After our oldest daughter moved out last month to attend college, my teenage son lobbied to move into her old bedroom. (That bedroom is the most popular kid real estate in the house because it has its own bathroom and he’d long been sharing a bathroom with little sister.) Little sister had her eye on brother’s old bedroom. And I had my eye on little sister’s old bedroom as a guest bedroom and as a room for my oldest when she comes home from college.
We’ve lived in our house for nine years. We love our house. However, paint and carpet updates were overdue. After we decided to let the kids play musical rooms, we figured we might as well tackle a full residence refresh while we were at it.
We started by taking everything out of the bedrooms and piling it onto the back porch, dining room, and garage.
Living and writing amid chaos isn’t my forte. But chaos is exactly what reigned inside our house for several days.
Once the carpet and paint were in, we set about going through our belongings piece by piece. Only items that were useful or “sparked joy”, as Marie Kondo would say, were placed back into the bedrooms. Everything else, we donated.
It was a tremendous amount of work, but I’m so happy with the result! We have more space. More organization. More function. We kept almost all the furniture the same, but the the decorating updates we made through rugs, throw pillows, and accessories brought the style of our house in line with our current taste.
Here are a few of the rooms…
Thanks for letting me bring you on a brief house tour, friends!
Have any of you braved a renovation or move lately?
Becky Wade
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We are getting ready to renovate the master bath! I am excited, but nervous. It is badly in need of repairs and updates.
We are also turning our son’s room into a guest room. He just got married and we have no place for the to sleep when they come to visit. I hope I don’t get lost when I clean out that room or eaten or something!😳
Leave a trail of bread crumbs so you can find your way out of the mess. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your photos! I’m sure your kids loved doing this room swap!
We moved to this house last summer which was previously owned by a very young man and his dogs. It was not clean or well cared for so we have spent months cleaning, fixing broken/leaky things (doors, roof, faucets), and ripping out overgrown landscaping. This summer I took off work to repaint every room in the house and what a difference that made! So much brighter! We’re saving up for the next project, flooring, as the carpet was shredded bare in several places. It’s wonderful to see the transformation of this little house in becoming our home. 😊
I love this, Jen! It sounds like you’re fighting the good fight with your updates. Perseverance pays!
Moved to our dream destination 2 1/2 years ago building the home we always wanted. We downsized and reduced or belongings greatly. I found it very liberating to get rid of “stuff”only keeping what was functional or with great emotional meaning to us. Here after this time span, I can’t think of a thing that we got rid of that we miss. I’d do it again in a heartbeat!
“I found it very liberating to get rid of “stuff”only keeping what was functional or with great emotional meaning to us” Yes! Liberating is the ideal word.
Love the pictures! Gorgeous rooms! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for following the blog, Betty!
I’ll bet it feels like a different house! Beautiful!
It does!
It’s always so fun to do a house refresh! And good for you for shaking things up for your other kids with the oldest at college! 🙂
Right! My oldest received a new beginning. It was nice to give the younger two a smaller new beginning of their own.
Love everything you did, your house looks gorgeous! I am so glad you think it was all worth it, we are in the midst of doing some renovations and I am so ready to be finished! I don’t like chaos either and I feel like that’s what we are living in now!On a side note I just recently read “My Stubborn Heart” one of my favorite books!!!I was so sad when I finished it, would love another book with the same cast of characters!
Thanks for reading My Stubborn Heart!! All my best wishes with your renovations. I know your updates will be worth it, too.
Your home is beautiful! We lived through a complete remodel of our house about 4 years ago. We bought an older home that had so much potential but had been neglected for too long. The almost 6 months of construction and chaos were challenging but so very worth it. We love our home now and are making wonderful happy memories.
“Lived through” is such an apt description of how we make it through remodels! They’re a trial when you’re in the midst of them.
Thanks for sharing your story with pics. Three generations live in our home; I’m the grandmother. We moved in our new home last year in phases: the two daughters & one grandson moved from the other side of town & three months later I moved from Texas (a 2-car plus 26’ truck caravan & it took three nights & four days). After we moved in, there was a major water burst in the finished basement. Yet, our frustration turned into joy when we took up carpet, redid the floor & wall, we painted the room with a new drop ceiling & now it’s a new bedroom for one daughter who is studying to be a nurse. God is good all the time! It’s perfect!
“our frustration turned into joy” Yes! Exactly. I wish you and your family many happy memories in your home, Donna.
Everything looks gorgeous, Becky! I especially love those throw pillows in the bedroom that overlooks the fenced yard. (I’m a huge fan of pillows for the quick/cheap refresh they can bring!) As you know, we recently moved and it was hard, hard work, but really fun trying to make a different house feel like home to us. And I think we were successful!
Thank you for the encouragement. We need to do the same thing on a smaller scale but keep putting it off. As you said, “So much work to do.”
I know! The work involved is daunting!
You have some beautiful rooms. I love updates. My youngest daughter moved into her sister’s room too once my oldest got married. They both lived at home when they were in college. Then my youngest got married 4 yrs later and I made the big bedroom a guest room. I took the smallest bedroom that my youngest was in for years and made me a library. Then I had another small bedroom and I made another library. Lol! I know I should have paired down to one library but I didn’t. Then summer before last we completely redone our master bath and painted the living room and put up bead board on the papered walls. I’m loving it but now I have to redo the kitchen and dining room floors. A few years back we took all carpet up and put laminate flooring and got all new oak cabinets and new countertops. I do not like my countertops and I am wanting to replace them again. That’s the hold up because I can’t make my mind up on the countertops.
I love that you have two libraries! You won’t find anyone in this group who’d find fault with that. 😉