Tonight, we’re celebrating the end of summer, and the end of all our summer projects, with a big party at our house.
By 5:00, we’ll have 60+ of Dave and my extended family members eating, socializing, and hopefully having a good time.
The party (which I’ll share more details about next week) is an opportunity for many of our extended family members we don’t see regularly to hang out, have a nice dinner, see Simon and Nora again (some of them have never met Simon yet!), take a tour of our house, and see ALL the updates we’ve done over the past 4 years!
And, since so many of you have also asked to see the FULL tour of our farmhouse, I thought today would be a good day to do that.
Welcome to our Farmhouse!
established 1890
Below, I’ve listed off every room/area of our home with “before” and “current” photos. I’ve also included a link to any previous posts I’ve written about that space, a list of the projects we’ve completed for that space, and the projects we still hope to tackle some day.
My plan is to continually update this post as we finish more house projects over the next couple years. I’ll eventually put a link to this post in my sidebar too, so it will be really easy to click over and see if we’ve made any progress 
Front Entry:
What We’ve Done:
Power washed, repainted, and decorated the front porch
Painted the interior of the entryway
Closed off a wall that led to the kitchen (which now makes the front door open the wrong way)
What We Want to Do:
Install a new door that opens the correct direction
Install reclaimed barnwood floor to replace the old, stained tile
Update trim around door and base
Build shaker peg hooks behind the door for guests coats and bags
Repaint whenever we repaint the living room
Make a large “Welcome” sign for the front wall
New light fixture
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Living Room:
What We’ve Done:
Repainted
Widened the opening to the bedroom “wing”
Knocked out a large opening into the office
Knocked out a large opening into the dining room / kitchen area
New trim around all the door ways and most of the baseboard
Added a huge wood “wall feature” to hang family photos over the couch
What We Want to Do:
Install recessed can lighting
New front picture window (one that actually opens)
New carpeting
New trim around window and finish the baseboard
Repaint
Possibly hang wainscoting on one or more walls
Possibly knock down the 2 ft. wall between the living room and front door
See more photos of our living room in this post (although I’ve never actually done a full living room tour post as we still have a lot to do in this room)
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The Office:
What We’ve Done:
Closed off the door into the hallway
Opened up the wall into the living room
Ripped out old carpeting and installed reclaimed barnwood floors
Fixed the sagging ceiling and installed a new light fixture
Repainted the entire room
Ripped out built-in desks
Repainted built-in cabinets
New closet door
Turned the closet into a mini kids’ playhouse.
Painted the French doors and installed new door knobs
Installed huge barn beam shelves that run the length of the room (you can see more photos of the shelves here)
New electrical outlets
What We Want to Do:
Find some sort of screen door for the French doors so we can keep them open in the summer
Maybe something different with the closet once kids get older
See more photos of our office in this post (note: that post is 3 years old already so it looks very different now. I’m planning to do an updated office post SOON!)
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Master Bedroom:
What We’ve Done:
New doors and windows
Repainted all the walls and the ceiling
Ripped up carpeting and installed reclaimed barnwood floors
New trim around windows, doors, and base
Ripped out 2 small closets and installed one larger closet.
New light fixture, new electrical outlets, and a cable hook-up in the closet
What We Want to Do:
Nothing at this point!
I haven’t done a full “tour” post of our bedroom yet (I’m actually not sure why!) but you can see a few more pictures in this post.
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Master Bath:
What We’ve Done:
Completely gutted the entire thing!
Removed all old plaster, bulkhead, ceiling, floors, etc.
New plumbing and electrical
New window and door
New walls, ceiling and floors
New custom double vanity (built by my uncle)
Tossed the old tub and installed a new walk-in shower (“stolen” space from an extra closet on the other side of the bathroom)
New reclaimed barnwood floors
New toilet (and new toilet location to accommodate a larger vanity)
Widened the door opening and installed a pocket door to replace the very narrow swinging door
Added a large bank of built-in shelves
New lights, new fans, new electrical outlets
Added an in-wall heater (it works on a timer) to make our bathroom toasty warm in the winter
What We Want to Do:
Nothing at this point!
See more pictures in this post.
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The Nursery:
What We’ve Done:
New doors and windows
Removed one closet to make walk-in shower in master bath
Installed wood paneling (painted white) over FOUR layers of wallpaper
Removed carpet and installed reclaimed barnwood floors
New trim around doors, windows, base, and crown molding
New light fixture and electrical outlets
What We Want to Do:
Nothing at this point!
See more pictures of Simon’s nursery and pictures of Nora’s nursery.
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The Kitchen + Dining Room:
What We’ve Done:
Completely gutted the entire thing!
Removed the wall between the kitchen and dining room.
Removed the wall between the dining room and living room.
Added a new wall between the dining room and front entry way
All new plumbing and electrical
All new windows and doors
All new insulation, drywall, wainscoting, paint, etc.
“New” reclaimed barnwood floors
New cabinets and appliances
Huge new island
New light fixtures and recessed lighting throughout the entire two rooms
Added about 10 new electrical outlets (there were only 3 total in the entire kitchen and dining room before)
What We Want to Do:
In the future, we love the idea of doing a built-in bench under the double window in the dining area and then building a custom table to stretch almost the entire length of the room. This would mean removing the red hutch though — so I’m not in a huge hurry to do this!
Read all about our massive 5-month-long kitchen renovation here.
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The 2nd Main Floor Bath:
What We’ve Done:
Changed the curtains
Added a chair so we can sit while we wait for Nora to finish going to the bathroom
What We Want to Do:
Remove wallpaper and paint in a neutral color with wainscoting 3/4 of the way up the walls
Remove old shower, sink, and toilet
New flooring
New trim around windows, doors, base, and crown molding
New claw-foot tub with an option for adding a shower down the road
New sink and toilet
New light fixtures
Old fashioned shutters on the windows for privacy (instead of curtains)
Obviously, we haven’t done anything to this room yet — so you guys will all get a front-row seat to this project whenever we finally get to work!
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The Laundry Room:
What We’ve Done:
Laundry!
Added an electrical outlet
What We Want to Do:
Remove wallpaper
New flooring
New trim and baseboard
Unstack washer and dryer and put a counter over the top of the units
Install cabinets above washer and dryer and around the corner over existing counter (in that wasted space)
Hang ironing board and iron on the wall somewhere
New light fixture.
This is another room we haven’t touched since we’ve moved in (we’ve had too many bigger projects to tackle). But don’t worry, we have big plans for this tiny room… eventually
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The Mudroom:
What We’ve Done:
The mudroom was a totally new room for us so everything is completely brand new.
We basically turned a covered porch off the back of our house into a fully enclosed mudroom area!
What We Want to Do:
Paint the outside of mudroom door (most likely a dark green to match all our other doors)
Finish landscaping around the mudroom
Possibly add lockers to the wall where the black bench is now — whenever we need/want more storage
See the entire mudroom before/after post here.
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The Basement:
Since the basement is right off the mudroom, I figured I might as well mention it — even though we don’t plan to do anything down here for several years.
Our basement is not a “nice” basement — but it is nicer than most 124 year old home basements
What We’ve Done:
Put new glass block windows in with vents
Cleaned it up and put 2 storage shelves down there
What We Want to Do:
Remove all the old barn wood (we plan to sell most of it and use some of it to make stuff
Waterproof the basement and get rid of the musty smell (hopefully this can be done!)
Finish off a family room, play room, and half bath
The rest will be storage
See the post about our basement here.
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Let’s go upstairs!
The Play Room:
What We’ve Done:
New windows
New trim
Leveled the floors
New carpeting
Removed wallpaper and repainted walls
Removed spindled banister and added a half wall instead
New electrical outlets
Added lots of toys!
What We Want to Do:
We hope this room will continue to “morph” as our children get older and eventually see it serving as a study area, a library, a computer center, and more.
See the entire play room before/after post here.
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Nora’s Bedroom:
What We’ve Done:
Repaired some cracked drywall
Repainted everything (4 coats of white to cover all that purple!)
New window and door
New trim and baseboard
New electrical outlets
Removed the closet doors
What We Want to Do:
Depending on how many children we have, I’d love to make this sort of a “bunk room” with beds lining the walls (only beds on the floor though due to the sloped ceiling).
Add additional closet space on the back side of door
See her entire bedroom before/after post here. Also, here is her closet before/after post.
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The Guest Bedroom:
What We’ve Done:
New window and new door
Painted over the blue sponge paint
What We Want to Do:
Totally overhaul this room!
Remove carpeting and refinish original wood flooring underneath (possibly white-washing it)
Add a large cozy rug
Add additional closet where awkward desk area is
Skim coat walls to even them out
Add wainscoting and paint
Put in additional electrical outlets
New light fixture
I haven’t posted about our guest bedroom yet as we’ve never really used it much in the 4 years we’ve lived in our house. It will eventually be one of our projects… just not yet!
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The Upstairs Bathroom:
What We’ve Done:
Removed wallpaper
Painted over the brightly colored fish / ocean theme
Added towel bars and some storage furniture
What We Want to Do:
Completely gut this room and start over with a new layout
New double vanity
New tub and shower combo (possibly in a separated room from the sink and toilet)
New floors (hopefully with radiant heat)
New paint, new light fixtures, more electrical outlets
New larger, framed mirror
This is another room we really haven’t touched yet but I’m sure there will be plenty of posts on this room later.
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Let’s go outside…
Here’s a bird’s eye view of our property so you can get a feel for where our outbuildings are.
The Garage:
What We’ve Done:
Removed old storage shelves and hooks
Repainted all the walls, ceiling, and trim
Installed a new Monkey Bars organizing system
Had the floor coating professionally done (also by Monkey Bars)
repainted doors
What We Want to Do:
Add storage for our bikes (hanging from the ceiling)
New windows as ours are all “fogged” up since water vapor got between the glass at some point
New garage doors that look more like old-fashioned carriage doors
See our garage before and after photos here.
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The Extra Garage / Outbuilding:
What We’ve Done:
Put furniture (and some storage junk) inside
Removed wood burning stove (for insurance purposes)
What We Want to Do:
We have big ideas for this space — but nothing that will be implemented any time soon
I know this space is VERY outdated and definitely not my style, but since it’s a nice heated outbuilding, we’re content to simply use it “as is” for several years until we have the cash to renovate it the way we’d like.
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Landscaping:
What We’ve Done:
Had over 20 trees removed and the stumps ground out
Removed and sold over 600 landscape pavers
Installed 500+ feet of privacy fencing
Changed the design of our landscape and planted hundreds of new plants, bushes, and trees
Removed a huge cement slab from the back yard
Added a swing set and kid’s play area
Grew lots of grass
Built an outhouse garden shed
Removed several trailer loads of landscaping stone and spread over 50 yards of mulch
Installed a MUCH larger deck off the back of our house
Planted a tiny vegetable garden
What We Want to Do:
Cut down several more dying pine trees
Relandscape the area by our mail boxes and get new mailboxes
Finish planting along the East side of our house and fence line
Add a few nice planting beds in our front yard to break up the huge amounts of grass
Build raised garden beds for our vegetable garden
Potentially add a swimming pool (way down the road)
You can read ALL our landscaping posts here… and see last year’s before/after post here.
OK, I think that’s EVERYTHING… for now!
Are you still with me?
As I mentioned above, I’ll try to continually update this post as I get new photos and as we complete more projects — so make sure you check back periodically!
I hope you enjoyed the tour!