Home Sweet Home

If my OCD schedules, lists, and notebooks are accurate, we are in Columbia for good as of this weekend! I will miss Greenville terribly, but I am so thankful to be "home" for an extended amount of time. For the past month, we have been packing and unpacking multiple times per week as we go back and forth. While I enjoy traveling, I'm okay with not seeing a suitcase again for a few weeks. We're exhausted. (So exhausted in fact that I fell the other day while trying to step out of my shorts. True story.) At the same time, I am so thankful to have in-laws loves that have put up with us living with them for the past month so Wes could finish up work.

We're getting settled in for good and have to keep reminding ourselves that we are just renting this house and we can't do projects like we're used to. We poured every single bit of ourselves for the past two years into our old house, our first house turned home. Here is a little glimpse of our first home sweet home that we are still missing.

It is so amazing to look back at these pictures and see the before and after because you just don't see it when you are always looking at it and working on it. Before I show you some of the projects, I must give credit where credit is due. I worked on the house too but I can't say I did half as much as what Wes and our parents did.

Here is the picture on the brochure when we bought the house. I laugh everytime I look at it because we thought it was just the cutest thing.



This is the picture that went on the brochure when we went to sell the house.


I think most of what we did to the front is pretty obvious (landscaping, gutters, front porch overhang, etc) but what you can't see is that Wes and my dad put in a sprinkler system. OH it was glorious!

Since the kitchen is where we spent a lot time, that's where we'll start.
Before



We were very lucky to move into a house with a semi updated kitchen. The granite and appliances were only a month old when we moved in. We still felt like there was plenty to do and we did it.



We repainted all of the cabinets so they were off white and not stark white, replaced all of the hardware on the cabinets, removed the scalloping on the cabinets (you can kind of see the scalloping on the before picture above the sink), painted, added an island (which we loved but sold with the house), added pendant lighting above the sink, and pulled up the linoleum to add tile. The tile was gorgeous! 20x20 laid on the diagonal. It is my understanding that large tile on the diagonal is one of the most difficult tile projects. Here is a close up of the floor.



Another place we spent a lot of time was the den. It was such an awkward layout and took us months (and a little professional help) to figure out.

Before



After


In this room, the center overhead light was removed and recessed lighting was added by Wes and his dad. There were three different sets of recessed lights each on their own dimmer. Of course we painted the room, trim and all. Mom made the perfect curtains. Behind the recliner in the right bottom corner of the picture are bookshelves...made by Wes and his father. Here is what the corner looked like before...eeek.


After


That picture reminds me that we also painted the ceiling in the den a very light blue. I loved the way it turned out because it didn't stand out but it made you look at it and wonder if it was blue or if it was your mind playing tricks on you. There are so many more projects that we did to the house along the way but those were the major ones. Although I'm sure there is something that I'm leaving out that I will be reminded of shortly.

While the projects were fun and memories were made, I think taking a break from house renovations is going to be nice. We're off to make our new house a home (sans renovations)!

*all projects seen and mentioned were done by Wes and wonderful family.