Storage Room

We moved into our house a little over a year ago. One of the things on our to do list was building shelves and organizing our storage room.

To be honest, I was a little embarrassed by how messy the room was. I like things to be picked up and in their place - and that room was the opposite of that. I forgot to take a before picture with the crap all over the place though.

The room before we moved in.

A couple of weeks ago, Tom built shelving units for 3 of the walls.Once he got those up, the both of us organized and put everything in bins, sorted through boxes and gathered some stuff to donate to Goodwill.

All our holiday decorations in one place

Some of my stock pile

Random stuff

Tom even put a curtain over the window.

It's amazing how much an organized room can make you happy! :)

Laundry Room

Another room in our house that needed some work was our laundry room.

When we purchased the house, the laundry room was a VERY bright turquoise color and didn't have anything in there except a wire rack.

We had the laundry room painted a grayish blue and had a utility sink installed before we moved in. A few months after we moved in, Tom added some cabinets and shelves. I added a few touches and just recently found the perfect rug to match everything.

I love the rack we hang the school bags on

Look at the newest accessory ;)

The sign says "So Fresh and So Clean, Clean"

Entry Way & Dining Room

Just for my reference, I like to see the changes we've made to our house since moving in last November (technically late October).

Tom and I have accomplished a lot and I like comparing the before and after. As of now, I feel like we have 2 more areas finished and wanted to document it.

I loved our entry way table decor at out old house, but felt like I needed to update it (you know - new house, new decor - ha).

Before

After

One of the other rooms that we didn't need to do much to was the dining room. The only things we did was add Roman Shades to the 3 windows in the room and buy a large rug. All of our furniture from the old house fit perfectly and looks great in that space.

Before

After

New House & Remodeling

Once we knew we were going to move to Pittsburgh, Tom and I searched for houses daily. We didn't really find much we liked. Tom was the one that ended up finding the house we eventually purchased (HW). It was a foreclosure and had been vacant since November 2011.

When we came up in mid-July, we had a list of 3 houses we wanted to look at. We saved HW for last, because we didn't really think we would like it because of all the work (and the smell was horrible). When Tom and I walked in - we just knew it was the one.

Front of the house

Back Patio

Basement walk-out

The floor plan was exactly what we wanted - split formals, master on the first floor, hardwood floors, 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, garage on the main floor (not in the basement like a lot of the houses here) and an updated kitchen.

We couldn't put in an offer on the house until our house in TX sold (which happened within a week). After going back and forth on a price - we finally closed (well, Tim filled in for us since we were in TX) at the end of August.

There were a few things we wanted taken care of before we actually moved in. We had new carpet installed on the 2nd floor and in our bedroom, a couple rooms painted and the house deep cleaned.

We've knocked a lot of our "house list" since moving in. There is still a lot to do, but we had to take a break for tax season. Once its over, we plan on taking care of more. :)

Other than the basement, the worst rooms in the house had to be the bathrooms - ALL of them.

The powder room had the ugliest wallpaper I've ever seen on the walls and the previous owners thought it would look good to add leopard print to the ceiling. What!?! Who does that? Tom and I spent a whole weekend taking all the wallpaper down, but the end result was worth it.

I don't really like the sink, but it works for now..

 Leopard Print Ceiling

We chose Pumpkin Spice for the walls

Tom did a great job texturing the ceiling

The kids bathroom upstairs also needed some updating. The vanity was horrible and had no storage or mirror, but at least we didn't have to take more wallpaper down. :)

We went with a mint green color

We also didn't have to do a lot to our bathroom. We painted (okay - Tim did), had a new vanity installed (the old ones were ugly) and added a mirror.

Look - dressers with sinks on top of them (ha) - the drawers don't even open

I love the window ledge above the deep soaking tub

Much better :)

More to come....

New Patio

Ever since we moved into our house in 2007 Tom has talked about expanding the patio from the tiny little slab that barely fit a table and chairs, to a large covered area complete with a TV and fireplace.

After meeting with a few contractors in late March - early April, we found one we liked and the work began. Other than a few small bumps along the way (hello - ugly stain), we finally have an awesome patio that we can relax in - complete with a TV (Tom built the stand), swing for little man and a fireplace.

I bet Tom has been out there almost every night since it was completed (mid-May).

Before

Work in Progress

Finished Product

Home Improvement Project

Some of you may not know it by looking at him - but Tom is extremely handy! We've been talking about getting new floors in our family room for a few months now. The fact that we have 2 dogs (who think it's cool to shake off on the carpet when they come in) and the family room is the room we congregate in 95% of the time helped us reach the decision that a light beige (?) carpet isn't going to cut it.

So last week, Tom and I started searching for floors that would meet our 2 requirements - 1) reasonable priced and 2) looked great with all our furniture. We ended up finding some on the 2nd day of our search.

I thought the floors would be enough of a project for Tom - but apparently he had other ideas. He decided that since he was ripping the carpet up that now would be the great time to build a hearth for the fireplace and give it a new look with slate.

So starting on Wednesday night of last week Tom has been a busy bee - working from the time he gets home until bedtime. And other than a slight problem we had with the original floors we bought everything went smoothly for him. He grouted (is that a word?) the fireplace tonight and only has one thing left to do on the floors before he is finished.

I forgot to take a picture of the before - so I'm having to use a picture we took when we were house hunting.

Tom did an amazing job with the floors and the fireplace as you can see from the pictures below. He's such a handy guy!!!

Oh, and did I mention he had a helper..