Welcome Home

After two months of home improvement projects, here's what we've done. None of the bedrooms have been touched yet and there's a long To-Do list for the backyard. But we feel pretty good about the progress we've made. I really love walking in the front door and coming Home.
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The only change to the outside: We painted the front door and the "shutters" a charcoal gray. They were both unfinished brown wood and pretty ugly before:
A few pumpkins and some flower pots make it feel slightly more homey. Down the road: I hope we put some wooden rails between the pillars and I can hang the flower pots on those instead:
Freshly painted door. Come on in!
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The front room.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
The original flooring in the house was carpet. The week before we arrived, we had a company pull it all out (except for the bedrooms) and they laid nice Oak wooden floors. We absolutely love them. Probably our favorite part of the house (next to the kitchen that is).

I hate that ceiling fan. Such an eye-sore. If we had more money I'd love recessed lighting in the front room and the kitchen. But....something for the future.

BEFORE:
AFTER:
As you can tell, not much decor in the house yet. That will come in the future. After living in a small space with red walls and too many things (for the small apartment), it feels so nice to have the big open emptiness. Not cluttered. I used to go to our friends Nate and Erica's house in Pasadena and say "it feels so clean in here!" (they have minimal decor also). Now I feel the same way about our place! It's kind of fun.

BEFORE:
AFTER:
These are our new couches. We bought them from this company, based out of California. The company can do ANY style or customization you want. They even have Crate and Barrel and Pottery Barn catalogues you can order from. The prices are great and our couches turned out beautiful. But I have to admit, this time around (I also used this company 7 years ago and my sister and brother have used them too) was a bit of a nightmare. They made the back cushions 2 inches too short (we had added extra height to the couch arms and they didn't account for this) and we had it shipped from LA to Austin for only $185 but it took MUCH longer than we were quoted and it was all ,well, annoying. I'm sure if you live in OC/LA they are great to work with.
The back cushions are being remade and we're just waiting for them to arrive.

moving on....
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The Office and Sewing Room.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Gotta do something about those cords (someone in the comments just recommended this. PERFECT!) Our "desk" is a dining table from Ikea and I love it. We went to Houston to pick it up because our Ikea was out of stock for 2 months.
My own sewing space!!! Dreamy. Oh, it is so wonderful to be in my own nook and not be taking over the kitchen. Of course I could still use an entire room to myself. But I'm perfectly happy with what I have. The pendant lights are those cheapy ones from Ikea and they are perfect. They really light-up the area and make it feel like a "work space".
This little dresser I found at a garage sale and gave it a face lift. It was dingy off-white.
BEFORE:
I sprayed a layer of Behr Ultra Pure White paint on top (and turquoise spray paint for the accent), found at Home Depot. Ultra Pure White is my favorite white paint. It is so clean and bright. My sister introduced it to me and I've used for everything white in our house.
AFTER:
Casey made me these little shelves and they house my sewing trinkets perfectly:
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The Kitchen and Dining Room.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Sometimes I'm off with the paint color of a room first time around. But this yellow (Behr's "Desert Lily") I absolutely love. It's light, airy, and just beautiful. There have been other things in the house that I've second guessed. But not this paint. Hooray! The table still needs to be painted with the Ultra Pure White. The pendant light is from Ikea and the medallion wasn't really intended (we were trying to move the light over and hide the cords) but I like the look of it afterall. Down the road: French doors for the back porch. Sliding doors like these are always atrocious.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
* We removed the dreadful florescent light boxes and (until we can afford recessed lighting) Casey installed track lighting. Much better.

* I repainted the pantry door and windowsills/frames in Ultra Pure White.

* The countertops are Sile Stone/Quartz. We are very happy with the updated and nicer look. We greatly regret however, getting the rounded edge. I think it looks kinda silly and cheapens the over-all look. But I'm getting past that. Such a small detail. Next house we'll do it right.

* A new single-basin sink is awesome! I can fit an entire cookie sheet in there to soak. What a dream.

* We still need to add a backsplash. I really like this or this.

* The small bar above the sink still needs to be painted. It used to be cheap formica up there. But we bought wood and made our own "countertop".
The kitchen was very brown and boring before. So, I also repainted the cabinets. It sounded easy at first but ended up being an 8-step process (sand, prime, flip and prime, paint, flip and paint, 2nd coat, paint edges, touch up edges). Phew. Worth the effort!
We added new handles to all the drawers (Ikea) and wow, what a difference.
more BEFORE:
AFTER:
We extended the island countertop by a foot, so that it works as bar for the kids to sit and eat. Still need to get bar stools.
And since Casey knew I wanted to take After photos of the house....he showed up with these pretty white flowers. The perfect touch! And white seems to be my favorite house color these days....
Our bodies (and budget) are worn out from all the projects. But it's been really nice to make the home our own. We feel very blessed. Of course I miss the charm and character of older homes. And two things I find SUPER annoying in newly built homes:
* rounded corners on all the walls. Dumb. Ugly (in my opinion). Makes it hard to do molding, painting, and edging stuff.
* Off-white walls and off-white everything. Why do home builders do this?? They all chose this slightly dingy off-white color. Thus, I've been painting any doors and window frames, baseboards, etc. in WHITE as we go along.

And that wraps it up for now! Friends and family are always welcome to come visit and stay with us. We just got a trundle bed so there's a guest bed ready for you!

Thanks for stopping by.