Our Living Room, Before & After | A Personal Post

I am up to my ears in weddings and thought it’d be a nice change of pace to talk about our home…

Last February we bought what I envisioned to be my “dream home”. Jake and I had been looking at homes for the past year, but we weren’t really in a hurry to buy. I remember walking into this home for the first time. Not going to lie, beyond all that pink carpet, it took my breath away. Tall ceilings, hardwood floors, and windows for days. It had great bones, it just needed some work. As we walked through it, I kept my mouth shut knowing Jake probably had a good idea that I was in love and I didn’t want to pressure him. Within a few months and several late night conversations, it was in our possession. Our vision was to move in and work one room at a time. After talking to the in-laws, we realized there was more than what meets the eye. (Isn’t that always the case?!) The electrical needed updated (knob and tube) and those old radiators needed pulled out of every single room. The kitchen was ok, but really needed new cabinetry. The floors were in mint condition, but needed a good refinish. So it began. We stayed in our little one bedroom house and the in laws came, ready to work. We decided to gut the entire house. It was all lathe and plaster, and because we were updating the electrical, we decided to insulate and sheetrock as well. This was no small project. A lot of sweat and tears went towards this house, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to repay Jake’s parents for all they did.

Without writing a book, you can kind of get an idea of what we did. (You can also go to the blog I started during the progress of it all here) We started working last March, and moved into it in December. Instead of giving you a grand tour of the entire house, I wanted to start off by sharing the living room.

I’ve got to give props to those of you out there who photograph your entire home in one day. Making it look just right was so hard, and I only did one room!

This is what the living room looked like when we bought the house:

This was in the middle of construction…so crazy to look back on these. Everything was gutted at this point, and the electrical was started. The major thing we added here was ceiling lighting. Hard to believe a room this big never had main lights!

And here are the NOWS! The AFTERS! All of the hard work that went into it is finally getting shown off! The floors are refinished, all of the original trim is back up, and the new lighting is in place. (Please excuse our curtain-less windows. We never got to that point, and now that we are moving we decided to just leave them bare.)

Framed botanical print came from A Lovely Workshop and calligraphed by Maybelle Imasa-Stukuls

*Faceted white and gold vessel by The Object Enthusiast 

*white and copper ball vase by The Object Enthusiast 

And for those of you who are house junkies, and like to know where every last piece came from. This silly looking diagram is for you.

A huge thank you to my mother and father in law for helping us create our dream home! It will be for sale this January, so if you or anyone you know is looking for a beautiful home in McPherson, KS let me know!