3 V's: Our First House: Before and After

We've owned our house for three months now, so I figured it was time to do a before and after post. You've all been dying to see it, right? ;) Okay, maybe not, but Robert and I have worked very hard, and our family and friends have helped us so much, and we're very proud of our first house. When we bought the house we knew that the first thing to go would be the carpet. The sellers had three children and two indoor dogs, and holy cow, it smelled like they had at least five dogs! Eww... It's amazing what you get used to. You know, like the fact that we don't smell Mittens' litter box or Sarah's diaper pail! Anyway, the carpet had to go. I actually don't hate carpet, but it's so expensive, and I know hard surface floors are in style, so that's what we went with. I mentioned it earlier, but we were able to purchase the same wood laminate that was in the living room and hallway to use in the bedrooms and closets. We also painted all of the walls and the ceilings in the living room, bathrooms, and master bedroom. Let's hit up the nitty gritty details, shall we?

Throughout the House

Oil rubbed bronze interior and exterior door knobs. The sellers had a replaced a lot of the brass fixtures like the lighting and faucets, but they hadn't replaced the door knobs yet. Robert can't function when things aren't matching. I'm glad I'm able to go with the flow so much better. HA!
Washed the windows inside and outside. This made a big difference! I think I'll do it again this spring when it isn't freezing outside.
The door knob on the front door knob was installed upside down, so Robert and Pepaw fixed that.
The light on the back deck was two big for the space where it was installed so the top of it pressed against the roof and was disfiguring it. Robert replaced it with a smaller and brighter option!
Some of the windows had wood blinds and others had plastic mini blinds, so we purchased matching wood blinds for the remaining windows. They look great!

Living Room

We finally have a hutch to store Robert's Mamaw's china! I'm excited to no longer have it in storage bins so we can access it more easily.
The lighting got changed up quite a bit in this room. We replaced the canisters of the can lights over the fireplace so they're white now instead of brass. We replaced the brass ceiling fan without lights with an oil rubbed bronze fan with three lights. And we took down the track light that had three spotlights for artwork and patched the ceiling. It's so much brighter in here now.
We're loving our matching new navy couch and love seat!

I love how bright this room is with the French doors looking out onto the deck. We have to remember to close the curtains in the evening. I know that if we can see our neighbors watching TV that they can see us, too! Sarah really enjoyed watching the fire this winter, and it was fun to turn on. I like that our piano can be out in the open, prompting people to play it regularly.

Kitchen

Installed a microwave over the stove which really freed up a lot of counter space. The microwave was one of those projects that turns into a much bigger deal than you ever expected. The short story is that it was missing a bolt, we returned it, there wasn't a replacement in stock, we ordered a new one, and had success installing it. The long story is take all of that and add six hours.
New refrigerator with a fun water and ice cube dispensers.
Replaced the light over the kitchen sink. The old light resembled a seashell or something you'd see in a hotel hallway. Robert didn't even electrocute himself!
The shelf under the kitchen sink was rotten due to a leak that had been fixed, so we just took the final step and replaced the wood sheet as well. Hooray for no more rotten wood!

In my dream world we would replace the counter tops and the oven, but there's nothing wrong with the counter tops other than the fact that I got used to having granite in our townhouse and miss being able to chop things and putting hot pans on it directly. The oven works, but doesn't heat evenly, and you have to adjust the heat and temperature to have success, but if you'll notice, it's a drop in oven vs. a free standing oven, so those suckers cost about twice as much, so it'll have to wait until it explodes one day. We also really like our little coffee/baby bottle cart. I love our navy blue accent wall in the kitchen and in our bedroom. The sellers left two options for our lamp shade over the kitchen table, and we went with the smaller, off-white shades.

Funny conversation with two youth:

Younger brother: What's that box on the wall?

Older brother: You dummy! That's where they used to plug in the Internet when people had dial up.

Me: No! It's where people used to plug in land lines.

Both: When was this house built???

Ha! Now the spice rack covers up the box so we don't have to have that conversation again.

Guest Bedroom

The closet has become a bit of our office space. We have some storage containers, filing cabinet, and office supplies in there.
We kept the chair from our old living room set and have put it in here to try to give it a bit more of a bed and breakfast vibe for our guests complete with a side table, lamp, and alarm clock.

This room looks out into our front yard, and it's totally Mittens' room. Her litter box and blanket are in here. She spends hours sitting on the bed and looking out the window at the birds and cars. I know a litter box isn't the most welcoming thing ever, but after we thought about it, it was the best room. Nobody wants a litter box in the living room, kitchen, or your baby's bedroom, so this was the best choice. I like to think that most of our guests like Mittens so they'll still visit us even if they do have a litter box visitor at 4:00am.

Hallway

The accordion doors to the laundry closet were off the tracks and just hanging there, so that's been fixed!
I love that we've been able to use this artwork everywhere we've lived! Robert had a friend paint it for me when we were dating.

The sellers had a cabinet unit where the painting is, and I think the space is a lot more open and maneuverable now. When you come in the front door you can turn to the right to go down the hallway, and then it splits off. The master and laundry closet are to the left. The other two bedrooms and bathroom are to the right.

Guest/Sarah's Bathroom

Installed shower curtain rod and purchased new shower curtain. Why they took that rod but not the other one, we may never know. Where they had ripped out the rod there was some stucco missing, and Robert and I may or may not have gotten taken away picking out it. Yikes! We had to stops ourselves eventually and just sanded some of it to make it even and painted over it. It was like peeling the world's worst sunburn!

We'll never know why this room and only this room has stucco walls. Was there water damage and this was there way to repair it? Was the house built like this? We affectionately call this the weird bathroom. All I have to say is, Sarah's a very fortunate little girl to have such a stinking huge bathroom all to herself.

Sarah's Bedroom

Fixed Sarah's bottom dresser drawer
Swapped the fan in the guest room and the fan in Sarah's room to match the decor better
Once we ripped out the carpet I knew that I would want a big rug in Sarah's room so she could play and not worry about falling down and getting hurt so much. As you probably know, rugs are outrageously expensive. Since Sarah's room is already purple and vibrant, I was looking for a more neutral rug. We had great success buying a carpet remnant and having it bound for a fraction of the price of an area rug at Ross's Floor Coverings in Bolivar!

I've projected my love for purple onto Sarah, and I love it! This was the room with the dog kennels, and it was very dark and brown, so I feel like it had the biggest transformation. The sellers had fluorescent light bulbs throughout the house, and we've replaced them with LED light bulbs which has helped brighten up the place, but this room also just had very dim light bulbs in general, so the new lights really really helped in here.

Master Bedroom

Fixed a drawer in our dresser and chest of drawers
Four of the ceiling fan blades were turned one way, and one was turned the other way, so we fixed that. How did that not bother anybody before?
This room also has a navy blue accent wall. The tray ceiling is nearly black and it is chalkboard paint. Inspirational quote or Scripture to come. Suggestions?
Robert built us a platform bed that we really like. Upholstered headboard to come! The bed fits perfectly between the windows.

I love that Robert and I have separate closets!!! It's amazing! It's not even that either of us have tons and tons of clothes, but it's just nice to have separate spaces so we can keep our junk how we like it. I love that we were able to reuse the canvases that Elise painted for our wedding reception by hanging them over our bed.

Master Bathroom

Unclogged drains - This included pulling a shoe lace out of the tub drain. That always helps!
Our bathroom is the same color as Sarah's bedroom
New shower curtain - Robert picked it out. Kidding! I got to decorate this bathroom, and Robert decorated Sarah's bathroom.

I guess this room probably received the least work, but I think the change from sea foam green to purple was a big deal! My closet is attached to the bathroom, and Robert's closet is in our bedroom. My closet has a lot of shelves and organizers in it, and it's awesome!