Welcome to our Farmhouse!

established 1890

It’s been 3 years since my first farmhouse tour post… and as many of you know, we’ve made LOTS of changes and updates in the last 3 years!

So today, I’m sharing an updated tour!

First, let’s see some blueprints.

I made these blueprints via FloorPlanner.com — they are not 100% to-scale, but they are close.

MAIN FLOOR:

SECOND FLOOR:

BASEMENT:

Front Entry:

What We’ve Done:

• Power washed, repainted, and decorated the front porch
• Painted the interior of the entryway
• Closed off a wall that led to the kitchen (which now makes the front door open the wrong way)
• Installed a new front door that opens the correct direction — also, new hardware
• Updated the trim around door and base
• Installed hooks and put a bench behind the door for guest’s coats and bags

What We Want to Do:

• Install reclaimed barn wood floor to replace the old, stained tile in the entryway
• Repaint whenever we repaint the living room

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Living Room:

What We’ve Done:

• Repainted
• Widened the opening to the bedroom “wing”
• Knocked out a large opening into the office
• Knocked out a large opening into the dining room/kitchen area
• New trim around all the doorways, windows, and baseboard
• Added a huge wood “wall feature” to hang family photos over the couch
• Installed a new front window
• Added can lighting

What We Want to Do:

• New carpeting
• Possibly hang wainscoting on one or more walls
• Possibly knock down the 2 ft. wall between the living room and front door

See more photos of our living room in this post (although I’ve never actually done a full living room tour post as we still have more to do in this room)

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The Office:

What We’ve Done:

• Closed off the door into the hallway
• Opened up the wall into the living room
• Ripped out the old carpeting and installed reclaimed barn wood floors
• Fixed the sagging ceiling and installed a new light fixture
• Repainted the entire room
• Ripped out built-in desks
• Repainted built-in cabinets
• New closet door
• Turned the closet into a mini kids’ playhouse.
• Painted the French doors and installed new doorknobs
• Installed huge barn beam shelves that run the length of the room (you can see more photos of the shelves here)
• New electrical outlets
• Hung a removable screen door outside the french doors so we can leave the doors open in the summer
• Revamped the closet to store all our puzzles and games.

What We Want to Do:

• Nothing at the moment

See more photos of our office in this post.

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Master Bedroom:

What We’ve Done:

• New doors and windows
• Repainted all the walls and the ceiling
• Ripped up carpeting and installed reclaimed barn wood floors
• New trim around windows, doors, and baseboard
• Ripped out 2 small closets and installed one larger closet.
• New light fixture, new electrical outlets, and a cable hook-up in the closet 🙂
• Fixed a spot in the ceiling where water leaked in a few years ago

What We Want to Do:

• Nothing at this point!

More pictures of how our master bedroom was previously set up.

This post shares how we gave our bedroom a mini makeover just by moving the furniture around!

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Master Bath:

What We’ve Done:

• Completely gutted the entire thing!
• Removed all old plaster, bulkhead, ceiling, floors, etc.
• New plumbing and electrical
• New window and door
• New walls, ceiling, and floors
• New custom double vanity (built by my uncle)
• Tossed the old tub and installed a new walk-in shower (“stolen” space from an extra closet on the other side of the bathroom)
• New reclaimed barn wood floors
• New toilet (and new toilet location to accommodate a larger vanity)
• Widened the door opening and installed a pocket door to replace the very narrow swinging door
• Added a large bank of built-in shelves
• New lights, new fans, new electrical outlets
• Added an in-wall heater (it works on a timer) to make our bathroom toasty warm in the winter

What We Want to Do:

• Nothing at this point!

See more pictures in this post.

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The Nursery:

What We’ve Done:

• New doors and windows
• Removed one closet to make a walk-in shower in the master bath
• Installed wood paneling (painted white) over FOUR layers of wallpaper
• Removed carpet and installed reclaimed barn wood floors
• New trim around doors, windows, base, and crown molding
• New light fixture and electrical outlets

What We Want to Do:

• Nothing at this point!

View all 4 of our Nursery Renovations:

• Nora’s nursery
• Simon’s nursery
• James’ nursery
• Clara’s nursery

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The Hallway

We have a tiny little hallway that connects our bedroom and bathroom with the nursery — it’s one of my favorite places in the house (weird, I know!)

I don’t have any before pictures, but I thought I’d post an after picture here anyway.

Read more about our hallway in this post.

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The Kitchen + Dining Room:

What We’ve Done:

• Completely gutted the entire thing!
• Removed the wall between the kitchen and dining room.
• Removed the wall between the dining room and the living room.
• Added a new wall between the dining room and front entryway
• All new plumbing and electrical
• All new windows and doors
• All new insulation, drywall, wainscoting, paint, etc.
• “New” reclaimed barn wood floors
• New cabinets and appliances
• Huge new island
• New light fixtures and recessed lighting throughout the entire two rooms
• Added about 10 new electrical outlets (there were only 3 total in the entire kitchen and dining room before)

What We Want to Do:

• In the future, we love the idea of doing a built-in bench under the double window in the dining area and then building a custom table to stretch almost the entire length of the room. This would mean removing the red hutch though — so I’m not in a huge hurry to do this!

Read all about our massive 5-month-long kitchen renovation here.

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The 2nd Main Floor Bath:

What We’ve Done:

• Changed the curtains
• Added a chair so we can sit while we wait for our potty-training children to finish going to the bathroom 🙂

What We Want to Do:

• Remove wallpaper and paint in a neutral color with wainscoting 3/4 of the way up the walls
• Remove old shower, sink, and toilet
• New flooring
• New trim around windows, doors, base, and crown molding
• New claw-foot tub with an option for adding a shower down the road
• New sink and toilet
• New light fixtures
• Old fashioned shutters on the windows for privacy (instead of curtains)

Obviously, we haven’t done much to this room yet — so you guys will all get a front-row seat to this project whenever we finally get to work!

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The Laundry Room (now half bath):

What We’ve Done:

• Moved the washer and dryer downstairs (for the time being)
• Completely transformed this space into a super cute half bathroom! 

What We Want to Do:

• nothing!

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The Mudroom:

What We’ve Done:

• The mudroom was a totally new room for us so everything is completely brand new.
• We basically turned a covered porch off the back of our house into a fully enclosed mudroom area!
• Redid the landscaping around the mudroom

What We Want to Do:

• Possibly add lockers to the wall where the black bench is now — whenever we need/want more storage

See the original mudroom before/after post here.

See the updated tour here.

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The Basement:

Since the basement is right off the mudroom, I figured I might as well mention it — even though we don’t plan to do anything down here for several years.

Our basement is not a “nice” basement — but it is nicer than most 127 year old home basements 🙂

What We’ve Done:

• Put new glass block windows in with vents
• Cleaned it up and put 2 storage shelves down there

What We Want to Do:

• Remove all the old barn wood (we plan to sell most of it and use some of it to make stuff
• Waterproof the basement and get rid of the musty smell (hopefully this can be done!)
• The rest will be storage

See the post about our basement here.

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Let’s go upstairs!

The Landing Area:

What We’ve Done:

• New windows
• New trim
• Leveled the floors
• New carpeting
• Removed wallpaper and repainted walls
• Removed spindled banister and added a half wall instead
• New electrical outlets
• Turned it into a fun playroom for a few years
• Morphed it into a sitting area with 2nd-floor changing table

What We Want to Do:

• We hope this room will continue to “morph” as our children get older and eventually see it serving as a study area, a library, a computer center, and more.

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The Boys’ Bedroom:

What We’ve Done:

• Repaired some cracked drywall
• Repainted everything (4 coats of white to cover all that purple!)
• New window and door
• New trim and baseboard
• New electrical outlets
• Removed the closet doors
• Transformed this room for Nora’s first “big girl room”
• Morphed it into a boy-girl shared room for both Nora and Simon
• Transitioned it into a room for Simon and James to share.
• Turned it into a playroom for all the kids to share. 
• Changed it back into the boys’ bedroom! (watch the video tour!)

What We Want to Do:

• Nothing right now.

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Nora’s Bedroom:

What We’ve Done:

• Totally gutted the entire room — all new insulation and drywall
• New windows and doors
• Raised the ceilings by 14″
• Added a 2nd closet
• All new electrical (including extra outlets) and a new HVAC vent
• New light fixtures and ceiling fan
• New carpeting

What We Want to Do:

• Nothing!

This room used to be our guest bedroom.

Then we transitioned it into Simon’s big boy room.

Then it was a playroom. 

Then it was Nora’s bedroom.

Then it was the bedroom all 3 older kids shared.

Now it’s back to just Nora’s room! 

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The Upstairs Bathroom:

What We’ve Done:

• Removed wallpaper
• Painted over the brightly colored fish/ocean theme
• Removed the shower and added a bathtub
• Added additional storage
• New light fixture and larger mirror
• Added towel bars and some storage furniture
• Added a shower curtain

What We Want to Do:

• Completely gut this room and start over with a new layout
• New double vanity
• New floors (hopefully with radiant heat)

We still have big plans for this bathroom, but you can read about all the progress we’ve made in this post.

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Let’s go outside…

Here’s a bird’s eye view of our property so you can get a feel for where our outbuildings are.

The Garage:

What We’ve Done:

• Removed old storage shelves and hooks
• Repainted all the walls, ceiling, and trim
• Installed a new Monkey Bars organizing system
• Had the floor coating professionally done (also by Monkey Bars)
• Repainted doors
• Added a bajillion kids toys, bikes, scooters, etc.!

What We Want to Do:

• New windows as ours are all “fogged” up since water vapor got between the glass at some point
• New garage doors that look more like old-fashioned carriage doors

See our garage before and after photos here.

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The Extra Garage / Outbuilding:

What We’ve Done:

• Put furniture (and some storage junk) inside
• Removed wood burning stove (for insurance purposes)

What We Want to Do:

• We have big ideas for this space — but nothing that will be implemented any time soon
• I know this space is VERY outdated and definitely not my style, but since it’s a nice heated outbuilding, we’re content to simply use it “as is” for several years until we have the cash to renovate it the way we’d like.

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The Sheds:

In the Spring of 2014, we built a small “outhouse looking shed” on the side of our property. It is mainly just for looks — but it is a nice place to store yard tools, kids, toys, yard games, etc.

You can read more about the outhouse shed in this post.

We also built a larger shed in the fall of 2015.

We planted a vegetable garden to the left of the shed.

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Landscaping:

What We’ve Done:

• Had over 20 trees removed and the stumps ground out
• Removed and sold over 600 landscape pavers
• Installed 500+ feet of privacy fencing
• Changed the design of our landscape and planted hundreds of new plants, bushes, and trees
• Removed a huge cement slab from the back yard
• Added a swing set and kid’s play area
• Grew lots of grass
• Built an outhouse garden shed
• Built a storage shed on the back of our driveway
• Removed several trailer loads of landscaping stone and spread over 50 yards of mulch
• Installed a MUCH larger deck off the back of our house
• Planted a vegetable garden
• Finished planting along the East side of our house and fence line

What We Want to Do:

• Relandscape the area by our mail boxes and get new mailboxes
• Add a few nice planting beds in our front yard to break up the huge amounts of grass
• Potentially add a swimming pool

Here are the links to our summer makeovers:

• 2013
• 2014
• 2015
• A complete list of all the plants in our landscape

You can read ALL our landscaping posts here.

OK, I think that’s EVERYTHING… for now!

I Hope You Enjoyed the Tour!