The House

Phew, it's taken a long time for me to take pics of the house!  I'm telling ya, I've been so off my game since we moved it isn't even funny.  We've actually painted whole rooms before I thought to take pics for before/after.  And I almost didn't take these.  It's a project house... lots of landscaping work to do, dishes soaking in the kitchen, half painted walls.  But oh well.  Gotta start somewhere right?  I either did it now or it would have probably been another 3 months.

So here's the new house.  Quite near the top of our priority list when looking for a home this time was a big yard.  And boy did we get it!  We love all the space in both the front and back of the house.

Privacy isn't bad either.

The kids also really love the massive, long and flat driveway to ride their bikes on.

This has become one of my favorite spots... especially in the afternoon - with an east facing front door, it's a nice cool place to relax and watch the kids play in that massive front yard.  Never mind the dying roses and massive weeds in the background.  Project #476.

Inside is also lovely, but not without a lot of projects.  It's not an old home but we just have a different vision for some of the finishes than the original owners.  I've barely gotten started but it's already been overwhelming at times.  You can see here in the breakfast room my crazy rainbow of paint color samples on the wall.  We chose none of them.  I think I need professional help.  For the house too.

Dining Room with the most unappetizing color on the walls - and ceiling - ever!  This picture doesn't do the mustard yellow/baby poo color justice.  Painting is underway there currently.

I really love this dedicated laundry room with tons of storage (another wall not pictured here is floor to ceiling cabinets and shelves).  The new washer and dryer didn't hurt either... who would have ever thought I could actually enjoy doing laundry!

Here is the kitchen - AFTER painting had begun (walls were same brown as breakfast room) but BEFORE it was finished.  

My biggest design decision/challenge so far has been whether or not to change the color of the trim.  It's currently a creamy off-white color which looks yellow and dingy at times.  Especially when you put nice fresh paint right up next to those cabinets and trim.  

I prefer a more classic white.  But there is a lot of trim.  And cabinets.  And built-ins.  Everywhere I look I see trim and am mentally exhausted just thinking about how much work it will all be.  But almost every other design decision in the house is affected by the trim so we need to decide.  As of this writing, I think we're going white.  But that could change again before the end of the day.

This is the only "before" picture I have of the hall/guest bathroom.  Oops.  It was red, red, red.  I have seen beautiful red rooms before, but this wasn't one of them.  It had to go.  By the way, have you ever seen 4 light switches for a hall bathroom before?  This owner/builder had a real passion for light switches but that's a topic for another day.

Here is the "after" - sort of.  The light fixture was originally hung way too low causing the mirror to cut off the head of anyone over 5' 5".  It is currently being re-hung and drywall patched.  But the awful burn-your-eyes red is gone!!!

And THIS is the entrance to our neighborhood.  Hello peace and tranquility!  So beautiful.