10.16.16 | Downing House
8:16:00 PM
we've officially been living in our home for about a year now, and i have before and after pictures but i've never actually put them together. so i decided it was high time to document the changes we've made! the before pictures are mostly from the original listing because we always manage to forget to take before shots haha. keep in mind these listing pictures were done with a wide angle lense, which is very deceiving. the house felt a lot more cramped when we went and saw it!
before: the living/front room. when we bought the house, they had taken the flooring out of the front room and painted the foundation brown. it didn't look bad in pictures, but you could definitely tell it was just painted concrete in person haha.
after: we moved the wall that separated the living/family rooms about a foot and a half into the living room, making it smaller. took out the chair rail, painted, and opened up the archway between the living/family rooms so that it was more open.
before: our family room/kitchen/dining room. chair rail in the family room with two tone paint. brick fireplace with an antique oak mantle and green marble tile surrounding the opening. small archway leading into the living room. ancient brass fan, haha. and the wall that we moved was cutting a foot and a half into the space.
the kitchen had this gross drop ceiling that was super low, and some recessed track lighting in the middle. why this was ever a style, i will never understand! basic oak cabinets in the kitchen, again with the chair rail. and the dining room had a weird/pointless little corner. the only thing updated about the kitchen was the stainless steel appliances and the corian counters and sink. i'm not in love with the corian, but it looks nice enough and it serves its purpose!
after: again, we moved the wall between the living/family rooms a foot and a half into the living room, which opened up the space quite a bit, got rid of the awkward corner in the dining area, and made it flow a lot better. did away with the chair rail and painted. painted the fireplace white and changed out the mantle. replaced the fan and dining light fixture, raised the drop ceiling level with the dining area ceiling and added recessed lights. painted the cabinets white, brought the microwave up so the bottom was the flush with the surrounding cabinets, which staggered the cabinets making them look custom. added crown molding to the cabinets to enhance that fake custom look haha.
the floors are wood tile that we put throughout the house, except in the kids' rooms and office, where we just got new carpet a few months ago. the paint color we did throughout the house, however the back of the house has significantly less natural light, so the walls look purpleish. we're toying with the idea of painting the bedrooms just a plain stark white, we just haven't bit the bullet and done it yet. all the cabinets in the bathrooms and laundry room we painted white, and the master bath shower got a face lift.
things we still need to do: open shelving in the kitchen to the left of the sink, sliding barn door to separate the master bathroom from the bedroom, recessed lighting in the master bathroom, add some shelving to the secondary bedroom closets, maybe raise the ceiling in the hallway, but at the very least put in some recessed lighting. my dream would be to paint/update the outside of our house as well, but we aren't sure how long we'll be living here, and mat is pretty picky about what he lets me do haha. until then, i'm glad i have this to look back on and remember how far we've come!
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