Our Home Transformation

We bought our house in suburban Chicago last June. The home was built in 1953 and had one owner for 55 years. When we looked at the house for the first time, we definitely picked up on that right away! But we could look past the dated cosmetics and see ourselves in the house. Our first idea was to take down a wall that separated the kitchen and the living room. We ripped up the carpet in the front room to expose the hardwood floor. Once we took the carpet out, we had to figure out a way to transition from the hardwood in the living room to the kitchen (remember, we just ripped out the wall!). The guy that was doing the floor suggested we put in new hardwood in the kitchen. Well, if we were putting in a new floor, now would be the time to put in new cabinets as well. And on it went...ha, ha. We completed gutted the kitchen and put in all new cabinets and countertops. We are really pleased with the results. Actually, we are so happy with how everything is turning out as we work little by little. We are in love with our little house!

Here's some before and afters for you:

Our kitchen before:

The dining area in the kitchen before:

The kitchen completed gutted:

The kitchen after:

The wall that separated the kitchen and living room:

The wall coming down:

Oh,look! Hardwood floors under the carpet!:

The living room looking into the kitchen:

A little vignette on hall wall below the stairs:

The main floor bath before (there was actually wallpaper on all four walls AND the ceiling! And the toilet and tub were yellow!):

The main floor bath now:

One corner of the basement before:

After:

The other corner of the basement before:

After:

And the last part of the basement that I've set up as a craft area (and what will eventually be our homeschool area):

The upstairs bathroom before (blue fixtures!):

The upstairs bathroom as it is today (still need to strip the wallpaper but it is not easy to get off!):

We have two bedrooms on the main floor. Here's Joel's room (work in progress):


The other room belongs to Jonathan, a college student who lives with us. Here's his room:

We have two good-sized bedrooms upstairs. Samuel has two twin beds and a toddler bed in his room. We are hoping to put both boys in the same room once Joel is out of his crib. We even call the toddler bed "Isaac's bed" - the next name on our list if God gives us more children! Here's that room:


And here's the master bedroom: