House Tour: in conclusion- Basement and Backyard B&A

The basement was a very dark forest green when we bought the house.  With one tiny window and just about zero built in lighting, it was insanely dark down there.  

the paint that eats light!

That was the first space we painted.  We picked a light gray color which I believe was a Glidden color called iceburg.

after #1

the finale

I got that entertainment center from Ikea as-is section for just $50!  The only ding was on the very bottom.  Since we would have had to disassemble it to get it out, we left it for the new guys.  

Other items:  wall shelves and brackets, white and brown boxes, gateleg table (another awesome deal!), accent chair, office chair, floor lamp, book case, magazine holders, and floral print art- Ikea.  storage ottoman- target.com.  vinyl plank flooring and area rug- Home Depot.  baskets and picture frames- Michael's

The backyard was a pain in the butt.  When we moved in, it had drainage issues and a ton of large plastic kid stuff left behind from the previous owners.  We enjoyed the kid stuff, but before we listed, it had to go.  Over the years we worked to improve the drainage in the back yard.  We made a few other changes: replacing the hvac system (I would have thought the new outdoor unit would be smaller than the old one, shows what I know), making a garden, building a deck, adding a rock area, and replacing the porch light (after these pics were taken apparently, oh well).  

before

 after

the neighbor extended the fence, can't take credit for that one

 another angle

after

The bistro set is from (you guessed it) Ikea.  The doormat is from Home Depot.  We hired out to build the deck, but the rest we did ourselves.  The raised garden bed is made from an old door frame and an extra piece of wood to finish it off.  I got some cedar edging from Home Depot to put around it to make it look a little nicer. The flowers, veggies, and two little arbor vitae were from a great spring sale at Home Depot.  They all did remarkably well and are all still around (except the lettuce which is all eaten, mostly by us even).  

And there you have, six years of work in three blog posts!  Now we get to start over again :)

house tour part 1, house tour part 2

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House Tour part 2: Upstairs Before and After

The upper floor of the house only has three rooms (including the bathroom) and a hallway, but we sure found ways to do a lot of work up there. When we moved in, my husband and I took the big room and our daughter was in the little room. The little room was originally Pooh Bear yellow with Winnie the Pooh wallpaper borders and clings.

We kept it that way for a long time. I painted the master bedroom a sea green color (oops paint) one wall at a time. After our second daughter was born and entered toddlerhood, we decided to switch rooms with the girls.

I had a hard time deciding on a color. I had a plethora of paint chips. I finally decided on a Martha Stewart paint color called Full Sail.

I never got around to blogging about this project, so here are some of the during pictures

To maximize our storage space in the small room, we got PAX storage units from Ikea. We found all the doors and drawer fronts in the as-is section. They were all new in the package, I guess they were just trying to clear them out. The big doors were $3.99 rather than like $100! After building the PAX units, we had more storage space in the little room than in the two closets of the MBR combined!

After

Eventually, we figured out that switching back would make more sense for staging the house to sell.

After After

After the first switcheroo, the big room became the girls' bedroom/playroom. It went through a few different configurations, eventually ending up with bunk beds (that really opened up some space for play!)

Befores and Afters in the big room

The paint color in the master bedroom was a mix of a gallon of blue oops paint, a gray oops paint sample, some left over light blue oops paint I had bought a while back, and some flat white paint.

I added a bit of white semi gloss before painting the bathroom with it. I'm pleased with how it turned out. I left some touch up paint for the new residents and took the 5 gallon bucket of the rest with us!

Bathroom before

after

Sources: Small room-- PAX wardrobe system, all bedding excluding euro shams, end table, boxes above wardrobe, under bed basket, and blinds- Ikea, bunk beds- BJs, lamp, curtain, and curtain rods- Walmart

Master Bedroom-- ceiling fan-Lowes, bed skirt, head board, ottoman, and lamp shades- Target, all other bedding, picture frames, end tables, book case, floor lamp, accessories, and throw- Ikea, baskets-Michaels, table lamps and chair- thrift store

Bathroom-- towels- jcpenny.com, shower curtain-Target, light fixture- Home Depot, glass shades- Lowes, towel rod and toilet paper holder- ReStore, frame around mirror- hand cut and built by me with end cap trim from home depot, painted with bronze spray paint.

part 1 of the house tour,

next up- the basement and backyard

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House Tour: A Before and After nearly six years in the making

We did it! We sold our house!

What a journey it has been. When we were getting the house ready, I figured I'd blog about all the projects once they were done, then I was so busy cleaning and keeping the house looking nice while it was on the market that I didn't.

I also got quite discouraged while we on the market. Getting an offer, then having the buyer back out was also pretty discouraging. But we did a lot better than a lot of the people trying to sell in our neighborhood. I think all the work we did made a big difference.
So did having good pictures in our listing. Our realtor hired a photographer and all the after pictures here are her work.

Without further ado, here is part one of the house tour, the main floor.

All of the before pictures were taken way back in 2005 when we were barely starting to move stuff in. Yeah, we bought in 2005, and yes we did lose $$.

The kitchen is the first thing you see in this house.

I blogged about painting the kitchen cabinets here and about the flooring here and here.

I wrote about the fake board and batten here and the trimmed out ledge (up the stairs) here.

I couldn't find a good before picture of this part of the kitchen. We used to have a big book case here that was always overflowing with junk and looking terrible.

We made the table with a butcher block countertop and four adjustable table legs all from Ikea. The light shade, the wall cabinet and many of the accessories inside it are also from Ikea. The barstools are from walmart.com.

The dining room beforeand after

The chandelier, bench, table, and chair covers are from Ikea. The chandelier shades are from jcpenny.com. All of the floor mats are from LLBean.

The living room, before we moved in any furniture

way after

The curtain rod, drapes, and lamp are from Ikea. The sheers and the art is from JCPenny. The print pillows were on clearance at Target. The brown pillows are pillow covers made from napkins. The plastic film on the window panes of the door and the laminate flooring are both from homedepot.com.

*edited to add- for those interested in the paint color, it is Soft Yellow from Glidden (we bought it a few years back, so I don't know if it's still called that).

Next up: Part 2- The upper floor

part 3-basement and backyard

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