our house is a very, very, very fine house :)

My DH and I just recently, last July, purchased our first home (yay!), and we are going to be doing a lot of work on it. Two of my favorite websites are Design Sponge and Apartment Therapy. Over the past few years living in our itty bitty one bedroom apartment, I have been stock piling inspirational pictures from all kinds of design websites to one day use on a house... and that time has finally come! I've started this blog to keep track of all the designing, demo-ing, renovating, blood, sweat, and tears that go into our first place. BUT FIRST, let me post some before pictures!
Living room
Notes: 1) My mother-in-law, who is an angel, bought me paint as a house-warming gift and then spent all weekend helping me paint the living room, dining room, and hallway (which all connect). We used a light green called "Northern Pear Tree". 2) Can you say "hello, natural light!" There are TONS of windows, and they are all huge! Custom draperies are on my projects list. 3) the fireplace... it's HUGE! It runs the entire length of the wall. My DH loves it... I will love it once it's got some fabulous built-ins on top :) We used it a lot this winter, and it is fantastic! 4) That was some of the smelliest shag carpet on the planet... it was the first thing to go! because...

There were gorgeous wood floors underneath! This house was built in the 50's and they added on an addition in the 70's. Only one family lived in it prior to us. (The husband designed and built it for his wife, adorable!) The wife loved carpet... it was everywhere... even in the bathroom!


UGH! The bathroom!
Notes: 1) See the carpet? Who puts carpet in a bathroom! I think it took my longer to tear this out, than it took to tear out the carpet in the living room, dining room, and hallway because it was really hard to get behind the toilet. 2) It might be hard to see much because of the GIANT 70's vanity cabinet. It's like 5' long, has sliding doors (that stick), and a boomerang diner style top (Which I kinda dig) The only thing I'll be sad about when this goes, is I will loose my little green sink... I like it... 3) Green sink, green toilet, nice big green soaking tub... adorable older home charm :) which I lurve! They aren't even a bad color of green... it's like a minty color, so basically precious! 4) the tile... it was (because I tore it out already) plastic tile in a green that didn't really match the toilet and a weird dusty pink color. Not my thing. 4) wall paper- not my thing, has been removed. 5) crazy fluorescent tube (sconces?) also not my thing... Haven't removed them yet. 6) The mirror- was big, which is a plus, but it wasn't framed out, and it wasn't a medicine cabinet mirror... not pretty or functional.
*I have sooo much planned for this bathroom! It's got a lot of potential, and I can see what it will be... and we just got our refund check, so I may get to work on it soon :)

The Dining Room
Notes: 1) I bought a fabulous 1940's Dinette set from Wisconsin Chair Company off craigslist (oh how I love thee!) The chair in this picture is one of the captain's chairs from the set. They have a windsor blue vinyl on them. I love them! 2) This room had a NASTY surprise for us!!! Everything from the light fixture back was the addition. (They put on the dining room, a sun room, and a garage.) I've already shared the previous homeowners' affintity for carpet... well, the did not extend the hardwood floors into the dining room addition. When we pulled up the carpet we found half hardwood, half plywood... :( but Justin (my dh) is laying down some click and lock laminate over it, and then we are going to re-stain the rest of the floors to match. It's a big project, but I think we can make it look nice :) and by we I mean he... naturally...





The Kitchen
Notes: 1) I loves me a galley kitchen! (The appliances aren't great though and there's a CRAZY vent, you can kinda see it in the second picture above the stove-top. It leads directly outside and sounds like a jet plane... not my favorite thing.) We aren't going to be able to do any "real" renovating on the kitchen for about 5-10 years, but that's ok because I get to cook in it and get a feel for it. 2) About two weeks ago, I started the massive project of sanding, priming, and painting all my laminate cabinets. (Pictures... erm, soon?) 3) more plastic tile, this time yellow and black. Yellow is my favorite color, and I kinda liked the yellow and black, but it doesn't go with my color scheme for the house, so I'm trying to figure out what to do... 4) Double stainless steal sink I heart you! (When I post pictures of the apartment's kitchen, you'll know why)


The Basement
Notes: 1) Only two lights downstairs are currently working, so I can't show you everything... There's lots more. Behind the wood paneling there is a laundry room and a work room. Behind the beads (oh yes, beads!) There is a big empty space that will be my ART STUDIO!!! (I could pee my pants I'm so excited!) 2) The 70's called and they want their basement back! lol, I love me some 70's style, but this is a bit too authentic for my tastes. 3) There's a second full bathroom, but..
.
it's gross... it's better now, we've worked on it since these pics were taken, but it's still gross! It's a man bathroom, which is appropriate since I'm gonna let Justin turn his half of the basement into a man den/ family room. This will be the boys bathroom. It's a COLD place to shower in the winter!

OK, Back Up Stairs!

There are three bed rooms...

Bedroom 1: The smallest, will be the nursery for future babies, but is currently our storage room.


Bedroom 2: Middle sized, currently the guest bedroom

Bedroom 3: (which apparently, I did not take a good picture of) The master bedroom. This blue is called "Charted Voyage" and both Justin and I love it.

That's basically everything... I tried to keep the tour cohesive, but somehow I forgot pictures of the sun room, so here it is.

We are going to make it into a game/play room for us and for said future babies.

WOO! that took much longer than I thought it would, but now all the befores are up, so I can start showing you some progress pictures... not tonight... I'll do that once I've recovered from this post, lol. (Oh and if you're thinking "she must be crazy" don't worry, you're right :) I most definitely am!)