New House

Before: Family Room/Dining Room

I’m tired ya’ll. For the past week-and-a-half I’ve been blowing and going at full-steam. I wish I could say that I’m one big ball of energy all the time sorta girl, but I crave down-time. An hour to just grab an iced tea, catch up on my favorite blogs and maybe do a little writing or stitching just does my heart good. If we want to be all technical, I suppose that you could consider *this* my down-time, but when I’m exhausted it just doesn’t feel the same.

Alas…the show must go on. I have a feeling that I may not really get that “down-time” until August. At which point the house should be pretty well set and the kiddos will scoot off to school. Then I will blissfully spend my days in my little studio sipping tea, designing fabric-y goodness and hopefully heading off to lots of conferences. I dream…

In the meantime, the house-prep must go on! I seriously spend today with this view. But oh…the feeling of accomplishment will make it all worth it, right?! I’m thinking, “yes.”

But back to the point of this story… the “Befores.” Here we go. Enjoy…lots of progress has ALREADY been made here. It feels good.

Dining Room~ Yep, they somehow polyurethaned the floors AROUND the rugs. Wowza. Refinishing in progress. Thank you, Dad!

Another neat-o ring on the floor. After a little discussion, a unanimous decision has been made to retire the saloon doors to the hallway. There's "charm" and then there is "awkward."

Red front door- coming soon!

Dining room window. One of my two FAVORITE pieces of furniture is going in that corner soon! I am giddy excited!

That’s all for tonight! Oh my goodness, the “Afters” are going to be SO MUCH FUN!!!

Before: The Kitchen

Without further ado, let me introduce you to our new little house pre-update style. Peyton and Parker are enjoying the first of many sibling chats on the front porch. And yes, they really do love each other that much! I’m one blessed momma.

I realized that if I added all the photos to one post that it would just be too much to wade through, so tonight let’s start with the kitchen. Sweet little teeny tiny kitchen. Oh my! There are only two rooms in the house that cause me minor heart palpitations and this is one of the two. However, our family was blessed with the great privilege of visiting the 92-year-old former owner of this house tonight. What a treat. We’ll be visiting her a lot more in the coming days too. Her family lived here for well over 50 years and they raised three children in this home. If she could make that kitchen work, then by-golly, so can I. It really puts our needs versus our “wants” into perspective doesn’t it?!

No, the power strip is not staying.

Somehow my children always manage to sneak into my photos and act like they aren't expecting it!

The louvered doors...ahh..um, this could be controversial, but these are staying (with a fresh touch). It's the period details that give the house charm. I don't want to steal that away from the house.

The countertops. Beige-ish Gray, Yellow and Sea-foam: actually a little charming as well. They may not stay too long, but I sorta love them in the meantime.