And while I desperately wanted an old home full of charm, we realized that {being fresh out of college} our budget didn’t allow for potential issues to arise, such as the need for a new roof, plumbing issues or potential foundation problems. So, resolving ourselves to a “newer” house, we found this one and fell in love with its curb appear and rear entry garage.
Although it was new, we had every intention of tweaking it here and there, upgrading a few things, and putting our stamp on it. Of course we had to keep cost in mind, both for budget purposes, as well as making sure we only put into the house what we thought we could one day get out of it.
I’ll give you a brief virtual tour, highlighting the changes we made, as well as some of the things we would have liked to do, had we planned to be there a few more years, or felt we would have gotten a return on our investment.
We changed out the landscape over the first few years, pruning and shaping a little each Spring. We also added a storm door to both the front and back door. Tucker was pretty sure these were installed just for him! If the main door was open, you could pretty much bet he’d be there looking out, keeping an eye on things.
Aside from painting the walls in the Living Room, we replaced the ceiling fan, then just decorated and furnished the room. Fortunately, I was able to work with a few vendors from work, to have the entertainment cabinet and shelves custom-built, then we saved out pennies and order the custom sofa from one of our furniture companies, while another vendor upholstered an antique Wingback chair I found on Craigslist.
In the Dining Room, we swapped out the original generic chandelier for a more modern drum shade pendant. We were extremely fortunate to get this round Restoration Hardware table top through work for a great deal! We had one of our custom furniture builders make the base for us, then found the two sets of chairs through Craigslist again – love Craigslist! I painted each of the chairs and upholstered the seat cushions of the white chairs. The old windows mounted on the wall are antique sidelights from the Nashville Flea Market.
In our next home, we are really hoping to find something older and with more charm, that needs work! Ideally, I’d like to buy a home with a well laid out kitchen {so we don’t have to move plumbing}, that needs to be completely redone! And I would love to then have painted cabinets, a light airy color of some sort, with white marble countertops and a white subway backsplash. Wouldn’t that be a beautiful backdrop for food photos? See Josh…it’s practically a necessity! ;)
The above right is our powder room, we had the barn wood framed mirror custom-made for the vanity.
Below is the landing at the top of our stairs on the second floor.
Below is a picture of the upstairs Guest Bathroom. We added cabinet pulls in here as well and replaced the vinyl floor with ceramic tile. The tile is the same color/pattern we used downstairs, but in a smaller size. Again, this would not have been the cabinet color I would have selected, but being that the house was brand new, it just didn’t make sense to paint them.
We learned a lot through the purchase of our first home, as far as location, investment, upgrades, etc. There were decisions we made and loved and decisions we made and possibly regretted, or at least made a mental note to do different next time. From the time we started furnishing and working on the house five years ago until now, my {our} taste and style has changed and evolved a bit. I’m truly looking forward to working on our next place and making it home, while incorporating some of the things I’ve seen and learned over the years.
That ends the little tour, thanks for letting me share it with you!