Let's get started on our master bedroom, shall we? 

Just to remind myself of how far we have actually come, I have included the above pictures of the space when we moved in. I would say that we have come a loooonnnngggg way from the days of water stains, pink wall paper, and gross carpet. And if you guys have been with us since day one, you will also remember that our floor plan changed a bit upstairs, when we took our two itsy bitsy bedrooms and made them one gigantic room. 

Then

Now

We love that we were able to open it up and create way-too-big-of-a-space for ourselves. Once it was gutted, we added the molding detail which, we felt, kicked it up a notch. We love that it added visual interest, when you walk up the stairs. Plus, the carpenter loved the idea, because it meant that he didn't have to finish any of the drywall corners. 

Now, I look at the above picture and think, "Wow, what an open and airy space! It is beautiful!" But then, I look at the picture below, which is a semi-current picture of our space, and all I see is a dark cave. 

It feels way more traditional then we will ever be. So, it's time for things to change a bit! If you remember, in this post,  I outlined a few things that I would love to add in the long run. Today, though, I'm going to focus on a way to spruce up our space, without spending money--if I can help it! 

As I said in my last post, the first step to renovating your space with little to no money, is to take a step back and really analyze your space. Upon doing this, I noticed a few things. 

1. Our floor plan was not working. 

In about two months, we will have a wiggly baby boy joining us. For the first few months, at least, we are planning on keeping him in our bedroom. The current floor plan just wasn't going to work for that change. I wanted to add a bassinet, some clothing storage, and space for a changing area and ,well, with the way the room is currently set up, there isn't much space to do so. Plus, I sleep on the side of the bed closest to the windows (in the above picture). Which means,  if I need to go downstairs, at any point in the middle of the night, I will have to walk across the room and down the stairs. I know, not that big of a deal, but I want to be able to be as quiet as possible and let Jonathan get as much sleep as I can. After all, he will be the one going to work everyday. So, floor plan had to go. 

2.) Something needed to be done to lighten the space a bit.

Visually, our bedroom is feeling very heavy to me. It might be the darker, more saturated colors. It could be the black furniture. Maybe it is the dark curtains and the color of the floor. Whatever it is, it needs to change. So, I need to figure out what it is, and fix it...or at least find a way to mask it for now. 

3.) The space doesn't read 'Jonathan and Liz.'

Like I have mentioned before, our master bedroom is the least like us, compared to the other rooms in our house. The problem is definitely the overall traditional feel that comes through. This needs to change and a rustic country house feel needs to be brought in. This is the part that I'm most looking forward to!!

So after taking it all in, these three things are the problems I discovered. I'm going to first tackle the floor plan and then we will go from there. The floor plan is something small to start with, which is step number two on my list. But we will save that for the next post! 

What space needs to be changed in your home? After taking a step back to take it all in, what are some things that you noticed, need to be changed? What is the first "small thing" that you are going to try? 

Let's Catch Up

Sorry to all of our "fans" out there! I guess it is about time that we do a status report around here. Let's catch-up shall we?

The hubs and I have been busy, busy, busy tearing the house apart. We have our plan of action together and we are on the fast track to moving in. We would like to be in our new digs at the end of the month. Now we just need to pray that everything goes smoothly and that we can accomplish this grandiose task. Please pray! :)

So after this post, you may be wondering about the layout changes we referred to. We used floorplanner again to show you what our thoughts are. So here is the original house layout:

And here is what we would like it to look like in the end: (please note that the master bedroom is actually above the living room on the second floor)

You will notice that we are planning on adding on a bit. Here is a brief list of what we would like to do.

1. Make the kitchen bigger by bumping out the left wall to be even with the sun porch and the back wall to be even with the entryway into the house. 
2. Extend out the back entryway and add on a laundry room/entrance way. 
3. Add on to the guest bedroom making it into a office area.
4. Make the sun porch and the dining room into one room. 
5. Knock down the walls upstairs and make one big master bedroom. (We will eventually be adding on to the second story, but right now we aren't sure what that will look like.It will definitely include another bathroom and two more bedrooms though.)

So that is what we are working on now. We have decided that we want to complete the master bedroom, gut and renovate the bathroom, and paint everything before we move in. Its a lot of work, but we are up for the task!

Want to see what we have done so far? Come back tomorrow for some progress pictures!

Floor Plan and Stats

Once you tell someone you have just purchased a house, there are always the inevitable questions that follow. I think everyone is genuinely excited for us, but a part of them also seems to think that they can picture the house if we tell them the dirty deets. "How big is the house?" "How many bathrooms?" "Now you said that was three bedrooms?" (followed by that whatcha-talkin'-'bout-Willis?-stare). 

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We really appreciate everyone's enthusiasm but how do you tell someone that there is technically only one bedroom, because only one of the bedrooms listed (of the three) actually has a closet. Or that the bathroom is actually only a 3/4 bathroom because there isn't any shower, because the previous owner was an older lady who appreciated a good-long bath. Or that the house is considered a cape cod, but you resent that statement, because truly, you can stand up in the entire upstairs and the roof line doesn't really effect the ceiling height. 

Usually, people don't stand around listening to you explain this overly detailed list full of run-on sentences. They just want to know what it's like and truth be told, I fall into that category myself. I always want to know the details. I'm nosy. The dirty deets. The 411. The ins and outs. I like knowing people's biz-niss. Ok...wow...moving on. 

But we care! It's our little house and we are bursting at the seems to tell everyone about it! So here is the run down. Will you bare with me? Trust me, I think you will like it...

Our house has three bedrooms (one downstairs and two upstairs) and one bathroom. We also have a kitchen, dining room, living room, and cute little sun porch. There is a detached garage and a huge backyard. Also, to further complete the whole cute-little-house-with-white-picket-fence motif, there is actually a white picket fence that borders one side of the yard! Plus, as if God was telling me that this place is meant to be ours, there is already a laundry line installed. I know what you are thinking, yes I could install it myself, but trust me. This. was. a. sign. :)

And because that doesn't really give you a great visual of the place, I thought I would take it a step further. Thanks to this free website, I also drew up a mock (not exactly to scale) floor plan. 

The top of the picture is the back of the house and the little gray bump-out with stairs is the entryway. You go up the stairs on the right, to our kitchen or down the stairs on the left, to the basement. The room on the left hand side that isn't labeled, is the sun room. And just in case you were wondering, the two gold rectangles in the middle of the picture are radiators. We have more of them, I just added a few in for effect. 

We have decided that we are going to play around with the layout a bit, in the future. But for now this is what it looks like, sans furniture. Come back tomorrow and I will give you a visual rundown of each room as it is now. Trust me, lots of pictures are coming your way!