Our Home -Before Sneak Peak

Seven years ago my Husband and I embarked on a nerve wrecking journey to purchase our first home.  A home with a yard, three bedrooms, a basement and a decent size bathroom. The market was still decent back in 2007-2008 when we had started looking. The market just started to slide and only a few homes started to foreclose. It was not yet all too common.

After looking at many homes for sale we finally walked into the one.

 It was a foreclosure. I will never forget that evening.

It was late in the evening and already dark outside so we needed to use flashlights. We had a little bit of light left in the very beginning. I walked in and just knew this was our starter home to settle and raise our Daughter and looked passed all the faults it had at that moment. I'm sure my Husband thought money signs and constant work in his head. To me I saw cathedral ceilings and just a cute little home that needed help and a family.

After a couple of years went by and we did some work on the house we started telling each other, "are next home is not going to be a fixer upper." I'm not sure if we were joking or not? Because now our dream is to by an old farm house and fix it up! Ha! You may just call us crazy or maybe normal? Since we bought our home in January 2008 we...

• Replaced the old 90's lights throughout the house. 
• Fixed the bathtub.
• Replaced the carpet throughout the house.
• Replaced the kitchen sink faucet. 
• Replaced the old 90's stove.
• Bought a new fridge.
• Bought a new dishwasher.
• Put in a kitchen back splash
• Bought new washer and dryer. 
• Put in a brand spanking new furnace!
• Put on a new front screen door.
• Put up a shed for storage.
• Finished a toy room in the basement. 
• Had the windows replaced.
• Put in new tile in the bathroom.
• Painted ever single wall in the house. 
• Painted the front porch.
• Added a brick patio in the back yard.
• Added landscape and grew a lot of grass!! - Yard was a giant sand box when we moved in with no landscape yet. 
• Built a privacy gate.

When we look back at all that we have accomplished it's hard to believe we did all of that to the house. We had some help along the way from my in-laws, my parents and some helpings hands. We have learned a lot about each other as a married couple in this journey we decided to embark on. We learned that I am OCD and can get bossy when it comes down to home projects. 

I am so proud of the work we have been able to put into our home. With that being said we are going to start sharing with you our DIY projects we have been doing on the house and currently. Yes are are still busy working on the house. 

Below is our eating area before. 

The previous owners had painted it this odd purple/pink throughout the great room and hallway. As you can tell down the hall way there are two major blue bedrooms popping out at you. They had all boys. Silly huh?! It's really sad story and I wouldn't never want a family to lose their home. One of the boys actually came back last summer to see the home. I felt awkward but I was very kind to him. 

before

Below is the after! Now the room is filled with conversations and laughter all over again. Oh yeah and that crazy pup under the table. As I mentioned this room is still under some construction. 

Before picture.
The master bedroom. It has a walk through bathroom.

After sneak peak photos. The mater bedroom took me about seven years to get it right. 

Before photo of our two Little's bedroom. As we call it the garden room.

After Photo. Please take in mind these are all sneak peak photos. 

Before photo of the brightest blue bedroom I think I have ever viewed in my life thus far. 

We still joke about it to this day. Our oldest was too young to remember this blue when we moved in and painted it. We actually left it for a bit since it was our computer room/toy room for a while before we announced our second Daughter was on the way. Then this room became A beautiful green that is still is. My husband picked out the green that went with our gender neutral baby bedding back then. Since then our Daughters have seemed to like the color and it hasn't been painted since. I'm okay with that since it gives me that last feel of my baby nursery to hang onto. This room has been so many things for us since this became our home. It has been a nursery to two babies and now it is transitioned to a tween girls bedroom for out oldest Daughter.

After photo sneak peak. 

Before photo- Looking into part of the kitchen. That ceiling fan and kitchen light were the first things that had to go. Yuck!

After sneak peak photo. The kitchen is still not yet how I would like it. I am still figure out the cupboards.

It honestly feels never ending some days until you make that list of everything you did so far. Then you sit back and think wow. We have also encountered some disasters while living here...a really bad thunderstorm with 91 MPH strait line winds the took out trees, roofs, and cars in our neighborhood. We had a major flood of Grand Rapids that flooded our basement. Last summer we had a tornado go through our backyard and damage our home a little. We did get pretty lucky though. I praise God! This is when we started to think our home had a curse. Ha! Not too long ago we had an earthquake. Crazy huh?! I pray nothing else happens in our home!

If you have any questions on our remolding, DY projects please feel free to email me at: kaitlynhoff3@gmail.com

If you would like to advertise or send a product review again send me a direct email to Kaitlyn at: kaitlynhoff3@gmail.com

You may find more photos and keep up with our journey with us on instagram. 

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