for the love of craigslist

i have definite affinity for finding treasures on craigslist. this has been something that i've loved doing for years & the results have yielded some of my very favorite pieces in our home. my last purchase was a gorgeous settee/love seat (first seen here....check back for after pictures coming soon!) for our new hearth room. i've realized in recent weeks that moving from a small cape cod to a much more spacious home will definitely require some additional furniture on our part. with all of the recent house updates we've been making, our furniture budget has definitely been put on the back burner. my solution is my trusty old friend, craigslist. i can say with confidence that my husband m is definitely not always on board for my treasure hunting. in fact, he often finds my so-called treasures questionable, to say the least! i try to remind him that with a little creativity & work, these one of a kind items will be gems in our home. i must give him credit as he is a trooper...i couldn't ask for a more supportive husband as he always makes the trek with me -- wherever we need to go -- to pick up my latest obsession. later tonight, we have a trip scheduled to pick up this little beauty:

gorgeous, right?!! okay...so perhaps not so gorgeous right now but with a little love & elbow grease, i'm confident it will fit right in at our new home.  the question is...what to do with it?  this is no doubt the most fun part of my craigslist makeovers.  i absolutely love pondering the potential options....paint color, hardware, patterns....the options are seemingly endless.  can't wait to share what i come up with.  stay tuned for the finished project...hopefully coming soon!

heart of the home

i have always dreamed of having a kitchen that could be considered the heart of the home. we have a lovely kitchen in our old home, but it is a tad on the small side & really kind of isolated by itself in the back of the house. our old home was built in the early 1950's & floor plans just were not the same back then.  m & i both love to cook & have always dreamed of having awesome gourmet appliances, a hearth room & a kitchen that flows seamlessly for entertaining. luckily, our new home offered the potential for all of these things. notice i said potential, as i thought i might remind you of it's condition when we purchased the home:

yikes...just a tad outdated, right?!? our home was built in 1994 & we're fairly certain that not one update has been made in the past 17+ years.  but....look at all that potential...tons of space! double ovens! back staircase (obsessed)! hearth room! windows galore!  really, everything we could possibly ask for.  it is now just a matter of bringing everything up-to-date & adding our personal taste to make the room uniquely "us."  we both decided that we absolutely loved the shape of the cabinets & the layout of the kitchen....which would be a huge money saver down the road.  i have always had a thing for white kitchens, so just had to bring m on board.  that wasn't too hard after sharing a few inspiration pictures with him: 

                                                       

                                                      

                                                  

                                                   

                                                              {all images via my pinterest}

once m got a good look at some of these images (thank you pinterest!), he was 100% on board.  the specific elements that we knew we wanted to incorporate include: white cabinets (some with glass fronts to break up & lighten the space), gorgeous lighting (glass, unique shapes, etc..), dark hardwoods, updated appliances & subway tile.  our goal is to create a space that is comfortable, relaxed, homey and most importantly, lasting.  we didn't want to choose anything too trendy as this quite possibly could be our forever home.  sticking with classics with a twist is our goal in creating a kitchen that will serve us (and our friends & family) well for decades to come.  we're happy to report that we're off to a good start.  here are a few sneak-peek photos with plenty more to come soon....

{our back staircase...have i mentioned i'm obsessed!?}

we've removed all the carpet & added wood end-caps....will soon be staining floors & fresh carpet.

{counters are off!}

{soffits above cabinets}

i have always had a strong aversion to cabinets that don't go all the way to the ceiling.  to create a custom look without the cost, we chose to add soffits & then will cap off with crown molding to complete the look.

the process has been very fun so far with lots of decisions that have had to be made (and more importantly, agreed upon)...can't wait to share more soon!

chaos ensues...

i know i have mentioned multiple times that the propose of my little blog endeavor is to document the renovations on our new home....yet i have yet to share one picture! shame on me as we have really started the renos off with a bang! to give a little background on how this all came to be, some back story might be helpful. my husband m & i were not actively looking for a new home but we always kept an eye on new properties for sale in our desired neighborhood. one sunday in october we were out & about popping into a few open houses. i was getting pretty exhausted & ready to call it a day. of course m was just getting started & talked me into "one last house"....by the way, i attribute his energy to the fact that he always wears comfortable shoes & i'm notorious for my completely impractial sunday wardrobe of 3.5 inch heels. we popped into a final house that day & by sheer luck met our fabulous realtors, shannon & patty. we just clicked with these ladies & i ended up spending 20 minutes chatting with them in the kitchen while m toured the house. we exchanged contact info & the next day shannon reached out to me via email to see if we wanted to check out some more houses next weekend. this got m & i talking in more depth about the thought of possibly really going through with this. we figured that it would be nice to have the new house before any kiddos as we both love the idea of getting things done ahead of time. we both travel a lot for our jobs & the thought of moving + business travel + kids was simply overwhelming...especially since i was almost insistent on a fixer-upper! i have a severe obsession with design & all things design related & have always dreamed of fixing up a house with my hubs to our specifications. we spent some time looking with shannon & patty but nothing really was catching our eye. sure their were some properties that fit our specifications, but they were close to the top of our budget & still needed a lot of work (in my eyes at least!). with the way the real estate market has been, we decided to go ahead & list our house and continue our search at the same time, fully expecting our selling process to take some time, especially considering the time of year & thanksgiving was just a week away. imagine our surprise when, within a matter of hours of listing our home, we had tons of interest & an offer. we ended up selling our house that day (within 5 hours!) and realized we really had to get to work on the buying side. m & i keep talking about how everything happens for a reason & in our case it truly worked out for the best. a house we had seen once, that needed a ton of work but was right in the heart of the area we wanted to be in, suddenly came back on the market. it had had a contract pending but the buyers fell through. thank goodness our awesome realtor, shannon, was all over it. within a matter of weeks after selling our home we had a contract on our new house. we took possession december 22nd of last year & it's been total chaos ever since! the current state of our new home is complete "hot mess" but i thought i would start by sharing some pics of what it looked like "before".....i apologize in advance for the picture overload.  all of these screen-shots are from the reece & nichols website, obviously taken while the previous owners still lived there....enjoy!

{view from the front...LOVE all the established trees}

{front entry}

{stairs...front entry}

you can't tell from any of these pictures, but the stair case is double-sided with another staircase that leads into the kitchen...this charming feature was definitely one of the things that sold me on our home!

{dining room...check the wallpaper...YIKES!}

{front office, main floor}

{front office, leading into living room}

{living room}

{view of the kitchen}

{breakfast nook}

{opposite side of kitchen - hearth room area}

{laundry room...yay!}

{master bedroom}

{master bedroom view into master bath}

{master bath...circa 1994, obvi}

{master closet!}

the other compelling selling point for me!

so, there you have it! finally...a glimpse into our new home & potential projects that have virtually taken over our lives.  this is exactly what the house looked like on december 22nd (minus the furniture) when we took possession.  can't wait to share some of the progress we've made since then!