We’ve been at our new house for almost two months now! Where does the time go? We are pretty much unpacked and have a game plan for most areas of the house. This post is picture heavy so I’ll let the photos do most of the talking, but I wanted to offer you a glimpse of what it looks like ‘today’, along with our ‘to do’ list for each area. I thought it would be handy so that when I start to roll out the projects for you (I have some FUN things planned – coming soon) they have context.
bathrooms, bedrooms, dining room, entryway, Family Room, Garden, guest room, Home & Garden, kitchen, Living Room, office, playroom, rec room
Settling in
bathrooms, bedrooms, dining room, entryway, Family Room, Garden, guest room, Home & Garden, kitchen, Living Room, office, playroom, rec room
So this happened
We bought a house. Specifically, this one.
Backing up a bit, we really enjoyed our townhome but it was time for a change. More space, more privacy and NO strata. We wanted to move before Chace got older as we didn’t want to change his little world mid-grade three (he just finished Kindergarten). So, we made the leap and listed our townhome.
The good news is that it sold in a day – with three offers which created a bidding war. The bad news, we didn’t have anywhere to move to! The market in our area dictated this plan of attack as places for sale were going into multiplle offers and if you had “subject to sale of our place” in your offer, you might as well not even bother.
Long story short after a few panic attacks from me and some serious market stalking, we purchased the above home which met most things on our wish list. We did have to compromise on a few things but we ended up with a few bonus things that more than made up for it.
We take possession this Saturday! I couldn’t wait to share with you all though so here are the photos from the listing (as we saw it). I also put together a little floor plan of each level. They won’t be completely accurate as I was going off memory and the specs on the listing sheet, but you will get the idea I’m sure!
Main level:
entry
living room
dining/living room
dining room
kitchen – what will Chef Kev dream up here?
kitchen/family room
family room
(future) playroom!
powder room
laundry
Here is the main floor layout to give you an idea of where these spaces are in relation to one another…
top level:
looking down towards the front entry
master bedroom
master bathroom
the other two bedrooms (Chace’s and a spare – TBD which is which!). We’re going to let Chace choose on moving day.
“Bonus room” – future craft room/office area
top floor bathroom
top floor floorplan…
basement/lower level
Down here is where we encountered one of the ‘compromises’ as mentioned above. Part of the basement is a suite which we were not looking for. However, we decided since we have more than enough space at the moment, we will leave it ‘as is’ for now and renovate in the future to make it our dream recreation room space – complete with wet bar and a bedroom/bathroom on that level. The income from the suite will allow us to do some of the updates a little sooner than we otherwise would have been able to.
First up, the current recreation room (on our side)…
And here is the suite which consists of a living space, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom (I don’t have a photo of the kitchen though).
Here is the baseement floor plan to help you visualize how it all works together…
Last but not least, our backyard. This was another area where we had to compromise. We had dreams of a large backyard but reality told us that the house we wanted, with a big yard, was not in our budget. The fact that this particular house had been nicely updated, was in a great neighbourhood, backed onto a greenbelt and (total bonus) was only a few houses away from the elementary school that Chace will attend made us decide this was the one.
Oh, and did I mentinon that the school is adjacent to a huge park which has an awesome playground and walking trails. We figured our ‘yard’ was steps away so we were covered.
We have big plans for this small space. For the whole house actually. But, we will save and tackle each project as our budget permits and I will happily post about the journey here if you’d like to follow along 🙂
the backyard…
Want to see what I got up to on Saturday night? Warning – it’s pretty X-Rated. As in X = wrong. Bad. Solution required.
I organized.
It was a party.
I was the only one invited.
Contain your excitement.
In an attempt to stop the dining room table being a dumping ground (you know, so we can actually eat dinner there) I had to find a new spot for the biggest culprit – my laptop. I usually take it with me to work so when I bring it home, it generally gets parked on the dining room table and used throughout the evening/weekend many times.
It needed a home. A new one.
And this mess needed to be cleaned up.
I like things being tucked away, Chef Kev likes them out in the open and accessible so the cooking oils and utensils had to stay. The cookbooks also needed to stay on the counter (by request). The doggie treat canister gets used daily (lucky Belle) so that made sense to stay as well. The canisters got moved to the ledge above the stove and the phone also stayed where it was due to the phone jack being right there. The espresso machine is too big to tuck away anywhere else. But it all could be tidied up some.
But look to the top far right at my dirty not so little (or hidden) secret.
Totally my fault. Look closer at Casa Clutter over there.
But don’t dare open it unless you brace yourself for the avalanche.
Holy CARP (yes, I mean the fish). Do you like my collection of vases (original purpose) plastic plates, cutlery, bubbles, outdoor toys, things that I thought were too small for a baby (now a toddler) and miscellaneous ‘decor’ finds? No? Me neither.
This needed to become a home office station STAT.
After some serious Saturday evening organizing I filed everything into their rightful home – bubbles and outdoor toys to the outdoor storage bins, paper plates, plastic cups and cutlery to my storage elsewhere which housed their ‘friends’ and the once-too-small-kids-toys-now-okay-for-toddler got put into the potty training prize jackpot.
The large vases and decor items got relocated to our closet that has new shelving (via Chef Kev) for safe (non-avalanche inspired) keeping.
And since I was on a roll, I thought I better tackle this ‘issue’ as well.
double CARP (two fishies).
Too make a long Saturday evening short, this got a major file and in the end this drawer holds a few misc. household items – removable hooks, tape, candles etc. but most importantly, I finally created a usable system for the danged CABLE STORAGE PROBLEM!
Oh label maker, you make me so happy.
At the end of my organizing rampage spree, I had a nice new TIDY home for my laptop to be parked each night. I still take it up to my office when I do design work and plug it into my larger monitor but for all the other little things I use it for, this is great. Plus the perfect spot to charge it each evening.
In the boxes you see through the frosted glass are small home decor items (napkin rings, tea light candles, small candle holders etc) as well as all of my ‘office’ type stuff that I need on hand – lap top case, note paper, back up drive etc.
The mat below is where we feed Belle.
And the nice thing is if I do need to sit for a quick moment, I just turn the chair around and make my self comfy.
I had everything on hand so this was a nice and easy free makeover. yippee!
Things that are uncluttered seriously make me very, very happy.
And, because I was having such a rocking night, I went on to make Chace’s Halloween Haunted House after all of this.
I told you I lead a pretty exciting life. So different than my Saturday evenings of 5 or 10 years ago… But I wouldn’t change it for anything 🙂
What about you? Any quicky clean ups that went a long way in your mind? Do you have a computer ‘station’ that is easily accessible? Any vase/decor related avalanches at you place? Do tell!
Hello
I'm Elaine. A graphic designer, mommy, wife and blogger. I have trouble sitting still and am always looking for a project. Follow along as I post about life – in a pretty and creative way of course.