Our home renovations are a little different from the ones typically featured on blogs. We in no way consider our house to be a fixer upper. We actually designed and built our house in 2014. Instead of renovating an established home, we decided to start at the studs and build up the character, along with our family, over time. We’ve accomplished a lot since move in day, but we’re nowhere near finished yet.
Note: This page will be updated anytime we post a room reveal or finished project on the blog.
This is how our home looked on move in day. A shiny new home with a very dirt yard.
The bright door really stood out against the dirt yard. The first time I saw the door even I was a bit shocked by how vibrant it was and almost started having buyer’s regret. This is by far the most controversial design decision we’ve made.
Although you can’t see it in the pictures, we have a bit of a unique yard, as our home faces a curved corner. This has allowed us to get creative with our landscaping. The first summer we lived in our home, we had a local company, Natural Environments, add grass, a stone wall to level out our steep front yard, a small patio off the front porch, some decorative landscaping and a berm with several trees.
Our main floor is primarily made up of a large, open living space, complete with an oversized kitchen. It also house’s Katie’s office, a half bath, entry and ample storage.
Entry
Here is the entry on move-in day.
A few months after moving in, we added classic wainscoting and a designer favorite, the fiddle leaf fig. Stay tuned for a DIY tutorial on how we installed the molding. Then after countless hours of searching for the perfect bench for our very small entry, we commissioned a piece by Grain Designs and our mission was complete. Here is our entry today.
Office
I loved this paint color at move in and didn’t think it would ever change.
Boy am I glad it did. This room is where we have got our hands the most dirty and it has been worth it. We took a risk with black paint, Ikea hacked some Billy bookcases into a wall to wall built-in, and added crown molding. We will be outlining this and the room’s continued transformation on the blog soon.
Kitchen
Bar stools make a big difference.
Here is the kitchen shortly after move in.
Here it is today.
Family Room
Before we moved into our home, things were looking great in the family room; clean and crisp. It was almost a shame to move furniture in.
Scratch that it. It was a shame to move furniture in because our furniture looked like this. At least it was kid friendly?
While the furniture looked okay in our one bedroom, industrial condo, it did not match our new home’s style or floor plan. We knew this going in, but we wanted to live in the space and adjust to our new lives as parent’s before we purchased all new furniture. So we focused on the upstairs and getting to know E, while the family room stayed like this for six months or more. It’s looking much better today, but the room still may go through some major changes. Stay tuned!
The Nook
We have a very open floor plan, perhaps even a little too open. The kitchen, family room and dining room are connected in a giant rectangle, making the room long and skinny with an awkward nook area in-between.

We had a very hard time figuring out what to do with what we refer to on the blog as the nook. The open space the nook inhabits is bigger than the square footage of E’s entire room, and most of the furniture arrangements we tried seemed random and off. We were a little overwhelmed by the space, so we left it looking like this for the better part of a year.
After a lot of head scratching, we came up with a pretty good solution. Today the space looks like this.
Dining Room
The dining room was a clean slate in the fall of 2014 when we moved in, mostly because we did not actually own a dining table. Pitying us, my parent’s offloaded generously donated their custom 1990’s yellow oak table. By Christmas, we had painted and stained the table and one chair. It looked rough.
We recently got it together and now the space looks like this.
Mudroom
The mudroom has more or less looked the same since move in, minus a few decorative and functional details.
The Daily System by Pottery Barn serves as the life blood of our family. Without it we would be even later to everything than we already are.
Up the stairs, you will find our laundry room, four bedrooms and two full-sized bathrooms.
Stairs and Hall
At move in the stairs were looking pretty basic and we couldn’t have that.
We added DIY window boxes and some greenery.
Then added on to the railing and built our own baby gate.
Here’s what the upstairs hall looked like in the fall of 2014. Basic.
Today it is dressed up with wainscoting and gallery walls.
Laundry Room
The laundry room has looked great since day one, but we amped it up by adding wall paper and crown moulding to the ceiling. We will be posting how we did it and what we learned (after a few mistakes) on the blog… eventually.
Nursery
The nursery, much like our parenting skills, was a blank slate on day one.
Now it reflects our little girl perfectly and is filled with DIY projects, including, but not limited to, the nautical inspired shelving.
Playroom
The playroom was no frills in the beginning.
Now it is the brightest and cheeriest room in the house.
Master Bedroom
Our master bedroom started off on rather dreary foot. It was bland and our furniture was mismatched.
But after a few months, things got a heck of a lot brighter and more coordinated. We went with a heavily-textured, white theme. If you haven’t noticed, we really like white!
See the complete master bedroom reveal here.
It was also feature in Design & Living Magazine. Read it here.
Master Bath
Last, but not least. The master bath needs no introduction, or before photo. I would live in here all day if I could.
Keep checking in for updated pictures and room reveals!