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 barnwood 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 door ways, 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 old carpeting and installed reclaimed barnwood 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 door knobs
• 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 barnwood 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 barnwood 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 walk-in shower in the master bath
• Installed wood paneling (painted white) over FOUR layers of wallpaper
• Removed carpet and installed reclaimed barnwood 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 on 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 living room.
• Added a new wall between the dining room and front entry way
• All new plumbing and electrical
• All new windows and doors
• All new insulation, drywall, wainscoting, paint, etc.
• “New” reclaimed barnwood 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:

What We’ve Done:

• Laundry!
• Added an electrical outlet

What We Want to Do:

• Remove wallpaper
• New flooring
• New trim and baseboard
• Unstack washer and dryer and put a counter over the top of the units
• Install cabinets above washer and dryer and around the corner over existing counter (in that wasted space)
• Hang ironing board and iron on the wall somewhere
• New light fixture.

This is another room we haven’t touched since we’ve moved in (we’ve had too many bigger projects to tackle). But don’t worry, we have big plans for this tiny room… eventually 🙂

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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.

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.

Now it serves as Nora’s new bedroom (with a loft bed!)

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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

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!