Hi!!! Welcome to our home! Think of this as a virtual open house and you are invited! So come on in, grab some imaginary cheese wedges and punch, and take a look around! After 6 months of a hard core renovation, our home is starting to look more put together. Many of our rooms are still in progress but we will be updating things as we go. Please, have a look around. December 2013 marked the "end" to a major renovation on our home. We tackled A LOT during that time. Exterior. Our most recent project. We tore down the single care garage and built a mudroom and 3 car garage. Plus we added a space above the garage to build an in-law suite should we need it in the future. Plus Plus we built a wrap around porch!!!! Which is basically the best thing ever (you know, other than Jesus, my husband, and my child.) The Plan: We still need to do a lot of landscaping... or any at all. We plan to build a rock retaining wall in the front due to our rather steep front yard. We'd love to have a fire pit area and a play set area in the back. Foyer. We added an overhead light and upgraded the trim. We added hooks for coats. We also switched out the front door and the door to the upstairs. The Plan: -Eventually, knock the wall down to reveal the stairs, install beautiful railing. Living Room. We removed the window to the left of the fireplace. Added trim to mantel and installed a beefy wood mantel. We knocked down the wall to the kitchen and then widened the opening into entryway. We upgraded the window and the opening trim. We removed the carpet and refinished the floors throughout the house. Full disclosure: this is what our everyday living room looks like. But for the purposes of this home tour, I cleaned up for ya'll. We love our view of the river! The Plan: -Built-in bookshelves around fireplace -Crown molding Dining Room. We upgraded the trim and light fixture. The wall between the dining room and kitchen is gone. We added beadboard wainscoting to tie the two rooms together. We upgraded the door that leads to the garage. The Plan: -Paint Door -Replace some of the more rickety chairs Kitchen. The kitchen was closed off from the rest of the house so we opened up two walls. We nixed the soffit and the door leading to the outside. We closed off the doorway to the hall in order to make room for the refrigerator. We added hardwood to the kitchen to create a better flow from room to room. Added an island. The appliance layout was basically kept the same. Taken from the exact same angle this pictures shows what a difference taking down two walls can make! The Plan: -Nothing. Its perfect, I'm never going to change it. ever. The Hallway This hallway had 8 doorways. 8. And it was not a very big hallway. We got it down to 4 doors. We closed off the entrance into the kitchen, bathroom, and two closets. We upgraded the trim and doors. I also think that this picture most clearly shows difference between the floor before it was refinished and then after. Goodbye orange, hello chocolate! (Technically it is called jacobean, if you are interested). The Plan: -Paint -Add art to the wall Nursery. This room was originally the master bedroom. And it was a pretty good size. But it was not connected to the bathroom and we decided that it was more important for us to have a master suite on the first floor than it was to maintain the current layout. So we stole part of this room for our master closet and created a new closet for this room. It has drastically decreased the size of the room but it is still a great size for our future nursery. Plus the view from the front window is pretty awesome--lucky babies. Here is the room after we renovated it down to it's current, smaller size. And now that the nursery is done. update: He seems to like it! The Plan: All done for now! For now it's an outdoorsy, camping theme... for future babies... we'll see! Master Bedroom. Originally this was the smaller of the two existing bedrooms but we widened it by absorbing some inefficient closets from the old master bedroom, hallway and bathroom. We added a door from the bathroom to the new master bedroom and we added a master closet. The Plan: -Art work, personalize it. Master Closet. We created the master closet from scratch by taking some space from the old master bedroom. The closet organization system is from IKEA and then my uncle built shelves for boot storage. Who's got two thumbs and is one lucky girl?... ... This girl!!! The Plan: -Touch up paint -Paint trim -Add a more exciting mirror -Figure out some way to store jewelry Master Bath. The master bath got reconfigured from the vanity being on the south wall to being on the western wall. We absorbed more inefficient closets (this house had a large amount of small closets in a concentrated area) to create a larger bathroom. We utilized that extra space to add a clawfoot tub (remember our tub that we scored on craigslist and that we christened Harriet?) and a walk in shower. The Plan: -Possibly add some sort of window treatment Well ladies and gentlemen, that brings us to the end of all the Phase One projects. Although, I didn't mention that we tore off all the old plaster walls, put in all new insulation, added new drywall and new trim everywhere, upgraded/reworked the plumbing, and added a geothermal unit for heating and cooling. Here is the rest of the areas of the house that we have not gotten to yet. Garage. The Plan: -Convert current garage into 1/2 bath and mudroom -Build new garage off of old garage -Pave driveway Basement. Previously the basement was "finished" but we demo'd it since it was in such gross shape. We grinded the floors and painted it with Kilz to get rid of a bad, bad pet smell. The Plan: -Finish it. -Movie/Media room: Add big sectional, storage around fireplace, -Laundry room: tile, add cabinets and counter for folding clothes, storage shelves -Bathroom: complete gut job, possibly change tub shower into standing shower -Pool table room: light fixture, some boilermaker pride (of course) -Area around walkout basement: tile, build in storage for crafting supplies and toys, large table for crafting/ parties, cabinets and mini fridge for parties and convenience Walk out Patio. The Plan: -Build porch over top -String twinkle lights underneath -Possibly add an outdoor ceiling fan underneath -Add fire pit nearby Attic. The Plan: -Finish it. -Two Bedrooms -One bath -Possible open area for computers/studying -Plenty of built in storage to optimize use of knee walls Also See our Christmas Tour here. Thanks for stopping by our virtual open house! We are so happy to have had you! What was your favorite part of the tour? Was it the imaginary cheese? My favorite before and after might be the hallway... surprisingly. I just love those new floors! Michael's favorite is the view from the living room into the kitchen without the walls - so open! Don't miss a beat. {Follow this blog on Bloglovin'}