We have been in our house for a month now, and that new house excitement still hasn’t worn off. We are so in love with having a home and the area that we have moved to, and it feels really good to be ticking things off our massive to-do list. It’s definitely going to be a process, but we are getting there and trying to enjoy ourselves as we go along as much as we can.
We were very lucky in that our house was completely gut renovated by the previous owners. New roof, new front porch and back deck, new air conditioning and heating systems, new kitchen and fresh coats of paint in every room. Since they sold it so quickly after the renovation, it was sort of a blank slate when we moved in, with no mirrors in the bathrooms and no window treatments on any of the windows. So, here’s where we are so far, and quick note: most of the pictures were literally taken on move-in day, so please excuse the mess and boxes!!
First Floor // Our first floor is open plan, so the living room, dining room and kitchen are all one big room. On the far end there are two large glass doors that lead out onto the back deck and backyard, which is completely fenced in – a dream when you have a toddler. In the middle of the room is a two sided fireplace surrounded by bricks. Very cozy 🙂 We just ordered this couch from Restoration Hardware and this coffee table ottoman, and need to hang art on the walls and maybe get a new piece of furniture or two – a bookcase and new entryway table and maybe another chair (Tom has his heart set on this one) and also get tons of kitchen stuff like a slow cooker and Vitamix – but aside from that the downstairs is in pretty good shape! I am still not over how delightful it is to cook in a normal sized kitchen by the way, after having such a teeny tiny NYC galley kitchen for so long.
Basement // Our basement is partially finished, with windows and a door that leads to the outside front of the house. There’s a great fireplace down there, and we plan to eventually turn it into a cozy hang out spot / guest room. The unfinished portion has the washer and dryer (dream!!!!) and tons of storage space.
Master Bedroom // Our bedroom is big and sun-filled and has the dreamiest en-suite bathroom with a huge rainforest shower and double sinks, which I really and truly love so much. We currently have our same queen sized bed from New York in there, and will soon be upgrading to a king size bed 🙂 and getting new nightstands. We need another dresser or two in there, and I’m debating how to hang things on the wall – I like the idea of a really clean, symmetrical gallery wall of family photos. Our shared closet is a great size but horribly laid out, so we will be getting that re-done shortly.
Georgie’s Bedroom // In our New York apartment, Georgie’s crib was in a tiny office alcove right next to our bathroom, so I was so excited for her to have her own bedroom in the house. We upgraded her to this crib, got this rug which is SO SOFT and hung Restoration Hardware blackout shades, so her room is coming along. It’s painted a light blue (the previous owners had two sons) so I’d like to change that to maybe a pale peach or even some wallpaper, and the light fixture is really simple so I’m thinking something like this or this will look really beautiful. Also, we will eventually add some window treatments (I love these) and once the painting / wallpapering is done we will hang some art and photos on her walls.
Guest Bedroom // Our guest bedroom is currently home to the boxes that we have still not unpacked, sigh. Once we get our new couch, we will move our current couch (which is a sleeper) into that room, and once we get a new bed in our bedroom, we will move our queen sized bed into the guest room, and move the sleeper sofa into the basement. Really thrilling stuff I know 😉 The guest bedroom is painted the same light blue as Georgie’s room, so we may ultimately re-paint that room as well. But it’s a pretty color, and perfectly fine for now.
Windows // Oh the window saga!! We wanted to hang basic, light filtering shades from all of the windows so that we would have privacy when needed, and then could layer on additional window treatments later. You would think that ordering and hanging shades would be such a simple task, but it has proved to be so incredibly difficult and frustrating. First, Tom bought shades for every window while picking up a bunch of other stuff at Home Depot. He had them all cut to size, brought them home, hung them and then I noticed a weird smell. They were made of vinyl and after I got into bed that night I did a quick google search and literally shot out of bed, ran downstairs and started to panic, shoving my phone in Tom’s face. Vinyl is literally called the poison plastic, so long story short, that was the end of our vinyl shades.
Next step was ordering shades from the local hardware store in my hometown, Killian’s (fun fact: it’s my dad’s favorite place on earth and he would make almost daily trips there when I was growing up). Tom re-measured the windows (in addition to being vinyl, most of the Home Depot shades were also cut the incorrect size) and we ordered the shades, which came in a few days. They looked beautiful (and no vinyl!) but unfortunately several were the wrong size when Tom went to hang them. Honestly, measuring for shades is like the trickiest thing in the world. I am convinced that there is just no right way to do it! That or every store cuts them either a little too big or too small and it’s just too complex. Anyway, at the risk of writing several more paragraphs about shades (so boring, so sorry) I will say that after one more round of ordering, we now have lovely shades on our windows – hooray!!
Outside // One of the things that we loved the most about our house when we first saw it is the outside space. Maybe it’s partially that we were coming from Manhattan, where we lived on the 15th floor and had to take an elevator to get outside or up to our roof-deck, but having outdoor space is like the biggest treasure ever. To be able to slide open some doors, smell the fresh air and have your feet in the grass is such a joy. We just ordered some white adirondack chairs (I need to find a tiny one for Georgie too!) and ultimately will get a grill and little dining table and chairs outside as well. My parents are so kindly ordering a playhouse for Georgie to arrive in the spring, and we are also on the search for some good outdoor furniture for the front porch too.
