10.17.2011

.Finally, Real House Progress.

Before I jump into today's post, I want to catch the new readers up on a few things that have happened in my life recently. This week's agenda: Our house!

My husband Adam and I purchased our first home this past Summer over our 2nd anniversary weekend

You can read about the journey using the following links:

To take a tour of our home, click below:

Outdoor projects:

Our previous, barely noticeable, interior progress:

And now..the fun part! 

Our home is finally showing some major improvements, progress, and is starting to feel like our home! Adam and I hired our neighbor (who is responsible for building the addition to our home back in '04) to do a little work for us. Remember, Adam and I are new homeowners and very new to the DIY "house edition". We are more than ready to get our hands dirty but we will save the big stuff to the professionals :)

And that's just what we did! 

We had Terrance come to our home to knock walls down, add new sheetrock, change the electrical, all to create for us...

A Dining Room!

Adam and I currently do not own a table and chairs to fill the space but we are so thrilled with the results. Here are a few before photos featuring a few walls, a coat closet, and a pantry that are now GONE.

"Before"
Front door with coat closet
Coat closet and looking down main hallway
Main hallway looking in pantry and office
Main hallway from back guest bedroom with office on left, pantry on left, bathroom on right, and Colden down center :)
Inside office looking into office closet
Front right corner of office, soon to be walkway to living room

"During" 
Goodbye coat closet, hello future dining room!
Plastic coverings everywhere
 See ya later office wall!
Bye bye pantry.
 Walkway to dining room, electrical boxes installed, pantry covered up, and wall knocked down!
View into new dining room which used to be the office corner and closet

And this is the part where the blogger got "lazy" and forgot to snap photos of the progress with all of the trims and wainscoting installed, just what was she thinking? ;)

Adam and I LOVE the decision we made to do this, we just love it! Since we do not have any kiddos yet and there is currently no bun in the oven, we thought this change fits our lifestyle perfect. And for those who know me..you know how messy my kitchen gets when I cook, who wants their guests staring at that while eating?--Not this girl! So excited to have a real dining room!

The past week and weekend were spent taping, cutting in, painting, touching up, and cleaning. Friends, get excited--more posts coming soon with the "After" pictures! (Here are two little hints of what you will see. Click here and here.)

Let me know what you think of the progress thus far. 

Do you think it was wise to remove an office/very small bedroom to create a dining room?
Would you have made the same move or kept the extra room?
Have you made any similar changes to your home?
If so, what were they! I would love to hear and gain more ideas.

5 comments:

  1. Very fun! Can't wait to see the finished room. We can't do anything like this in our townhome, so I'll live vicariously through you.

    Would we have made the same move? Hrm. We are both big computer nerds, and currently have our family room as a large office/library. So I'm not sure we would have given up an office if there wasn't another room we could use as one.

    We've learned that our friends tend to hang around the kitchen all the time while visiting. But that could be a MN thing =)

    In the end, you are happy, you can get some good use out of the new room...so great! Plus you do have a lot of room downstairs still should you need another room for something else.

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  2. That's a lot of hard work It's looking great! Can't wait to see it when you add the finishing touches and decor.
    ♥Linsey @ the farmhouse porch

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  3. woot woot!! that's an AWESOME change!! While I'm sure the coat closet and small office was great, the dining room is where you're going to enjoy wonderful meals with family and friends and make sweet memories!! We did something very similar and we are the same as you guys...we couldn't be happier :) I can't wait to see the progress and finished product!!

    and I'm so sorry I'm still working on getting ahold of my friend for her websites for gluten free recipes and such...I'll get it to you asap :) hope that new food aventure is going well, and that you've been able to stay migraine-free :)

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  4. I think that it's wonderful! I want a "formal" dining room in whatever house I have! I think, like you, that I really don't want my guests looking at my cooking mess while eating. I also think that it shows a characteristic of a Godly woman/ couple. Hospitality. It shows that you want to have guests in your home, and to treat them well. It's becoming a lost art! So, while your guests will probably hang with you in the kitchen while you cook, (and if your friends and family are like mine, after to help clean up) The actual meal will be eaten in a clean space! I think that you will never regret taking a space that was less important to you and making it into something that you really wanted and will use!

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  5. a dining room as a "This would be so wonderful" for us when we were looking for houses and now it's on the MUST HAVE list. It's really great to feel like there is a space that typically stays clean, where many people can sit and enjoy themselves, adding a little "planned specialness" to meals with just the two of you!

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