Kitchen Shelving Update

I've never really loved this one portion of my kitchen. It was cupboards with glass doors. I loved the concept of it....yet, the shelves didn't line up nicely- they staggered with the panes. No matter what I put inside of them, they just never looked clean or simple....they always looked busy and unorganized. I never used the cupboards for storage- I was trying to put cute stuff in them, and honestly, it never looked good. So, I sat and stared at the spot one day all day long and came up with a new solution!

Before....

 Mid-progress....

Final reveal....

I'm still playing around with them a little but so far, so good! People notice them right away when they come in the kitchen because it opened up that area so much! It looks so much cleaner too! This was an "easy" change once we formulated our plan of attack....but it did take awhile for us to figure it out! I didn't want any brackets showing behind the shelves so we had to get creative!

Office Makeover

This was a 2016 house project I took on- and one of my favorites! It made me want to be an interior designer, but alas, I don't have four more years to give for a new degree....

Here are some photos of my "office" when we bought the house....

They called it a four season type room, an extra living room, a cozy reading room....and while I loved the idea of using it for just that....it really wasn't me. I knew I needed an office or an art room, but did like a little sitting area. The windows are really pretty in the room. However, the lighting is horrible.  They decorated the room in mint green and purple, and red accents (the red accents don't show up well in the photos).

Sadly, I forgot to take photos of what we first did in the room - which was just replace the carpet, put a rug down and put my old office furniture in it. Here's a couple of poor photos....

My requirements for the makeover were: wallpaper, built-ins, a sitting area, a place for all three kids to do homework at the same time, storage, better lighting and possibly a place for a tv.  Here's how the room turned out and it surpassed all my expectations!

The only problem is that we didn't improve the lighting....the ceiling was too high and there was no way to add it without a high cost. And, we've got a lot of great window light in here, so the only time it's needed is really at night. So, we have little lights on the wall and a light on the desk- that does enough! And, I'm in here more during the day than at night!

I actually love the tv....I wasn't going to do it but it really is a nice room to sit with a cup of coffee and watch hgtv in the morning; or put on a girl show while I'm catching up on school emails....stuff like that. The kids are now out of the kitchen when they do their homework which is great for me. And, Joe is happy because my laptop and desk stuff hasn't taken over the kitchen table like it used to!

The only other downfall of the room is the countertop- I was given lots of advice to go with quartz. So, I did. But, this being an art project room has proven tricky- lots of glue, markers, crayons and paint get on this and it's not easy to clean up! But, now that I know that- I'm just more careful and we immediately clean up the messes so it doesn't stain!

This has truly turned into quite possibly my favorite room of the house! It's cozy and functional and pretty - so I enjoy being in here! I proved Joe wrong because he fought me on the necessity of this room....and now realizes that we DO use it!

Landscaping: Before and After

I've been wanting to blog on a few things we've updated on the house....first up: landscaping!

Here are some before shots of the front of the house....red rock, overgrown bushes, dead tree, no brick pavers, and not a lot of color....

 Here are some after shots of the front of the house....new rock, new bushes, removed dead tree and replaced with a new one, new shrubs, and some color!

Here are some before shots of one side of our house- red rock, ugly piping, lack of bushes

 And, here are some afters....new tall grasses, new rock, covered up the ugly piping....

Here are some before shots of the back of the house....this was my biggest eyesore. Old, dead tree; lots of overgrown shrubs; no rock like around the house- but instead, old mulch; no edging or stone; old buried railroad ties; buried stones and benches...it was pretty bad. This is the spot behind the pool so we see it often so we wanted that re-done bad!

 Here's a shot of the back part re-done without too much growth.....

And, here's a shot of the after....

Here are some before shots of the front and back of the pool area- old mulch, overgrown flowers, no stone edging, lots of weeds, grass, and we discovered the stone path when we were mowing one day!

Here are a couple of mid-progress shots

 And, here are a couple after shots- new rock, new edging, weeding, pruning, new stone path and more. We really did try to keep as many of their flowers that we could while just cleaning up the area!

Here's a few more random before shots....

Here are some after shots of the same spaces- more stone edging, rock, cleaned up the garden, mulched around our backyard trees and trying to revive our hydrangea bushes!

It was our first huge new house project...most of it got done last year, but some of it got done this year still. This is our second year of gardening and we sure are learning a lot about that. It's pretty fun, but I'm not sure the time and money you put into it is worth the output. But, I planted a lot of tomatoes and that's one of my favorites so I may change my mind. I may be interested in trying a cut flower garden some day too.

The other update we did was new outdoor lighting....it made a huge difference too!

Stay tuned for more house updates. Even though no one reads my blog, I'm excited to look back at our house some day and see all of our home improvements!