Home, sweet home!

After some encouragement from a friend of mine, I've decided to go ahead and share our before and "during" photos of our renovation (I'd call them afters, but we're really not done). So here's the kitchen when we bought our house back in June:

And exactly 1 month after we bought it, it looked like this! I call it our "Galley-Be-Gone" renovation. Bran tore out the walls that made it a galley and opened the kitchen up by adding cabinetry all the way around the room. We still need to finish the crown molding, buy a rug for under the table, and install hardware on the cabinets, but here she is, in all her "during" glory!

{click on photos to view larger}

The open floor plan kitchen, dining room, and living room is my favorite part of the whole house. My hubby did all the work, along with some of his buddies. New drywall on two walls and the ceiling, new pergo floors, re-claimed cabinets from his parent's old office space, laminate counter tops, re-claimed appliances from a kitchen Bran did last summer (they upgraded to stainless steel and let him keep the old ones - they're less than 5 years old so he said heck yes!). The dining table was free from friends of ours, and the chairs came from good will. We're hoping to replace everything in the dining area with something more contemporary (like this table and these chairs from c&b... I can dream, right?).

Then here's the master bedroom before:

And after...

Not a ton to see here. I definitely consider this a "during" photo, as I have plans to do some roman shades and hang more things on the walls. We didn't have to paint (the entire house was painted contractor beige before we bought it), but we hung my curtains (Waverly's paddock shawl in porcelain from Tuesday Morning) and artwork (on sale at Target), and added a headboard/footboard to our bed thanks to a hand-me-down from the in-laws (thanks, Karen!). I wanted the curtains hung higher, and I don't remember why they ended up getting hung where the did, but oh well. Maybe I'll have him re-hang them someday.... :) Oh and ignore the huge clock and the mirror on the floor in the first photo - we're not sure where they're going to go (if anywhere) so they chill there for the time being.

 And lastly, Emmaline's room before:

 

And after:

 

This vintage yellow settee is  my most favorite piece of furniture in our entire house. Can you believe I saved it from the trash?! It was in my grandfather's basement for years and years, but is in nearly mint condition. I brought it home, gave it a good cleaning and put it in Emma's room. She loves it!

Her room is also very much in the during phase. I have art that needs hung, a cute paper lantern and plans to hang a canopy above her settee. I'll post more about that later :)

Here's a look at her little bookshelf/toy storage area (you can see the lamp in the foreground of the photo above). The canvas print came from my sister, and the bookshelf was another hand me down from Karen. 

 The two rooms I haven't posted yet are Jack's nursery and the laundry/playroom (you can see hints of it through the openings in the kitchen). They're both still very much in the before phase but as soon as I have afters I'll post them, too!

What do you think? Not bad for having only lived here for about 3 1/2 months, huh? :)