It's been awhile since I've given a little New Home update. These last few weeks have been crazy to say the least, and we were nervous in March that our entire renovation would have to come to a screeching halt. Luckily, things have continued smoothly for the most part and we are still on track to finish the majority of our renovation in early May.
Not the best time to be selling a house, trying to move, and trying to coordinate a renovation - but, we've been rolling with it.
Here's a quick little peek at some of the changes that have been in the works...
First order of business was a quick refresh for the outside. We pressure washed, replaced any rot or damage, and brightened her up a bit. Out with the yellow and in with some fresh white, new shutters, and re-designed front entrance.
I kind of want to put something in the center peak, but haven't decided yet. Any thoughts or suggestions?
We've got all sorts of big plans for that pile of brick. And not just for the outside either. We liked using brick as a backsplash/wall in our current house and wanted to bring that element and then some over to the new house. Stay tuned.
But it will be used for the garage wrap as well. Which by the way is starting to look less like a garage and more like the living space we envision.
The old garage will now be home to our mudroom, a guest bedroom and a full bathroom. We are building a new detached garage with an attached hallway this side of the house. More on the why and the details of this to come, but this by far was the largest part of our renovation.
The powder room was one of the first rooms I knew I wanted to redo. Mostly because the orange faux textured paint that here before wasn't my style. It's a work in progress, but luckily you can order everything on the internet these days (including this sink!) and all the extra elements to this room will be done soon.
Top to bottom, every room in the house was repainted. We overall lightened everything up and went more neutral. Except for one room...
My office I decided to go a little bold with color and chose Sherwin William's infamous Iron Ore to decorate my walls. I think it will all come together in the end with what I have in mind, but if not...at least it can be changed.
The dining room ceiling is probably one of my favorite parts of the entire house. This room has changed a ton from it's original look, and I couldn't be more pleased with how it's shaping up.
The stairs going upstairs were painted brown instead of stained brown. The paint was starting to wear off - especially with the amount of traffic and tools being used on them during the renovation. So while it wasn't in our original plan we decided to fix them now to match the rest of the house while we weren't in the home.
We also chose to update and change the banisters as well since they would need to be replaced anyway.
Sorry for the crooked picture. There weren't any banisters or rails on the stairs during the time of installation and I'm apparently faint and the thought of heights. So this is me crawling on the ground to stay low, standing up for a quick pic, and then crawling back safely down the stairs. Needless to say it was entertaining for all involved.
But this is one of the kids rooms. We have this same trim and shelving in their rooms today and like it so much we just told the carpenter to replicate the kids current rooms. They've done so many projects for us over the years so I just let them have at it.
The basement has probably been our other biggest project during this renovation. It was already finished, but didn't necessarily have the right set up we were looking for. Also, having a husband who works in construction helped us realize pretty quickly that some of the things they did to finish it out weren't really safe or up to code. So we gutted most of it, and started from scratch.
This used to be their basement kitchen, pantry, and refrigerator area. It will now be a living room.
And what used to be the living room will now be the bar of all man cave bars. This is us spending one of our pre-quarantine date nights mapping out where every bottle, wine fridge, cube of ice, and - most importantly - television will go.
Listen, if we ever get out of quarantine - drinks for everyone. You're all invited.
There still seems to be a lot to do, but our general contractor (a.k.a the husband) has told me we have about two more weeks before it's move in ready (minus the garage).
Like any project it's had its ups and downs, but considering all the snags that we could have had along the way, especially these last few months, its gone way better than I expected.
I'll share a more detailed update once every things finishes! But for now we're excited to use the outdoor space when we do visit and enjoying the fun process of making it our own.
And keeping my husband off Zillow.
