More home updates

January 21, 2021January 18, 2021 ~ jen ~ 1 Comment

Since the first home update pictures, we finally had our kitchen and bathroom cabinets refaced. This means the cabinet boxes are the same, but we got new doors, drawers and hardware. This is a much cheaper option than replacing the cabinets and we were able to keep the existing countertops and backsplashes. We love how they turned out, especially that the drawers roll smoothly, we have roller drawers in the kitchen and they are soft closing drawers. The new cabinets and drawers definitely make us feel like we traveled from 1980 to the present day.

We also (thanks to the stimulus) put artificial grass in the backyard! The yard had some nice landscaping with rocks, lots of bushes and trees which now are very tall and mature. The turf company guided us to remove some of the very overgrown bushes to open up the yard more and we are so happy with their work and the new space we have! The backyard has areas that are always shaded which made it difficult to revive the grass and dead patches. Our new yard feels so much more open and fresh!

Welcome home

November 3, 2020 ~ jen ~ 1 Comment

It’s been one month since we moved into our forever home! We are really loving our little rambler in the canyon. It’s so quiet and peaceful, especially compared to our rental the last 4 years which had a major city road behind it. Now, instead of hearing a constant flow of traffic or motorcycles roaring up the hill at 3 am we hear birds, wind blowing through the huge pine and redwood trees surrounding our home or silence. We love the natural light and single story – no more stairs! This is our 10th home or apartment we’ve lived in together since getting married and we are so happy to finally find a city and home where we want to spend the rest of our days.

Our home was built in 1978 so there were some updates previously done (like new windows) but some things we’ve contracted out to do like removing popcorn ceilings! We also got new interior doors on half the house, new carpet, painted the insides of all the cabinets which were dark brown and this week we are getting our kitchen and bathroom cabinets refaced and they will be white! It’s amazing what a can of white paint can do, not only to brighten our kitchen but the previous all green bathroom, bold accent walls in colors I’d never choose, and a bedroom that was floor to ceiling covered with wall paper. Another thing we’ve really been excited about is getting our garage interior painted and epoxied (the floor). It feels like a much cleaner space than the previous gross floor and walls that were just dry wall. Here are some pictures of the house so far, including our half unpacked kitchen. We didn’t want to unpack everything since we knew the cabinets were going to be refinished so we’ve been half using stuff in boxes still. Lots of work has gone into this house to make it ours and lots to come!

a few before and afters and then just random pictures of our lovely little home:

Here’s our dark kitchen that will look so much brighter and modern hopefully by next week!

How to update an older home on a small budget

August 10, 2016August 20, 2016 ~ jen ~ Leave a comment

Our first (town) home in Utah we bought while it was being built so we were able to pick the interior features – floors, carpet, colors, cabinets, counter tops, tile, etc. We loved that home, however we love to travel and see new places and wanted a home just a little bigger with a backyard for our kids and dog.

Our home here is Austin was built in the 90s and has a few updates like the floors, kitchen and master bathroom. Moving is fun but also usually more expensive than you anticipate. For example, the previous owners had cat door on the door between the garage and the interior of the home, which isn’t a big deal for us but the inspection said it’s actually a fire hazard so one more thing to update! Here are a few things we’ve found to update an older home on a very small budget:

paint – a fresh coat of paint can go a LONG way! We re-painted almost every room in the house and the garage (which was yellow and blue, looked like IKEA ha, ha). We used the Behr brand paint from Home Depot.
cabinet hardware – we added drawer pulls from Amazon that weren’t too expensive (other good options were from Home Depot and Anthropologie)
new window treatments – I love natural light so we just replaced the brown curtains with white ones (from Target)
update outlet and light switch plate covers – we like these white ones from Amazon to replace the previous brown and/or metal ones

Updates we want to do in the future:

replace older light fixtures
new exterior doors
matching doorknobs – why did the previous owner have so many mismatching doorknobs?! We’ll never know ha, ha…
epoxy the garage – we have this epoxy kit from Amazon but have to finish clearing out the garage before using it.

Other ideas for updating an older home:

new light fixtures
add a large mirror – the reflective light can often brighten a space or make it appear larger
update faucets
re-paint cabinets
replace floors or old carpet (I love wood, laminate and tile that looks like wood)
update counter tops (I love granite and marble)

Our home has been a labor of love, but we appreciate it and the new city we live in!

home decor inspiration: white walls

June 8, 2016July 16, 2016 ~ jen ~ Leave a comment

Moving to a new home and city is exciting, exhausting and usually hectic. Since we’ve been married almost 10 years ago, we’ve moved 10 times! For the last 3 years, we’ve been living in Utah (where my husband is from and where we both went to college) and just moved last week to Austin, Texas after he accepted a new job.

One of my favorite parts of moving is decorating a new space. We built our previous town home in Utah and picked gray walls with white trim which I absolutely loved. For our new home here, we’ve decided to do all white walls. Some inspiration of images I love (via Pinterest):

home1 home2 home3 home4 home5