Last year we hit the ground running literally the day after we closed. We painted almost every wall in the house which gave the whole house a new feel. We were also overwhelmed with a lot of orange oak wood everywhere. It was on the wood floors, trim, doors, windows, everywhere. We started the process on the main level of switching all of the wood over to white. It's amazing what a difference it makes!
The Living Room and Dining Room Before
The Living Room and Dining Room After
The Family Room Built-Ins Before
The Family Room Built-Ins After
One of the other big projects we took on was converting our garage from 3 separate doors to 2 doors. We couldn't get our cars through old doors, it was crazy! And it wasn't something realized until we moved in. So we had to have someone remove the middle brick pillar, install a new steal beam up above, re-do the brick and then get new garage doors. It was a big project but we are very happy this Winter pulling our cars in the garage!
Before
After
Another project we did with the garage was change how we enter the house from the garage. Where they placed the interior door when they built the house made no sense. It went into the laundry room which is a pretty small space to begin with. So we removed the door, closed up the wall and added a new door that goes into our large entryway. It functions and flows so much better.
Before
After
One of the projects I'm most proud of is what we did in the entryway closet. One of the things I really wanted when we were looking at houses was a mudroom. Knowing how young our kids are and all of the school, sports and activities we have ahead of us, we really wanted an organized dumping ground for all of their stuff. When we walked into this house it was one of the first things I said I didn't like about it because there was no place for a potential mudroom. We came up with a great solution though. We had a large double door entryway closet and I asked Michael if he thought we could remove the doors and build in lockers to store all of the stuff. I found some inspiration pictures on Pinterest and Michael and I built the whole thing ourselves! It was exactly what I wanted and came out better than I ever hoped. The best part is that it functions perfectly. We come in through the new door from the garage and you run right into the lockers. So the kids sit on the bench, take off their shoes, coats, etc. and there are places for everything to go.
Before
After
A project we did that was simple but had such an impact thanks to the power of paint was our front door. There was a really heavy and not to mention ugly screen door on the door and the front door itself was very beige. The brick on the house is white with some tan and gray, the garage doors were beige before we removed them so it was all a little monotone. Just removing the screen door was an improvement, but the paint made a big impact.
So now that I've shown you what we've done in the past 6 months, here's what we have planned for the next 12.
First is replacing our Kitchen and Family Room sliding and french doors. The wood on the door was never treated so it is warped, rotted and the doors do not open and close very well. We will be replacing both sets with white doors and trim.
Second is replacing the Family Room and Office carpet with Hardwood floors. The carpet in these rooms is 18 years old and is a berber with no padding. It's terrible. We want to rip up the carpet and install pre-finished hardwood floors and put down a large area rug.
Third is finishing white trim and doors on the main level. We have new trim in the kitchen, living room, dining room and entryway. We need to finish installing new white trim in the family room and office as well as painting the rest of the doors and windows white. We have 6 doors and 2 windows to paint.
Fourth is finishing and decorating the laundry room. When we had the door removed from the laundry room, we never sanded and painted the new drywall put in where the door was. We need to finish that new wall and then I'd like to add some open shelving and decor in there.
Fifth is a makeover of the kids bathroom. The kids bath is all original and it shows. We want to gut it in the next few years but for now I'd like to remove the shower door, paint the walls as well as the vanity, add new knobs, put a new light fixture in and add some new decor to give it a fresh look.
Sixth is landscaping. The people who lived here before had a lot of landscaping already but a lot of it was very overgrown and there was no rhyme or reason to its placement. It was as if they made a list of all the plants they liked and put one of each anywhere they had room for it. I'm too Type-A for that! This past Summer we tore a lot of things out, mulched all of the plant beds and planted some annuals just to have some color. This year we'd like to remove some more bushes and trees that don't make sense, plant perennials we know we love and have the right spaces for as well as build a raised garden bed in the backyard for a vegetable garden.
Seventh is our Deck. We have a pretty large, double-tiered deck that needs some love. It's 18 years old and needs a face lift. Michael and his Dad fixed the structure last Summer to make sure it is safe but now we need to replace all of the railings and either paint or replace all of the deck boards.
Finally is our Basement Flooring. We have the same terrible carpet in the basement as we do in Family Room and we hate it. We haven't decided exactly what kind of flooring we want to do down there yet, but we know we want to change it. We recently changed out the laminate floor that was in the bar area to some new wood-look tile so maybe we will carry that throughout, we're not sure yet.
So those are our project plans for 2017. We will see how many of these things we are able to complete and what items are added or removed to the list. I'll try to update as we complete things!
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