before and after...

 You guys. We no longer own our home! Which is crazyyyyy and amazing all wrapped up in one! We are SO excited for a new season, and we are equally as excited to hand our home over to a sweet new family to love. We are living here still for a couple of more weeks, and then we will move to our new home, which we are super excited about! {For the full story of why we are downsizing and moving on, go here}.  

We bought this home 8 years ago. We were young and so in love with the idea of returning this former foreclosure to the beauty we envisioned it to be! We saw it's incredible potential. Even now as I look back on old pictures I wonder HOW?!?! HOW did we see what it could become!?!?! Ha! But God is good, He gave us rose-tinted glasses and exactly the money we needed to make her livable and loveable again!

For the first two years of living here we poured our energy, time, and hard work into scrubbing, painting, rebuilding, sanding, replacing. Even now as I think back on those first two years I wonder how we had the energy to do what we did...but I wouldn't trade those memories of working side-by-side with J for anything! Between dog-peed carpets, a broken railing, exposed electrical work, and so many other little safety issues this home wasn't baby-safe when we moved in...and so we had to work our tails off to make it safe again. We were motivated to make it a family-safe home because we wanted to bring our babies home to this house. And that we did!  And here we are just 8 years later handing it over to another family to love because God told us to, and we were eager to obey!

​We have such sweet and precious memories here, and lately, the memories from those early years are all coming back to the surface. I thought maybe you would enjoy a little before & after tour along with me as I walk down memory lane! I can't wait to give you a glimpse into this journey of making this house a home.

​Here we go...

The Family Room: 

Oh, 90's mirrors and red brick fireplace. I'm SO glad you're gone!

​The Office:

More mirrors. Ugh. Technically this is the formal dining room {notice the doorway to the Butler's Pantry/kitchen...}...but we decided to make the Sunroom the dining room instead. This allowed for us to have a "library" on the main level. We called it the office or library...but it often got confusing because my office was upstairs. SO...um, here's the first floor office. ;)

​The Staircase:

Oh good-gravy, this was a major project! The railing was basically falling down when we moved in. We had signs plastered all over it so people didn't depend on it. It was awful. This first picture is after we had ripped it out to replace it. The previous owners had also painted the spindles poop-brown (yep #true)...which was NOT fun to fix. Most of the spindles were replaced with brand new ones, but two of the sections remained strong, so we decided to paint those back to white. OH MY GOODNESS that was TORTURE. But it ended up being worth the work! 

​The Dining/ Sun Room:

This is probably my favorite room in the house. It's so bright and sunny and the breeze coming through the open windows makes my heart so happy! All of my plants love this room too :) 

​The Kitchen:

The kitchen included some beauties like ripped cabinets, blue-speckled plastic knobs, and a marble front dishwasher :)  Sadly we never got to completely remodel the kitchen, but we were able to install new appliances and give it some much needed love. 

 

​The bedrooms (after shots):

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​The Playroom/ TV Room:

Sigh...the basement. For about a year I didn't even go down there. For real. There was dog pee stains all over the carpets from the previous owner. We ripped it out as soon as possible, which left the room pretty unusable. Thankfully the bank did paint this room white (this was the listing picture), BUT they did a shotty job and left dripping paint down most walls. Which was NOT COOL....So we spent countless hours sanding that out. Thankfully some of my girlfriends came over for a painting party and helped give this room some fresh paint. We also replaced the carpet and put some plantation shutters on the windows. We LOVE this space and spend several hours down here a day! It doesn't feel like a basement even though it is.  We also gave the formerly dark and gross storage room a major refresh by painting the exposed wall white and using some garage floor paint on the gross and dusty floor. It feels SO clean and fresh in there now! 

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​The Laundry Room:

 The laundry room is the most recent project we completed. It was basically a hallway before the remodel. We replaced the flooring and added a new stacking washer and dryer combo. We replaced the swinging door that took up so much space with a pocket-door, and removed a closet (GASP, I know!!). The closet and door made the room SO small to walk through. This room is the main entry point of the house. Space is a MUST, a closet is not. It is actually functional for a family now! These pictures don't do this space justice.  It's super roomy and so clean and fresh! 

​Other Treasures :) 

SO many treasures...including stickers on the walls that were painted over by the bank {NOT fun to take off one-by-one}, smashed glass on light fixtures and a smashed window in the shed, stick-on floor tiles in random patterns on the basement floor that actually didn't cover the floor, and SO much more - including a painted bulldog on the wall (HOW DO I NOT HAVE A PICTURE OF THAT ONE?!?!?!).  

Man, I wish we had better before pictures! 

What a journey this was! Looking back on this I am amazed at how much was done---and to think that the majority of that work was done in the first few years before our kids were added to the mix! Whew! We are SO grateful that the Lord always always provided the funds necessary to do the things we needed (and even simply wanted!) to do! When a new roof was needed, He provided. When new windows were needed, He showed up! We didn't have to acquire any debt for updating and maintaining this home, and we are SO grateful for that! 

I have to admit that part of me feels like I'm leaving  a project undone. I love a good redemption project (and story!) and so I feel a little sad that I didn't get to completely remodel the kitchen or pick out new floors for the main level. And the funny thing is...even now, just 8 years later, I would change SO much of what we did do - like paint colors and light fixtures, simply because my style has changed and my design eye has grown. Despite my desire to finish a project that feels incomplete... I must say, my heart is at complete and utter peace. In fact, my heart is still soaring over all that the Lord has done through us, to us, with us, and for us...simply because we said 'YES!'. 

If the Lord asks you to do something...even if it goes against the cultural norm (even the Christian cultural norm!!!)....SAY 'YES!!!!!" It is worth it. He has changed us, He has transformed us, He has blessed us, and we are ever grateful for this amazing testimony of His faithfulness in our lives! 

I hope you enjoyed the tour, friends! Stay tuned and follow along on Instagram ----> I'll definitely be sharing there as we get settled in our new home!