so i have these horrible cell phone pics
i took the very first time we walked the house we bought.
please be prepared to be underwhelmed.
the house was built in 2004.
it is a ranch with three bedrooms on
the main level and two other bedrooms in the walkout basement.
it reminds me a lot of ronnie and i's first house
without the formal dining room. (which i do miss the extra space)
i love the eat-in kitchen, the first one we've had with enough room
for an actual kitchen table.
i also love how big the basement is.
i think eventually the girls will choose to have
their bedrooms downstairs because they are
much larger, plus they'll love the media/rec room.
the basement bathroom is in desperate need of
a complete remodel but that will have to wait for
future renovations, along with new siding and some curb appeal.
for right now (and before we move in) these are the things we will be doing:
1- build a mudroom. i legit cannot walk in from the garage and be in the living room. it just doesn't work for me. the girls have coats and backpacks. ronnie has work boots. i have purses and my work bag. i just need a place to unload these things without it looking crazy and unorganized. i know without a mudroom, these things will end up getting piled on the couch and then i will slowly go crazy. we decided since the shop is technically an extra 3 car garage it wouldn't bother us at all to change the attached 2-car garage into a 1.5 car garage. we are taking a corner out of the garage to add on a mudroom with a bench and lots of hooks and an extra utility closet. it's a lot like what we have now, but bigger. i will still be able to pull my yukon in and have enough room in the other half space for kid's bikes and toys.
2 - open up the kitchen. i love an open floor plan. plus, i think with kids, it's kind of a necessity. i want to see what they're doing while i make our meals. right now the kitchen and the living room run parallel to each other, but they are completely blocked off from each other with a long wall. we are opening it up SIXTEEN feet. i'm so excited. i will be able to stand in my kitchen and see all the way to my front door. the house is smaller and this will help maximize the space.
3 - new wood floors. the house actually has new wood floors in it, but the kitchen is tiled. since we're opening it up to each other, i want them to both be wood - - but also - - i am being super picky. the floors in it right now aren't my favorite, so instead of just adding wood to the kitchen, we're ripping everything up and starting over. i know. i feel bad about ruining good floors, but i also really don't like the color. thank god, ronnie agrees with me or else i would probably had a big battle on my hands because the floors are one of the most expensive things we're doing.
4 - new deck. the deck is old and rotted and very unsafe. i would never let me kids on it. we were out there the other day and i walked around the house instead of going back up on the deck. it's a mandatory project and i huge chunk of our budget. i literally did not know how much lumber costs, but it is freaking ridiculous.
**i also really want to extend the deck further across the back of the house so we can add a door from the master bedroom. how amazing would that be? BUT with the cost of lumber i'm still trying to figure that one out. cale come up with a suggestion the other day, but i think ronnie is totally against my brilliant plan so i might get shut down. fingers crossed i can finagle this into our plans.
5 - basement stair opening. the stairs to the basement feel small and crowded and a lot like you're going down into a dungeon. i obvioulsy hate them. there's not much i can do to widen them because the kitchen is on the other side, but once the stairs get lower than the kitchen we are going to blow out the wall so it opens into the basement and hopefully make the stairs feel more inviting.
6 - new master shower and closet. the master has a walk in closet but i still think we need more storage. we have decided to rip the soaker tub out, move the shower there and add a second closet where the shower is now. this was actually ronnie's idea and i'm totally on board. more closets? yes please. besides, i hate baths.
7 - new bedroom carpet. for obvious reasons. sharing someone's old carpet is like using someone else's underwear. it's just gross and we need a fresh start.
8 - new bathroom toilets, countertops and tile floors. the bathrooms look a little grungy and dated. we're going to update the girl's bath and our master bath but we're saving the basement bath for another day. the layout of the basement bath needs reworked and is a much bigger project. put it on the "one day" list.
9 - tray ceiling update. ronnie hates the tray ceilings, but i actually love them. i think they look a bit dated right now, but i think with a little paneling and new light fixtures, i can convince ronnie that its a cool feature.
10 - new doors. not new doors everywhere, but we ordered a new front door and a new back door. the front door looks 90's which is weird since the house is newer than that, but we both wanted something different. then, the back door. i am IN LOVE with my huge back door in our current house. i suggested we added one to our kitchen to open things up and give the house a little more natural light. ronnie thought it might be too big, but once we measured the space, it will totally fit and i'm super excited to keep this feature in our new house.
11 - removed popcorn ceiling. i hate popcorn. it has to go. i wish i could say we were also rocking the basement drop-down ceiling, but that will have to wait for another time. for now, i will have to live with the basement ceiling as is.
and last, but not least,
12 - paint. i love white trim, so that's a definite. we went back and forth between doing gray kitchen cabinets, but in the end, i think i'll like white the most. and then all the walls will get a fresh coat of greige. (the girls are requesting pink and purple rooms - my nightmare - so we'll see what i can come up with as a compromise.)
sounds like a lot, but i think it
will make all the difference in the world.
ronnie and i are both antsy to get started and
we have our fingers crossed for a 6 week turnaround.
wish us luck!
**this house does not lady living in it and i can't wait to give it a woman's touch. lol. less deer heads and more shiplap. and aren't those basement bedrooms scary? that wallpaper!**
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