Our front room

I wanted to share our front room next as it is a part of our kitchen area, one big room. I love the open concept and it doesn't really get more 'open' than this!

So, this is the original room:

The little doorway is the separate 'guest' entrance which we converted into an office, but more on that later!

During the renovation process:

Painting the newly sheeted walls:

When we moved in we had no where to store the kitchen cupboards so into the front room they sat for 2 weeks!

And now.......

I love this little children's corner we created. Eventually when downstairs is renovated all the boys toys etc will go down there, but until then this is where the creativity will hopefully happen.

We are still waiting for the moldings to arrive. Who knew such a simple thing could take so long. I am really happy with how things have turned out in this space though. It really feels cosy whilst still be open. It is a wonderful place for our family to spread their wings without being on top of one another. I hope you enjoyed the tour. Next I promise we will head into the bathroom. Looking forward to it!

Kitchen

Hello!!! I apologise for being away from this space for so long now. It has been a stressful but rewarding road and I needed to just be. I am so happy to be back and I have so much to share with you all. So as not to overwhelm myself or you guys, I am going to break the renovation pictures down room by room and share a little each time. I thought I would start with the kitchen as it is the heart of our home.

To go back and set the scene, this is what the kitchen looked like at the beginning:

And mid way through the construction:

And now.........

We still have lots of work to do but it is starting to really come together. We still have mouldings to put up, a pantry to build and an island to replace our camp kitchen island! We are planning on painting the kitchen cupboards a creamy colour but for now, I really like the wood. It clashes with the flooring a little but each day I notice it less and less. I love the open feel and think it is going to be a great place to entertain and hang out as a family.

So that's all I have for you right now. I will maybe move into the bathroom next time! See you then.

Birthday fun

I had a pretty relaxed birthday this year. However, this was the scene on Saturday afternoon amidst some celebrations - talk about special!

Our dear friends were here visiting from Vancouver which made it even more special. I don't believe that I have ever seen a full, perfect rainbow before and I was mad I couldn't get it all in the shot. This is the best I could do!!

As Sam and I have only a few days between our birthdays we decided to have the family dinner for his birthday. Sam loves his family, especially his beautiful cousins. He had a blast and is asking if it is still his birthday some 4 or 5 days later!!

And look how big our littlest niece is getting! The beautiful Iris......

Kevin has a new love. Not that Buddy could ever lose out to this little yapper, but Bill certainly holds a dear place in Kevin's heart. Totally amusing for all of us that know Kevin well (he is soooo not a little dog kind guy!!)

Fun at home

Sometimes when I get busy and distracted with all this house stuff, the boys get lost in their imagination and I still marvel at the things they come up with. I love every stage that the kids go through but Sam is at a particularly fun one. He is learning to play on his own and learning how to play with other kids. What are you children doing right now?

House update

Welcome to the boys new bedroom! All sheeted, painted and with a door!!! Yippeeeee...it is very exciting. All the walls are now sheeted and mudded and ready for painting.

This is the laundry....

The doors to the bathroom...

The office, lounge and kitchen are already painted and lights are connected and up!

Still no kitchen cabinets yet though. Waiting on the counter top still. However something very exciting arrived yesterday.....

The flooring!!!!!!!!!! Now it has to sit for a week or two to acclimatise. Doesn't it look beautiful?

And amongst all this excitement we took the kids to see 'How to Train a Dragon', and coloured eggs for Easter. I searched all through my cupboard and the grocery store but could only come up with green and blue food colouring. My lovely S.I.L suggested we try some natural alternatives and boiled some beets and carrots. They didn't work as well on the eggs as we had hoped but I bet they would be awesome on fabric. Happy Easter to you all.

The bathroom!

These two pictures are the closet, I mean, bathroom as it was before....

This is the skinny little hallway that lead to the bathroom and master bedroom....

Considering the rest of the house is so large, we decided to change things up a little. The original floor plan had the bathroom on the right of the hall and on the left was a bedroom...

And now the bedroom is going to be the new bathroom and is starting to take shape....

A corner tub and behind Dave, the master carpenter, is a walk in shower.....

This is the skinny hallway now with the first door being the water closet and the second the bathroom door. Where the bathroom used to be is going to be my new laundry so we ripped out a few walls and.....

The washer and dryer will be stacked just behind Sam's head with a bench and a sink at the end. It will remain open to the hall giving the illusion of being bigger than it is! We also stuck a cupboard on the end for linen etc as we realised there isn't any cupboards anywhere. This table is the wasted space where the cupboard is going....

Are you confused and exhausted yet?!?!?!? It is going to look really lovely when it is all done and I am so looking forward to it. Hope you enjoyed the tour and I will be back in another few days with more updates hopefully! For those of you who are Facebook friends, I have added some quick video's of the boys if you are interested.

Renovation

Sorry to have been M.I.A. for so long now. Life stepped up a notch and I have been frazzled dealing with it all! We finally got our house back from the renters and now it is renovation time. Not just a small renovation. No. This is a grand scale remodel. I am so excited about how the house will look when it is all done. It is all the decisions to make along the way that have me exhausted. Then you make a decision and the builder/plumber/electrician says it won't work. Back to the beginning! All mixed in with Spring Break, makes for good, crazy times. Did I mention that the kids have been sick too? I am happy to report though, they are now feeling much better just in time to return to school.
I thought I would share some before pics of the house and keep you updated as we go along.

The kitchen then (please note the gorgeous ceiling tiles!):

And now...

It looks a lot worse than it is! The cupboards will go back up after the walls have been re-sheeted and painted. There will also be new counter tops.

The front room/lounge then:

And now...:

The little room being framed in the corner here is going to be the office.

I will show you some more tomorrow, maybe of the bathroom. Hope you are all well.