before and after: our home a year later. (or part of it anyway)

Way back in October Kevin ripped out all the carpet on our main floor (3 rooms) and put in hardwood floors while the boys and I were away visiting family. (renovation post here)  
Now that we've been in the house for a little over a year now, I'm finally getting around to taking and posting "before" and "after" pictures of the front and family rooms.

It's been crazy and happy for me to see all that we've been able to do to make this home our own in this first year. (first home tour here) We always have a million DIY and renovation projects buzzing around in our heads, and now that we are blessed enough to own a home we are finally able to try some of them, it's something we've really learned to love doing together and something we both feel passionate about.
We had our second boy the morning after we moved into our house and it's been a crazy whirlwind ever since.

Anyway....if you're a sucker for renovation "before" and "after" projects like I am, here it *finally* is.

Front room:

BEFORE:

Front Room: 

AFTER:

Renovation, in the middle of it, really isn't pretty, it's messy, always more time consuming than you planned, stressful and crazy. And if you're in a similar life situation to us, timelines get d r a g g e d out. We didn't get our new baseboards in for a good month after the new floors were in.

But, with some planning and lots of deep breathing :) it can be SO worth it, monetarily of course, but it also brings a lot of satisfaction to see something from the planning/envisioning stages through reality adjustments and then to the final product.

Family Room:

BEFORE:

The home had these funky shades separating the front and family rooms that we hated, such a waste of space. So Kevin tore those out (the day I came home from the hospital with our second I think) and put in see-through shelves. Which we LOVE.

Family Room:

AFTER:

glass pieces: antique chemistry pieces Kevin found//vase: Pier 1 Imports

bird: West Elm//vase: Target//candle holder: H&M

We have some other changes in the works and in the planning phase. (most of them unplanned until recently, thank you 20 year old house...) 

I realized I never even did a full house tour when we moved in so I'll work on getting the undocumented spaces up on the blog too, for my record if nothing else. :) I love being able to look back at pictures of where we've been. 

when the cat's away...this mouse will play. (or DIY as may be the case)

So, while I was away with the boys visiting my family in Utah, Kevin tackled his biggest DIY project yet.

He replaced the carpet in three rooms with hardwood floors, and no he's never done anything remotely like that before. 

We'd been looking to replace the *very tired* carpet that seemed like it may be as old as our house (just shy of 20 years).
When the opportunity for me to get away coincided with a fantastic deal on hardwood we thought it might just be the perfect time. 
(That and the fact that the raised stones in front of our fireplace had been the cause of a few *very close calls* for major head injuries for Lee boy.)

Kevin is a trooper, not only did he have a business trip of his own for 1/3 of the time I'd be away, but he got a new and quite demanding assignment at work days after I left that required even longer than usual hours at the office.
Combine that with the surprises that always come when you DIY...and this flooring project became quite a handful.

Word to the wise: when padding for carpet is glued to the cement, factor in A LOT of time to get it all off.

Literally just in time, Kevin was able to finish laying the floor before he caught a plane to spend a day in Utah with us before helping me bring the boys home late one night only to turn around and leave again the next day on another business trip.  

(We're so glad to be home all together again.)

We still have to paint and put up the new baseboards and put finishing strips along all edges of the rooms but we're excited to have this project basically done. 


 (I'll be sure to add some true "before" and "after" pics when we are officially all put back together.)

* For those who are curious about this sort of thing; we decided on a .5" thick, 5" wide, strand-woven bamboo from Lumber Liquidators because of it's durability and hardness...and we liked the color:)
* It goes without saying that the price was right.  

Lee's Room...finally.

Well Lee is now officially over SIX months old and I'm finally posting pictures of his room.  Better late than never, right?

I really wanted all the big pieces in Lee's room, and most everything else for that matter, to be gender neutral so that it would work for any future children and it would grow with him better.  That decision and the fire-engine red crib really were my starting point for color choice.  

This painting is of the church right in the middle of the city square of one of the cities (Debrecen) I served in as a missionary in Hungary.

Detail of Debrecen painting. I did this when I was 6-7 months pregnant. It was hard to reach it. :)

(Kevin and I did all the artwork in Lee's room with the exception of the print of Jesus with children on the back left wall.)

(Kevin made this table and the footrest and I made the quilt.)

(As you can see, since I took some of the pictures, we added more clothes space to Lee's dresser.)

(one of my favorite things is the crib, it was Kevin's when we was a baby.)

This is Lee's "I just attacked this stuffed animal in my hand" face.

My first quilt. I made this pattern up but got the idea for how to piece the color stripes together from a quilting book I have.

The mobile here is actually from Lee's Pack N' Play, it fits perfectly on his crib too.

     As you can see, Lee got a little bored of taking all these pictures of his room. :)

Coming Soon...

Finally getting nursery pictures and DIY updates ready for posting.  Until then, enjoy the sneak peek!

"You Are Special".

Kevin was already in Colorado for his summer internship on Mother's Day and Lee and I were still in Utah.  But when we arrived I was treated to the BEST ICE CREAM EVER.  Cotton candy is one of my all time favorite ice cream flavors and Blue Bell really nailed it, best cotton candy ice cream I've had so far.  Go Kevin. 

amazing!

even the colors are super pleasing

my custom "you are special" plate

 We also have a tradition in my family (the Tanner's) to have whoever is being celebrated (whether for a birthday, Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc...) use a red "You Are Special" plate.  I don't have one personally so Kevin decided to make our own rather than buy one of the original red plates.  I LOVE it, Kevin decided to do it in Hungarian too which it especially pleasing to me.  So thank you to my amazing husband to make me feel special that day and everyday.

celebration: st. patrick's day; green style.

St. Patrick's Day mantle decor.

Just thought I'd add a picture of the changes I made from the Valentine's decor to St. Patrick's Day.  It was quite simple and fast. New watercolor and new candy, the end. (I've really got to get pictures taken Before all the candy is eaten.) I really love green in general though....just an fyi. Good color.