House Tour

As long as it's been, I think we need a house tour!
We are so so excited to be in our own place (although admittedly the magic is wearing off as the renovations to the basement march on) but it's all starting to come together.
Today we'll look at the main level and then we will get to the basement at a later date (but not too much later). Come on in!

First things first. To help you get a lay of the land, here's a floor plan I built on floorplanner. It was a little time consuming but after a few drafts I think I've got it put together about right. It's not exactly precise since I didn't do any measuring, but it feels pretty "right" with everything in it's spot and about where things are in relation to one another.

So. Here's what you see when I greet you at the front door, with a plate of home made cookies. Right? When we were looking at houses (50? 80? We saw so many!) I knew that I wanted at least and entry, hopefully a formal living room, and possibly both. Seeing the kitchen from the front door is a deal breaker for me, and it's really helpful to have a dedicated space for me to teach my piano lessons, which I do a few days a week. I've read a few articles here and there about trends for homebuilding in the next few years and how the formal living room is going to be a thing of the past, and I get it. First time buyers like us don't usually have a use for a room like that, or the furniture for it, would rather allocate that square footage to kitchens, great rooms, bedrooms, or pretty much anywhere else... I get it. But for me, I really wanted a formal living room for my little business that I spend so much time on each week. 

 

 And so, to the right off the front door is our formal living room. Once the basement is finished the room with hold my piano. And the carpet and paint (chirp chirp). I am planning some fabulous floor to ceiling curtain panels a la pinterest, but that's for another post another day. Sometime (hopefully) soon when we own more than one couch there may be some seating and such in there as well. 

And here we are looking back at the front door. 

Just after the parquet floor there is a hallway leading to the bedroom side of the house. Nothing crazy here. If you're already feeling like things are mighty bland and oatmeal-tastic, you are right. This won't last long. Our house was a foreclosed property, and in the time between short sale and foreclosure it was pulled from the market and painted top to bottom in builder beige and got new (beige) carpet. Yay for new carpet, boo for beige! Carpet this light is rough with little kids. We plan to replace the hallways, living, family, dining and kitchen areas down the road with hardwood, once we've worn out the carpet.

 

The first room on the left of the hall is Evan's room. Super exciting, no? I haven't decided what color to go with here, but it will likely be something great. Ha!

 

The closets in the kids' rooms are pretty tiny, so I'm hoping to get some solid cataloging systems in place for storage (more on that later), as well as getting some good under the bed storage and closet stuff in place. The good news? Kid clothes are small! 

Here we are looking back into the hallway.

Abby's room is also on the left of the hall, at the end. Her room is laid out similarly, but the location of the closet is making the layout of the furniture tricky. More work to be done there. Whenever the third little one shows up (not an announcement!) we will likely have the same gendered children in Evan's current room and the single child in this room.

 Across the hall from Evan's door is the main bathroom. It seems that it underwent some light renovations before we arrived on the scene, and it's sporting some granite tile counter top and tiled floor. Like every other cabinet existing in the house, the vanity was painted. This one has a sort of creamy color with a brownish glaze over the top. Not my cup of tea, so it will eventually be stripped down and painted, probably white.

 Because the house was vacant for nearly a year, all of the appliances and things were weatherized. Still working on removing those pesky and super strong stickers alerting people to the weatherization from the toilets, windows, and appliances. Yuck.

 These were all taken the day we got the keys, so this is pre-shower curtain. It's already looking more colorful and lovely in there just with that little addition.

Next up we've got the master bedroom. It's hard to tell size from these pictures but I suspect that will be a little easier once we've got some pictures with furniture to show you.

 The master bedroom is actually a really great size... it's not overwhelmingly large so that it feel vast and empty but not so tight that it feels cramped. It's a lovely size actually. The closet is that door on the right in this picture. Nothing too exciting there... yet!

 The master bathroom is kitty corner to the closet, and it's weird. There is a room for the vanity and a room for the tub and toilet. To allow for everything to fit there is a small bump out at the back of the house, but the roofline is such that it makes a weird fur down type look opposite the vanity. It's not my favorite. This vanity got painted and distressed, but it will be lovely once we strip it down and refinish it. Another thing on the list is to replace the counter top to go with new paint on the walls like everywhere else.

 See the fur down? Love my golden fixtures? I haven't even used this tub yet and we've lived here for over a month... I guess it's time we own more than one shower curtain and rod! I've got plans for a shower curtain in here though. Sewing, I love you. I would have opened the door in this room further, but I can't. For an unknown reason there is a double tiered towel rod behind the door so this is as far as it opens. I would like to move that towel rack to the wall behind the toilet and perhaps take the door out completely. Would have been a great place for a pocket door if you had to do a door... oh well. 

Heading back down the hall toward the other end of the house now, we've got the laundry room. This is the open door you saw when you walk in the front door. I like to keep that door closed all the time. No one like to see someone's dirty clean laundry all stacked and nicely folded when they walk in the door! (The closed door here is the coat closet, and the open one is the laundry room).

The laundry isn't too exciting right now... but it will be.

 

 Who doesn't love a basin sink right where we need it? 

 

Coming out of the laundry and hanging a left we come to the kitchen/dining/family room. Let's start in the kitchen, shall we?

 Oh yes, it looks so nice and light and beige and whatnot. But I will tell you a secret friends. Sometimes pictures lie. Don't worry though... I was fooled too. And then we saw the kitchen in person. It has so many good things going for it. The layout is fabulous. The kitchen lets in a ton of light, and has the most amazing view of the whole valley through our backyard since we live on the benches of the Rocky Mountains. There is a lot of storage space.

 It has a built in fridge, which was just barely a topic of conversation over at Young House Love.

 So many good things. See how open it is?! I love that.

 But, here are the lies. Do you see this bad paint job? And when did we start using baseboards for back splashes? It's clear that the paint was a quick job, not to be done right, just to be done quickly. It's such a shame. The doors weren't even removed before painting.

 They are chipping, feel yucky, and have brushstrokes everywhere you look. On the agenda is to strip them down (like the others) and do it again- the right way. Someday I will get a new counter top as well. Out with the dirt colored laminate! Other things to consider- new hardware and new appliances. The fridge is ours and the stove, dishwasher and microwave came with the digs.

  Let's think of something less pitiful that poorly painted cabinets. Let's talk about the fireplace wall. At the moment we've got our TV up here in this family room and our tiny apartment table under the chandelier, but once the basement is done the TV is moving downstairs and the dining room can spread out a bit. I anticipate styling a most fabulous mantle here. Can I just tell you though how un-fun it is to have beige carpet in a dining room with a 10 month old and a 2 year old? No good. If ever you are tempted to make such a decision, resist.

 I love how these french doors let in so much light, but still fighting with them a little bit regarding traffic patterns. We will work it out thought... it's worth it for french doors.

 Someday the banister will be getting a little facelift... I'm seeing a nice strong newel post in a nice deep stain with white... again, painted up right.

 Next we will head downstairs. I can't wait to show you all the crazy that's going on down there! Already we have framed, started on the lighting and electrical, replaced the water heater, installed a water softener, and the furnace is being replaced as I write. Basement tour coming up next!