Taking the Leap

After some thoughtful consideration, my husband and I have decided that we would like to sell our house.  I know what you are going to say.....in this market?  Here is what we are thinking, the feedback that we are getting from realtors is that the market is actually in a much better state then it has been in years, and houses are selling albeit not over night.  All that being said, we realize that when it comes to selling real estate that there is a lot riding on timing.  We don't know if this is the right time or not, but we are thinking that there is no better time to take a chance and find out.

One thing we know for sure is that most people look for potential homes that they want to visit by perusing them on the internet, so we decided that we really wanted to utilize some extra visual outlets to give our house an upper edge.

Being that I frequently use Pinterest, I thought that it would be a great place to create a page for our home that would paint a picture.  This picture would not only be of our home but of the area that we live in (for people that may not be familiar with what our town has to offer).  If you are intrigued, tap here to see Our Home's Pinterest Page.

Also, our very talented friend Marc Steiner had suggested utilizing a new application call TourWrist.  Basically, TourWrist is a free app that creates 360 views and essentially allows you to teleport yourself anywhere and take a virtual tour.  You can download the app from your iPad, iPhone, tablet, etc and really experience the ability to feel like you are present in another place, literally.  However, for those that do not download the app, you can still tap the link and take a 360 tour.  Here are some of the 360 views that we created for our house (don't forget, if you have the app you'll find the experience to be pretty amazing):

 

TourWrist view of Living Room 

TourWrist View of Backyard

Of course, in addition to this new attempts at playing with how to utilize real estate and social media, we are also taking a lot of the traditional approaches as well.  Only time will tell if these new options give us an upper edge, if it does you know we will share.  Also, if you have any thoughts, on Pinterest or TourWrist, we would love to hear them. 

Our House - Before & After

All of this posting about the renovations that we have done on our home got me looking for some photos of what our house looked like before.  Unfortunately, we just didn't think of taking before shots when we decided to remodel the majority of the rooms in the house.  Luckily, my husband remembered that we did take a video tour of the house the day we bought it.  After we watched it, we actually couldn't believe how much the house has transformed.  So, we thought it would be a great visual to share as a before summary, and of course I will post a slideshow of the after shots.

Public Service Announcement:  This video has been edited and set to a great tune, but don't be surprised if you get a bit dizzy in some of the 360 views.

Without further ado, here is the clip of our house prior to the renovations:

Here is a slideshow of what our house looks like today.....

The Bathroom Remodel

Just a few weeks ago, we finally completed a project that has been on our list since we bought our home.  I have to say, it's always such a great feeling to be able to check something big like a bathroom project off of your "to-do" list, don't you agree?  

Renovating the bathroom kept getting put on the back burner for years, and it's because being without this room, for at least a few weeks is truly a huge inconvenience.  However, this spring we decided that it was definitely time to tackle this room.  Although, I can share some photos of the finished project, once again, we really didn't take good shots of the room before the complete renovation.  

So, I'll give you a brief description of what this room looked like when we bought the house.  If you looked at the before shots of the kitchen, you will see a truly unattractive laminate flooring, and we were unlucky enough to have this same flooring in our main bathroom.  Also, the toilet, sink, and tub were all different colors, and the plastic tub wall liner was cracked and just generally unappealing.  Oh, and did I mention that the bathroom vanity was PINK?  To top off the pink vanity, the previous owners had a blue counter.  Generally, it was just a very unattractive and chaotic room.

When we were planning the redesign of the room, Dan and I agreed that we wanted to make a big impact, but stay within our budget.  We decided to keep the look classic, with neutral tones so that the new space could be timeless.  Also, being that this is our main bathroom, we decided that it would be a great luxury to have two sinks and fortunately space was not an issue for us.

Here is a shot of the bathroom counter before the renovation....

To start with, we painted the vanity white with kitchen cabinet paint.  Replaced the bathroom mirror with a larger one with three doors.  This new mirror not only gave us more storage but allowed any person using the sink to be able to have a mirror to look into.  Then, Dan put in two new sinks and tiled the counter-top, which we think looks lovely and cost a lot less than some other counter options out there.

Since we love our new double sinks so much I thought I would show you another angle....

Photo taken by Marc Steiner

 Now that the sinks were complete, It was time to replace the toilet and tub.  Of course, we wanted them to all match this time, so we went with classic white.  Then we decided to use the same tile for the walls in the shower, but in a different sizes and patterns, check it out...

Photo taken by Marc Steiner

One more great feature that our bathroom has is a pocket door, so you can have two people utilizing this room at the same time with complete privacy.  

Remember I mentioned that we had terrible laminate flooring before?  We found a great option that brought warmth into the room, but didn't break our budget....we used Pergo flooring that looks like wood.  This new flooring was simple to install, the pieces link together, and it was a reasonably priced option for our budget.  Here is a photo where you can get a better idea of the look that the Pergo floor gave us...

Photo taken by Marc Steiner

 There it is in a nutshell, our new bathroom!

A "New" Old Dresser

A few months ago, we realized that it was time for our not so little baby to have a room of his own.  This meant moving big brother into a big boy bed in his new room.  Although, this room shift was always in the plans, I was sort of dragging my feet because it meant that we needed furniture for Liam's new room.  Luckily, we inherited a twin bed, that my parents no longer had a use for, so that meant all I needed now was a dresser.  Naturally, I started shopping around for furniture and was pretty blown away at how expensive crappy furniture is, and on top of it, I just wasn't finding anything that suited our needs.  Then, my mom reached out to me and told me that she new someone that was giving away a dresser and asked if I would like to have it?  My immediate response was "of course, when can I come see it?"  So, we got our hands on a free dresser, it doesn't get better than that!

When I finally saw the dresser, I realized it had potential.  It met some of the criteria that I was looking for which was a tall dresser, plenty of storage, sturdy, dovetail joints, and in good condition ~ who could ask for more?  

Naturally, the next step was to decide what to do with it.  It was in really good condition, so it wouldn't need a lot of sanding or priming.  However, I really disliked the hardware so I knew that had to go.  Next thing I decided was that I wanted to go with a casual style, not too mature but also not to babyish - basically, something that Liam could have for awhile.

After hanging out with the dresser for a while, I finally decided that I would paint the body grey and dresser drawers a blue-grey.  I had a can of Rustoleum Satin Granite in the basement, and I thought that would be great for the body.  The dresser was in good condition and the Rustoleum spray would go on easy, cover well, and be a practical application for a kids dresser that might get beat up a bit.

Now I needed to find the perfect color for the drawers.

So, naturally, I started searching Pinterest for some ideas.  What I found was that people were loving their results with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and so I went on the hunt to find some.  Luckily, we happened to have a distributor near by and I picked up a can of Duck Egg, Paris Grey, soft wax, and the soft wax brush.

I got to work on my dresser and covered the body in the satin granite paint.  Then I had to sand the drawers and fill the spaces where the hardware once was with wood putty and sand again. 

Next step was to combine the Duck Egg and Paris Grey paints until I found a combination that I liked, and just start painting.  The beauty of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint is that it is very easy to work with and very forgiving.  I painted a few coats, just to make sure that the areas where I filled in the wood putty weren't visible anymore.  After the paint dried, it was time to cover it with the Annie Sloan Clear Wax.  I bought the brush that they suggest and applied a thin coat.  I had read that you can't apply too much or it gets cakey and can ruin a piece of furniture.  So, I thinly applied and then sanded with my orbital sander and then applied again and sanded again.

I gave it some time to really dry before we started installing the hardware.  Since I wanted this dresser to have a relaxed feel for my lil' guy's room, I thought rope handles would be really fun.

Here is how it turned out....

 

I had a lot of fun renovating this piece of furniture and I'm  really happy with the finished piece.  We find the dresser is both practical and looks great, too.  What do you think?

First Family Bike Ride of 2012

One of the favorite past times for our family is for everyone to venture out on a bike ride.  In fact, this is a long standing tradition for me and Dan that went into effect long before we had the boys.  So, the first summer that we had Liam, we invested in a bike trailer so we could continue venturing out into town on warm summer nights.  The only difference with our bike rides now, from the days that were pre-children, is that now we now have our kids in tow.

Once the weather started to get warm, it was only a matter of time before we took the bikes and trailer out and dusted them off.  In fact, that is exactly what Dan had in mind one night after work.  For this bike ride, we decided that we were going to go to Allenhurst, NJ to explore the neighborhoods that border the beach.  So, we threw the bikes on the bike trailer, packed everyone into the car and headed to the beach.  

As soon as we got to our destination, it didn't take long for us to take down the bikes and hook up the trailer and head out for our ride.

Here is a shot I took of the boys riding around the neighborhoods.

As we got nearer to downtown, we looked for food because it was getting close to dinner time.  Fortunately, we found a pizzeria with tables outside and it seemed like the perfect place to park and grab a bite.

That is exactly what we did, we all ate a slice, the kids had a snack, and then we were off to the beach.  We were actually able to fit in a visit to the beach and the park before we had to head back to car.

It was a lot of fun, and I have to say that after this outing we are all looking forward to a lot more family bike rides this summer!

Our Kitchen Gets a Makeover

We all know that photos speak a thousand words and luckily Dan and I have a wonderful friend who is a brilliant photographer, Marc Steiner.  Marc took the photos of our kitchen so that we can share them with you.  Without further ado, here are the photos of our new kitchen...

Photo taken by Marc Steiner

For starters, we upgraded to stainless steel appliances and placed them so that they would be more functional in our space.

Photo taken by Marc Steiner

Photo taken by Marc Steiner

Since we replaced all of the cabinets we could custom fit some of our appliances so that they weren't on the counter anymore.  Not to mention how convenient it is to  have our cookbooks in a more accessible and visible space now.  Oh, and I love our chalkboard where we write all of the current family favorite recipes.  This board has proven to be invaluable when we are feeling a lack of creativity with our menu and can quickly just lean on some old favorites!

Photo taken by Marc Steiner

When all is said and done the renovation exceeded my expectations, and as you can see is a huge improvement from what we started with.  Dan and I are happy with the storage we gained from the cabinets, shifting appliances and removing the false wall gave us some extra counter space, and the kids love the breakfast bar, too.  All in all, everyone is happy with the space.

Photo taken by Marc Steiner

The Kitchen Demo

As I mentioned in my earlier post, we bought our home because it had good bones (among other things).  Although it was structurally sound, we had our work cut out for us because it was definitely lacking in the style and comfort department.  So, almost immediately upon moving in, we began our renovations and tackled the house room by room.  Of course, like most rookies at renovating, we failed to take photos in the beginning in some of the rooms that we redesigned.  So, as a result, some room renovations will go forever undocumented.  Photos or no photos, I do think that when you walk around our home now, it definitely feels cohesive and the rooms piece together in only a way that we could have connected them with our particular style.

The good news is that, when it came time to tackle the kitchen, we were experienced enough to take at least a few photos (not as many as I would've liked, but a few is better than none) so that we could see the before and after results.  That being said, when I was considering which room I should share first, I naturally decided on the kitchen being that it was the most intensive makeover and when it was complete, the end result had a huge impact on the transformation of our home.

I don't even know where to start, our kitchen was a disaster!  One of the things that bothered me the most is that we had two different sets of cabinets!  Oh, and the appliances were all in the wrong spots!  Not to mentions, that there was actually a false wall built over our cabinets which made the room seem smaller, and oh yeah the 32" standard doorway that totally compartmentalized the kitchen from the rest of the house that has a pretty open floor plan.

So, with big dreams of a more practical and esthetically pleasing kitchen, we dove in head first and started the demo process.  Actually, I should say, my dad and Dan started the demo process.  

Here is Dan just throwing his hands in the air and probably wondering, what did I get myself into?  

Right here is one of my favorite changes, this is when the original standard doorway more than doubled in size!

Now that we had the kitchen good and empty, we started to piece together a kitchen that we hoped would reflect our style of casual yet put together, comfortable, esthetically pleasing and homey.  So, we choose neutral, classic, timeless palate and supplies, and added a bit of color to liven up the space.  

I bet after looking at the terrible kitchen we started with and then the demo picks, you are just waiting to see how everything turned out, right?  So, stay tuned, in my next post I'll reveal the finished space.