Saying goodbye to our first home

There is a time for everything in life and now is the time to say goodbye to our first home. I'm a little sad because after all, this was our first home.  I was so proud when we purchased it and proud of every little thing we accomplished while we were here.  Its not where we brought Emma home from the hospital but its where she celebrated her first birthday and every birthday since. Its the only home my sweet boy has ever known. Its taught us so much about being homeowners. We've upgraded, updated, painted, fixed, floored, and even oversaw our 400 sq ft porch addition.  In return our home has provided us with warmth and laughter. Its seen us through a few seasons of life and its where we celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary.  I didn't realize when we purchased it just what we were getting into or just what we would get out of owning our own home. To be honest, when I we decided to sell it I didn't really realize that I was going to have bittersweet feelings about saying farewell to our sweet little home.  While I will be a little sad I know there are new adventures waiting for us and a new home too. So it is time to say goodbye and in honor of our first home I wanted to post this little "tribute" blog with some of the changes that our home went through while we lived here.
But first let me jam you up with this little disclaimer. This entry is picture heavy and the pictures aren't exactly all the same angles nor the best quality. I had no idea I would want to do a before and after when we started some of these projects so I'm lucky I have some of these pictures at all....enjoy!

This (above) was taken when we bought the house. Flowerbeds galore! By February the following year we were ripping out all the flowerbeds to plant grass (below)

Then I scored some free sod on craigslist and it didn't take long for that to grow in. (below)

Soon after we began demo on back deck to make our new porch so we decided to "re-claim" the lumber and add a deck to the front since it was now a dirt pit. Then we made it fancy with some gravel and painting the door red. (below) 

Over all this what the transformation looked like...

So on to the master. It was actually the first thing I tackled. I think I painted it the very first weekend we lived here.  I couldn't live with waking up to the yellow walls for a second longer. I know it doesn't look that obnoxious but with the sun coming through the window, it was anything but serene. 

I jumped on the gray and yellow bandwagon and have loved our room ever since. Its very calming and lets be honest, I can use any extra soothing I can get.

There was actually nothing wrong with the master bath but I decided to paint it a lighter shade of gray than our bedroom (ok I really wasn't a fan of the beige but it was neutral enough.) Then after painting the kitchen I decided to paint the vanity, and scored a nice framed mirror for less than $30.

Speaking of panting the kitchen cabinets... Well I didn't paint them right away but it wasn't long. The cabinets had been replaced and were pretty nice so I just sanded and painted them. 

original cabinet color and hardware

But first I got rid of that orange-ish wall. That was also taken care of the first week we lived here. However, I was stuck with the tile until just last fall at which point we transformed the whole house with laminate. But I'm getting ahead of myself, here's some kitchen picks (the ones with the wood cabinets are from when we came to look at the house before we bought it but it was relatively the same when we moved in)

ugh still with the ugly tile

OK I had to show you how bad the tile was up close. I'm sorry if you have this in your house and you like it. Its just totally not my taste. While, it was still in good shape, I just hated looking at it anymore. 

It was well worth the wait because this is the kitchen now

oh yeah, I changed the light over the sink and we added the microwave over the stove

It still amazes me the difference the floor made in the house. Look how it opened up the living/kitchen/dining area (ok the paint helps a lot too. Aside from the orange-ish kitchen the living room was a warm yellow - not my style.) 

For good measure, here are a couple more from the living room. All I did was replace the floor, paint, and find an awesome $15 garage sale coffee table!

The next is just the hallway but to me it was worth mentioning. This was just a little pinterest project I wanted to give a whirl. I love the results. We already had the pretty bead board ceiling and I think the board and batten project added a lot of character. Plus painting over yet more yellow helped lighten it up a little. Be warned, the pics aren't great on this one. 

The above and below pics are actually the same angle, the door was just closed in the second one. 

You love it, don't you!? 

And another small project worth mentioning is the built in's we built. This was actually should be listed as one of the first projects. The hubs has a massive book collection and this room seemed... well I just didn't know what to do with it before so built in's were the obvious solution.  I cannot find the actual before picture but this is close, the wall to the left is the wall we added the built in's to.

did you notice the pretty ceiling detail? I was thrilled to have to repaint the entire ceiling so I could  cover that

And finally, most ambitious endeavor we tackled while we were here was the addition of the back porch. I somehow managed to capture a lot of pics from the same angle in this process.

This was looking out the patio door when we came to look at the house before we bought it.

Looking from the corner of the yard back toward the house. Originally a deck. The hubs was  just beginning to  rip out the boards (we used them for the deck in the front, mentioned earlier.)

OK so it was originally a slab the previous owners put a deck over. (My sweet baby Emma to the left there with her favorite toy, a bucket.)  

Took out the tree that was to the left and poured a much bigger slab

A really big slab

Can you believe this is almost the same spot I was standing when it was just a deck.  

The inside from the same patio door the first deck picture was taken. We stained the concrete, put in 2 drains and 2 fans.

The patio was totally worth it. We've lived out there since we added it. 

Well I'm sure I've missed some things and I know I didn't touch on any of the non-cosmetic stuff but I covered the major things.  I hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as we enjoyed the "renovations." And if you know anybody looking for a great home, spread the word, this ones for sale!