Well, that was a much longer blog hiatus than I intended but what a crazy whirlwind of activity the last month has been. I won’t go into all of the details of the move, because to be honest, that part just isn’t fun… living out of suitcases, hotel hopping, eating out constantly (OK, so that last part was a little fun). I was happy to finally get the keys to our new place on January 4th and put that part of the moving story behind me. Here I am, 2 weeks after closing, and just now introducing our new home to you because we had a little snafu with getting internet service at the house and the tech couldn’t figure it out. After waiting an additional week for a new tech, we finally had service up and running! And man, was I grateful to Chris for signing us up for unlimited data just before Christmas. Today, I am so excited to show you our new home. Welcome to #that60srancher, which is what I’ve dubbed it. If you follow me on instagram, you’ve already caught many peeks at the new pad and what we’ve done in the little time we’ve been here, but today I am going to use all of the listing photos to give you a tour.
I want to extend a huge thank you to our realtor, Melissa Greer, who was amazing throughout the whole process. She was honest and fun, and has fabulous style. She came recommended to me by Rene at Cottage & Vine and I am so grateful for that. And now, let’s talk about this house, shall we? It’s a 1966 rancher with a finished basement, which gives it the 4th bedroom we needed. While the exterior is not my favorite, it is in the neighborhood we wanted to be in and we know we can give it more curb appeal. The neighborhood is full of charming ranches and cape cods; I enjoy my walks and scoping out all of the beautiful homes with their lovely paint colors and updates. Both Sawyer and Emmy have already met friends within walking distance in the neighborhood as well, so we already feel like we made the right choice. We plan to paint every inch of the exterior minus the roof and where you see white. I haven’t settled on a color yet, but there’s time to decide. I am contemplating an earthy gray, or even black… I am just not sure how well black will go over in this particular neighborhood. The shutters will be removed, and the entry area will be painted as well. The roof is black, but it looks lighter in the photo. The windows are newer so the sashes and bars can’t be painted which is why we’ll keep the white trim. Otherwise I would have loved a white house with black trim.
Let’s step inside, shall we!
The home has a small entry, and the floor has been covered with vinyl tile. We hear there is parquet under there and we are hoping to have it restored. The entry has a small coat closet, and opens into the kitchen straight ahead from the door, and to the right of the door it opens to the living room. The living room is a decent size, but we have plans for this space!
That wall to the left next to the chair in the above photo butts up to the kitchen and the dining room. We are hoping (crossing all fingers and toes!) to remove that wall so that the kitchen, dining, and living rooms are one larger open space. We met with one contractor who came recommended to us, and we loved her work. However, she thinks it will be over budget, and hasn’t given me any other options or responded to any of my messages. I get the feeling that she doesn’t want this job, so I am moving on to another contractor who was also recommended to us. I am meeting with him this afternoon and am very hopeful that he will be a good fit. I would prefer to work with someone who gets me, is flexible and offers other budget friendly ideas, and that I don’t have to chase down. On the phone, he seems like a very nice individual, and I am praying he can do what we want within our budget.
Before I show you the kitchen, let me show you the small dining space. Because it’s small and we want it open to the living room, we’d love to build a banquette along the window to maximize the space and flow, and also offer storage within the seat.
As you can see, the dining room is already fairly open to the living room and kitchen, but we want it all to be open. I’d like to be in the kitchen cooking and be able to still be watching a movie or participating in a game with the rest of the family.
The kitchen is going to be the biggest project and I have lofty dreams which I know I will need to tone down a bit.
In photos it doesn’t look too bad, but there are so many things not working… The refrigerator is way too large for this space, so we intend to get a smaller one and put this one in the basement for extra space for important things like beer. The oven is TINY… let’s just say we won’t be hosting Thanksgiving dinner with that oven! The cabinets aren’t terrible but they aren’t painted well, and with changing the oven situation we need to change them anyhow. Additionally, I want open shelving rather than uppers. New countertops are also a must, and I am hoping for quartz and would love quartz slab backsplash but that will be one of the first things to cut for budget purposes. The flooring is that same vinyl tile from the entry, which we hope to replace with wood floors to flow with the living and dining room. Those are the major things that need to happen, but the biggest priority goes to removing the wall pictured below.
The previous owners added a pantry, and it’s really an odd situation where they created a cut out in the wall to have access to a plug for the coffee maker, there’s no pantry lighting and instead there’s a track outside of it… Just a lot of odd things going on. We’re hoping to put an island here instead, but we are open to ideas from the contractor in how we can make it work while staying on a budget. We could also add just lower cabinetry there and have a peninsula that juts out into the dining room a bit and stools there if that works better with the homes’ current infrastructure. I’ve been here for a couple weeks now, and I have come up with many possibilities. No matter what, Chris and I agree that we both really want that wall gone.
Moving down the hall now, let’s head to the bedrooms. The master bedroom is a fairly good size, and the color isn’t bad so it’s staying for now. It’s certainly not a priority.
If you follow me on instagram, you’ll see I’ve already got the master bedroom mostly set up and am pretty happy with it. We need new curtains and hardware, and we just ordered a new platform bed, but it’s coming along!
Off of the master is a master bath, which is small but fine for us.
The hardware in this bathroom is awful, the vanity is cheaply made, and I am grossed out by the towel hook above the toilet. After this picture was taken they framed out the mirror and I think they did it so that they could rest the light fixture on the frame, because that’s the current situation. I plan to update it for now with new lighting, hardware, mirror, towel hooks (in a new location!) and make it a little better. Eventually though, I’d love to have it retiled and replace the vanity. The shower isn’t anything beautiful, but it’s not terrible so we can live with that.
This next bedroom belongs to Emmy.
Her room is a good size and the gray is livable with what she wants, though it reads lavender in person so we’ll be repainting it. Before we moved, Emmy made a plan for what she wanted, and I am helping her bring her vision to reality. Can’t wait to share because it’s turning into such a fun space and my neutral loving heart loves it more than her last bright boho bedroom!
Wilder’s bedroom is the smallest, but he is the smallest person in the house, so it makes sense. 😉
His room has also been mostly set up due to necessity. He was such a trooper during the move, sleeping on a pack n play at different hotels and houses. Thankfully, he stayed happy throughout the entire process. We wanted him to have his crib and some sense of normalcy immediately. That proved to be a smart move because nap time and bedtime have been smoother than caramel since we started sleeping here. I’ve shared a bit of his room on instagram if you’d like to see it.
Emmy and Wilder will share the hall bathroom.
Again, it’s got terrible hardware, a cheap vanity, a weird oversized mirror situation going on, and the flooring isn’t in great shape. We hope to update it one day as well, but at least everything is in working order for them.
Downstairs in the finished basement, there’s a great family space with a fireplace.
We’re in desperate need of storage here so we are currently hunting for cabinets for either side of the fireplace, and naturally, I’d like to paint the fireplace and replace that mantle with something more sleek. The flooring down here is bamboo and looks nice, but we have discovered how easily it scratches. In the back area of this space, we plan to place a table and chairs for games, homework, etc.
Sawyer’s room is down here as well, and he loves having this space all to himself.
While it looks gray here, it reads purple in person so we’ll be repainting his room, but we’ve been working hard to maximize space and storage here. His room is the most colorful in the house, and that’s just how he likes it.
Also in the basement is a great laundry room and storage area. It’s currently full of boxes, decor, miscellaneous items, but it’s going to eventually be a great craft space.
Finally, let me show you the back yard! This yard features a patio that needs a little work, a shed (we lost a garage in the move, so this shed is it for outside storage for now!), and a playhouse we hope to update this summer.
We also hope to add a chicken coop, naturally! We were thrilled to discover chickens are allowed in yards over a certain size in Greensboro, and happily our yard is a pretty good size. It’s not the 1.7 acres we had, but at .4 acres it’s a great amount of space for us to play in and maintain.
Thank you so much for joining me today and checking out our new home! I can’t wait to spend the next years of my life making it ours, tacking DIY projects on a budget, and sharing them here with you. After just a couple weeks, we’re definitely making progress and starting to feel at home. I am looking forward to new memories being created within these walls with my family of 5 and our 2 dogs. Despite all of the craziness and mayhem that moving entails, we are all happy and adjusting. Life is good, my friends.
