Monday, November 1, 2010

our humble {housiversary}

Last week we passed the year mark, here at our humble little abode. It's gone fast, and I think we've come a long way with making this the house we hoped it could be. It's been a fun little start to our journey here, and we have lots more we still want to do.

When we saw this house our old house wasn't even on the market yet. We were trying to decide what to do and I found the MLS listing for this home:

Maybe you can imagine why my hubby wasn't too interested to come and check it out. It lacked curb appeal. It had been unoccupied for a year or so. We wanted a home with lots of character, we wanted a perfect area. We took a drive from the suburbs of Salt Lake where we lived to this small town, it feels like "the country" compared to where we were before.

It was about 400 square feet smaller than our previous home, we went from 3800 sq ft to about 3400. Everything was beige inside, a blank slate, but definitely lacking in charm and architectural details that we love. It had a bigger back yard, we went from .25 to .35, which was a plus for us. It backs a fenced canal that runs from a canyon, but the plus is that it's being put underground starting this month, and a bike/running trail is going over the top of it, which is a big plus for us, we can't wait to take our bikes right out through the backyard and onto a trail that goes for a long way into a canyon.

The first time we drove through the neighborhood I knew I wanted this house. There were kids all over the place, super nice neighbors, and I just felt like I could see myself calling it home. I joke that we bought this house for the park down the street with tall trees and a little creek that runs through it. I'm half serious about that. I wanted it before I even saw the inside and we kind of agreed that it would take something really bad inside to change our minds, like a terrible floor plan or something that couldn't be changed. But we walked through and though it was plain, we saw potential.
A year later we still have a long way to go, but it's closer to what we hoped it could be.

Here's a look back at all that has changed over the past year.

From the main pictures you can see the shutters we made, so I won't re-post those pictures.

We replaced the cheapie blinds that were all over the house in most rooms, I still have bathrooms and the living room left to replace.

Front Door
before:

after:

Formal living room
before:
after:
I haven't touched this room at all, aside from putting things in it, no paint or anything else has been changed yet. As you can see, we use it more as a living room/office combo. when the basement is finished the desk will go down into a real office and I have a piano that my grandma gave to my mom and now my mom is passing it to me. It needs refinishing, but I'm really excited about it. we'll put that in here and I'm not sure what else we'll do with this room.

Big Boy Room
before:
after:


Little Boy's Room
before:
after:
(his room has changed even since these pictures, he moved into a twin bed and out of the crib.)


Master Bedroom



The master bedroom is almost finished, I'm waiting for a nightstand on back order, and still working to solve my chair problem mentioned last week. :)

Family Room


I haven't done much with the family room, I'm kind of waiting for the basement to be finished, then I plan on sending these couches down stairs and starting fresh with something lighter upstairs. I feel like I need a fresh pair of eyes in this area, I'm not 100% sure of the direction I want to go, but I have time and it's okay for now.


Basement
before:
after:
we are getting so close down there! We've actually progressed past the point of this picture, the walls and ceilings are all primed and painted.

The hubby and I went down last night and put extra breakers in all by ourselves! We have a little bit more electrical work to do, trims, doors, banister and stair stuff and then the big one, carpet and then all done! I can't wait to start enjoying it!

Backyard

after:
It speaks for itself. Grass is about the best thing that happened to us all summer long! We love it. Scott did the sprinkling system himself, I helped dig some trenches, but he did most of that. We chose to hydro-seed and we were amazed at how fast it grew! We are hoping to build a pretty pergola over the patio next summer!

So the things I hope to do in the near future:
We've had hardwood floors in our past homes and really love the look and practicality of it. I have visions of something like this throughout the main floor:

of course lots more trim work, of course finishing the basement and moving our leather furniture down stairs, slipcovered couches for upstairs, move my piano in, figuring out what I want out of the family room, and of course I will always be imagining taking my kitchen from this:
to this:

or something close to it, consider this a conceptual drawing. :)

I have lots of other little things planned, and the more we get into it, the more I'm loving it!

Happy Housiversary to us!

24 comments:

Lisa at Paint in my Hair said...

Happy Housiversary! Even though I have seen many of those photos before (from combing your archives!) I am drooling over them all over again. Love your style!

Lisa

Taylor-Ann said...

Happy Housiversary to you!!!

You guys have been busy and it look beautiful! Can't wait to see what this year brings for the house.

Kelli said...

Your home is absolutely beautiful and makes me want to redecorate right now! I love your master and I have plans to go and get a cute alarm clock just like that :) Thanks for sharing...you and your husband have done a lot of beautiful work.

Anonymous said...

Happy housiversary!! It looks sooooooo good! I think white cabinets in the kitchen would look AMAZING!!

Jessica said...

Absolutely beautiful! If you ever get tired of photography you could sell your services in interior design.

Jessica @ This Blessed Life said...

Your house is stunning. I can't imagine waking up to those beautiful mountains every day! They're breathtaking.

RML said...

Oh I love your house it is beyond beautiful!
In your formal living room... the table that you have below the window... I LOVE IT!
Where did you get it?
I have been looking for months for one like that! Any info would be awesome!
Thanks so much, and Thank you for sharing your beautiful home!

Holly said...

Love your ideas for the kitchen!!! I also love the hardwood floor colors. Love me a dark floor.

So hydro-seed... just how fast does it come in? We are trying to decide between that and sod this next spring. Our regular neighbors did normal seed themselves and with all the empty pastures around here they ended up with more weeds than grass. I'm sure it will look better by next year, but it still makes me nervous.

Mindy said...

RML- the console table was from JoAnn crafts/fabrics, in the unfinished wood furniture section. It had a broken drawer so I picked it up for $20 and we fixed it. It retailed for over $100 at the time. This was about 5 years ago, so I'm not sure if they have them anymore or not, but good luck!

Holly, the hydro-seed came in pretty fast, it was a few weeks in that we started to see the little sprouts, we still had a few weeds come up, but after fertilizing, weed and feed one time and just plucking the large ones out it's all good now. We had more weeds pop up through our sod in our first house than we had come in here. You've got to do ground clear first, it will kill anything there and then seed very soon after that, I can give you the specifics when you're ready. The pro about hydro-seed is you can get heartier healthier grass than with sod, choose a blend that works well for you live and it can be really nice, the con is that you have to wait for it to grow and you don't get the instant gratification that you do from sod. :) Good luck!

Emily said...

Wow, how did you do that conceptual picture of your kitchen? Do you have a special software?

Christina said...

This post made me so happy :) I LOVE IT! I truly love before-and-afters :)

By the way...where do you live?!?! I want to be your neighbor...those views are INCREDIBLE!!!

Mindy said...

Emily, I just use good ol' photoshop.

Thanks Christina! We live in a small town in Utah County.

mom23blessings said...

I love all that you've done to make your house a home! I'm currently trying to figure out if we're gonna start into a big remodel of the kitchen/living. How did you make the picture of your kitchen with white cabinets? My cabinets are dark wood and I'm considering painting white or cream. Thanks for any tips!

Jessica said...

Your house is so cute, and you have great views of the mountains!

Amy @ Chicy-Creations said...

Happy Housiversary! I was happy to see you comment a little more about the seeding. We just bought a house in Utah and it's pretty much all weeds in the backyard right now. We're going to be seeding in the spring. I'll have to check out the hydro-seed!

RML said...

I have yet another question for you!
Where did you get the desk that is in your formal living room?
I LOVE everything about it!

Mindy said...

Thanks for all of the blog love, you guys are so great! :)

RML- The desk we found on a classified listing from a mortgage company going out of business about 18 months ago, they had offices full of great desks, we took it home for just over $100 and it's super sturdy, it pays to search classified ads, and I'll never have a problem with buying used furniture, there are deals out there!

Amy- Good luck with the hydroseed !

mom23blessings- I just did it in photoshop, it takes some practice, but it's pretty easy once you work with it a bit.

The Mallen Family said...

Hey mindy! Looks like you guys have been busy busy.. :) Love all the changes.
The hardwood floors you showed are exactly the floors we put in a year ago in our family room. I love them!!!
Can't wait to see what is next for you guys. I get a lot of good ideas from your blog.
Tiffany

Mindy said...

Thank you, Tiffany! I might have to ask you some questions about your floor when we get to that point!

Erin Deegan said...

everything looks great. i just adore your boys rooms! happy housiversary!

Capturing Joy with Kristen Duke said...

i love home tours!

Abby said...

I love all of your changes!! Where did you get your new front door?? I'm in LOVE!!

Nichole - 208.206.6189 said...

Found you on pinterest and like what your doing. My wife and I at the beginning stages of having bought a new house and adjusting things to our style. Where did you get the front door? Your house looks great.

Mindy said...

The front door was a special order through home depot. It's fir, the stain is chestnut minwax. We just stained the shutters walnut this summer and like it a lot better. It's less red, so we will be staining the door darker too. Thanks for stopping by, good luck with your projects!