A few house before and afters

Next week it will be a year since we closed on our house, which is kind of mind boggling.  I feel like we've only been here a handful of months.  Where does the time go, already?!  Anyway, I thought it might be time to take a look at some of the things we've done to our new place - it helps me switch my focus from my to-do list and feel good about our what we've already done.  I should mention first and foremost that Jon (and his dad) updated almost all our electrical wiring over the past year, which has been VERY time consuming - there was some very weird stuff happening with the wiring.  I'm so glad that's (almost) done, and now we can focus more on things that aren't hidden behind the walls.  Yesssss!

So here we are right after closing, almost a year ago:

I can guess what the poor guy is thinking, because I was thinking the exact same thing!

And, a few after photos:

Gratuitous cat photo. You're welcome. :)

Some thoughts on what we've done so far:  

1) We LOVE the look of the polished concrete floor in the living room, but it isn't holding up well at all.  {{insert me sobbing}}  I'm not sure if that's because we live in a damp, humid area, or if the finish we went with wasn't right.  I'm not actually sure what we'll do to remedy this - we've been looking at putting in hardwoods, but of course that's big $$$.  {{more sobbing}} Or maybe we'll have it done professionally?  For now, it looks really great...from a distance.

2) The painted tile and vinyl flooring might be the best thing I've done so far.  It's durable and neutral, both a win in my book.  We are currently shopping for a new kitchen flooring, but since we won't be tearing our the tile in the rest of the entry way/dining area, like ever, thank goodness we thought to paint it.  

3) Paint.  I've always been all about the color all the time (anyone remember my lime green bathroom?) so it felt a little risky to go with a white palette for our new home.  But, I love it so much.  The space is light and airy and it makes me happy.  Henry likes to tell me that it's very modern. :P

In the works:  I'm currently painting Henry's room - Havah's room was finished last month.  Jon is gutting the powder room and hopefully will be finished this month.  We'll put new flooring in the homeschool room and kitchen this fall (fingers and toes double crossed).  I can't wait to post more pictures of those projects soon!

House Hunting

We visited this house last month, but realized that I never posted it.  It was built in 1972, 4 bedrooms, an office and 3 bathrooms. Truly beautiful hardwoods, nice sized pool, on a golf course, and lots of light (a must for me!).  Things that we didn't love were the popcorn ceilings, a little too far from Jon's office, a deck that will need replacing in the next 5 years and just general updating, like the kitchen.  Our children LOVED this house and still ask if we can buy it. Even though it had a lot of cool spaces, in reality it was probably a little too big for us (3800 sq ft.).  I don't want a home that is so large that it feels like we rattle around in it.  I know, I'm a little weird.

Standing right inside the front door. Immediately to the left is the office.  Kitchen and eating area is to the left of center, straight ahead is the living room, and the long hallway to the right leads to the master bedroom.

Leading to the Master. A guest bathroom is to the right.

Master bedroom. 

Master bath and two closets

I really liked this room!

kitchen - that mirror needs to go!

Living room

Living room/dining area

dining area

Upstairs living room/family room area (and silly kid)

upstairs living/family room area

upstairs deck area

one of the three bedrooms upstairs

second of the three bedrooms

spiral stairs leading from the upstairs deck to the lower patio

backyard area

cannonball!

two kids that didn't want to leave

the view from the front door

Even though we toured this home last month, it's still on the market.  The asking price is about 30k more than we want to spend.  If it's still available in another month or two, maybe we'll revisit it...?

Some days we are feeling discouraged about what's in our price range that is close enough to Jon's office - just giving him a thirty-five minute commute instead of an hour and forty five minutes.  It's hard to know what to do: get a small home that needs to be almost entirely redone but is close(er) to Jon's office, or a bigger, nicer move-in-ready home, but leaving him with an almost 2 hour drive...? The days are long for him with his 12 hour days, and we miss him, but on the other hand, we reallyreallyreally don't want to spend all our free time doing house projects.  :|   Sorry to complain - I guess I'm just thinking out loud. For now, we keep praying everyday that God is preparing just the right house for us.

What would you do?  I would LOVE to hear!

House Hunting

Today's open house was a 1950's bungalow. I'm not gonna lie, this one hurt a little. A lot actually. The Realtor said it had been listed Friday, had multiple offers within hours, and for all intents and purposes, was basically sold. When she said that I weeped a little on the inside.   (Dramatic much??)

This home had pretty everything we need and/or want.  Closer to Jon's office. An older home with some good updates, but still room for our touches. An amazing neighborhood. A huge yard. Square footage for our needs -not too big or too small.  Even more importantly, it felt like *us*.  

We talked a long time with the Realtor who said people are basically making offers sight unseen. The problem with this market is this just isn't how Jon and I operate. Making an offer sight unseen or even within an hour of seeing a property just isn't gonna happen. Also the market will slow down in June but the prices will go up. She also told us not to take too long to find a house because it's easy to get into a holding pattern of never making up your mind - that there are lots of people who never buy because they just can't decide. Great.

In the meantime, I'm praying God will continue to lead us to the right home and neighborhood. One even better than this. Right?

We loved how the back side of the house wrapped around the back yard in a "U" shape.