House Update part 2 Inside

Back upstairs we've made some changes as well.

Josh's Room

Since our first update, we got Josh a desk, desk chair and bookshelf.  We moved Josh's bed over for some reason and put the dresser in the closet.

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We still, of course, want to paint and may get him a different bed.  In Josh's room, having display shelves for trophies and prizes was important to keep the room from getting too cluttered.  But this big desk is wonderful.  Having a regular bookshelf is great too!

Caitlyn's Room

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In Caitlyn's room, we also got her a desk and bookshelf. We also picked up a canopy to make the room feel more like a princess's room.  Caitlyn likes to keep ALL.THE.THINGS so we will need to work on some ways to display "treasures" more than just what is above her desk.  I also think that corner is tough to get in to.  When we paint her room, we'll have to rethink the furniture arrangement as well.

The dresser in this room also moved into the closet, and she uses her walk-in closet as a dressing room, getting dressed for school every morning in there!  There is a bunch of little toys in the corners of her room, they do get played with when friends are over, so, for now, they will stay.  Do you like the unicorn?! Leftover from her birthday in JANUARY! perhaps it will be the focal point of a new room design, on the horizon.

The kids' hall bathroom looks exactly the same so we will skip that.

Guest Room

The guest room hasn't changed much since the last update, aside from a few new things that have been hung up.

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The print to the left of the bed was from Jared's grandparents, and we did hang the mirror above the dresser.  We still use this room most often for present wrapping and for storing items until I make it to the donation store.  I only need a few minutes to spruce up the room if we have guests. Anyone have an upcoming trip to Chicago?!

Master Bedroom

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In the master bedroom since the last update, we moved the mirror and jewelry to the dresser side. We also got a Nest for the upstairs thermostat, so our house is slowly moving towards being smart!

The print with the black circle is a print of the night sky the night we got married, a 15-year wedding gift from me to Jared.

I'd still like to get a reading char, paint of course, and we need some things on the wall.  

Master Bathroom

The only thing we've changed in the master bathroom is with the window.  I had gotten frustrated with stepping into the tub to open and close the blinds every day.  I wanted them closed for privacy as this window does have views of the street, but open for the daylight to do my makeup.  Found privacy film on Amazon, of course, took off the blinds, the crossbars and this solves both problems: daylight and privacy.  The kids use the bathtub more than we do. They always want to be the one who gets to use our bathtub first, it does make huge amounts of bubbles!

Master Closet - mine

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First, do you see the beautiful chandelier?! I installed it. MYSELF. After watching Jared do so many, it wasn't so hard.  I love how pretty it is.  I still haven't done custom closets because I seem to move things around each season.  The shoe shelf has been in like 3 places! I did get a contraption so that I could double hang some things, and I have been keeping it clean since I rotated my fall stuff in. For a week.  Let's play a game, how long can I keep it clean? Guesses?!

Master closet Jared

I do not think we've ever taken a picture of the inside of Jared's closet, but we did purchase a basic closet kit for Jared's closet, and he is very happy with it. On the right side of shelves, which you cannot see, he has double hung closet rods, perfect for his dress shirts and pants.

Sitting Room, now Jared's new home office

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Jared spent about a weekend painting this room. It's the same color as below the chair rail in the dining room.  He also painted all the trim.  He applied a dry erase paint to one wall, which I'm sure is a bad idea - allowing people to draw in markers on the wall! 

Almost everything is recycled from the office downstairs: desk, chair, bookshelf, printer, and even the garbage can.  He has two extra screens, and his new toy:

Because a laptop, two extra monitors, and your cell phone aren't enough screens! It's not like he's on the trading floor! But if this helps him work from home more often, I'm all for it!

I hope you enjoyed walking through our house tour. Hopefully, we can update more in the spring.  The house we still own in Arlington Heights, our tenants are moving out mid-November. When we had the house for sale last summer, the biggest feedback we had was that it wasn't updated. So we will be spending the month of November updating the house to hopefully get it on the market before the end of the year.  I know it's not the best time to put a house up for sale, but I am praying that someone who wants to go under contract before the end of the year will be our buyer.  Once we unload that house, we can start putting more money, time and energy towards the bigger projects in this house.  We need to put on a new roof and the kids' bedrooms really deserve to be painted towards making them their own.  Those would be our first priorities.  Then the living room painted, and our bedroom.  Finishing the basement and updating our bathrooms are lowest.  Maybe we'll be able to put a pool in the back before the kids go off to college?!

House Update

It's been 14 month since we moved in and 10 months since my last update!  It was a beautiful fall day here and since the Halloween decorations are up, and the cleaning lady just left, I thought I would run through and take some pictures! I'll share what we've updated since the last post. We've now completed over 65% of my to do list!

Starting outside, the trees are in full bloom as we move in to fall.  We had many trees pruned, put down mulch around the entire house, spray painted the light fixtures black so they stand out more, added house numbers over the garage, and put in planters to flank the front door. We had beautiful flowers this summer and now are waiting for the mums to flower. If you look closely at the window over the front door, you can see how we painted the window dividers back before we first moved in.

Exterior- Front

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As you enter the house, the first room you see is the office, 

 Office

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which is now so much prettier! Since this is the first room people see when they enter, even though it is a working office, I wanted it to be nice to look at. We carried the grey that's on the bottom of the chair rail in the Dining Room, into this room.  Grey on top would have been too dark, so I instead on a light color.  It is certainly Mary Kay pink! Jared spent quite a few hours painting the dentil molding, on top, and the doors, as well as the rest of the room, but I think it looks great and I love to "come to work" in the morning. It's easy to ship products out, as well as fill order.  Josh says that my desk looks like a principal's desk, but I am ok with that! We moved the previous desk and chair upstairs to Jared's new office (see below) and this chair is much more comfortable to sit in! I also changed the fan blades over! For some reason, when Jared installed the fan, I had him put the lighter color wood to show. Now what you can see matches the floors so much better!

Living Room

On the other side of the entry hall, is the living room. When I took pictures, I didn't think we had done much, but we have played around with the furniture layout for sure!

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This room is often where you will find me "hiding". Whenever my family can't find me, I am 19 times out of 20 in this room reading or resting.  I do like the layout of this room, though I am not sure the sofas are big enough.  I do love those chairs from my grandparents in front of the window - what a great vignette. We moved the thermostat to the hallway, and have left the white patch over the lightswitch to paint whenever we paint.  I think I would like to do the grey from the top of the dining room, and maybe navy blue on the bottom.  Paint all the wood white of course, and perhaps get chair covers for the sofas.  I go back and forth wanting to replace them because I find them so comfortable.  The two ottomans put together in the middle aren't quite big enough for the space: no one's legs can reach. We di inherit a lamp from Jared's grandfather, that needs a better lampshade. I also feel the two corners next to the dining room are feeling empty.  Maybe a plant like the previous owner would be good.

Dining Room

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Last time we took you on a tour, it was the beginning of December and almost time for Hanukkah.  I guess you can tell what time of year it is by the tablecloth in here!  Since the last update, I built and painted the white and black Shabbat cart in the back corner and we moved the mini fridge from upstairs. When I have facials at home, I use this space since I can leave almost everything out and not interrupt the kitchen table.  I know I updated that photos of our travels would be going in above the buffet, but that project continues. I have almost everything, just waiting for 3 frames and hopefully, this can go up in the next month or two.

The only thing that is different in the Grand Foyer is the wreath on the door.

Kitchen

In the kitchen, we have a different vase so that's about all that's new in the most used space of the house!

We haven't changed anything in the family room, but I'll include a couple of pictures since the seasons are different.

Laundry Room

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Haven't done too much in here. Jared installed a telescoping drying rack over the sink so that we can dry clothes without having to take out and put away a drying rack.  I also found that moving these seldom used boxes from the pantry to above the cabinets keeps the pantry less cluttered. i.e. moves the clutter here! Whever we redo this room, I'm hoping we can install ceiling height cabinets for more concealed storage.

Exterior Back

Looks like a nice summer's day, yes?! You can't quite see it in the pictures, but leaves are starting to change! Our backyard is pretty plain.  We grew A LOT of tomatoes and zucchini this summer in our garden.  A few peppers, though most were taken over by the zucchini.  I also had a strawberry pot on the deck that never produced any fruit, and some herbs I did in fact use!

Jared laid down fabric and then we had the sides mulched. Had a bunch of baseball hitting practice, swung on the tree swing and the trampoline is great when friends come over. We used the grill a lot, got Jared a hammock for Father's day and enjoyed being outside.

Come back tomorrow for the upstairs!