Sprucin' Up the Place

From the moment we set foot in our current home, we know that it was going to take a great deal of TLC to get it to sparkle the way we knew it could. The house was a rental for many years, then sat empty as a short-sale for two years, before it became ours. As you can imagine, it needed a good scrub-down, paint, and just plain love. We have lived here for just over a year and are making a great deal of progress toward making it the dream home we have always known it has the potential to be.

Half Bath with New Floors

We began making changes before moving in. We had the 12 year old cream carpets cleaned, the house was cleaned top to bottom, and most rooms were painted. As we began unpacking our things, we noticed just how well the house had been kept. Other than sitting empty and not being updated over the years, it really had been given a lot of attention and upkeep. The kitchen cabinets were in amazing shape, the light fixtures were lovely, and the overall feel of the house changed the second we put our things into it.

Before and After Living Room

Before and After Dining Room

After a few months, we began our renovation projects. We started with the half bath, our boy's bedroom, and the loft. You can see all of these projects on my past post, Creating a Home We Love. Just this week, we tackled our most anticipated of changes. The floors. We have been so proud of our new home, however, the yucky carpet has made us hesitant to invite people over. It has been a flat-out embarrassment. We had planned to put it off for a few more years, but we just couldn't wait any longer.

Since flooring is so expensive, we want to take our time between projects, and we don't want to settle on a single detail, we decided to stick to just the downstairs flooring. We had the worn out, stained, and I'll say it, smelly carpet removed. It has been replaced with my new love, engineered hardwood floors in Chocolate. We love the color, look, and texture of these floors!

Before and After Family Room

It was quite the project, as we had three good-sized rooms as well as a pantry and the half bath to cover. We have always thought that the way that our living room, dining room, and kitchen flow, it would look best if all rooms had consistent flooring. I think we were right. We love the way that the flooring changed all three rooms, as well as helps to create a beautiful flow to our home. 

We also took on the family room flooring. We once again, removed the gross carpet and replaced it. This time we decided to stick with carpet, but went from cream, worn carpet, with fluffier, speckled carpet. We wanted to keep the cozy, homey feel as our boys wrestle and play on these floors. Once again, it transformed the room. Everyone loves to lay on it because it is so soft and comfy. 

Now we are proud to have visitors, we are proud to say this is our home, and we can see the potential coming to life.