a house is not a home....

...until it is fully renovated! 

Well, my friends, it has been a while since my last post! Between signing off of social media for lent and trying to find a purpose for this space, I have been procrastinating waiting for inspiration to strike.  

I realize that not everyone will ever want to read this, but that is okay! I have promised my family back home in Washington that I would send photos of our house renovation and then I realized I am quite possibly the laziest person ever, so this is as good as it gets. Voila! A purpose for this space. Lucky for you, dear reader, the renovation is close to complete (ten days and counting).

Back in October, we bought a cute little ranch style house in the middle of suburban Oklahoma City. The mister put a bid on it and we were halfway through closing before I even SAW the inside. Luckily, I was sold once I saw the kitchen (which also happens to be the only room in the house that is virtually untouched). We moved into an apartment mid-October and by December, we were under contract to start demolition. On Christmas Day, our house was torn apart. Welcome to our renovation journey! 

Let's work our way through the house, shall we? Here is our front entrance, before renovation and now. Reminder: this reno is not done and these photos are usually taken in poor light with an iPhone. Our electricity isn't in any canned lights, so just pretend with me! 

Welcome to our entryway. The left, as you can see, had a lot going on. That black-looking stuff on the bottom? It's tile. It is also green and HIDEOUS. The floor is a wood/brick combo which, while interesting, is also an eyesore. We stripped it, got rid of the gold vent (that wasn't actually venting anything) and painted the walls grey. The red walls you see are also grey, and beautiful. The flooring, throughout the house (minus the bedrooms and living room) is a nice hardwood flooring.

To our left, we have the Offbrary. A LOT of thought went into this space. 

As you can see, that carpet is something else. Want to know what is under it?! Round two found this:

We sanded down the hardwood and made everything even. After the sanding, you can see off to the right that there are posts where an opening used to be. This room was open up to a guest room - in a split second decision, we sealed up the wall and so far, are really delighted with what we see:

Currently, we are waiting for some fireplace work to be finished and our floors to be stained. Let's move on to our dining room, which MAY be my favorite transformation so far! 

This is actually a terrible photo because you see two different sides of the dining room. On the left, we widened the doorway and got rid of the swinging door leading into the kitchen. We took down the chair rail, put up some wainscoting and painted it a sharp navy/white combo. There is a pop-out window that faces the street, which lends a lot of natural light. We got rid of that ugly floor and will have hardwood floor throughout. 

Here's a photo of the kitchen that isn't changing:

Well, I take that back. we are changing the backsplash, and removing the steel plate behind the range. Other than that, nothing is changing and right now, the whole thing is draped in plastic. It looks like a war zone! 

Next stop: Living room. Don't judge me for my picture stitching. I'm trying to give you a good idea here. 

Here's what you need to know: Dark wood. Everywhere. Marble on the fireplace, and a general feeling of outdatedness. Fast forward to now:

It was painted yesterday, but since I haven't been there, it doesn't exist! We pulled out the built-ins and built new ones, painted them white, updated our electric through our fireplace and extended the fireplace a tad. 

For today, that is all I have. Our four major front rooms are slowly getting there, and our bathrooms are in progress! Once we have electric in the house, we will be able to take some better photos and get some more put up. For now, enjoy what we have and pray for us - our move in date is only 10 days away!