So if you follow on insta, the cat is out of the bag…we have moved! Again! I hope someone out there is saying Bless her heart because moving and remodeling two homes in two years is, well, hell. BUT. Things happen as they may and here we are. Before I dive into our new adventure too much, I wanted to share some before and afters of the remodel we said goodbye to. Anyone interested in moving to the lovely little town of Edenton, this little gem of a house will be for sale at some point.
This was her original curb appeal. Not bad. We redid the landscaping, planted lots of grass, etc.
We bought this house sort of on a whim. We like to do things like that. It is in one of the best locations downtown and has great water views. So anyway, we felt it would take a couple months and we would whip her in to shape. HAHAHAHAHAHA. It took 7 months. SEVEN. Oh yeah, and about half way through…guess what I’m pregnant! Anyway, it was sort of a nightmare but we all made it through.
Why did it take seven months you ask? I’m not even really sure. We had a dreadfully cold winter. It snowed multiple times (in eastern NC this is abnormal). The electrical work was a bear and it took a while to find someone to do it. Our carpenter worked after hours. We did a lot ourselves. Needless to say, it was a learning experience. Let’s get to it.
BEFORES – I don’t have that many. We start demo pretty much the first day we got the keys.
Immediately we knew this wall had to go. BuhBye.
The glorious living room. Note: Covered in wallpaper. All cornflower blue trim. Everywhere. Positive note: good floors.
Oh that kitchen. It is making me nauseous thinking about it.
This is the other side to that wall we removed. SO MUCH WOOD.
This wood was actually really pretty heart pine. I love the warmth of wood, but can’t handle the darkness.
So this isn’t the most enormous post ever. I will do the other half of the house later. Now for the good part.
AFTERS
To our surprise, there was a full chimney behind that wall so we knew we wanted to have it exposed. Because this was a load bearing wall, we had to have a new beam with some supports.
Mike and I did all the wainscoting ourselves. Our carpenter added the crown molding. We refinished the hardwoods and stained them a darker color. Wall color is SW Sea Salt.
We added french doors to open into our tiny office.
We wanted a totally open floor plan so we chopped off the bar from the original kitchen and added an island. Island was purchased from IKEA.
I installed the backsplash myself! Granite is Blanco Gabrielle and I loved it. A great mix and warm and cool tones so really versatile.
We added recessed lights throughout. We painted our existing cabinets SW Agreeable Gray.
New appliances of course. We had a tv mounted over the fridge where cabinet doors used to be. Since we never use the cabinets over the fridge we used a scrap section of wall we had cut out from somewhere else to close the cabinets off. We added a door on the side to still have some storage and added outlets inside the cabinet to make everything appear wireless.
This is the one room where we kept the natural wood. It gets a ton of natural light and I loved the traditional feel it gave the house. That pendant light on the left was over a small table where you could eat and gaze at Queen Anne’s Creek.
Standing in the kitchen looking toward the front of the house into the living room.
Unfortunately there were not hardwoods throughout the whole house, so we had to do something different behind the fireplace. We used one of the many new types of laminate flooring that look a lot more expensive than they are. Will I do laminate again? Probably not for my main living area. While it holds up incredibly well to dogs, I would still rather have real wood.
So that’s the main living area. I kind of miss it! Especially my kitchen. New kitchens are just the best. Next post I’ll share the rest of the house!
We finally got a couch. We sold our blue sofa & chair months ago and have been sitting on…basically we haven’t been sitting. Due to crazy animals and a baby, I decided to go the cheap route and got the Ikea Ektorp with the chaise. I am pretty much in love with it and it cleans like a dream, Rolo hairs vacuum right up (even though he is technically not allowed on it). Now for some fun pillows, a garden stool, new end table, new lamp, new drapes. New house? It never ends.
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