Thursday, November 4, 2010

Final Remodel Pictures: Before and After

I've been wanting to show you the reason why I took such a big blogging break this summer.  Don't panic! The above picture is a before shot of our living room. It looked like this for 15 years, after we remodeled it the first time. I was finally ready for a little class, so I enlisted the help of my very handy man hubby. He taught himself how to do almost all the work on our addition, from laying concrete, exterior stone, wiring, insulating, bead-board, installing a wood floor, carpentry work and dry walling. I know that I kept you all updated on bits and pieces of our remodel, but I thought I would blog the before and after pictures just so you can see what a dramatic difference all our hard work ended up making. Thanks to the Dave Ramsey plan, we were able to enclose our porch and add 75 square feet to our home without going into debt. Doesn't sound like much footage, but I hope you can see what a difference it made in the layout of our home. I'm so proud of my hubby! He tells me I'm banned from looking at any home improvement magazines for a least a year, LOL.
Here is our new living room, complete with gas fireplace and wood floor. We put bead board on the ceiling and trimmed out everything in oak. He had already made me the scrapbook shelf in the corner. We were kind of going for a simplified, modern, yet old, shabby sheik look.

Here, I'm looking into the living room from the extended dining room/office area. I still haven't got our pictures on the walls yet. Michael got this rug for me from Iraq. It has been rolled up on the bed for 5 years. So nice to have a place for it now!

I took this picture standing in my old living room looking at the old door going out to our old porch. This whole wall was knocked out and the door moved to the extreme right of this picture. So glad the carpet is out of here! You can sort of see how tiny the dining room (to the left) was, especially with my file cabinets in the office area.
Not a good picture, but this is the same view. You can see the office is now distinctly separated from the dining room. Love it! Love the wood floor in here as well. We have a nice open "L" shaped floor plan now. Also love how much more light I have coming into the home with an extra window, plus a big window in the door that lets a lot of light in as well. You can see the new door going out to our new enclosed porch to the right of the picture.

This was the dining/room office area before the remodel. It was so small that I couldn't get a good picture of it all together. 

This is how it looks now. Love having wood floors in my dining room instead of carpet. I'm not nearly as finicky as I used to be about the kids making messes with crafts in the dining room. Look at all this space! I'm in heaven!

Here is a picture of our old open porch. Wasted space in my opinion.

This is what our new front entrance looks like. People have said it feels more inviting and warm to enter our home. Awesome, because that was the idea we had in mind!  We didn't have enough siding to cover the new addition, so we had to think outside the box. I thought stacked stone would look nice around the entrance. We didn't stop there, but also added stacked stone around the front and side of the foundation and the inside of the porch area. I also wanted to keep a lot of light coming into the house, so we opted for a glass storm door. We weren't allowed to build a porch off the house because we were too close to the street, so we had to sacrifice a little of our space for this enclosed porch area. I liked the pilasters and crown head that we put around the door. I think they add a touch of class.

This is a view from the glass storm door as you turn to go up the new porch and into the front door. Perfect place for decorating and now I don't worry that all my decorations will blow away. I'm glad we used the stacked stone on the front steps and around the foundation. 

Instead of using drywall, we decided to beadboard the entire porch. Very happy with our decision. I liked all the trim we used in here, too. This is a view from our front door, looking down into the new enclosed porch, glass storm door is to the right. The house is also much warmer now. An added blessing!

Well that is it! I hope you enjoyed the tour of our new addition. I'm so glad I took before and after pictures because I'm stunned by the difference. I can't believe how God has blessed us and made it possible for this to be built. Because we did almost all the work ourselves, we managed to do all of this, plus a pass through in our kitchen for approx. $10,000. If we would have hired a contractor to do the work it would have been at least double that. So proud of my hubby for being willing to learn how to do all this stuff! I think I better wait to ask him to start on the kitchen for a least a year ;o)

Blessings,
Jackie

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's beautiful Jackie! Love the enclosed porch, that will surely keep out some of winter's cold!

Rachel and Family said...

That looks really good Jackie! I spent a bit of time poking around those pictures. It looks spacious yet cozy with the wood floors and and trim up top. I also love the rock at your front door/porch. Great job!! You must feel very satisfied doing it yourself.

Cheesemakin' Mamma said...

Kimberly,
I hardly know the wind is blowing anymore. I stand there and watch the blinds to see if they move and they are not moving! That ought to save us some $$$ in on our gas bill.

Rachel,
It is very satisfying. Can't believe how much money we saved by designing and doing the work ourselves. We would have never been able to do it otherwise. God is good!

Bernice said...

Very Nice!!

Camille said...

OH Jackie...you must be SOOOO pleased!!! What a difference!!! Well done to both you and Michael for all the hard work...it sure has paid off.

I especially like the new dining area and the space you acquired...lovely ~ Beautiful flooring and colour choices as well. :)

Have a great day!

Blessings,
Camille

Catherine said...

I want to live there! It is very beautiful, Jackie. I can see why it took a long time and why it kept you from blogging very much in the summer.

Anonymous said...

How beautiful & creative. I love all that you did! I especially love the Dave Ramsey debt free part. That is something that can REALLY be appreciated because I'm sure you enjoy it ten times more since you have it all paid for. Beautiful job! Thanks for the tour. I loved it.:)

Deborah Ann said...

Wow, you guys did an excellent job! This is the kind of stuff you see on TV. You both deserve a big pat on the back!

RaD said...

Uh... Hey, Jackie, that glass door is on the right. Should I be worried you are homeschooling your children? ;0) Kidding, of course.

Your new addition looks so fabulous!

Cheesemakin' Mamma said...

Ruth,
Oops! I've always always had problems with my right and left. I don't ever say what I mean ;) Thanks for catching that. I just fixed it.

Anonymous said...

It looks fab! Great work! Yes, we also live by a modified Ramsey plan, so I still don't have a kitchen remodel. Ummm, one of these days.... :) dh said we're going to be forced to do it b/c the kitchen will fall in on itself. Ha! Note to the wise with kids: DO NOT put slate in a kitchen. It was not my doing, but it will be my undoing! :)

Sarah said...

It look simply beautiful Jackie! You are so right to be very proud of your handy man Hubby!

I love the stone work around the new front door...it does look very inviting and cosy!

Well Done...What a great job!

Robin said...

Beautiful!!

One day I'll say byebye to my nasty carpet. *dreamy sigh*

OurLilFullFam said...

Wow - that is awesome Jackie!! What a neat idea to have a covered porch!

Everything is beautiful and just stunning work, what a great job your husband did!

Stephanie

His bondservant said...

Jackie,

All I can say if WOW! It is beautiful. Well worth the wait!
Blessings,
Jackie

ryanjess said...

Lots of hard work Jackie, enjoy the new changes! One design tip since you asked for my opinion...think about angling the rug to open up the space a bit and for an unexpected touch. It's so beautiful and pulls together the space very well!

Cheesemakin' Mamma said...

Thanks so much for the design tip, Jessica! I'll definitely try angling the rug. Never thought of that. Hope you guys are having a wonderful fall. Blessings, Jackie

Stagnes said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Your home looks fantastic! Everything fell on the right place just like your entrance. It really adds an inviting appeal to your home. Also for the siding, it's a smart move to use stacked stone on the entrance. It gave the exterior a more exciting element to it.

Allyson @ DnMRoofing.net

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