Our Current House

We moved to Michigan from Illinois in late 2015 after my husband landed a new job. The idea of being able to move into a house bigger than our current 1300 sq feet certainly was appealing! The house hunt in the midst of a booming spring market was anything but fun, and we lost several bids, but we ended up landing a gorgeous house! We knew we wanted to be in a family friendly neighborhood where the kids could shoot hoops in the driveway, play street hockey, and well...just be kids!
Yah it's typical suburbia, and the houses are reallllly close together, but it's perfect for our family.

So grab a cup of coffee and come on in!

Most of the house is still in the "before" and "work in progress" state as we live in the space and decide the direction we are going for the rooms.  I'll post full detail room reveals in the future, but for now here's our home mostly in the move-in-empty-state with a few fun afters!

There she is in all her glory! I really had hoped for a front porch when we were house hunting but that just wasn't in the cards for us this time! 

- Lower Level -

Foyer

When you walk in the front door, you're greeted with a vaulted ceiling grand foyer and light pouring in from all around you, which is something I love most about this house. The entrance really sets the stage to a house and I can't wait make this the shining star. 

We haven't done anything to the foyer yet aside from adding some existing furniture but boy do I have big plans! It's far from terrible in its current state but its definitely in need of some Colette style!

And here it is currently...

Hallway and Entrance to Kitchen

Walking in the front door and taking a left leads you down a hall where there is a half bath, garage door entrance, stairs to the basement, and entrance to the back of the house. It's a busy hallway!

Nothing has been done with any of this space since move in day,

 And here's what we hope to update!

 We are thankful these rooms came with relatively neutral paint on the wall allowing us to live in the space without feeling rushed to paint them. Lime green, bright yellow, or orange paint and those walls would have been painted day one. (No offense if you like those colors, they just aren't for me!)

Now for the fun stuff....
This room has received the biggest update so far! We knew it was one of the first rooms we needed to redo because its our main living space...that being said it has also been our most expensive room to redo so far. Since our 1300 sq ft house contained one very old set of living room furniture, we had to purchase a new couch and a new television (the television some how made it to the need list by a certain someone who highly enjoys football sunday and the like).
 We relocated our old set to the basement and that meant mama got a new couch! Wahoo!

  

Living Room

When you walk into the back of the house from that hallway you just saw above, you walk right into our dining area with the living room on the left and kitchen on the right. What I love about this room is all the natural light coming in.  I also love that it opens to the dining area and kitchen and allows for a great flow in the back of the house. The room isn't very big (16 x 14) so it presented quite the challenge when selecting a couch.  There is also a very inconvenient angled wall (not pictured) that really made us scratch our heads on furniture selection and placement. But, it's all water under the bridge now as the room is shaping up to be quite beautiful and my most favorite space so far.

We still have wall art to hang, particularly this fantastic mirror that's currently sitting in storage in our spare bedroom. It's on the honey-do list (cough, cough...husband). We also DIY'd a behind the couch console table which will be on an upcoming post. We want to restain the hardwood floors a richer color and revamp the fireplace, but for now I sit back and bask in its glory.

Alright, you twisted my arm...one more before/after!

                                                                       

                                                                            Kitchen

The kitchen... the hardest working room in the house! What kitchen, aside from a brand new custom installation, doesn't need some work? Mine is no exception. Builder grade honey maple cabinets, black laminate, and dated appliances...sigh. We had great success with phase I type updates to our old kitchen (painted cabinets, new flooring, upgraded appliances) and we will implement the same changes here and then some! We have BIG plans for this space, however, unless we win the lottery, phase I updates are in the short term plans. Until then i'll be dreaming of white quartz counter-tops, crown molding, and marble back splashes. Here she is day one.

After some fresh paint, a few new appliances and a quick light switcheroo we are looking much happier! We are far from done with this room but the small updates made it feel cozier. The before and after's aren't quite as dramatic...yet!

And the before/after!

Are you totally digging on those acrylic chairs or what? I heart them!

Dining Room/Formal Living Room

We've never had a formal anything before so having both a formal dining and living room feels really fancy to us! These rooms are further down on the list to restyle but the wheels are churning. Think built in bookcases with a rolling ladder, gorgeous rustic dining room table, beautifully upholstered furniture, and all the metallic accents I can get my paws on. I'm most excited to see how these rooms evolve. To make things even more fun, the husband has given me free reign on the design. Pink velvet tufted loveseat you say? yes please! 

These two rooms have shamefully been a dumping ground for boxes and things that don't otherwise have a home yet... But we're getting there.
We added a dining room table and some mismatched chairs and a thrift store lamp waiting for a makeover and called it a day.

And nothing worth seeing in the formal living unless you want to see a room with boxes!

Well that covers the main floor! Now let's go upstairs!

                                                                      - Upper Level - 

There are 4 bedrooms upstairs, 2 bathrooms, and a laundry room. Holla for second floor laundry rooms!  We started our first house renovations with the bedrooms and followed suit this time around also.  We think it's really important for the kids to have a room and space to feel organized and put together amidst the chaos of the rest of the house.

When you walk up the stairs this is the view...

Annnnnd aside from some piles of the clothes on the floor currently it looks exactly the same! We want to switch out the builder grade lights and replace with some more modern lighting. Other plans include new paint, some wall art, and some decorative molding to add in some character.


                                                                    Abby's Room

Abby's room in our last house bosted grey walls, crown molding, and a fantastic pink and white chevron ceiling! It was bold and fun and perfect for a 10 year old.  Now that she's fast approaching teenage-hood (seriously, how did that happen!) she requested something a little softer and calming and I was up to the challenge. Of course, her room is the only one without a before picture (womp, womp). It basically had yellow walls, the same carpet, and no ceiling fixture. But here she is now all gussied up.

We still have a bit of work to do in here, but it's mostly done....well that is until she decides she's over this paint color and wants black when she turns 14. How about those ikea hacks? Gold spray paint + ikea wins me over every time.

           
                                                                     Drew's Room


Drew's room in our first house was very small and housed a full set of drums as well as twin bunk beds. Now with a bigger room to play with, Drew's short list included a custom loft, a floor that looks like a hockey rink, and a basketball court. Hockey rink floor? sure, no prob!  Although that does sound fun, something tells me it probably won't happen in this house...or lifetime.  So, he had to settle for a custom loft built by the husband.  His room is top secret as i'm planning a future blog post when we finish the final details but I'll give you a sneak peak! But first, before...

Sneak Peak...

Master Bedroom/Master Bathroom

Who doesn't want a cozy, lay in bed all day and netflix binge bedroom? I know I do! We decided we wanted a dramatic color on the wall this time around...something out of our comfort zone. I'm still trying to decide if I like the color or not, but the husband isn't looking forward to changing the paint color any time soon. The color wasn't a far cry from the previous color on the walls, but its definitely a much deeper and rich hue. We are still using our existing matchy-matchy bedroom set from forever ago, but have plans to move it into the guest bedroom and upgrade our queen to a king. I'm also dying to get rid of the ceiling fan and bring in a fun chandelier (this is where I have to bat my eyelashes at the other half).  There is no wall art yet, but once the bed is here and in place we will start the finishing touches.  

I love the big picture window in our room and how the light pours in! And can we just please get a moment of silence for those gorgeous Anthropologie curtains? They were worth every penny.

Disclaimer: My bed is almost never made...we're talking like once a week.  One, because I feel like what's the point if it's just going to bed messed up at bedtime? Two, I work nights and often sleep during the day. And three, i'm just plain lazy. All facts that surely mean my mother is still hanging her head in disappointed (sorry Mom).

I apologize my room is super tough to photograph due to the layout of the space.


                                                                     Spare Bedroom


Our plans for this room, for now, are to make it into a kid friendly space for family and guests. Since all of our family lives out of town, we need a place to bunk the kiddos when they visit. It also houses two closets which is great for storage.  Not a speck of paint has been added to the wall yet but we did put the twin bunk beds that used to be in our son's room up. Other than that its a keep the door closed until its ready kind of room.

                                                                   Laundry Room


This room is in serious need of a total overhaul.  The layout is all wrong and a full demo is in order.  We purchased a new washer/dryer, however, in the current set up they don't fit so the plan is to move them to the back wall and remove the counter.

Kids Bathroom

The only thing we've done to the kids bathroom is throw up a shower curtain. It's a terrifyingly ugly blue as it is so I can't wait to at least repaint.  We plan to paint the vanity, replace the mile long mirror with two above the sink mirrors, replace the lighting, add new flooring, and I want to add some decorative molding with some fun hooks.

I seriously can't wait to do this bathroom! It's on the short list for sure. Look out electric blue, i'm coming for ya.

- Lower Level - 

Last but not least we have the lower level which includes the basement living space, guest room, and bathroom. Our first house didn't have a basement so we feel super lucky to have one now. Nothing like sending the kids downstairs and saying have it! Go Wild! And with a boy that plays the drums and floor hockey like its his job it's a lifesaver.  

Basement Living Space

Don't you just love those orange walls? I know I do...NOT! This space is also lower on the list as we decide how to change the layout.  We know we want different flooring, new paint, and to remove that built in media center, but that's as far as we've gotten.  Because our guest room/bath is down here we don't want the space entirely run by the kids, but the majority of the use is by them and we're okay with that! We have pieced together the decor down here with remnants of furniture and accessories from our first house.

Here's how she looks now....

In the back of the basement is the guest bedroom. I really want to make this space calming and relaxing with a touch of fancy, of course. The room doesn't lend itself tons of space, but its perfect for a guest room.  When we moved in she was a blank canvas and now she's known as the "decor room" or aka "colette you have too much crap" room.  It's literally filled with boxes, baskets, lamps, frames and accessories I haven't found homes for yet. I really won't scare bore you with the current picture.

                                                                       Guest Bathroom


The final room on our tour is the guest bathroom.  We haven't done anything to the room besides add some curtains and towels to make it functional, but we plan to overhaul this with a new pedestal sink, new mirror, new lighting, and new flooring.

                   
So there you have it folks! Thanks for stopping by! Although there are a million few things I want to change about this house, I am super grateful and lucky that we have this place to call home. So follow along as we change the cookie cutter and bring some style and charm into this house!