also rebuild the capped chimney.








Guest Bathroom
All the bathrooms are in some major need of renovation. We plan on doing this within the next year, and are throwing around some ideas. I would like to see if we can knock down the wall between the guest bath and main bedroom bath, making a huge bathroom with dressing area.


For now, I plan on painting these hideous red walls a nice, soothing shade of blue or green. The tubs in all of the bathrooms are huge soaking tubs (great for relaxing baths when baby is napping) but are unfortunately seventies colored blue and green. Very fashionable in 1976, not too hip in 2006. And every time I take a shower I feel like I'm in a horror movie, so the blood red has got to go!




Master Bedroom
We'll paint the walls and trim, buy new bedding, and rebuild the capped chimney. For some reason, this is the only room in the entire house that doesn't have crown moulding, so we'll add that.










Master Bathroom

This bathroom will also be completely renovated, but for now we'll paint the walls and trim.












Daniel's Bedroom


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We'll have to turn this girlie room into a cool boy's nursery for Danny. I am insanely jealous of the walk-in closet and lit vanity. When we have our next baby, Danny will move down the hallway to the guest room, and this room will stay the nursery






Daniel's Bathroom
This bathroom will also be renovated. It doesn't have a seventies green tub, but it does have a rockin' green seventies floor. It also has the weirdest thing I've ever seen- a small, kid-sized toilet. It's a regular white toilet that sits low to the ground, and has a smaller seat and tank. That granny shower curtain is already sitting at the curb, replaced with a fresh ducky one.


Dining Room
This is my favorite room in the house- it's gigantic! We need to buy more furniture to fill it! We'll also get new window treatments, a new light fixture, paint the walls and trim, and rebuild the capped chimney.

Laundry Room

Surprise, surprise, more yellow! This room will get a paint job, and we're also going to recess the wall to make more room for the washer and dryer.

Hallway Leading to Upstairs
This will get new paint and a stair runner.

Playroom/5th Bedroom
We're going to concentrate on the downstairs right now, since we don't use the upstairs right now. We're definitely going to keep this huge room a playroom, and will paint the walls and trim.









Library
I'd like to buy some really nice book cases and turn this into a beautiful library.
We have the books for it!








Upstairs Bathroom

This will also be completely renovated.
Until then, I'm going to paint over the bright red.

We also have TONS of extra space (about 800 sq. ft) that can be renovated into living space, but right now I think we have enough on our plates!

This will be Alexandra's special garden. Right before we left NY, Aunt Shirley gave us a beautiful Tinkerbell lilac bush to plant- a little bit of home away from home. The neighbors told us that this garden was once on the garden tour years ago, so we're hoping that David's green thumb can bring it back.

Gardens

The side garden has a stepping stone path that leads to the back yard. There is a church directly behind our home, and the playground is almost in our back yard. It's like we have our own playground!











This is our big renovation plan. My first project is heading to Home Depot to pick up some paint, and painting over those bathroom walls! Bye-bye mustard and ketchup!

-Angel