Before And After

I've been promising you pictures and I finally have them.  The addition is done.  The final touches are complete.  I figured I'd better take some pictures of the room while the boys are downstairs playing (fighting?) and the room is relatively still. 

BEFORE:

Here is the room before. 

Please excuse all of the Packer decorations.  I don't have that many pictures of the room because it was so small and such a strange set up that it was hard to get any good shots. 

AFTER:

We knocked down the south wall and extended out 10 feet.  What a difference 10 feet makes!  It feels like a whole new house.

The patio doors now face the east which is a better view than before and the doors don't get in the way of the furniture.

We came in under budget so we were able to buy new furniture.  Todd always wanted a recliner so we broke down and bought a his/hers set on a HUGE clearance sale.  Then we added an enormous couch in the addition portion.  You can see Gracie lying in one of the end pieces (she isn't feeling good the poor lil plum).  I can sit there (and it is like a chaise because it is so wide) and all of my kids can snuggle in with me in that one section or we can all spread out and lie down.  We definitely have enough seating now.

I just love my new family room.  It is so bright and cheery.  I love my window over the couch.  It has a great little ledge where I can set my coffee.  Love that.

We ended up designing a stained glass window for the west window.  We wanted a window there to bring more light in, but we didn't want to stare out at our garage.  It works perfectly.  I love it.

I love that I can sit on my couch and look out at my patio.  It is such a nice little view.  I can see my flowers, my tomato, pepper, and pea plants.  I can watch the birds in the birdbath and the hummingbirds at the feeder.  It is awesome. Love.

So there you have it.  Our new addition.  It was a major pain in the butt in the process of constructing it, but it was well worth it.  We are so happy with it. 

PSF- Done!

Hosted by Cecily Do you remember this picture?
This is what our house looked like when we first bought it one year ago. Of course we knew the entire house would have to be redone. You've seen all of those pictures here, here, here, and here.

These are the pictures of the outside of the house. A whole other project in itself. You know we had to fill in the in ground pool that was in the backyard. You know we had to cut down all of the rotten trees, level the whole yard, put in a new driveway, add a patio in the back, put up a new fence in place of the rotten fence, and then replant all the new trees, bushes, flowers, and grass.

But we had to wait until spring to do most of that. So for the rest of the year the yard looked a lot like this.

I had a hard time keeping the boys out of the dirt. It was not fun. And not pretty. It got pretty depressing looking at it all year. Thankfully, we were finally able to get to the landscaping this spring and our grass was planted a month ago.

Ladies and gentleman! We have grass!

And trees, and bird baths, and bushes, and flowers!

And more flowers! I planted 32 pots of flowers (and 6 pots of tomatoes, peas, and peppers) and yet somehow it doesn't even look as though I have that many in the yard. Humpf.

And this is the new fence (that just needs to be enclosed on the side now that the heavy machinery does not need to get into the backyard anymore).

The boys are no longer restricted to playing in the driveway (although they still love to ride their bikes up and down it).

I love watching all of the birdies picking around in my little rock gardens.

I've always loved spending time outside and now I really love it. What a difference grass and flowers can make.

Now if I could just find a way to get the bunnies and deer to quit eating my pansies and impatients I'll be doing great!

The Rest of the Story--- The Reveal Part 2

Let's resume our tour, shall we? Follow me upstairs.

I know this first picture isn't a great picture but I wanted to show you the chandelier from upstairs and also the wall that was built in place of the old, rickety, low wrought iron railing that used to be there. I love this hallway now, and I don't have to worry about my children falling over the railing. Yeah!

Immediately at the top of the stairs in the master bedroom, but I'm saving that for last, cuz it is my fav. Walk around the hallway and the first room you come to is Grace's room. I probably should have taken new shots of the bedrooms because they now all have curtains and a few more homey touches, but you get the idea. Look! Isn't it pretty? It is a warm peach color that matches perfectly with her bedding set. I love this room. It feels so cozy even though it is pretty large. I still can't believe that I have a girly room in my house. :)

The next room is the kids' bathroom. We painted it a bright blue to look kind of tropical and then had a fishy theme going on. You probably can't see it but the shower curtain is adorable cartoon fish, and the toothbrush holder, kleenex box, soap dispenser, and tumbler is the same set. The boys LOVE IT. I even put their fake fish tank on the sink top and when they take baths we turn off the lights and turn the fish tank on so that they feel like they are "under the sea". Very fun!

Now we are moving on to Joey and Tommy's room. I just took one view of the kids' rooms but where I am standing there are also double closets, which will be a huge bonus as they get older. Looking at it in this picture the room looks kinda small, but it isn't. Lots of room for both boys to play. And the little farts have THE BEST view of the lake. They can wake up in the morning and watch the sun rise over the lake if they want to. Not that they appreciate it now, but maybe when they get bigger?

This is Ben's room. This color green is just gorgeous. I LOVE this room. It actually has so much room that I wasn't sure what to do with all the space. We took Todd's grandma's recliner that used to be in our basement and put it in his room and I think it looks great in there. His dresser went to Grace and I took the dresser from our downstairs bathroom at the old house and put it in his room. Surprisingly it matches really well.

Okay, let's head back around the hallway and go to MY ROOM! It is a really nice size so I took a couple views of it. This view is from the hallway.

This is the view standing in front of our bathroom door. I wanted you to see this view because they built the wall where my dresser is and added a huge walk in closet (I should have taken pics of our closets. They are awesome). I was worried it would make the room feel much smaller, but it really didn't. There used to be sliding doors where the windows are now, but we took them out (because we took away the catwalk that used to be on the outside).

This is the view standing by my dresser. My closet is on the right and the bathroom door is on the left.

Remember the old master bath? If not, please take a minute and check it out here. It was pretty freaking scary. This is the new master bath. We knocked down a few walls (took out a weird closet and a laundry room that was on the other side of the old master bath) and I can't believe how much room that gave us.

Look at my freaking bathtub!!! Not that I've gotten to use it yet.

Opposite the bathtub is the shower. Ooh-la-la! I love this shower. So good.

I never thought I would have a master suite. It is amazing. I can actually take a shower or go to the bathroom without worrying about waking the kids. It is crazy! And I can read in bed at night without thinking that my squeaky floor will disturb the sleeping munchkins. AND, with the awesome curtains I found (Joe and Tommy's room has navy blue, and the rest of the bedrooms have chocolate brown) everyone is sleeping later, which HELLO!, freaking rocks.

So anyway, that is the upstairs. I still could show you the basement which is set up like a movie room and also has the boys' playroom. And I could show you the first floor laundry too, if you like, cause I love my laundry and powder room. Oh, and I still haven't shown you our views of my much loved Lake Michigan. I could do that too! And of course the front and backyard. I'm sure you'll want to see those too. When we finally plant grass, that is. I guess I'll wait on that one.

Needless to say, the house is now feeling like home. Todd and I look at each other every once in a while and say, "Can you believe we live here?" It doesn't seem real. It really makes me smile to think of how we got here (we lost the bid on that first house and I was devastated, remember?), and how it all just fell into place. I guess that is just how life works sometimes.

The Reveal- Part 1

Okay, I think you have all waited long enough. I finally have some pictures of our new house for you. Mind you, we don't have any pictures hung or any window treatments, but other than that I think it is pretty much done.

Before you view these pictures I suggest you go back and look at this post so you can fully appreciate how HIDEOUS the house was before. :)

This is the outside of the house. It used to be all white with white brick. We hated that. We also added gables over the front left windows and the garage to make it more visually appealing. We have our landscaping done except for the grass. I'm not sure we will be able to fit that in this year since it has gotten so cold so fast. Grrr. But at least the boys have this huge brand new driveway to play in (if it ever stops raining). Yeah!
You walk in the front door and this is the view. Remember the heinous crystal chandelier? Yeah, that wasn't our style. We took that down, painted the iron railing and tore off all the nasty wallpaper. It makes a huge difference. This chandelier is also on a dimmer switch and makes for such beautiful mood lighting when you walk in at night. Ooooo.

This is my kitchen. I LOVE IT. I am so happy about it I could cry. It is huge. And we have a kitchen table! That is so exciting for us I can't even tell you. It is so nice to eat dinner (and breakfast and lunch too) around the kitchen table every night. This view is from the living room looking into the kitchen. You can't see from this view but on the other side of the fridge there are three huge pantry doors. Oh how I love my storage. Also, the patio doors are just out of view on the right hand side.

Now we are looking at the living room from the kitchen. I realize now that I should have adjusted the light on this pic a bit because the light washes out the color of the room. It is a real mellow yellow throughout the kitchen and living room. It makes everything so warm and cozy. Remember the ugly wall of stone where the fireplace is? We riped that crazy stuff out and also knocked down a wall to the right of the room to make it all bigger. It worked great! It isn't the largest living room around (plus we have a massive family room down in the basement for the boys to spread out in) but I actually prefer the cozy feel. I love this room.

The door on the right side of the room takes you to my laundry room, a half bath (which I didn't get a picture of because while I love the tile we chose the rooms really aren't that exciting) and the garage.

This is our dining room. It is massive. I don't even have furniture to fill up the room. Eventually we will get a buffet table or something but for now this will do. The chandelier here matches the one in the hallway (which is where I was standing to take this pic).

Here is my beloved library. There is a lovely, large window to the right just out of frame with a lovely seat next to it. I couldn't get it all in the frame and didn't want to upload too many pics cause Blogger is so slow. I love this room!

That concludes the tour of the first floor. I will take you upstairs to the bedrooms (I have a PINK one now!) and bathrooms later this week.

So, what do you think so far? I am definitely loving it.

Patience Is A Virtue

I am a fairly patient person but lately I have had a lot of waiting to do. Not only am I eagerly awaiting the arrival of our little lady, I am also counting the moments until we are in our new house.

As of Friday we no longer own this house. We are now renting the house that we have lived in for the last 7 years until we can move into the new house. Why can't we move in now? Well, remember when I said it would be a huge project? Yeah. It's huge. The contractors are working at lightening speed but there is still so much to be done. All the major interior projects have been done like the electrical, plumbing, HVAC work, addition to the garage, and framing all the rooms in as they should be. Now they have to start making it look like a house.

I took some pictures of the progress so far to give you an idea of the scale of this project. Today the windows will be coming in and once those are in the siding and the drywall can go up. From there I think things will be moving even faster than they have been so I wanted to get some shots of the house as it is now.

Here is a quick little tour:

This is our lovely spiral staircase at the entrance of the house. See my library off to the right? Isn't is grand? You can't tell? Hmm.
This is where my kitchen sink will be. I love the huge window over my soon to be sink. It looks out onto my massive backyard. See? This is the view from my window and only a portion of the backyard. This is where our patio will be. Todd is dreaming of sitting on the patio drinking beer. Doesn't he look thirsty?

This is where my kitchen table will go. Another very large window. I love it. It makes me look small. hehe

This is the view from where the kitchen table will be. It looks through our kitchen into the family room to our beautiful fireplace. Ahhh. Cozy. The new dining room. And another massive window.

This is our new master suite looking into the master bathroom. Oooo. I feel relaxed just looking at it, don't you? Okay. Maybe not yet. But I will.

Anyway, you get the picture. Major work has been done and major work still left to be done. I am hoping to be in the house before the boys start school, but we'll just have to wait and see. For now we will just keep renting and reminding ourselves that patience is a virtue.

(Can't remember what the house looked like before? Click on my "The New House" label on the bottom of this post.)

A Guided Tour

Okay, who wants a tour of the new house? A show of hands, please? Okay. I thought so.

I took a bunch of "before" pictures last Friday after we closed on the house, and I'm really glad I did. Monday morning our contractors (two brothers from a Loooooooong line of carpenters who still have dad in on the design and budget side of the business) got to work gutting the house and by the end of the day the house was unrecognizable. It was amazing. The guys are work animals. I know it is only the first week, but I think we struck gold finding these guys.

Before I begin this tour I must warn you not to get scared. I think it is saying something that everyone I have taken through the house so far has asked me if I've seen the movie "The Money Pit". Yes, I have. And I don't want to talk about it. ;)

The house has great structure, but everything else needs to go. Remember, this was a foreclosure property. So just bare that in mind, please.
Let's start outside.

(Click to enlarge all photos)

What you can't see in this picture is the wood rot around the windows, the crazy bumpy, cracked driveway, the ugly front porch, and the hideous front door. It doesn't look that bad from this distance but up close it is a hot mess. But, BUT! It is right on top of Lake Michigan. If I just panned to the left of the house you would see it. I forgot to take a shot of that, but we are up on a cliff basically one house away from the lake. We step out of the front door and can see my beautiful lake. And you can hear the waves too. Love that!!!! You all know how much I love my lake. :) If not, see my label on my sidebar for Lake Michigan.

Okay, back to the house. We are staining the white brick to a nice, warm tan color and residing the rest with a warm brown. Gables, new windows, and a new front door will be added and the front porch will get a nice renovation too. The garage is going to be extended into the backyard to make it more like a 4 car garage. It will still look like a two car but will have a ton of space for Todd to have his little workshop, or do whatever it is he wants to do in there.

Let's move inside, shall we?
This is what you see (minus the weird old briefcase someone left there) the minute you walk in the door. It really caught our eye. I love it. Obviously not the dirty carpeting, the nasty wallpaper, or the rusty chandelier, but the structure of it all. We are putting tile (I think slate) in the entrance way, new carpeting on the stairs, a new wood railing, and a fabulous wrought iron chandelier in the center. We are unsure of the wall color as yet, but probably something like a warm tan color.

Now let's go upstairs.

The first room you see at the top of the stairs is the master bedroom. It is really large so I needed to take two views of it.
The patio doors will be taken out and the catwalk outside the doors is being ripped out because it is rotten. We are installing a window to match the rest of the windows on the backside of the house.

The little alcove you see right next to the patio doors will be enclosed and made into a massive walk in closet. There is another walk in closet on the other side of the master but it won't be as big because we are using some of that space to make the master bath bigger.
Here is the crazy master bath as it is now (well, before it was gutted, that is).

And this is the very scary shower that was in the master bath. There was a laundry room behind this wall, so that was knocked down making it one big bathroom that we can easily fit a double sink, toilet, bath, and walk in shower. Very exciting!

Okay. We are moving out of the master bedroom and walking around the open staircase to the other side of the house where the kids' bedrooms and bath is.

The first bedroom you see will be the baby's room. It is bigger than it looks but I only took one picture of it. All of the kids' bedrooms are nice size and have wonderful closet space.

In between the baby's room and Ben's room is the bathroom. It is a nice size bathroom but you can't tell because the vanity (the longest vanity I think I've ever seen) takes up the whole room. We will still have double sinks, but the vanity will be normal size.

Like I said, the other side of the bathroom is where Ben's room will be.

Next to Ben's room is Tommy and Joe's room. It has double closets and the BEST view of Lake Michigan. Lucky little turds.

Now let's go back downstairs. Around the open staircase we go! The railing is really weak and VERY low. Everytime the boys go in the house I pull them to me and don't let them anywhere near it. We are replacing it with a rounded wall which will be much more safe and sturdy, but will still keep that open feel.

At the bottom of the staircase on the lefthand side is an office. I am turning it into a library. Shelves EVERYWHERE.

I think this is one of the rooms I am most excited about. I have always wanted a library/study since Todd took me to London and we stayed at his friend's gorgeous home. He had a library room that I fell in love with and now am going to try and copy.

A built-in desk will be put in where the wetbar currently is.

Walk across the entrance to the right side of the stairs and you will see the formal living room. Todd and I have never been a fan of formal living rooms. They seem to be a waste of space. So, we are making this room our formal dining room.

Walk through the now planned dining room and turn right (it is an L shaped room) and that is where the original dining room was. We are putting up a wall to make the L shape room into two rooms and turning the former dining room into part of our kitchen. Basically where we will put our kitchen table.

This is the view of the kitchen. On the other side of the furthest wall is where we plan to put the kitchen table so we are knocking that wall down to make it all one room. The window on the right will be taken out and we are extended the countertop further and adding a breakfast bar at the end of it.

This is the opposite view of the kitchen, looking at the family room. The patio door will be closed up and moved closer to the kitchen to give us more furniture options. We are also knocking out the right wall of the family room to make the room bigger. The fireplace will get a big overhaul. Those weird flat stones will be knocked out and shelves (I am a huge fan of shelves, by the way) will be built on either side.

And, last but not least, the backyard. It is actually much bigger than it looks in the picture. I just didn't want to back up anymore and wind up in the pool. The pool (on the bottom left of the picture) will be taken out and filled in to have more grass and room for the boys to play. There is a tiki hut and changing room to the right of this picture that is rotten (and has a bees nest in it) will be torn down and we will probably put a playset there for the boys. The shed is also rotten and will be torn down. A few of the trees are rotten and have to be cut down, but the yard will still be encased with trees. I love the privacy. We are also putting up a new fence since, yep you guessed it, the current fence is rotten. The patio will be torn up and a new one put in. Whew! I think that about covers it.

On top of all that I have mentioned, we are also putting in a new furnace and all new duct work (since it had an old boiler system that needed to be replaced anyway), new pipes, adding walls, and taking others out. All new interior and exterior doors and windows too. There is another half bath on the first floor next to the garage entrance (kind of inbetween the library and the family room), along with three nice sized closets. I forgot to take pictures of that area but that is gutted as well. And I didn't take any pictures of the basement because it was just too dark and scary, but we are finishing that off too. There will be a movie room (like a man cave I suppose) and a playroom for the boys. My laundry room will be down there too. Basically everything in the house will be new. It will be like a brand new construction.

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Saturday we are going to pick out all of our kitchen cabinets, bathroom cabinets, and countertops. Very exciting, people! Also very consuming. I have been dreaming paint colors, furniture, and light fixtures the last few days. I think my brain is at it's capacity now.

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Tomorrow I will post the first week's gutting progress if you are interested. The house looks so different. Kind of scary that it looks better without the carpeting and everything in it but it really does.

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Okay. Go ahead now. Tell me how crazy we are. We know. But we also know it will be amazing when it is done. We are so lucky to have found this property at a third of it's value. There is no way we could have afforded this neighborhood (or house) otherwise. Once all the work is done the house will be worth twice the amount of money we put into it. It is very exciting. We are just keeping our fingers crossed that the process continues to go as smoothly and as quickly as it has so far.

(If you got through that extremely long post, I. Am. Impressed! Sorry about the stars at the end here. I think I have too many pictures and my spacing got all messed up)