House Projects

For those of you who aren’t familiar…we bought a fixer-upper for our first house…and have slowly made it into our home. I knew the minute I stepped into the house the first time that I wanted to call that place home. I just had that feeling. This was the one. It has its issues. Leaky basement, funky guttering, stuff like that. But it also has its charms. A huge backyard, beautiful window and door framing, archways between some of the rooms (one of my favorite features). The original glass doorknobs. Plus lots of potential. So for us it fit the bill. Each room has gone through some major transformations. And last weekend we began yet another major transformation in our breezeway. I wanted to share the before and after’s here. This room will have projects within projects…so I’m not sure how each post will work out…but there will surely be more than one!

Here are some photos of the room the day we closed!  SCARY!  We bought the house from a woman's family who had passed away. They were located in Atlanta and didn't have any interest in making improvements.  They just wanted it sold.  So the house was sold as is.  This was by far the worst room in the house.  I must admit looking back makes me think we were crazy!

Here is our first before.  Some paint, furniture and a rug.  It was lovely! 

Most recently we realized we never used the space for sitting.  So we began making it a useful space by deeming it a “mudroom” for ourselves. We (well…Jer) built us some shelving and placed hooks for coats. It wasn’t too long before we decided it needed a paint update and a few other changes.

The beginning of the painting process!

All finished with the main painting!  We put a warmer cream on the walls. This time we used exterior paint. This room is the main thorough-fair for us between the garage and driveway into the house.  It's also exposed to the elements.  Cold in the winter. Warm in the summer. We also used a warm tan colored porch and floor paint with skid-not in it on the concrete floor.  It's this cool gritty sand that makes the floor less slippery and helps prevent chipping!  Our previous floor got chipped up from a few years of abuse.  I hope this one will withstand a bit more.

BUT...as I said there are few projects still in the works. So still to come...

*Benches with mats. We’re putting those under the coat hooks for seating so you take shoes on and off there. I'm envisioning creating some cushions for the tops.  Hey...I've watched HGTV enough times!
*A table and organization center for our things…we need a better drop zone for keys, phones, papers and everything else. So we’re (again…Jer) is building a table…with room for storage
*Above the table we'll be putting up a board which we will paint and frame. I want to make it magnetic and have chalkboard overlay painted on it…I’ll explain the project once it’s in work and complete.
*Updating our basket/tote storage
*Ceiling Fan

*And a few other homey touches that say Welcome to Casa De Linley!

Stay tuned…much more to come as we continue this fun spring project!!