Before And After | It's Great To Be Home

Before & After: The Family Room

August 19, 2011 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 29 Comments

Alright guys and gals, now that you’ve seen the befores and afters from the kitchen and dining room it’s time to scope out the family room!

For all you brown paint haters out there, let me warn you – there is more of the same brown paint in this room, so brace yourselves. :)

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

Here’s how the family room looked 2.5 months ago . . .

. . . and here’s how it looks now:

We kept the paneling for budget reasons and I’m actually really thrilled with how it turned out after some fresh paint!

I personally really like the beams, but they were a little lacking in their medium-tone stain and that fan wasn’t helping matters . . .

. . . so we darkened the beams with brown paint (!) and brightened up the space with some recessed lighting.

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

We also liked the brick fireplace and the set of French doors, so we kept those . . .

. . . but we installed new windows because the old aluminum ones left a little something to be desired.

Hardwood floors instantly added some much-needed pizazz.

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

There were bifold doors on the doorway to the hall as well as to the entryway, so we removed those to make the room feel a little more updated.

Also, do you see those scallops on the built-in bookcases above? Those suckers had to go.

We used the same staging furniture throughout the house that we bought for our last flip – luckily everything fit into this home perfectly!

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

That’s it! This is a giant room – I can imagine the new owners having lots of fun movie nights and having friends over. Can you?

P.S. You can see more “before” photos of this flip here.

All photographs taken by me, unless indicated as “Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography.”

Before & After: The Kitchen & Dining Room

August 17, 2011 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 37 Comments

I’m so glad you guys like the way the flip turned out! It’s so much fun to see all of our hard work pay off – actually, I guess it hasn’t really paid off since we still own it, but you know what I mean. :)

I thought we’d start this little before and after tour with the kitchen and dining room, since the kitchen was by far the most heinous part of the house when we bought it back in the beginning of June.

Not only was it not my cup of tea (pea green laminate counters, anyone?) but it was hugely lacking in functionality with a distracting and view-blocking range hood and an awkward angled peninsula.

Remember?

Well, we tackled those challenges with a switched up floor plan – and here’s how it looks now!

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

In addition to improving functionality, our goal was to lighten and brighten this kitchen and give it a classic feel that will stand the test of time.

See what I mean about that crazy range hood? Not only could you hit your head on it but it was blocking all the natural light from the window (as well as obstructing the sight lines throughout the kitchen).

By the way – see those leaded glass panels in the built-in hutch and on either side of the kitchen window? My mom made those! She’s the coolest mom ever (and I’m not just saying that so she’ll keep outfitting our flips with awesome panels).

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

As you can see, we moved the fridge over to the other side of the room so that we could fit bar stools at the island.

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

This was our first time using carrera marble counters instead of granite, and I’m totally sold. Love it!

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

This is where I became a little obsessed with photographing the tile and flowers. My apologies.

We also moved the door a few feet down to the left so that we could have an uninterrupted L-shaped counter rather than having the range shoved in the corner.

I will definitely be using this herringbone pattern and gray grout again! I kinda love it.

There’s that crazy peninsula I was telling you about – isn’t it better with it gone?

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

The built-ins look so much better after a coat of dark brown paint and new cabinet fronts (those swoopy details were pretty dated). And another shout out for my mom’s handiwork!

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

Even though it’s not a true “open kitchen,” I think that the connection between the kitchen, dining and family room will work really great for the new family that buys this house.

( I wasn’t going to post a photo with all of the previous owner’s stuff in the house but this was the only “before” photo I had going this direction. Please excuse all of the moving day craziness. )

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

And that’s it! This is my dad’s favorite flip that we’ve done so far – what about you? You can check out our other flips here.

All photographs taken by me, unless indicated as “Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography.”

The Flip: The Jack ‘n Jill Bathroom, Then & Now

January 11, 2011 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 22 Comments

And the before and after tour of the flip continues! (These links will take you to tours of the great room and dining room.)

There are 3 full bathrooms in this house – the one that you’re going to see in this post is pretty important as it adjoins two of the bedrooms (a.k.a. jack ‘n jill bath) and also serves as the guest bathroom for the house.

Here’s how the jack ‘n jill bathroom turned out after we spiffed it up with a smorgasbord of travertine and a fancy chevron patterned tile floor:

And here’s how the jack ‘n jill bathroom used to look:

Ah, a 1970s classic. Even though the existing tile was in great shape, it was avocado green and therefore had to go. The wallpaper, counter top, sliding shower door and existing fixtures also got the boot. In their place came crisp white subway tile, mexican noce travertine, accents in a glass and marble mosaic tile, and new fixtures including a dual flush toilet. We also decided to have the demo guys remove the doorway/wall that separated the vanity from the shower/toilet area to get rid of that choppy feeling.

And now it’s time for the gratuitous “after” shots. :)

( Recognize this tile? That’s right, it’s extra tile left over from the glass and marble backsplash we did at the first flip! )

( These built-ins were originally a cabinet with doors, etc. – but it was accidentally torn out during demo. Whoops! When it was re-built, we decided that open shelving was the way to go – I envision lots of baskets and rolled towels. )

( My next house will have a chevron patterned tile floor like this one – it makes me swoon every time I see it!! Three cheers for our tile guy, he did a fab job. )