It's been a while and I found myself itching to post something today. The house is still far from finished (and I'll go into more detail on all the work being done in other posts) but our contractors are finally gone (until the next job...) and we're finally able to start enjoying our new home.
In our last house, we had the luxury of doing a lot of the work ourselves. Corey actually spent most nights and weekends working on the house while I clocked extra hours at work. This time around, we have a rambunctious toddler and Corey needs his evenings and weekends to devote to her. Instead of allowing the renovations to take forever, we decided early on to hire contractors to help us with the work. It's been great in some ways but it's very invasive living with people constantly working in your home. It's actually been a really tough and stressful month and things have felt a bit strained but we're taking a break between big projects and it's a treat to be able to hang out and relax at home.
Those of you who follow me on Instagram, have probably already noticed the house coming together. I don't think any of the rooms are finished yet but I'm excited to share the progress we've made on our family room.
In our old house, our family room/playroom is probably where we spent most of our time. It's funny because I think it was the last room that we finished and it took us ages to even realize that it was going to be a family room. For the first couple of years in the house, we had no idea how to use the space but once we figured it out, it was hard to imagine how we'd ever lived without it!
When we first saw this house, I was excited to find the potential to have another main floor family room! We knew this time around it would be one of the first rooms we worked on. Of course, we never choose the easy path and, if you notice in the floor plan below, our family room was actually two rooms separated by a wall and with two sinks and a bunch of built-in cabinets because the former owner was a denturist.
We had our contractors tear out the cabinetry and walls and replace the floor before painting. While we loved our old toy storage system, we wanted a cleaner look for our new house.
Before I post the photos I want to reiterate that this is not the finished room. We still have sooo many ideas from alphabet wall decals and art to another climbing wall and I'm really excited to continue working on this space. At the same time, I don't want to wait for months to share so here's a look at our family room as it is today, in all its half-finished glory!
We bought a sectional, which converts to a Queen bed to allow the room to do double duty as a guest room. We ordered it ages ago but it just arrived today and I already love it! Corey's always wanted a sectional but we were aware of the small size of the room. Oversized furniture that overwhelms a small space is one of my pet peeves, so we kept the dimensions apartment-size. I know some of you are going to think we're crazy opting for such a light fabric but we're not big eaters in the family room and the fabric comes with a really good stain warranty!
We prefer to have our TV in the family room rather than the living room. We added extra storage units above and below. The unit below is filled with toys and puzzles and Rudy is so excited about it. I'll show off how we organized it in another post!
A tall Ikea unit provides even more space for toy storage on the bottom, books in the middle and toddler art supplies up high and out of Rudy's easy reach!
We love Rudy's new play table and so does she. It's a great place to colour or work on puzzles or blocks and we went ahead and got lots of chairs for future playdates. Keeping it pushed against the window leaves plenty of floor space for dancing, twirling and general fun!
... Or building towers with daddy!
I look forward to sharing more as we continue to make progress!
