The Home Tour: First Floor

Well, yesterday marked the one-month anniversary of moving into our new home!  I have wanted to post pictures, but I haven't because everything has been such a disaster!  Our ward boundaries were re-aligned three weeks ago, so Adam has been crazy busy meeting all our new ward members, extending callings, etc., which has left me to settle in pretty much single-handedly!  Don't get me wrong, Adam has been a huge help when he has been here, he just hasn't been here all that much.  ;-)  And we had TONS of help initially from ward members--moving, unpacking, changing locks, fixing a broken toilet.  That was HUGE.  But since then, it has been pretty slow going, but I am getting there!  In one month's time I have:  painted the master bedroom, the living room, and the office (including sanding and re-painting all the baseboards); re-finished the living room mantle; sewn ten curtain panels, installed new curtain rods (that was one Adam helped with, too!) sewn a dozen throw pillows for living/family room couches,  unpacked the entire house (with the exception of one box of curtains that have yet to be hung), deep cleaned almost everything, bought new furniture and decor items, hung pictures on walls, and somehow still managed to get dinner cooked most nights ;-).  It has been possibly the busiest month of my life, but I am just starting to feel like things are getting settled.  And that feels great!  

Here's the exterior of the house from the front yard:

Our biggest project initially was to replace/install new lighting throughout the entire house.  NONE of the bedrooms had lights in them, and all of the lighting downstairs was dated and in my opinion, ugly as sin.  So we hired an electrician from our ward to install lighting upstairs and replace all the old fixtures downstairs.  That was a project I loved--I got to choose out all new fixtures and didn't have to do any of the work of putting them in!

ENTRY

Before:

 After:

DINING ROOM

Before:

 After:

The dining room light is nearly identical to the entry light, only it is a 5-bulb fixture instead of a 9-bulb. Other than the lighting and putting the table in, I haven't done much to this room yet.  My mom is coming in a couple weeks, and she is going to help me re-cover my chair cushions.  I also need to make a table runner or something to pull in the blue from the living room.  Just not there yet.

KITCHEN

Before:

 After:

The kitchen lights are my FAVORITE!!  When we bought the house, there was a wooden box with flourescent lighting inside over the kitchen island.  Blech!  I envisioned two pendant lights hanging over the island.  We looked at some island light bars and other options, but when I found these lights I just knew they were the winners.  And I absolutely love the difference they make!

In general, I really like the new kitchen.  It is open, bright, and spacious.  The granite is definitely my style, but the bummer is the oak cabinets.  Oak cabinets and I are just not friends.  But, I have refinished cabinets before and I will do them again.  I am planning on that as my summer project.

I made these kitchen curtains out of tablecloths I found at Target!  I just loved the pattern, and it was the exact color I wanted!  And some of the hemming was already done for me--bonus!

I have a walk-in pantry for the first time in my life, and I am a little obsessed!  And these wire racks that the previous owner had fastened to the wall are perfect for organizing the little things that have a way of getting lost in a pantry.  Love!

Another cool feature of our new house is that there is a double staircase--one set comes down to the entry, and the other side comes straight down into the kitchen.  It a nice, convenient feature!

BREAKFAST NOOK

Before:

After:

New lighting and new table and chairs in here.  

DECK

Not much to say here, except this is kind of a big deal.  We have never had a deck before, and I am SO looking forward to the barbecues and summer evenings that we will get to spend out here.

LAUNDRY/MUD ROOM

Also a big deal.  Although I do miss my upstairs laundry, it's so, so nice to have a dedicated laundry room, rather than just a closet.  And I totally love that there is a huge coat closet in the mud room, too.  That was just some good planning right there!

FAMILY ROOM

I still have a fair amount of work to do in here, but it's coming along.  I want to put large pictures of each of the kids over the long mantle shelf.  And I still have some painting and other decorating to do in here.  But the sectional is new and super comfy, and it's a fun, comfortable room.

OFFICE

POWDER ROOM

 LIVING ROOM

Before:

 After:

 

This is my favorite room in the house!  It's also where I have spent the most time and energy.  We put in a little semi-flush mount light because when we bought the house, there was NO LIGHT at all in here.  I painted the walls and the trim.  I found some inexpensive frames at Ikea for my little photo collage wall, and I spray-painted a few turquoise.  I still need to make curtains in here (I am thinking sheer panels in the darker turquoise color), and I need to replace the glass on one side of my coffee table.  But I feel like it's coming together in here exactly the way I planned.  And that usually doesn't happen, so I am thrilled!

I also re-finished the mantle in the living room.

Before (This is actually the master bedroom because I totally spaced taking a before photo of the living room firepace!  But the actual mantle was identical in both places.):  

 

After:

The mantle actually took me NINE HOURS alone to complete.  We are talking sanding, three coats of paint (I didn't prime--dumb, I know!), and a lacquer to finish.  It was so much work!  But I love the way it looks.  I found a few fun new trinkets and used that trusty turquoise spray paint again on some old items to pull it all together.   Oh, and a family photo will go in the big frame.  Also, I have been told that you can actually spray paint the gold on your fireplace black for an updated look.  So that project will likely be happening in both the living and family rooms in the next week or two.  

So there you go!  Main floor tour complete  Upstairs photo tour coming soon!