Our First Home Makeover! We Finished Downstairs!

It has been an exciting almost 2 months since we closed and moved into our first home. Since closing on the house we have been working non-stop at renovating the house. [Be sure to check out my Youtube channel to see more on what we've been up too!] We had a plan of a few things we wanted to do right away like the flooring downstairs. We wanted a cohesive look as well as something very functional and easy to maintain, so we went with a luxury vinyl wood-like flooring. There is a local flooring company that we found to place the flooring for us since we were in a time crunch. We had originally planned to do everything ourselves to save money for other projects and we enjoy doing projects together! The flooring we selected is by Mohawk from the Embostic collection and in the color Smoke Gray, we love it! It is waterproof and I can steam mop it! 

The other big project we wanted to tackle right off the bat is painting all of the walls. We were only able to get the downstairs painted before the movers arrived, so we still have upstairs to paint but have taken a break from painting for now. I selected SW Passive for the walls, I originally was going to go with the popular SW Repose Grey but was concerned about it being too dark since the house doesn't get too much natural light with all of our trees in the back. Now that we have the walls painted, I will say that Passive definitely has a blue tint and tends to look bluer in person but light grey in pictures. Part of me wishes I would have went with Repose Grey but I didn't want it to be too beige and I wanted something to brighten the house up. It was a little overwhelming all the things we wanted to do so we decided to just focus on completing the downstairs and then move upstairs! I will say it drives me crazy having the downstairs done and the upstairs not matching (hello OCD). Hopefully, we can get to work upstairs soon. We are both back to work so the projects will be slowed down since we can only work on them on the weekends. It has been so helpful having my dad and grandma close by to help us with all of the home projects.

 

     

The last major change we wanted to do to the house was to paint the kitchen cabinets. They were a builder grade brown shade that made the space feel dark and seriously made me cringe. I decided to go with SW Alabaster in the ProClassic enamel paint for the cabinets. It was a seriously time-consuming and tedious project that I hope I never have to do again! It made a huge change and really brighten up the house....I love it! I still would like to change the hardware, backsplash, and counters eventually but it's amazing what paint and flooring can do. 

We have also working on the half bath downstairs and gave it a major facelift. We picked up a vanity and light fixture from one of the hundreds of trips to Lowes. I bought the gorgeous farmhouse mirror from Kirkland's before we moved and planned to use it over the fireplace. After we received our furniture we decided to place the TV over the fireplace which left me looking for a new home for this gorgeous mirror. It became my inspiration for the half bath and it truly couldn't have found a more perfect spot. 

The last project we have worked on was placing the quarter round on all of the baseboards downstairs.  The company that did our vinyl flooring wanted to charge a crazy amount for it and we knew we could do it cheaper. It just took us some time to actually get around to doing it (a month and a half later). It wasn't a hard project just took a lot of time trying to get the cut perfect and then going back and filling in all the nail holes. The last step we are going to tackle this weekend is giving the baseboards and door trims a fresh coat of paint and the downstairs will be done for now! Of course, there are a couple more things we want to do downstairs (wainscoting dining room, panty barndoor, and replacing fireplace tile) but we got the big projects out the way and want to get started upstairs.

For our upstairs, we don't have as many projects planned. Mostly we want to paint the walls, shiplap accent wall in the guest room, change the flooring in bathrooms, replacing bath vanities & lights, and possibly a barndoor to our master bath. We spend the majority of our time downstairs so it was important for us to get that space completed first. It is finally starting to feel like "our home" and it is the best feeling ever.

Hope you enjoy following us on this journey! We are having a blast making this house our home! :)

Feel free to message me with any questions!

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Light fixtures are from Houzz, Wall Paint is SW Passive in Valspar Signature Eggshell base, Floors are Mohawk Smoke Gray, Cabinet Paint is SW Alabaster in ProClassic base, Vanity and Light from Lowe's, Entryway table is DIY from Pinterest, Couches and coffee table from Ashley Furniture, Wall decor is from Kirkland's and Hobby Lobby, Rugs are Orian Rugs the My Texas House Collection, Barstools are from Target!