Official First House Tour

So, I have shown you the front of the house and the bathrooms. Since we move in tomorrow, do you want to see the rest?

Well, here is my official house tour- with a little taste of what I hope to do to the house. The pictures with  furniture are from the original house tour-  these folks had a boat load of furniture in our little house:

The foyer- for some reason I actually really love our 1960s doors and yellowish glass. Picture this area with some awesome tile- or what about some wallpaper!?!?:

The main living area- the hallway goes to the bedrooms and the foyer is on the left:

The main living area sans furniture looking into the second living area. This wall is a non-load bearing wall and it is coming out!! Also, I do have plans to paint the fireplace- white or dark gray, hummm:

The second area with more big furniture. Please note that the wall in this room has paneling, so by taking out the wall to connect it to the other room two major things have to happen- (1) the paneling has to come down and (2) we have to match the floors where the wall used to be:

This area has a pass through to the kitchen. I apologize- this is actually our mess after the first night of eating dinner at our house. The sliding glass door goes out to the covered patio and back yard. And yes, those blinds are coming down!!:

And here is the kitchen with the previous owners stuff. The foyer is behind me, and  you can get an idea of the eat in area to the right, plus the horrible laminate floors and boob light:

I have tortured myself over how to make this kitchen better with our Phase 1 reno budget. We are starting off by making the opening to the living room larger (which is to the left of the fridge), putting in hard wood floors and tackling the appliances.  

Why have I tortured myself? Because I need to replace the semi-functioning stove from the early 80s- of course it is a non-standard size of 25-inches. SOOO we either replace it with a super small stove from Europe or Japan or gut the whole kitchen so it can fit a standard sized oven and cook top!?!?

Our solution is a bit of a mickey mouse solution for the time being. The best advice we've heard so far- buy the appliances you want to fit the space you want in the future. So with that in mind, we are going to
(1) remove the stove and (cross your fingers) replace the hole in the wall with a wine fridge, (2) cut out the cabinet below the cooktop and put in a 36-inch-wide stove (more on our super awesome stove next time).

New hardware, a new sink and a new backsplash is phase two- think farmhouse sink and white subway tile. And possibly a makeover of the horrid Formica countertops. New cabinets- phase three.

Ok, on to the three bedrooms- here's the guest room- bland, but a good size:

Here is little Miss Sugar Bear's room. This room is the most beat up- the previous teenager wrote on the walls, did a number on the carpet and the mirrored closet doors leave a lot to be desired as you can imagine. Picture light pink!! Good news- a professional carpet cleaner helped salvage the carpet for now:

To the left of  Sugar Bear's bedroom door is the hall bath, which I previously give you a sneak peak:

Another view of the acrylic counter tops. Can you see the mess we made?? Night one we replaced all of the gold handles with brushed silver. Not only were the handles all gold, but some of the locks faced the wrong way so they had to go stat!! I off-handily guessed that our house was a rental at some point- no self respecting homeowner would have put those handles in their own house- and sure enough, I was right!!:

I so wish we could gut this bathtub/shower acrylic area:

Now on to the Master bedroom- and yes, this is what my family does while I run around like a crazy person taking pictures. This also showcases our first official house purchase and currently our only piece of furniture-a Guest Bed (we've been spending some nights in the house prior to moving all of our stuff in, so for the time being the guest bed is in the master bedroom): 

The other view that looks right into the master bath, which you have already seen: 

I am pretty sure at this point, I took Sugar Bear with me, and so Mr. Spice made himself comfy:

Proof of me holding Sugar Bear and taking house pictures- her first photo bomb:

And finally, the backyard with the previous owners crap, which again needs a ton of work- think grass, lavender, and hydrenga plants:

BUT we have a Redwood tree, and we already have plans to hang a toddler swing from one of the branches:

So there she is. I am trying not to be overwhelmed with all the work that needs to be done, but we have a plan for phase one. And I am hoping that new paint on the walls will make a BIG improvement. (BTW- back half of the house is almost painted and I think I like every color except one- the hall bath!?!?)

Wish us luck!?!?! We officially move tomorrow!!

Have a great weekend! Any big plans??