a little before and after

finally...i can show you some pictures of the new house!

i'm sure you all have been holding your breath! ;)

 i say we start with the entry because if you came to visit, this is the first room you'd see. 

so this is what the space looked like when we bought the house at the end of April.

 

 we had parquet flooring, drab carpet and a worn out dated staircase.

 

not too exciting huh? we also had this..

 

a light fixture that could be cute with a little tlc (as i mentioned before) but it was not our style and it was too small for the space. 

 

so we...

had the parquet and carpet removed.

which revealed beautiful red oak treads. we were really excited until we looked at the 7th tread

and noticed it was not red oak but pine.

darn.

 

we tried to save some money by not replacing the treads but the stain on the oak versus the stain on the pine tread was too much of a difference,

so the pine treads had to go.

 

(not the best picture)

the new red oak treads were installed as well as the new oak flooring.

man..this was the "wow" factor.

it was so amazing to see the change in person.

 

not long after, the floors were stained and covered so more work could be done on the house.

 this is when the mess got messier!

it stayed this way for about two weeks.

 

right before we moved in, the walls were painted, the baseboards were installed

and the floors were given their final coats. 

boy did they shine!

this picture above was taken right before we moved in.

as you can see, the handrail was not completed by the time the movers brought our stuff.

honestly, it worked to our advantage when they carried really large items like mattresses and box springs up the stairs.

 

don't mind a little photo bomb from Arden.

here is a side picture of the stairs.

i'm so in love with these darn floors!

 

oh and remember this light...it was replaced with this fixture.

 

everyone who comes to the house, comments on how lovely this light fixture is.

i am so glad we chose this for the entry.

it makes such a difference to the space.

 

the front door got new hardware and will be given a fresh coat of paint some day soon.

just last Friday, they installed the railings and newel post we picked out.

 

in order to replace the existing newel post, they had to remove

the first tread that it was attached to.

 

 and today, the tread, handrails and top of the newel post was stained.

tomorrow, it gets it's second coat.

 

you might remember the post i did on what to stain and what to paint...

well we ended up picking this one.

so the cap of our newel post was stained and the bottom half will get

painted along with the new spindles.

 it's going to be so sharp once it's all done!

and for those that like side by side comparisons...like me..

this is for  you (and for me too)!

 

so there you have it...the first room of our new house. it's not done of course.

 there is

- artwork to hang

 - a small table to purchase

 - window treatments to figure out

- a rug to find

and i am sure some other small things...

but it's the perfect "blank" canvas to work from.

 

Happy Tuesday!

 

obviously, things have changed since these pictures but we are still working on all the rooms and we aren't quite ready to share progress pictures...just yet. maybe in a week or two.