movin’ on up

Some big news from my little corner. In probably less than two months, we’ll be picking up and moving our stuff to a nicer, bigger home. Yup. A couple weeks back, we put a bid on a HUD home and were notified within days our offer was accepted. I will (obviously) give you way way more details on the new abode later on.

We are in the process of trying to sell our home right now. It’s very, very sad for me. I really love our house. So, because I’m feeling sentimental, I wanted to do a post about our first house complete with tour. Lots of photos ahead.

We picked it up in 2006. It had been vacant for a while – maybe a couple years? And a rental (a couple of frat-boyish bachelors) before that. The neighbors gave us the scoop. They all seemed pretty happy having a couple kids move in who turned it from this:

To this…

…in a matter of months.

Here’s what she looked like last fall, after some plants matured, we re-roofed the place and painted the front door (sorry about the shadows):

Oh yeah – that’s the travel trailer we bought from our neighbors last fall. Cute, huh?

Here’s a rundown of the work done on the exterior {in no particular order}: sprinkler system redone, raised vegetable gardens, built a shed, planted 6 trees and countless shrubs and flowers, mow strip in the front yard, new roof, new trim around the garage and front door, new front window, newer and bigger patio, flower beds around the fence line and in front yard, fixed and functional gates on the sides of the house, ripped down the old, gross shed…

Phew. Makes me tired thinking about it.

The insides were as bad. Everything was pretty grimy and sad. Water damage in the basement, WHITE (but gross) carpet, WHITE (but gross) walls, WHITE (but gross) cabinets.

Everything was white, white, white. You know… but not crisp, clean white. Gross. We redid a LOT. The entire house has been painted, including trim, ceilings and doors. Some of the rooms painted twice. We redid the flooring in all the bathrooms and main living areas and refinished the basement and basement bedroom. We replaced nearly every builder grade light fixture, faucet and mirror to prettier, nicer versions. We changed out the sliding glass door in the basement to french doors. We replaced the yucky carpeted stairs with new painted wood treads and risers and installed a runner on them.

Here are some photos of what are house looks like as of now {some of these are the pics on For Sale By Owner websites}

KITCHEN/DINING:

I fight with the size of this kitchen every week, but it’s super efficient for a small family. It’s when hubby wants to help cook or I want to have people over for dinner, or make room for a new appliance, that I really have to get creative with space. I had plans for some open shelving installed at the left of the bank of cabinets, new counter tops and bead board back  splash, but now we obviously won’t be doing those things. We’ve somehow had 3 Halloween parties, a New Years party, many cooking events and several family dinners in this little area.

LIVING ROOM:

This room gets rearranged a LOT. Instead of getting furniture I really wanted for it I just moved around what I had all the time, and swapped out accessories. I can’t seem to get it right and wanted to one day put some built-ins along the back wall.

MASTER BEDROOM:

This is my favorite room. It’s the perfect size – big enough but still cozy. We made the headboard out of some plywood, and I’ve kind of just collected things from all over, so it’s kind of a mishmash but I really like it. I was just about ready to paint this room a nice dusty blue/green color.

MASTER BEDROOM CLOSET:

A walk-in closet is such a luxury! I love mine, and I tend to sort and re-sort and organize and reorganize all the time. It’s super-orderly and all my clothes hang by color and my boots are lined up with empty wine bottles to keep them upright.

MASTER BATH:

The wall color is a really pale green. I really love this room; it’s so spa-like.

OFFICE:

When we first moved in I painted this room lime green. It was kind of fun, but I started going for more grown-up decor shortly after and greiged it up.

CRAFT ROOM / OFFICE:

I am suuuper lucky to have my own space for projects. The closet in this room contains lots of crafty stuff, as does the dresser. Mostly this room is for blogging and homework, as crafting seems to be low on the priority list these days. But it’s perfect for all my projects, even if it’s just epic Christmas-gift wrapping sessions, sorting bins for organizing projects, or spreading out cookbooks for menu planning. The next house will have one less bedroom so I won’t be getting my own (finished) space for a while, which is ok. I have appreciated and loved this one. (:

UPSTAIRS BATHROOM:

I picked dark brown for the walls of this bathroom originally then re-did them later to this nice grey/tan later, swapping the giant wall-sized mirror and standard fixtures for nicer everything. I love this one.

GUEST BEDROOM:

This room was unfinished when we moved in so everything’s new. Nothing notable with the decor {it’s kind of a use-what-we-have sorta room}.

FAMILY ROOM:

This is SO my husband’s room where he plays Black Ops and does his P90x workouts and watches Dude Stuff on Netflix. {I just try to make the room look nice}. He did an amazing job redoing this room, putting in track lighting and can lighting and ceiling fans. The awkward shape is a decorating challenge but I feel like it’s finally looking like a room I am not embarrassed of. ha. I am always moving things around and adjusting, trying to “lighten up” the room since it’s long and skinny and filled with dark, hulking furniture! I love the french doors he put in. We leave them open when we are in there in the summer time.

BASEMENT BEDROOM:

This room’s rather plain and we haven’t done much to it yet. It was next on the things-to-do after new counters in the kitchen. The right-hand wall is a closet where our washer and dryer go. I am admittedly very excited to have a real laundry room in the next house but this one’s served us ok.

BACK YARD:

This house has a pretty huge yard. We put so much work into this yard and it’s not nearly done. I really hope the next owners (or renters… we shall see) take care of it. We’ve had quite a few cookouts, badminton tournaments, and dinners on the patio in this yard once it was whipped into shape. Great memories.

So, that’s the tour of our first home. I am excited about getting to set up a new place but I really really am attached to this one. I know I will cry for hours when it’s final {I am getting teary-eyed now thinking about leaving}. But I feel so lucky we bought this house at a great time and were able to put sweat equity into it, and that we were able to take advantage of a bad economy to move into a newer, bigger investment home. It makes perfect sense to do it and I can’t wait to get started on the moving process! … but I will miss this place so much. Wish us luck on selling this one! Ads and posted and fliers are in the box out front. Hoping for owners who will take care of it like we did!