I can’t believe it’s been almost 8 years since we moved into this home. Where do I even begin? We’ve lived a lot of life in this home, from Covid shutdown to Hurricane Sally to watching my kiddos grow too fast.
We’ve been kicking around the idea of moving for a while, and the last few years have been a whirlwind and we’ve finally decided to pull the plug. Maybe one day I’ll share more of that full story but for now, I want to share some ‘before and after’ style photos that include links to projects and some of my favorite aspects of this home. I really do love this “rustic beach cottage” and I truly will miss it.
Upstairs living room
This is the view when you walk in from the front door of the home. I did A LOT to this space. I think it’s definitely my favorite space in the home. As you will see, we have a handful of different living areas.
You can see the tone on tone wall of built ins. It started with a simple DIY birchwood fireplace cover which I eventually replaced with a DIY Raised Electric Fireplace Hearth with Stone. This really elevated this space!
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Tall Floor Lamps from lamps plus
One arduous home project I completed was installing this beautiful white oak hardwood floor. It was a labor of love but oh so beautiful!
Makeshift Home Office with DIY floating table
This Modern Floating office desk has been SOOOOOO functional. I’m sitting here now actually. I will miss this desk. It’s been a great addition to this space.
As a side note; check out my DIY sharpie shiplap on the wall behind the desk. I only ever intended this project to be temporary until I could install the real thing, but it looked so good I decided to leave it! What do you think?
Kitchen area
As you come into the kitchen you will see a few simple DIY’s that made this space more functional. I had someone build a shiplap range hood to fit the vibe of the home better. I think it works well. I also painted the gray tile backsplash white. It brightened the room up immensely.
One of the first things we did when we moved in was to move the fridge from the actual kitchen to the wall across from it. Then I built a DIY beverage bar and eventually built a coffee bar where the fridge used to sit.
The dining room sits on another level right below this space. One of the things I love about this house is the exposed wood door frames!
Dining room
You can see the faux slate wall I installed down in the dining room. This was a fun project. And yes, it’s really faux but looks just like regular slate.
That old chippy blue door has moved with us and moved around the house quite a bit. I think it will stay in this spot and forever be a part of this home (I hope at least).
Mudroom/ Utility Room
I even extended the slate into the mudroom. You can see more of this DIY mudroom space and how I created it here.
Below is what it previously looked like before I removed the wallpaper and added the faux slate.
Downstairs Living Room
Next up is the converted living room! I say converted because it used to be a garage. If you’ve been around the blog for a while you will remember how I replaced those old double doors with this beautiful electric fireplace. This really makes this space cozy!
You can see more of how I installed this hanging chair in a ceiling joist.
I love a good hanging chair. To me it says “come on down and stay a while.”
You can see an old picture when we still had the double doors. They brought in more light but I still prefer the faux electric fireplace.
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I saved the old listing pictures and compared them to our new listing pictures. Ready to see some before and afters?
Also if you look closely through the dining room you can see where we opened up a wall in the dining room to make things flow better.
Master bedroom and bathroom
Let’s move on to the bedrooms. I won’t show you my kids rooms because, well, they are kids rooms and not much to see.
This room has seen a handful of different looks over the years. The most recent was the update with this lovely canopy bed. You can also see how I installed these shiplap panels. Lastly, you can see the first cottage style bedroom makeover shortly after we moved in.
I installed this barn door a few years ago. I think it goes well in this space.
We’ve done a handful of projects in this small space. First, we replaced a single trough style sink with these double sinks.
Next I installed Rustix Wood Wall Boards. Then I stenciled the wall next to the toilet. Too much? Nah, I don’t think so.
I said I wouldn’t show you the kids rooms, but I do want to show you the cute toilet area that I created a few years ago.
That’s all for the main house, moving on…
The Back house
This home comes with a completely separate home which we call the “back house.” We have rented it out previously. It’s a great little additional 1000 sq feet.
The main project I did in here was painting those ugly tile floors! This was a fairly easy and affordable upgrade. If you want to know more about how they have held up, I wrote a two year tile paint follow up post too.
I had intentions to replace that old Formica countertop with maybe a DIY concrete or painted countertop. Alas, another project I just never got to. Other than the floor, I haven’t done any other upgrades in here.
Now let’s go upstairs…
We haven’t done a lot to this space either other than removing carpet and putting down LVP. I did, however, create that cute little twin bed nook with sliding curtains.
You can see how to make those simple floating shelves with brackets here.
Below are some more “Now and Then” pics. The Now pics are on the left.
The Outside Area
We have completed a lot of outdoor projects over the years. These were all a labor of love and took time and money (even though it might not look like much).
In a nutshell, paved the entire round-a-bout, put up window boxes, split the old Bahama shutters to make actual shutters and added pine straw. Nothing huge here.
The backyard is where we put all our energy. We started by extending the back porch to double the size. Then we leveled the backyard and added sod. Then I added a gravel patio around the old grinder pump.
The old platform tree house is starting to look it’s age. It’s been well loved and ready for a new family. Here is a picture of it right after it was built.
Below is a throw back to what our back porch area used to look like.
I also eventually added a DIY Wood Outdoor Privacy Screen to this space.
And those are the highlights of our lovely home. I’m getting sad just typing this.
I can’t wait to share our new journey with you.
Stay tuned…
Update: Come check out our Cozy Craftsman!
