Progress in the house

I realized the other day that I haven't posted any pictures of our house since moving in so I went around taking pictures of our main living spaces to share.  

We've come a long way in making this house or home but it's also easy for me to look at these pictures and see all the things we still need to do.  It's so fun though to have a house that we can make changes to.  I don't take that for granted at all after years of living in rentals.  The process is slow and steady for sure but one day we will get there!

The entryway and front room:

The two most neglected spaces in our house right now are the entryway and front room.  They are still the original yellow wall color from when we moved in.  We've painted the rest of the house white but still haven't knocked down these two rooms.  Maybe this summer?  

Both the entry and the front room have walls with large sheet mirrors.  It's an awesome 80's feature that I'd rather live without (even though I know the space will look a lot smaller once we take them down).  Our plan is to do white shiplap on those walls whenever we get to it.  

The front room was probably once a formal dining room but we have it as our piano room/sitting room/playroom.  The yellow couch is leftover from our living room and we will sell it someday and figure out different seating in here.  I dream of built-in bookshelves in here so it could be a library/music room but that's a very longterm dream that we may never realize.  

I also can't wait to replace the light in both the entry and the front room.  Something less tuscan looking but I'm still trying to figure out what I'd like there. 

Living room:

Here you can see the white color that we painted the house (BM Simply White) and I love how much brighter it made the house feel.  We got the leather couch a couple months after moving in and I love how kid friendly it's been.

Maybe my favorite in the whole house is our wood ceiling in the living room.  The room feels so cozy because of it and the vaulted ceilings make the living room feel bigger than it is.

We have a huge wall in this room that has stumped me decor-wise but we are slowly figuring it out.  We originally put the tv on that wall but then I gave in to Aaron's urging to mount the tv above the fireplace.  I got that antique hutch at a flea market which helps break up the wall but now I'm hoping to figure out art and such for the rest of it.

We just ordered a love seat which will go where the two chairs are now.  It's not a huge room so I want to be able to create as much seating as possible.

Aaron and I were just commenting on how much stuff it takes to fill a house.  Eventually we'd like to get coffee table, lamps, throw pillows, bench under the window, more art, etc. etc.  We are working on slowly collecting.  I love any excuse to go to antique stores ;)

The Kitchen:

The kitchen sold us on the house.  I LOVE how it's open to the living room.  An open kitchen has made cooking dinner so much more enjoyable for me and I am also much more motivated to keep it all clean all of the time.  There is tons of counter space and I'm so happy we have a gas stove.  We also have a large pantry (the door just to the left on the microwave/stove) so there is more than enough room for all of our kitchen things.  

Of course, down the line we'd like to make some changes.  I'm not a huge fan of hanging upper cabinetry and the hood/tile situation above the stove is pretty odd to me so one day we plan to take out that whole top area.  I'd also love to paint the cabinets and change the backsplash tile.  We will probably make those changes in more like 3-5 years.  For now though we are totally content.

The Dining Nook:

I love the bay windows in here.  The morning light is especially nice as we eat breakfast.  We bought the table after moving in and we are still figuring out our chairs.  I don't know if we should just keep the ones we currently have (maybe paint them?) or get a whole new set.  Chairs are such a commitment.  I'm not really in a hurry to figure it out, especially considering we have many years ahead of crazy kids eating at this table.  I can't wait to get some roman shades or something in here and some artwork so it doesn't feel like such a white box, but it's all good for now.

So that's where our house is for now, seven months into living in this house!  We are loving it so far and we are still counting our lucky stars that we get to live here :)