Saying Goodbye - Final House Tour

Hello friends! 

Thank you all for your wonderful support since announcing our decision to sell, and take on the wild beast that is today's housing market. I'm happy to announce that we DID indeed find a new house, and as of today I already have 13 Pinterest boards dedicated to its design. 

Don't judge. Focusing on the new space is helping me coup with the emotions of leaving this one. And there are PLENTY of emotions. I've been diving deep into the pics from when we first bought the place and comparing them to how our home currently looks all spick and span for the showings. Honestly, it's been insanely satisfying. We've done SO MUCH over the past seven years it really is impressive, even to me and I lived it! 

So to celebrate this next chapter of our lives, I'd like to present one final house tour (check out our first-ever tour here!). Stuffed full of links to past posts, products, and sources to all my favorite thingamabobs and whatnots. I've also been posting these transformational Before and After pics on Instagram, so if you haven't already been following our journey there, just keep scrolling for a photo explosion! Let's begin!

Starting outside, our biggest and most recent update was removing the large burning bushes planted in front of the porch. I always felt like they looked too bulky, so when they randomly all died this past Summer (no I had nothing to do with it) Eric ripped them out and we replaced them with low flowering plants and two small trees flanking the stairs. I immediately loved how open and inviting it made our house look. 

Other changes included updating the house numbers, painting our mailbox and hanging light black, as well as painting the front door a spunky orange. 

Moving inside to our foyer and stairs, one of my top five favorite moments of the whole house. I've gushed at length about our gallery wall, and looking back at how much it's grown is crazy fun. Our banister, along with the stair runner, is another reason this space took on such a transformation. I don't think the black and white look will ever go out of style. 

We used Bristlecone by Olympic on the walls and Simply White on all of the trim. One of my other favorite projects (you're going to hear me say that a lot in this post) although not pictured, is our yellow upcycled chandelier. What began as a basic thrift score, ended up being the perfect pop of color our entrance needed. 

To the left of the foyer is our living room. We used Gadget Grey by Dutch Boy on the walls and luckily didn't have to paint the window trim because it was already white. We did have to tackle the doorway trim and baseboards though. In the end, it was completely worth it to sit on the couch and see only white...instead of the three different trim finishes we had before. 

coffee table / rug / clock / vases (similar) / frames (similar) / floor lamp

Through the living room, you will find the dining room. We took the same Gadget Grey and used it on the top portion of this space, but painted the bottom Palladian Blue by Benjamin Moore. The china cabinet was a Craigslist score, as was the mirrored table, and the chairs...which took about six years to actually complete.

This room has the best light in the house, which is why it's also been dubbed "the jungle" since my pathos vine seems to have completely taken over. That's one of the characteristics I think I'm going to miss the most, the tall gorgeous windows. I also adore how the green from the plants and blue from the walls look with this bold red rug (similar), as well as the contrast between the white chairs and deep wood from the table.

The last room on the first floor is the kitchen. We painted the cabinets, the walls (Kensington Green by BM), made curtains for the windows, and refinished the floors. We also replaced the appliances, covered the fan boob light with a shade, and more recently I swapped the fabric on the barstools for the 2nd time. Through the door to the left of the back door is the mini awkward bathroom...which until yesterday also held our makeshift pantry. 

We spend a LOT of time in the kitchen, so what I'm looking forward to most in the new house (besides a pantry that ISN'T also a shower) is counter space!!! It's going to be SO GOOD! 

OK! First floor done! Heading up the stairs to the second floor you'll find our master bedroom. I can't stand bedroom furniture suites, everything too matchy matchy drives me nuts, so the furniture is a mix of IKEA, random pillows and blankets, plus Craigslist finds. We also updated the ceiling fan, and one of my favorite projects (not pictured, unfortunately) is my jewelry organizer made from an old crib mattress spring frame.

Across from the bedroom is our office. For the longest time, it stood as our "catch-all" space, but we finally kicked it into gear and cleared it out to create an area we actually use. It was amazing during my time working from home while in quarantine, so an office in the new house will be a must. To keep your eye from focusing on the sloped ceiling, we painted everything white except for the full wall and also hung shelves. I broke down our process for making the desks in this post, that beauty of a rug is from Rugs USA, and the bookshelves (there are 2 matchings) came from IKEA. 

The last full room upstairs is Harrison's bedroom. I had a complete blast decorating his nursery, from the random thrift and antique store finds to the handmade sign above the bed, there are personal touches everywhere. Again, collecting pieces gradually like pillows and furniture from a variety of places beats a generic matching set every time.   

Our bathroom is at the end of the hallway, and I'm proud to say I did the majority of the painting myself in this room. The mirror came with the house so I just gave it a quick coat of purple, crafted a simple curtain from fabric and 2 tension rods, and more recently swapped the curvy dated light globes to a sleeker model. 

Phew. Inside COMPLETE! Let's head to the great outdoors! 

Biggest improvement? Um YES! Hands down yes. A million times YES. We had THE BEST time planning our outdoor oasis. Eric and his dad built the pergola themselves, we had the concrete poured and stamped, and then Eric built the flowerbeds. The hand-painted party table is still one of my obsessions, and you better believe it was put to use when we had the grand reveal.  

adirondack chairs (similar) / furniture (similar) / table chairs / tiki torches (similar) 

The building at the back of our yard is the recreational space, aka Man Cave. If you haven't noticed by now, we don't have a garage. So this became where we did a lot of the projects that involved extensive painting and drying, assembly, or anything that needed to be stored and didn't fit inside the house. It really was the selling factor when we originally walked through the house all those years ago. And although I hate the term "man cave"...it is super sweet. 

I can't even begin to link everything that's in this space. A lot of Craigslist, garage sales, and antique mall trips helped deck out this space. The lights we found at Open Box Outlet and they were an incredible deal, and the barstools came from Bargains and Buyouts. If you've never been to either of those places, do yourself a favor and head down there this weekend. Crazy fun. 

Everyone still with me? Good! Because we're finished! 

Congratulations! You made it through our final, and probably most detailed, house tour!!! I hope you enjoyed this little peek into our home as much as we enjoyed living in and making it our own. SO MUCH LOVE went into each and every room. As we were searching for our next house, finding something that wasn't too finished was important. We really wanted a space we could put our own unique stamp on. Lucky for us the new place is literally a blank canvas! It's currently so boring, which is awesome, and I am ITCHING to start designing each room and start sharing my ideas with you all. 

Until then, I'm going to leave you with a slew of oh-so-satisfying before and afters. Enjoy! 

Check out all of our home improvements, by visiting the OUR NEST page.

Bringing New Life to Old Floors

Hello dear friends! 

Things have been busy at the Wellman house. What's new you ask? Well for starters, we've made the decision to SELL! 

Yes, you heard that right. Our adorable little home you've watched us paint, spackle, strip, and stain for the past seven years is going on the market. How does this make me feel? To be honest...ALL OF THE EMOTIONS! 

For real. We have put so much love into every inch of this place, the idea of packing up and leaving it behind makes me want to cry a little. On the other hand, Harrison has become a pro at circling the four main rooms that make up the first floor and could really use a bit more space to roam. We always knew that this would be our "starter home", and didn't plan to live here much past the first kid. Time has come to move on. 

It really is perfect for a young couple who want to take that first step to own property, it's big enough, but not too big, has a beautiful yard and is in a very central location with easy access to both I-75 and I-71 (can you tell I've been working on my sales pitch?). 

Since making this bold choice to move into "phase 2" of homeownership, we made a shortlist of things to tackle before selling. First on that list? Refinish the floors. 

Ever since our first walkthrough, the mismatched foyer and kitchen tiles have bugged me. They're close...but not close enough. Since it wasn't an urgent issue, we pretty much just lived with it. But no more! After some investigation, Eric concluded that under those sticky tiles were original hardwoods. Let's bring 'em out and let them LIVE!!! 

A bit of elbow grease, a long nap from Harrison, the help from two FANTASTIC friends, and voila! We have wooden floors! 

The foyer was simply a click together vinyl and only took about 30 minutes to pull up. We could tell it had been finished at some point in time, but the kitchen was a different story. Three layers of linoleum (yes. THREE), one subfloor, and a GAZILLION STAPLES were attached to this poor poor original flooring. 

Bit by bit Eric removed the staples, while I followed closely behind, broom in hand. Something about having rouge staples hanging around with a 1-year-old in the house didn't sound wise to me. 

Because of the incredible scope of this project, we decided to hire the professionals. We did NOT want to try and tackle this DIY style. Since the whole refinishing process would take about four days to complete, we packed up and planned to head to our parent's house for the week. Before leaving though, we had to decide on a stain color. A couple employees from the flooring company swung by the house and laid out our options. 

I wanted something dark, but not too dark, and also not too warm. Out of the four choices we were given (#1 being the lightest, #4 the darkest) #3 spoke to me. 

So after taking down all our fun decor and packing everything we wanted out of the way into the living room, we took one last look, kissed our old floors goodbye, and hit the road. 

One week later, we returned home to beautiful original hardwood floors brought back to their former glory! 

SO PRETTY!!!! 

I couldn't wait to snap photos and Harrison couldn't wait to explore. And as much as I love tackling a good DIY, there's something magical about walking out the door knowing everything will be complete by the time you get back. 

Can you believe these stunners were hiding under that horrible tile all these years????? I adore how much more warmth there seems to be in our home now. Especially in the kitchen, the contrast between the floors and white cabinets makes me absolutely giddy. 

Excuse the mess, things are still in a bit of disarray. 

BUT OMG just LOOK at these before and afters! 

I can't stop looking at them! With all of our projects, I've always prided ourselves on staying true to the character of our old home. The trim is big and bulky, the ceilings are high, and the floors are now absolutely glowing. 

Makes me almost want to ditch the idea of moving and stay here for another seven years...*trips over Harrison's toys taking over the living room*...almost. 

Check out all of our home improvements and decor, by visiting the OUR NEST page.