Our Home Story- What Has Changed in Three Years

Tomorrow makes exactly three years since we moved into this home, in the wake of a huge derecho. It was 96 degrees out, and we had no electricity at the house we were moving from.  The new owner’s of the house we were moving out of were practically kicking us out of the house we were leaving.   They were literally sitting there with there with their moving van full before we even left with our first load.  When we did leave with our first load and came back to get our second load, they had already started moving in.  Furious can’t even touch on how mad and upset I was.  We had to finish moving out with their stuff everywhere, and we inevitably ended up with stuff that was their’s at our new home.  Because we had several people helping us and people got mixed up.  And since we had no electricity, we couldn’t even vacuum or clean up much as we moved.  But honestly, at that point, with the new owners pushing us out the way they did, I didn’t care.  I didn’t even get that chance to see my old home empty, to walk around and reminisce, say goodbye. During my last moment in our house, the new people and their entire family were there.  And I felt robbed of my moment.   The house I built on my own as a single parent.  The new owner’s took that moment away from me.

And then, ironically, because of the storm, they ended up not having electricity for two weeks and didn’t even end up staying there. Meanwhile, at our new home, we had electricity, and air conditioning, thank God!  And now, guess what?  Our old home is up for sale!  They have done many things to the home since they bought it that have made me cringe, some have made me cry ( I can’t help it, I get attached).  And from what I have seen on the listing, I don’t particularly like some of the decorating and design choices they have made (but that is to be expected).  What they changed that bothered me the most was that they uprooted a beautiful pink dogwood tree that we had planted in the front yard, ripped it out by the roots and burned it!  I was irate!  Who does that to a beautiful, healthy tree?  They did it to two trees we had planted.  We had planted them in just the right spots so that they would offer shade and privacy one day, and they ripped them out and burned them.  If I would have known that, we would have dug them up and brought them with us.  Just writing about it now makes me upset all over again.  And they are asking way more for the house than we sold it to them for, yet they have done nothing to increase the homes value.  I will be surprised if  they  get what they are asking. And is there a possibility they will know I wrote this, doubtful, but do I care? Not really, not after the way things went down when we moved.  So hopefully the next owners will be better stewards of the house.

Let’s move on to this house.  Here is how the house has changed in the past three years.  Let’s start with the dining room/office, my double duty room.  This room is one of the most used rooms in our home.  There is constantly someone at the computer desk or at the table eating or doing homework or artwork.

What we have done so far:

I’m already itching to paint the dining room a more neutral color, but I’m trying to hold off until the entire house is painted the first time.  Yes, I still have not made it to every room.  We still have a ceiling light that needs moved over the table in this room, and I still have plans to make over the buffet, and possibly the table and chairs.

What we have done so far:

Faux painted subway tile reveal – Tutorial

Wow, I’ve done a lot in here!  And I am almost done!  I still need the paint the bar stools that match the island, and I am searching for some new rugs.  I also want to make a rustic wooden sign for this room, and maybe get new counter tops at some point, so stay tuned!

 Living room:

What we have done so far:

Vintage MCM record player makeover

This room is finished, except for the fact that we are going to be purchasing new furniture in the near future, and I can’t wait!

What we have done so far:

There have been some other recent changes, but I have not finished with them or taken pictures of them yet, so you will have to wait and see what they are!

I still have to stain the door thresholds down here.  I would also like to paint the laundry closet doors, and possibly paint the wall shelf and bench a lighter color.  I am also thinking of refreshing the brown paper floors, so stay tuned for those things!

Painted sisal rug ( I have since moved the sisal rug to the kitchen)

I still need to paint the spindles in this stairwell.  Other than that, this entryway is done!

This is another room that I painted before we moved in, and I have never been happy with the paint color.  I want to repaint, but I am waiting till I have at least painted the entire house to repaint any rooms.  All of the furniture in this room is really matchy matchy, and I want to change it but honestly, I don’t even know where to begin!

I still need to paint this room.  The color it is now is the color it was when we moved in.  I have some repair work to do in the shower area as well.  I am also thinking of painting the black mirrored cabinet a lighter color.  This room is fairly close to being finished.

My daughter painted this room before we moved in, and before I started this blog.  Nothing has really changed in here except the above things I linked to.  But there is a big huge change coming soon, because this is going to be Mr. 15 Year Old’s Bedroom!  They are switching rooms.  Her bedroom is currently downstairs with her own bathroom.  His bedroom is upstairs across the hall from ours. Since she no longer lives here full time, we are going to give him, and ourselves, a little more privacy.

This room is by far the messiest room in our home.  He likes to play with his toys, and he doesn’t want them put away!  Oh, how I wish we had a play room.  But there is no space for that in this house, so we have to jam his toys all into his bedroom.  This room has also never been painted, and I will eventually get it painted.  And I am not sure what else will happen in this room.  I guess we will see as he grows.

I painted the top half of one of the walls in this bedroom with chalkboard painted before we moved in, and before blogging.  This is the room that will belong to Miss 19 Year Old soon.  I would like to paint the furniture he has at some point.

Yep!  that is the only thing I have done in this room!   Wait, we also installed a new toilet a couple of months ago, but I never took pictures of that or blogged about it.  I need to, because it was quite the fasco!.  It really wasn’t in that bad of shape, so it got put on the back burner for three years.  But I did just purchase a granite counter top off of Craigslist for the vanity.  So I need to purchase a new sink and then rip out the old sink top and replace with the new.  Then I plan to paint the vanity, paint the walls, and I am considering adding AirStone to the bottom of the walls, because I have a whole bunch of it left over and need to use it somewhere.  So I am thinking of installing it on the bottom half of the walls, and painting the top half of the walls white.  I am also going to take down the storage cabinet over the toilet and install shelving.

We painted this bathroom before we moved in and before blogging.  I need to write an update post about our sink makeover.  It was OK for a temporary refresh, but this entire sink and vanity are due to be replaced, and they will be at some point.  Oh also, now that this is going to be Mr. 15 Year Olds’ bathroom, I feel a paint job coming on.  He does not want the feminine vibe in here.

 Back deck:

I have some more chairs that I need to spray paint.  I have plans to make a small bar with some pallets I recently acquired.  I will be doing that before summer ends.  I may eventually paint a faux area rug on the bottom deck.  But I don’t have immediate plans for one.

And that just about wraps it up for the changes that we have made over the past three years.  I hope you enjoyed seeing the progression!  And remember, you can click any of the links below each collage to go to the actual post and see larger pictures of each project.

I can’t end this post without wishing my wonderful husband a happy birthday!  Today is his birthday, and unfortunately I have to leave as soon as he gets home today to drive to Charleston for a conference all day tomorrow.  Nevertheless, happy birthday to the most wonderful man, husband, and father that I know.  I love you honey!

This is where I party:

Monday: