The before and afters

I am so excited to share these pictures with you guys! In case you've been wondering what we've been up to the last 4 months, this post should enlighten you. I seriously am going to have to relearn what I do with myself after the kids go to bed because my current gut reaction is a pick up a paint brush and paint something. Of course, there are still a bunch of smaller-scale projects we plan to take on but we are "done" enough with the remodel for me to finally go public with some pictures. Without further adieu, WELCOME TO OUR HOME!!!

 

I'll begin with the entry way before...

 And then after! This puppy was 100% Graham's vision. He had the genius idea to knock out the walls and add balusters and newel posts. These were thanks to a dear and very talented friend who does gorgeous work, am I right? It was also Graham's idea to paint the stair risers white. At first, I must confess I wasn't convinced (mostly because I thought I'd die if I had to paint anything else) but now that I see it completed, I totally love it.

Our home came complete with plenty of oak trim and arched 90s doorways which are no more. Here is another before view of the stairs and the archway entrance into the formal living room.

 And now after - much more open! The next step will be to furnish that living room (the table you see there is not permanent).

The formal living and dining room and enclosed stairs before. Note the coffered/lowered ceilings in the dining room, the lack of lighting and the archways.

And now the after - no more archways, raised dining ceiling, open stairs and lights! (Not pictured of course is all the rerouting of plumbing, electrical and heater vents that also happened. This room was essentially taken down to the studs, I kid you not.)

If you recall from my prior post, we almost didn't make an offer on this home due to the lack of openness in the floor plan, particularly in the kitchen/family/laundry. I don't know what the architects were thinking but the space was so non-functional with the laundry butting out into the kitchen and family room. When we first toured the home, I think I stood here for about 15 minutes just shaking my head. But, our hunt had proven we weren't going to find what we wanted in our price range in this market so we knew we'd have to make some sacrifices somewhere. We weren't originally going to knock down the laundry room in phase one of the remodel but Graham got a crazy hair one day and thought, what the heck, we're tearing down everything else, what's one more wall?

And here you have it friends...AMAZING! I am so glad we didn't wait to make this change!! The former laundry room was converted into a double-door pantry. This would be a good time to give a major shout out to my dad who was the mastermind behind the framing of all the lovely new 5 panel doors. All 27 of them (I would know - I spent a good percentage of my life painting them!!!) Also, please note Graham's amazing faux 5 panel door leading to the garage (below). He painted the door that was already there and then added thin boards to create rectangles for a paneled look - genius! Oh! And I can't forget that the room has another important feature: lighting!!

 Just in case you haven't yet wrapped your mind around how non-functional the area was before, here's another view with the laundry bump out (and the former garage door) on the left and the lovely pointless half pony wall there on the right.

And what it looks like now! (Kitchen remodel coming to a home near you possibly in 2106?)

 Next, I'll take you down the hall off the kitchen (the front door is behind us in the photo below). So. much. oak.

And then now!

The office before

And now with windowed French doors and a fun, bold ceiling.

We weren't going to remodel the bathrooms on this phase but let's just say someone "took out the vanity so we could install hard wood floors underneath it while the floor guy was here." It still remains a mystery how the vanity "accidentally" ended up in the back of a truck headed to the dump. It didn't help matters when one of our very large dry wallers *cough* used the toilet and broke the seal. One thing led to another and...

Now we have the most beautiful powder room I have ever seen!

Like, yeah. I look at these and wonder how we pulled something off so cool. The countertops are essentially handmade butcher block by my dad. And for the record, a 200 pound person could stand on the edge of the counter and it would only give 1/4 inch. In case you wanted to know. 

Remember how I said we had the living/formal dining room torn down to the studs? Well, the plus side of all that destruction is that you get to see what would ordinarily be left unseen. Like that there was totally usable space under the staircase!! This picture does not do it justice but if you come over, our kids will happily show you the carpeted "secret hideaway playroom" under our stairs (entrance at the back of our coat closet).

Let's move on to the upstairs hall before

And then after! Some paint, new trim and doors and a spray-painted fixture did wonders.

Here is Jack's room before

And then after. All the closets in the house were cheap bifolds which we replaced with lovely french doors (hence all the door painting!)

Another angle

The kids/guest bath before

And now after. For now we just updated the paint, trim and doors. A full remodel will commence someday...

Isla's room before...

And after

Isla's room from another angle before

And after

Emma's room before

And after

Another angle before

And after

The master before

After

Another angle

The bonus room before

And after - it's now the combination guest room, play room and laundry room all wrapped into one!

We bumped out the storage closets in the bonus room (there were two) and turned one of them into my new laundry closet. We rerouted the plumbing upstairs and added extra plumbing for a utility sink. I scored an awesome concrete countertop and sink from a second hand store and my father-in-law, the all-around-handy man and "contractor" through this whole remodel, built me a cabinet to fit using doors from the same second hand store. Someday we will tile behind the sink or do something fun but even as is, the area makes me happy every time I open the door.

One last view of the bonus room with the laundry and storage closets on the left.

 And with that, our home tour has come to an end. Many thanks to ALL the people who helped us tremendously with this crazy undertaking, particularly our two dads who put in countless labor hours. I look at these pictures and wonder how on earth we did all this in only 4 months. Whew! I'm sure there will be many more interior pictures to come but for now you get the jist. Next up on our list: barn door for the master bathroom, raised vegetable gardens out front and possibly a homemade giant farmhouse table to seat a billion. Just like everyone says, you never will really ever be "done."