Thursday, February 25, 2010

Love Your Home, Again

Rondell and I currently live in our first home. Of course when we started looking for a house we had a list of the things we were looking for, like a basement (not necessary finished), 3 bedrooms, and of course a kitchen window.

We looked at about 15 houses before we found our current home, and it was love at first sight. As soon as we pulled up I knew I was going to love it...it had a two car garage, 2 1/2 baths (that was a plus), the yard was well manicured, and the backyard was huge and gorgeous. I remember sitting in the living room at our first showing and telling my Realtor to make it happen (not like in a super bossy way but in a "I really want this house" way).

When we had our home inspection our house passed with flying colors...it was obvious that the home was well taken care of and maintained well.

...and then we moved in! Rondell and I are not handy and honestly don't have a lot of knowledge on how to keep up a home. So, after almost four years we're ready to get serious because we love our house and we need to show it that we do. We've started making a list of all of the things that need to be done or that we would like to do to give our house a little TLC.

Over the weekend we rehung a few pictures. I know this sounds so small but one picture was behind the closet door and every time you would open the door it would knock the picture and make it crooked (one of my pet peeves!). Finally I took it down and moved it over just a bit (how simple was that!). This time we hung it just on a nail because before when it was hanging on a picture hanger you could see 1/2 the hanger (not cute), as well as another picture that had the same issue. But just those small changes got us motivated.

One of the first things we are going to do is change the front door a bit. Right now we have two long way rectangle windows in our front door. On the inside of the door there is a curtain that covers the windows...nice for privacy but the curtain AND the curtain rods have seen better days. We're going to do something like this:

There is film you can buy to cover the windows to make them frosty for privacy. This way we can take down the tired curtain and still have privacy. Then we'll repaint the inside of the door. Small, yet something that will make a nice difference.

The next thing we're going to do is change the flag pole bracket or just take ours down and repaint it. Right now ours has rusted nails and the rust has bled onto the bracket. Soon it will look like this (all white with no rust):

Another rather advanced (for us) plan is to change out the lighting in our kitchen. Right now we have two ceilings lights like this:

Not cute! I want something like this over my sink:


And something like this for the other fixture:

I really hope that it's not too hard...we'll see!

We're also going to paint our kitchen walls and cabinets. I saw a good tutorial here about repainting the kitchen cabinets. We painted the wall Fun Yellow by Sherwin Williams and man is it yellow. I love yellow and have always wanted a yellow kitchen but it needs to be a softer yellow. The cabinets are already a creamy white and we'll keep them that way, but they are chipped and just need a little TLC.

So, there are just a few things we want to do in the next few weeks (believe me, the list is much longer than this. With that, over the next few weeks I'll be showing you our process of falling in love with our home, again.

Are you in love with your home?

16 comments:

Carrie said...

Sounds like our list! We need a new front door all together because it has been rotting over the last few years :( And we need to paint. I've been scrubbing the kitchen grout...taking forever! It's never been done and we've lived here almost 7 years, yuck! It just seems pointless sometimes when you have kids..and we did have two dogs. It's hard sometimes, you just get used to having things the way they are...but it's so nice when it's done and you think, "Why didn't we do that sooner?!" Good luck, I'm sure it will be hard work, but fun too! {and this is our first....and probably only house too! We wanted a house that we could live in and grow...but I think we've outgrown it sooner than we thought! haha...but hopefully the basement will get done soon!}

Kelly said...

These things can seem intimidating, but once you get started, you realize that it's just as easy as reading a how-to or watching a good youtube video. I'm sure you guys will do great!

Also, thanks for letting us in on the window film... we have those SAME type windows at our front door, and it always kind of creeps me out--I feel like we're on display or something!

Angie said...

We have lived here for almost 4 years and I can say I love my house!

We do need to do a few things here and there, but mostly I just love being here and I hope that someday my kids will love the house as much as I do.

I do wish we had a 1/2 bath. Two baths just isn't always enough!

Joanna said...

I am so glad that y'all are in love with your home. We are as well but ours was not picked out...we bought it from my parents because it was what we could afford. However, we are on the road to making it what we love! {which has turned out to be harder than we thought}

We start things and don't finish them. Ugh. Our kitchen is half finished...Although the half that is complete, we have that same light over the sink, and I LOVE it! It's a cinch to put up too. We have the same light fixture your wanting to put in there as well in our hall and laundry room, both were easy to install too. {Zack isn't handy, shhh..so if he didn't have a problem, y'all won't either!} : )

Yellow is a very pretty color but like so many hard to get the "right" shade. Good luck finding the shade that is perfect for y'all. My advice buy the little sample paints and paint a little on the wall to see it in the light as the day progresses...This will give you the best idea of the color your gonna want. {we made a bad yellow choice in the kitchen once}

It's funny just the little changes that you make around the house that make you happy! Have fun on falling in love all over again!

jaydee said...

Kelli
it's wonderful to show your house some love. We, too, fell in love with our house... we found it over the internet before we came into town to do a look see!
talking about showing love.... thank you so much to you and Tonya for supporting my charity card drive. your beautiful cards were highlighted on my blog here http://www.jaydeestamping.com/weblog/2010/02/clean-and-simple-happy-birthday-.html
you are an amazing lady
big hugs
jaydee

Miller Racing Family said...

Sounds like a great list. It is always the little touches that make the big difference. I would say I am totally in love with our house. Nothing fancy but it just like us. I love that is all on one level. It makes it perfect for the young kiddos and the grandparents.
Can't wait to see all the finished projects.
Have a fabulous day!

Ruby Red Slippers said...

What a great idea-I have a list going in my head!

I do love my home-This is our second home,(grew out of our first one-) and it is perfect for us...

Emily said...

I painted our powder room Friendly Yellow by SW and love it! Those frosty things are so cool and work great. And you can buy spraypaint that will help cover and prevent rust for your flag pole bracket.
Good luck doing all your projects. Whenever we do stuff like that afterwards we always say, "Man, why didn't we do this sooner!" :)

KTW said...

I can feel the love! :) I painted my parlor a pretty yellow called Buttered Bread. It is perfect for me and I had always wanted a yellow room, too. I had always thought it would be my kitchen but that didn't work out for me. My Mama Jones's kitchen was painted sunshine yellow and I loved that kitchen when I was growing up!

Unknown said...

There is nothing like sprucing up your house with new projects to put a big satisified smile on your face!!! I just hung a blank wall in my office with pictures and man- it needed it!!! Made me wonder, "Why'd I wait so long!!??"

Happy Friday!

~Becca

Kelli W said...

I bet your front door is going to be so cute with that frosted film on it:) We have a ton of things that need to be done around our house...but I have been battling exhaustion lately, and this is Jason's busy time at work! I guess that means the house will have to wait until the summer!

Sugarplum Creations Blog said...

I cannot wait to see the changes made along the way, Kelli! How fun! We live in our first house too, but we've never done anything to fix it up because it's never been a permanent {or even semi-permenant} house. We bought the property {20 acres} and had to put something on it for a brief time. We didn't want to put money into it if we weren't going to be here for too long. Poor house! :) That's about to change as we're getting closer to actually building a house. Anyway, I can't wait to see the changes you're making. It's always nice to get decorating and home improvement ideas. I LOVE that privacy glass!!! {And now I'll stop gabbing!}

Kim3278 said...

We really love our home too. Of course it is only two years new to us. We made a lot of paint changes in our home. Nothing else to major as we did just buy it.. But one of the things I would love to do most of all is get the brass odd our fireplace cover. Surely you could paint it instead of replacing. I should make a list too.. That would be a great new post!!

Anonymous said...

I love doing home improvement projects. I'm a big fan of HGTV and DIY networks. You will have so much fun. You can check out both those websites if you need a little instruction. I learned how to change out my light fixtures through a DIY tutorial video.

I'm like you... I love a yellow kitchen. I grew up with a yellow kitchen and I always wanted my own. I went through so many samples trying to find the right shade of yellow, I was beginning to hate the color, but I was determined to get my own yellow kitchen. Finally, I found a shade called "buttercream" through Restoration Hardware. I bought a sample and it was the exact shade I was looking for. It was expensive. .. $38. a gallon and it took almost 3 gallons to get the right coverage I wanted, but it was totally worth the price to me.

Have fun with all your to-do lists! I know you'll enjoy it, especially it being your first home. :)

God bless you!

Georgia

BonBon Rose Girls Kristin said...

Love the pendant light! We're in the process of home improvements ourselves. The housing market being the way it is in Florida, moving isn't an option at the moment, so I've come up with a list to make me happier with my house!

Vivienne @ the V Spot said...

Those things are all important and they really do make a difference. Have you thought of getting the spray to make frosted glass, rather than the sticky paper? You could even put a design in with a stencil... like your address number or "Welcome" or a "D"....