Our New House ~ Befores and Afters {Downstairs}

It has been almost a year since we moved from Georgia to South Carolina so I guess it is time to do a little house comparison from where we started to now.  While there is still a lot on the to-do list, I think we have made this house into a comfortable home for this family of seven.  Yes, every space has an occupant and a function.  There are no wasted spaces here.  I really don't want a larger house at this stage of life because I find it is easier to clean and maintain a smaller house with less room for clutter and junk.  I do like that this house has ample closet space for storage although I have worked hard to downsize the amount of extra stuff we need to store.  Our storage spaces mostly contain holiday decor, my crafting supplies, and my husband's hobby paraphernalia.  Almost every room has undergone some level of changes although our master bedroom and bathroom have seen the least attention so far.  Those are next on the list.  

Front of the House Before - It really hasn't changed that much although some of the shrubs have been removed and replaced.  We still want to get rid of some of the larger shrubs blocking the front porch.  

Front Porch - Before

Front Porch - After

We just moved in our old porch sign and patio furniture.  I did add some bright new chair cushions and a magnolia leaf wreath. 

I think it is a nice comfortable spot to sit in the morning.  It gets full afternoon sunlight which can be less pleasant. 

We did redo this large planting area that had some huge overgown invasive shrubs and some dead ones. I hope my azaleas and hydrangeas will grow well in this spot.  

Foyer - Before

The brown stripes had to go first in the dining room.

As did the dark brown walls in the formal living room. 

Foyer - After

We did add some gray stained barn doors because the formal space became a bedroom for our teenager. 

The view into the dining room.

The foyer has not been painted yet, but that is on the list.  It just isn't as critical since the light green isn't too terrible.  We also plan to redo all the floors in the downstairs to a seamless hardwood that flows throughout.  It will be a lighter color than these dark reddish brown floors. 

Dining Room - Before 

Dining Room - After 

The dining room has a fresh coat of light gray paint that complements our newly painted dining room table and chairs.  We still want to replace the chandelier and the floors, of course.  Also, there is always a birthday being celebrated around here.  Haha! 

New flooring is definitely one of our biggest future projects. 

Living Room - Before 

The mustard yellow wall had to go so we just gave all the walls the same fresh gray paint. 

Also, realtor photography loves wide angle lenses.  Their furniture was huge. 

Living Room - After 

New couches are definitely on the list one of these days as we've had these since 2005.  They have held up well though. 

Our big living room project will be a big fireplace renovation and some built in cabinets and shelves on each side.  I really want that storage space for my family photo albums.  

We did recently purchase a new TV console from a local woodworker who built it.  I still want to style this wall with something between the portraits.  

The center of the house contains walkways to the kitchen and foyer and stairs with a coat closet and pantry as well.  It's a lot crammed into one small space.  That is not my favorite feature. 

My favorite feature of the living room is the little cutie patootie who snuck into this picture.  

Kitchen - Before 

It was very yellow and brown with poor lighting from those hanging yellow pendants. 

See how the stove looks super wide.  That's the wide angle photography trick used by realtors.  

They had mounted television brackets in every room so we had to do lots of removal and wall patching.  Oh and that gross brown accent wall had to go too. 

Kitchen - after

The eat in kitchen area is smaller than I would like, but I am thinking about possibly a banquette table in the corner to save space.  The light fixture would have to be moved to be centered over it somehow.  For now, I did paint the top of our old table white until I decide what to do.  

I went back and bought one more hook to complete this wall, but my husband still hasn't put it up yet.  I just love having somewhere for the kids' school bags to hang so they aren't thrown on the floor or table.  

So far the main changes to the kitchen are the wall color and the lighting.  Although deceiving in pictures, it is so much brighter now.  Everything was very yellow and brown and dark before.  

Our next decisions to lighten and brighten this smaller kitchen space is to paint the cabinets and replace the flooring with something lighter.  While I would love to change the countertops, I probably can't justify that expense so we are trying to decide how to tie those colors into something lighter.  Possibly some crown molding and molding on the top of the cabinets will be added as well to give it a higher end custom look. 

I would love to at least remove that high bar top and just make the countertop all one level so it is more open to the eat in kitchen area.  We don't really like using the bar top so it usually holds the kids' school computers while they charge. 

Formal Living Room - Before

Very dark chocolate brown and very large heavy furniture

Evan's Bedroom - After 

Much lighter and brighter now with light blue wall color.  We used the same two colors throughout the house because they are our favorites.  It is funny how this same color blue/gray can look so different in different rooms with different lighting and accent colors.   One of the downsides of his room was that there was no ceiling lighting.  We may hire an electrician one day to install lights, but Evan really doesn't mind just using lamps.  

Red will always be an accent color in Evan's space with it being his Daddy's alma mater's colors and the accent color from his nursery.  Most of the art in our house was made by one of us.  Evan painted the paintings in his room. 

The sliding barn doors from the inside of his room.  

Downstairs Bathroom - Before

We joked that we wanted the homeowners to leave that "shushing" statue on top of the toilet paper holder.  Ha!

Downstairs Bathroom - After

For some reason, the homeowners did trade out the square mirror for this beveled oval mirror.  I presume this is the mirror that came with the house, and they wanted to keep theirs.  I don't really mind.  We haven't really done much in here.  The paint color is a little dark for such a small windowless room.  

Nope, they didn't leave the statue sadly.  Ha! 

Backyard - Before

It has this fairly level patio area with a retaining wall and then the rest of the yard is very sloped down to a creek and wooded area.  It actually feels very private with only one neighbor's yard visible next door.  While we don't plan to remove many trees from the yard, we do have plans to make the wooded areas more usable. 

Backyard - After

Our back deck is pretty small although the previous owners did add this fairly recently as they apparently only had stairs going down to the patio.  At least my old patio loveseat fit on the porch and makes a nice spot to sit.  We added the shade, but we may get something more rainproof eventually.  In a few years, we may look at expanding this deck into a larger screened in porch.  A cute outdoor rug at least brightens up the area. 

We did have our patio table and chairs down on the patio, but with the coming of summer and the need for a pool, we had to move that over.  We plan to add a shed/pool house in a different part of the yard with a deck connected to the building where we can put a pool or use for a firepit in cooler months.  For now, the kids will enjoy having this pool in the hotter months.  And yes, it looks like a pile of dirt in the middle because our pool pump pushes any debris right to the center of the pool so I have to get into the pool to reach it with the pool net.  It is a pretty big 15 foot pool.  

Next up:  the upstairs