Thursday, June 9, 2016

new house renovations!

It seems like yesterday I posted about renovating our townhouse... Flash forward two years later and we have bought and renovated another home!  Here is the whole story of this crazy adventure we've had over the past 9 months! 

When we found out I was pregnant, we started the search for a bigger family home.  I made a mental goal of July 1st to find a house in order to close/sell our place and move before the baby arrived.  After what felt like a million showings, losing one house to a bad inspection and several others getting offers before we could even sign papers, we decided we needed to get the town house ready for baby just in case. 

 Darin was riding his bike through a large neighborhood in Munster and came across a for sale by owner-  he called the guy and took a quick tour but decided that I probably wouldn't like the house.  So we kept looking and checking Realtor.com about 78 times a day...  A few weeks after Darin had looked at the FSBO, the guy decided to list with a realtor.  When it popped up on my phone, I wanted to see it ASAP!  We scheduled a showing the day he listed and had an offer placed on, wait for it- July 1st.  After a little back and forth he accepted our offer and we quickly got everything underway to close.  The house, as you can see, needed a LOT of work.  We opted to not list our townhouse until we had the new house as close to move in ready as possible, mostly because Emmett could arrive at any time and we didn't want to be without a functioning house and a newborn.  Little did we know, we would still be without a kitchen for a while, but oh well!  

The day we closed and had keys in hand, we started demolition.  I was 8 months pregnant and not nearly as capable of helping as I would have liked to be.  Luckily our friends and family came to the rescue to help Darin rip the place apart.  Thankfully the previous owner had recently updated the bathrooms, not exactly to our liking, but they were good enough for now and only needed some paint.  We started our daily trips to all of the home stores to order appliances, flooring, cabinetry etc.  After decisions and many credit card transactions were made, we started to put the house back together.  A contractor came in to lay the new floors and add a closet to the Master bedroom (thus removing a closet from henry's room... he had two for some reason).  We hired a painter for the walls and all of the crown moulding, doors and door frames.  My friend's uncle came in to help with the kitchen installation.  Darin's friend helped with all of the floor trim, the main floor step and the basement stairs.  It was a huge team effort that really paid off!  

Luckily Emmett stayed in until after we moved.  The kitchen wasn't complete and we ate off paper plates b/c we had no sink for a couple weeks, but it all worked out.  My maternity leave gave me lots of time to unpack and decorate, which was a lot of fun.  

After all of the hard work and everything happening so fast, we kind of burnt out and took several months off from house stuff and just enjoyed our new life as a family of four.  Within the last month or so, we resumed where we left off and finished up the last few things.  I'm happy to say the inside is essentially complete!
Now to just finish up the outside... :)

It's crazy looking back at the before pictures and seeing how it has changed.  Some of the rooms don't even look like the same house.  We made our house a home and I love every inch of it.  These photos give me such gratification-  it's incredible to see all of the ideas you have in your head come to fruition... all of the hard work, sweat and tears totally paid off :)  

^little henry!^



Entryway & Playroom

-before-




-after-





Dining Room 

-before-







-after-







The Boy's Rooms 

Henry's - before





Emmett's - before







Henry's - after




Emmett's - after





Master Bedroom

-before-




-after-





Living Room

-before-







-after-





Hallway

-before-                                                                        -after-



and finally.... the pièce de résistance!!! THE KITCHEN: 

-before- 








and after!!!!