Since the load bearing wall removal is finally complete and now we’re just working on the furnishing and room design, I figured I’d do a post summarizing all of the posts and work we’ve done over the past few months. Plus, I like being organized and having things in one place, much to the annoyance of my husband, but who still reaps the benefits of this trait anyway.
We started with this mess of a never used room:
And are now here, to a beautiful, open, family room:
Well, after about 3 months, we have a habitable room again… sans furniture! Many months of planning and preparation allowed us to get here, and David and I trucking through the final touches after the contractors were finished have finally given us the big, beautiful room that we had always hoped and planned for when we bought this house.
Wanna see?
Here’s a reminder of what we were looking at before. From standing in the kitchen we used to see this:
And now, we see this:
You may have noticed on our house needs/wants list that we specifically spelled out that we did not want a bi-level nor split-level. I grew up in a beautiful bi-level. My parents got the house built and we moved in when I was 8 years old. I remember my parents telling us about it before we moved in, saying that the kitchen was going to be upstairs, and we were so confused. What if we’re downstairs watching TV and need a glass of water? We have to go ALL THE WAY upstairs to get it?? Yes. Yes you do. It’s not a big deal. And it wasn’t. It didn’t really phase me after that.
I guess should define “bi-level” for those who are not familiar. A bi-level home is a home that you usually enter the front door and have the option to immediately walk upstairs or downstairs. The kitchen and main living areas are usually upstairs, and a family room is usually downstairs. Related, a split-level is similar, but has multiple levels and half floors throughout the house.
So when David and I were house shopping for our first house in Maryland, we toured a ton of houses, but eventually settled on a really cute bi-level in an awesome neighborhood. It wasn’t weird to me that the kitchen was upstairs because that’s what I had grown up with. Granted, the kitchen was small, but it was so open and incorporated with both the dining room and living room, that you didn’t really notice.
Ok, its not really that old. It was built in 1993. Almost as old as me. It’s not the prettiest house around. It doesn’t scream quality and character. But we’re excited to put our mark on it and make it our own.
Last post we talked about our forever home wish list and what we got with this home. Here is the list again (the underlined items are what we got):
Must Haves (at least):
– 4 bedrooms
– 2.5 baths
– 2000 sq ft
– 2 car garage
– 0.5 acres
– Basement
– Master Suite w/ Large Walk in Closet & Large Bathroom (Dual vanity or enough space to add dual vanity)
– Large Kitchen or the ability to make it into a large kitchen
– Open floor plan or the ability to make it an open floor plan
– Workshop space (can be in basement or even detached building)
Would Like:
– 3 car garage
– 1-2 acres
– Separate Laundry Room w/ room for utility sink
– Garage to not face the street
– Gas stove
– Screened in porch or sunroom
Definitely Not:
– Split Level
– Bi Level
– On a busy street
Two of the biggest concerns with this house are going to eventually be our biggest projects. Those are from the must haves list, where we currently don’t have a large kitchen or open floor plan, but we do have the ability to make it happen. But, it’s going to be more costly than we initially imagined.
Hi! We're the Hams and this blog is a little bit of home, a little bit of life, and a whole lotta love.
Powered by WordPress & Child Theme by David Hamilton, Parent Theme by Anders Norén
