1/2 Bath Reveal

Let's not forget about the 1/2 bath that i mentioned in this post. This reveal is dramatic enough i felt like it deserved it's own post. holy moly. 

it's a very small room, obviously. and everything in this room was painted purple, which only made it feel smaller. before the remodel we literally only used this bathroom in emergencies. (you know, after going out to eat somewhere new and your significant other, or child, was already using the main bath.) we lovingly referred to it as the haunted grape vineyard. there were literally 5 different shades of purple used in the making of that room. a grape wallpaper border, a dark purple ceiling (not pictured to spare your eyes) so, my objective was to brighten and enlarge the space visually as much as possible. we went with a black vanity, and stainless steel hardware, to match the kitchen because the bath and kitchen are so close in proximity to each other in the house and we continued the same flooring as the kitchen into this room as well.

bright white went up on the walls and ceiling with one accent soft pink wall because the bathroom is for the girls after all. one of the biggest differences was the change in lighting, more specifically the light bulbs. we went with daylight bulbs instead of the normal yellowish shade. this makes it feel like there might actually be a window in this room, even though there's obviously not. 

we love the open space under the godmorgon cabinet from ikea, it's the perfect height to store a step stool so that they can wash their own hands, and brush their teeth, but still have it tucked away the rest of the time. 

Kitchen, Living & Dining Room Reveal

We all know why you are here: the before and after pictures! So, i'm not going to say much besides... ENJOY!

The unique thing in the above shot is the stairway in the "after" shot is hidden under the island, we have a basement apartment, so we don't ever use those stairs. we turned it into a sort of "crawl space". with a hidden door along the right side of the island. also, lets take a moment and remember the bookshelf with the built in planter box, and the 60's wall partition.

This is the view from the front door. it's a little unconventional to have the dining room and living room literally share a space like this, we are planning on turning our covered patio into a sunroom next year, so when that happens, the living room will be in there. but for now this set up works perfectly for our family. it's actually more spacious than it looks.

removing the wall that would have been in the middle of our kitchen island was by far the best choice of this remodel. it's one of things that makes us say "i can't believe we lived like that" all of the additional light from the living room window brightens everything so much, and being able to see my kids play while i cook is priceless! also, you can see we reconfigured the layout of our appliances, we really like the setup we have now. fridge along that back wall, and the range close to the sink. it's made everything easier and less messy.

This shot really shows off our open shelving, as well as the removal of our terrible red cabinets. i vowed to never have red in my kitchen again after taking those out, but... that rust colored rug was calling my name and i just couldn't resist. the neutral color scheme needed a pop of color, and i'm just happy it's not a permanent fixture, we can change up the "pop" of color whenever we want just by picking out a new picture for above the island, or rug.

NOW FOR MORE PICTURES!!!!!!!

 the art of Layering rugs is not for wussies.

 behind the island wall, is a cute little 1/2 bath for two cute little girls.

 chatbooks!!!

 backsplash of my dreams. and functional open shelves that surprisingly don't hold any decorations.

 custom wooden windowsills and a sink with a basin large enough to clean my cookie sheets!

miss betty is literally life sized and the topic of much discussion from guests with opinions that vary from awesome to inappropriate, and we love her for it.  a little controversy never hurt anyone :)

 people have asked if we are happy with our choice to do a built in lower microwave, and yes. we love it. the kids have been obedient so far and haven't melted any cars or barbie dolls, so, we're counting that as a win.

 the view from the hallway, it's a very welcome sight in the mornings for breakfast.

 if you look REALLY closely, you can see the chips in the white paint on the chairs from when the girls swivel and hit them on the counter top, but... they are seriously more comfortable than our couch so it's worth the chipping paint.

 we are planning on installing a new front door like this one soon! maybe as an anniversary present to ourselves in January because lets be honest, this remodel is our entire Christmas this year.

 Roller Blinds are literally the shiz. especially this one that blocks the view of the busy road, but lets in alllll the natural light. and even does us a favor by softening it.

 decisions decisions, (they picked ice cream if you were wondering...)

 you can see our last "to-do" item in this shot, when we removed the wall(s), it ruined some of the sheetrock in the hallway, we gave lowes a sample of our existing hallway paint to try and color match it, but it didn't work. you can see the patch job is obviously not the same color. so, we need to try it one more time, and if it still doesn't work, then we will need to paint the entire hallway.

 this is the best angle to show you what the island wall looks like, it acts as a privacy wall between the 1/2 bath directly behind it, and adds visual interest in the room.

 the texture of these cabinets is my absolute favorite. pictures don't do them justice. the horizontal wood grain is just beautiful.

 here you can see the hidden door in action as you are allowed access to the stairway. we will be using this area for storage, and to hide things like christmas presents, dead bodies, etc :)

 meet tyson, our bison. until garrison has the opportunity to shoot one for himself to replace it. i'll let you decide if you think i meant "shoot" as in a picture, or bullet.

 i love all the colors of our "living room" sitting area, the bright couch, and this comfy avocado green vintage chair literally make me happy sitting in them.

it's a cute angle, but more importantly is the hidden tv that's behind those stacks of wood in the "fireplace". seriously.

 a closer shot of the hallway that we still need to paint. haha.

 stainless steel for dayzzzz, and that cute little cabinet up there holds all our spices. because... we are trying our hardest to keep any and all things off our countertops. those pesky knives are the only ones that we couldn't find a hidden home for.

 all of my favorite things are in this image: stainless steel, natural wood, the color gray, marble, natural light, and sleek-ness that's sexy as hell.

 the "disco ball" light fixture above the sink that is just the perfect height so that my husband's head doesn't hit it when he helps with the dishes.

 those chair bases will stay this shiny for approximately 1 hour.

My favorite Light fixture in the entire world. and the largest centerpiece i could find that is constantly being dwarfed by our massive island that's larger than a king size bed.

THE END!

(but trust me, i'm much happier than you that all this is over finally!)

Master Closet

 The Master Bedroom has been chosen as the first room to get a makeover in this house. and the first thing in this room to renovate? the closet. we really wanted a better way of storing our clothes, we didn't want to get a dresser, or any other piece of furniture to store our clothes, but that single long shelf and clothes rack without any doors, just wasn't cutting it. so, we went to our favorite store ever: ikea and used their Pax system as a built in closet organizational system and we LOVE it. everything has a place and the inner OCD in both of us has died and gone to heaven -until it comes back from the dead for our next project-

-before-

 -you can tell this method of storing our clothes wasn't gonna work-

 -during the remodel, removing the shelf and clothing rod, taking out the wall in-between the two closets, and in the picture, garrison is removing the hardware that used to hold the sliding closet doors. you can see the size of the ikea cabinets there to the left.-

-after, the inside. garrison hadn't put his clothes/drawers/shelves in on his side yet, and everything on my side isn't organized completely, but you get the idea-

 -we went with the mirror doors for those middle three, it really adds an interesting touch to the room, making it feel more modern, and open. the next step on this process is to paint the walls and finish framing in the closet around the edges, and putting on the door handles.-

And here it is all finished in all it's shiny new glory!

Fence 'em in

The first thing we needed to do before we could officially move in to our new house, was to fully enclose the back yard by building a fence. luckily the other 3 sides of the yard were already fenced by the neighbors. we decided to build a wood fence with horizontal planks, going with a bit more modern feel because we plan on having our house appear much more mid-century modern once we finish with the remodels. Wooden elements will continue to appear as we update the curb appeal of the house. this is just the first step.

We're Moving: A Finished House Tour

We have always planned on acquiring rental properties as another source of income for us. Garrison is amazing at restoring homes, and doing the grunt work, I have an eye for good homes and can see their potential when we walk through them. So far it has been working out great for us, and we are excited about the new home we just bought. But... its a fixer upper and we will need to live in it under less than ideal conditions until we have saved up for the larger renovations. So... for now I am enjoying every minute of my beautiful, fully-restored home for the last few weeks that I have to live in it.

some of my favorite things about the house include:
-original hardwood floors and neutral gray paint through out entire home.
-huge baseboards
-the new octagon back-splash garrison put in for my birthday last year
-modern bathroom sink (a present from my parents for Christmas two years back)
-the inside of the kitchen cabinets are painted with chalkboard paint which we use for grocery lists, menu's and to-do-lists.
-unique kitchen "hanging shelving"
-my gas stove. Garrison had to switch it from electric to gas when we remodeled, which was no easy task. I've loved it everyday since.
-the dining room bench seat with storage underneath
-the bookshelf barn door that garrison built in the kids nursery just a few months ago
-the huge backyard with the twinkle lights and largest tree swing i've literally ever seen
-my bright yellow front door.
-large windows with lots of natural light.
-the large modern custom made house numbers.
-all of the huge mature trees on the property.
-so much storage! (we still had empty shelves and drawers until i started putting yard sale items in them a few weeks ago)

people have asked us why we are moving and they always assume it's because we have outgrown the space, but it is actually working for us still. we merely saw an opportunity to buy another investment property and decided to go for it.

some things i'm excited to have in our new house:
-an extra bedroom for guests, and all of the kids toys
-an attached garage that fits two cars! yay for not having to go outside at all on snow days!
-my own laundry room, instead of sharing one with the downstairs.
-central. air. conditioning.

Anyway... i'll be sure to post pictures of the new house as we start to remodel and decorate in future posts here on the blog. for now. here are some pictures of our beloved home that we are leaving in 2 short weeks.

if you want to see what the house looked like before the remodel. here is the link.

House... we will miss you. hopefully we find wonderful tenants that will treat you well. love, the Jones'