The Kitchen

I realized after starting this whole "Home Tour" that I did NOT have very many pictures of our kitchen before.

Then I truly realized why.  I could barely stand on one side of the kitchen and take a picture of the other.  It was TOO close.  It was that small.  Literally it was 10' by 10' square.

Not to mention that in that square there were THREE doorways.

One to the basement...one to the dining room...and one to a hallway.

MISERABLE.

Looking back I don't even know how we functioned.

In the picture below I was standing in the HALLWAY!!!

 

All that is missing from the above picture is our refrigerator on the right side. 

BRUTAL

So after 3 years of remodeling the above kitchen we decided to add on to our house.

And presenting...the NEW kitchen

 

It has EVERYTHING anyone could want in a kitchen :)

 Awesome Pottery Barn Lights

 

 A farmhouse sink

Tons of cabinetry...

 Bookshelves

 Hidden storage

 Double ovens, a warming drawer, AND a tv (which hooks up to the internet so I can view Pinterest and ALL of my recipes are right in my kitchen)

 I stalk the tile...it's my fave

 A bar area that is not quite finished...we have to purchase our ice maker and mini fridge :)

A breakfast nook for seating

****I made these awesome curtains using a tutorial that I found on Pinterest.  Make some...NOW!!!

More awesome lighting

 And seating at the island :)

 And with a fridge THAT large it's perfect for entertaining!!!!

 Right next to the kitchen is a little hallway with a chalkboard...This mini area USED to be our old kitchen...yikes.  Where the chalkboard is used to be where our old fridge was.  It was miserable.

 I don't know that I would have changed a thing when adding on to our kitchen.  I love the colors and the spaciousness.   We are totally spoiled.  We went from 10' by 10' to 16' by 32' of HEAVEN!

Thanks for coming by!!

The Living Room

On to the first room in the house on this lovely home tour. The living room was grand and bland.

Not an ounce of color on the walls and I partially understand their fear.  It is a huge room and a huge paint job.  You must get the color right.

The view out the windows and doors was beautiful.  I STALKED this window from the second I laid eyes on it!!!

 The two story living room was beautiful.  However, not beautiful is this disaster of a chandelier.  I must admit it's still in the house.  We have yet to tackle that LARGE of a disaster. 

 

 Under the staircase was this little "nook." I love it.  And I still have big plans for it someday in the future.  And please excuse our random placement of furniture in all of these pictures.  Move in day was a CIRCUS!!

 This is basically the opposite view of the living room.  I was standing right in front of my favorite window.

 And the last before picture is that of the fireplace. How sad is this fireplace???

Here are some updated photos of our living room

 We went with a bold blue-grey color.  The room needed color and I am thrilled with how the color turned out. 

We still have yet to find our "dream sofa."  But the old one has worked fine.  I truly love the Pottery Barn furniture that we got.  I love the contrast of the blue and black.

 The wall of the fireplace we decided to leave white.  The fireplace is still a work in progress.  We can't take the black tile and gold fixtures, but improvements cost $$$ and that one will take a LARGE chunk as we all know :)

I already want to change this room up big time.  I want to make a sitting area in front of the fireplace.  We originally needed this secondary eating area because our kitchen was MINI sized.  But with that upgrade this area can go.  I see this room getting a major renovation probably next summer.  :) whoops!!!

Here are some close ups of different areas in the living room :)

I would like to get a cute table for the entry area...

The bar next to the fireplace...and yes that is a leg lamp that stays out YEAR long :)

 Our map of Greece broken up

 Where I am typing from right now :)

 Our stairway...maybe my favorite part of the room

I hope you enjoy our living room!

Home Tour Part 1...the OUTSIDE

So, as promised, I have decided to tour our home with you.  We have done so much since moving into our dream home, that I wanted to document all of our hard work.  As we pulled into the driveway the day we first looked at the house my husband saw my face...and he knew it was GAME OVER!! This house would be ours. 

Here is the before picture of our home about a week before we moved in. 

 Here is the front of our house now.

Like in the sneak peak you will notice that the main difference to the front of the house is the color of the shutters.  I was 100% NOT involved in this decision.  My husband mentioned to me in passing that he was thinking of changing the colors of the shutters...I was partially ignoring him and I came home one day and BAM...black shutters.  A very risky move on his part...but I must now give him props.  They look AMAZING!! Points for hubby.  He just needs to NOT give me heart attack next time. 

I am sure you also noticed two additions.  One one each side.  To the left is the kitchen addition and to the right our master bath and bedroom.  We will get to those later on!

The next view is a side shot of the house BEFORE...

 Side of the house AFTER...

If you go back to the before picture the main thing that you should notice is a CREEPY and I mean CREEPY little curved hallway that basically connected the main house to the "Man Cave."  It was strange, partially too far below water grade, smelly, non air conditioned and every horrible adjective you can use besides maybe unique. That was ripped out and a new kitchen was put in it's place...a fantastic and amazing DREAM kitchen. Also, boring shutters were added, but I figured I should mention them!

Before shot of "Man Cave" central...

After of man cave...

Again, just shutters and taming of some out of control plants, but happiness is all over my face for my husband and his room :)

This view is the before shot of our back yard...

 I seriously gag every time I see that picture.  These were the most overgrown, pain in the butt bushes I have EVER seen in my entire life.  The roots went down for MILES and you couldn't even see the back of the house.  NOT family friendly in ANY way.

Then move to AFTER...

Hello patios, plants, seating areas, hot tub and vision of the house to the back yard!! :)

And if you step back a bit further...

 Magical Paradise for two cute kids :)

After you see every room in this house it may still shock you that the yard was the absolute selling point.  We have trees and plants in our yard that are over 50 years old...and gorgeous.  I could have built an old southern colonial style house like this on our land that we quickly sold after buying this house...but there was NO way in my lifetime could I have replicated that awesomeness that is the yard.  More yard pics to come later.  I will leave you with this Southern Magnolia tree flower.  Thanks for visiting!!

Home Tour

So I have decided...very soon I will be hosting a mini home tour on my blog.
Since our addition I have been wanting to show all the magical goodness that we added on to this ANCIENT house.
We have ripped apart and redesigned almost EVERY room in this house.  There were some disaster rooms, and some not so bad.
But, this was the first house Jimmy and I bought TOGETHER and it has been amazing turning it into a home.

I will get started immediately!!

This is the first and easiest before picture...

So you see why I fell in love immediately???
I love old houses.


Sorry this picture is crooked...I will take a better one tomorrow. But the main thing you may notice is that there is an entire ADDITION to the house on the right side.  We also switched out ALL the shutters from white to black.

I wasn't sure about my husband's choice of shutter-color until I saw them afterwards.  I can't argue...the boy's got good taste!!!

Ok one more teaser picture...

  True or False...this is in our master bath?? :)

TRUE...only now it looks like this...

So this is just a preview of our home tour to come.  Keep up and enjoy!!

I have the itch...

Not the scary burning type of itch...GROSS

But time for a new project itch.  Like I can't wait for my husband to go out of town so I can redecorate itch.  HA HA.  I guess maybe I will just have to settle for when he's at work...which is tonight and tomorrow :) Woo Hoo.   However I am going to attempt to tackle something kind of big...by big I mean time consuming and this is what I'm going after...

I want to recreate this STELLAR pattern on my wall.  It probably won't be too overwhelming since about 3/4 of the wall are covered in tile...so it will just be the tops.  But, we shall see.  The amazing tutorial can be found HERE.  Now to the paint store and to get my supplies right after work...and it's on...like donkey kong.

Tonight's mission...get everything drawn out onto the wall...tomorrow day and night...PAINT!! I really want to use the color palette as seen here below...

This closet makeover is AMAZING.  Check it out HERE.

So I am thinking something in this grey with the above pattern!! Ideas?? Who's with me??

Updates to come :)