This April will be 5 years in our home and I’m not sure if it feels like a lifetime or we just moved in. We’ve certainly put a lot of work into the house over the years, but it’s been the expensive, behind the walls type of work. The big stuff that no one is excited about kind of work. Recently, the previous owner stopped by to see if we had made any changes to the house and when she said it looked pretty much the same, I wanted to die. Granted, she didn’t live in the house for years when we purchased the home and had no idea the state it was in.. but still, it was like a stake through my heart. We’ve cut down trees, got a new roof, fixed radon, changed out piping, got a new HVAC, new boiler.. all the stuff no one sees or cares about. So although it stung when she said that, I just kinda shrugged my shoulders and chose not to enlighten her. But anyway, nearly 5 years here and we’re finally approaching the fun projects. The noticeable ones. We have a pretty big home renovation this year that probably won’t be finished until the very end of 2024. Between that, and doing our own updates in a few of the rooms, I expect the house will look completely different for 2025. I love our house, but I also love practical and efficient use of space. Our house lacks that. We have a pretty large house, but weirdly, not a lot of privacy. A lot of square footage, but no areas for storage. And the kitchen is incredibly cramped compared to the rest of the overly spacious rooms. This year we hope to fix the majority of that by carving out purposeful spaces, plenty of storage options, and actually relocating some rooms. It’s going to be a big year for this house and we’re super stoked about it.

New Playroom

First up is the playroom. We’ll be completely relocating this room. Our house has undergone a few additions through its history, but the original farmhouse from 1800 remains at the heart of our home with a lower level room and an upper level room connected by a spiral staircase. The downstairs room has become our temporary junk room since it’s kind of tucked away, while Izzy’s bedroom occupies the upstairs room. We’ll be moving Maggie in there with her in the coming months though and that will become their shared bedroom. Downstairs, will become the playroom. We currently have the staircase blocked off in the bedroom, but once we don’t have to worry about them on the stairs, it’ll be nice for the girls to have direct access to the playroom right under their room. Also, since this is the old part of the house, the floor/ceiling isn’t drywalled so you can hear anything happening above or below very easily. We had initially had a little lounge/library/bar room downstairs, but quickly realized we couldn’t go in there when Izzy was sleeping. By putting the playroom under them, we utilize the space without having to sacrifice any conveniences.

The future playroom is a very frustrating space to work with. There’s two closets taking up corners, a weird angled wall that jets out like a triangle (we think it had to be a fireplace at one time), three entrance doors, and two sets of stairs that come into the room (one being the spiral staircase and the other being two horizontally long steps leading to the original farmhouse exterior door that we do not use). If the room was a shape it would be whatever has 15 sides. No lie. I was stumped with what to do for awhile, but decided to add some built ins for toy storage and possibly build a little stage over the long two steps to utilize the space. We’ll add some fresh paint, a dress up wall and probably keep the rest simple. I want the space to be able to grow with them overtime and be able to make little changes instead of a full redo when they’ve outgrown it.

Built In Bunk Beds for the Girls

Maggie will be joining Izzy’s room in the coming months and I would love for them to have built in bunk beds. I don’t plan on necessarily using them right away for both girls.. Maggie is still in her crib and will transition to her own twin bed while night potty training before starting in the bunk beds. But I do love the idea of having them already built and ready for them. Izzy willl be 4 this year and although it’s still early, I think it’ll be nice having an extra bed for any sleepovers that may start happening. Obviously not a pressing project, but it is one I would like to do this year. We’ll be going with a standard stacked twin bunk with steps instead of a ladder and spindles placed from bed to ceiling around the top bunk so there’s no chance of accidents. I promise it won’t look like a cage, lol. I plan to take a classic approach with style so like the playroom, it can grow with them and not feel too childish down the road. And if they decide they want their own rooms in the future, I would like to use the bunk beds for a guest room anyway.

After Vine Removal, Sanding Residue, Patching Cracks, Repairing Stucco, Repainting Exterior & Changing Trim/Windows From Red to Black

Paint House Exterior

If you’ve been following along on Instagram for awhile, you know this has been an ongoing project. In an effort to save our house from excessive moisture (and insects) we ripped down all of our beloved ivy, climbing hydrangeas, and wisteria. With that, we needed to sand the vine residue and repair some of the stucco that was underneath. From there, we repainted the exterior and changed the trim/window/door color from red to black. We probably have about 2/3 of the house done, and luckily, we have the most challenging wall completed, so there’s that. Sadly, for practicality sake, we won’t be finishing the entire exterior this year. The largest wall we have yet to paint will be getting a couple new windows during our big reno.. so it doesn’t make sense to make it pretty if we’ll most likely just have to do it all over again. I do hope to complete everything minus that wall by fall though. As we make our way around the house we’ll be changing out the gutters for black as well. So by the time we’re finished, the entire house will only be green and black instead of green, brown, and red.

Master Bedroom with New Master Bath and New Main Joint Closet

Master Bathroom

Adding a master bath has been on the “one day” list since we moved in. Off the master bedroom there’s already a framed out room that I believe the previous owners had planned to do a master bath as well. In it’s current state, it’s a giant cedar closet with zero windows. It’s actually been perfect for storage, but more importantly, little Maggie has become quite comfortable in there. It sounds terrible and we joke that it’s her Harry Potter closet, but in all seriousness, it’s been amazing for a baby space. It’s dark and quiet and couldn’t be closer to our bedroom. Her crib, dresser, bookcase, and reading chair all fit in there with room to spare. We plan to move Mags out and into Izzy’s room in the coming months and then our bathroom Reno should be starting in June. Our bedroom currently has two closets.. one that you walk through to get to the cedar closet (Maggie’s dark cave), and another on the other side of the room that connects to an entrance into Izzy’s room. For the future bath, we’ll be using the cedar closet and adjacent closet. We’ll then transform the second closet into our main joint closet by reconfiguring the layout. The bathroom will be getting two windows put in, feature a 6.5x3.5 shower stall, 6 ft tub, 6 ft vanity, and a privacy wall next to the toilet.

New Kitchen Location off Patio With Walk In Pantry & Pocket Bathroom

New Kitchen with Pocket Bathroom

Initially we had planned to do the master bath first and change the kitchen in the future.. But with both rooms essentially stacked on top of each other, it made sense to do everything at once. Currently, our kitchen is located right off the driveway. The main door we use to enter the house (the side door) even opens into the kitchen. It’s convenient and it’s not. It’s typically a giant mess, everything gets through down on the counters and the shoes/coats/bags are all over the floor. Ben put it perfectly when he said that out current kitchen is a mudroom, office, and kitchen all in one. I think that’s normal for most homes, but it’s a little extreme over here. We plan to move the kitchen to the farthest side of the house to occupy a much bigger space and be right off the patio. Even though it’ll be further from the driveway for taking groceries in and such, it’ll give us direct access to the patio for grilling and hosting, and the room already has a giant closet attached that will act as our kitchen pantry and storage. Additionally, we will be able to fit a dining table into the new kitchen, which I absolutely love. We currently sit around our counter, which again, usually has piles of stuff and random things on it. We do have a dining table in our sunroom that we love to use, but it’s not something we use for every meal. For starters, it’s not right off the kitchen.. but also, since it’s in the sunroom it gets super sunny during the day, hot in summer, and cold in winter. So we wanted to make sure we had a reliable, designated space for our meals. The kitchen will have an 8 burner stove with double oven placed on an angle against our current fireplace, a large 3 ft sink located in an “L” shaped island, and a tiny hall that leads to a pocket bathroom and big walk in pantry.

Current Kitchen Transforms into Mudroom/Storage Room/Office

Old Kitchen

The kitchen and master bath are our major projects this year, but I have to admit, I’m ecstatic for the old kitchen transformation. We’re planning on dividing the space into three areas/rooms. Through the side door, which we currently use as our main entrance into the house, will be our new mudroom. We’re doing built in benches, cubbies and hooks so everything can stay organized and the kids can have their own areas for their shoes, coats, and bags. Off the mudroom will be a giant storage room, which I am so excited about. The two places in our house that we’re currently storing things are in our soon to be playroom and soon to be kitchen pantry. So we’ll need a place for everything and having a designated storage room will be huge. I believe the plans have the room measured at 7’ by 7’ and will be lined with shelves for storage totes, the Christmas tree, and random odds and ends. On the one side of the room there will be space for our bikes as well and the kid’s outdoor toys. Considering we don’t have a garage, this is huge. The last area included in our plans is a little pocket office. It’s about a foot longer than the storage closet and will be set up with a simple desk and filing system. No more papers and piles everywhere.