One Year and Some BIG Changes!

Last week we celebrated ONE YEAR since we closed on our very first home!! We seriously can’t believe that we have now lived in this house for an entire year- our time here in Florida is flying by.

When we moved in, this house was really in very good shape. It was only a couple of years old, so, if you asked my husband, there wasn’t much that needed to be replaced or changed, however I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a paint brush and start making the changes I envisioned as soon as we walked in here to tour the home our very first time.

Over the last year we have slowly but surely made changes to each and every room: some paint here and there, shelves hung, new furniture, etc. I’m so lucky that the hubby has let me take full reign on the design of our home and has so graciously taken on each and every little project I ask him to help me with.

After one year however, we both can agree that with all the changes made, this house finally truly feels like home. One thing that we’ve recently noticed since we’ve been here is that this is the first place of ours we’ve actually referred to as “home”. We have moved so often in the last couple of years and have always rented tiny little apartments; since being here we realized those places were never referred to as “home”, just “the apartment.” This is now the very first place of ours that feels right, feels like ours, and we love each and every part of this home.

I posted about this home when we first moved in and it’s so funny to see the changes and what a difference a year makes! Check out the before and afters and see all the little details that have made this home so special to us. (Keep in mind, a lot of these Before images were literally days after we moved in, so nothing was set up, and most of our things were just put wherever we had space)

LIVING ROOM BEFORE:

LIVING ROOM AFTER:

Though it may not look like it in these pictures, we’ve actually painted our entire main living space. There’s a VERY long story behind this process, which I hate to tell- mainly because it’s because of my impulsivity and bad paint choices. However, we finally settled on a color that was just a little different than the original. When we moved in, the entire house was painted a builders grade tan. It was not a pretty tan in my opinion, it was too “gold” if that makes sense. The new color we’ve chosen in called Natural Tan, by Sherwin Williams. It’s the PERFECT balance of a gray and tan. In some light it looks more gray, and then in other light it looks tan. It is exactly what I was looking for.

Our couch is a 3 Piece sectional from Havertys. I knew as soon as we moved in that this space was PERFECT for an L-shaped couch. Once we went to the store we found this one that had the larger “cuddler” on the end of it and I fell in love. We are able to fit at least 6-8 people on this couch comfortably so it’s great when we have tons of people over for parties or family visiting.

Check out some of my favorite details in our living room area:

I am ALL about boxwood plants, lavender, and eucalyptus. Our home is filled with faux plants (as I can’t keep anything alive), and you will see tiny touches of these all throughout the rooms. This wreath hangs on our front door.

This sign is the first thing you see as you walk in our home

These blue glass jars were given to us by Conor’s Mom. They originally belonged to Conor’s Grandmother and Grandfather, they then were in Conor’s parents home for a while, and they now belong to us 🙂 We have touches of blue all throughout our home so Conor’s Mom knew they’d look perfect here

This picture hangs above our couch. It will always be one of my favorite pieces ( I wrote about it in my original post when we bought the home). It was an engagement gift given to us by my parents- a hand painted Katherine Monstream picture of the exact spot we got engaged.

One of the coolest gifts given to us for our wedding! From my Maid of Honor, Hannah- a Yankee Candle with our picture and wedding hashtag on it. I’ve never seen something like this before! We decided we will light it each year on our anniversary 🙂

THE KITCHEN BEFORE:

THE KITCHEN AFTER:

Now, this kitchen… is where all the blood, sweat, and tears came into play. This was the very first change I made to the house- so obviously I decided to do the biggest project imaginable first….? UGH!

I have ALWAYS dreamed of white kitchen cabinets. The cabinets before were very nice, as was the back splash and countertops, however they just weren’t my style or what I dreamed of for this home. So I did hours of research on painting cabinets- the best primers, paints, brushes, techniques, everything! I knew that if I was going to take on this project I wanted to do it ONCE and do it right! In the end, I’m so incredibly happy with how they turned out and to have my dream cabinets. These pictures don’t do them justice- unfortunately in these photos the cabinets look a little more BRIGHT white than they actually are.

While waiting for a coat of the cabinets to dry one day, I decided to just wing it and paint the backsplash too. I figured… Conor’s gone at work until late, it can’t be THAT expensive to fix if I really just hate it, and I have nothing to lose because this brown tiled backsplash now doesn’t match my cabinets at all! So… I went for it, and LOVED it.

If we had the money, we both agree we’d change the countertops. They’re not real granite or stone which Conor doesn’t like, and I just don’t like that they don’t match our now white cabinets and backsplash all that well. But we have TONS of counter space now, so that would most definitely be a costly project… so we will see, maybe in the future.

Check out some of my favorite details of our new kitchen:

I LOVE these shelves, and they fit into this space so perfectly! I knew I wanted some open shelving in our kitchen, especially to display all of the beautiful dishes we received for our wedding. Conor did a great job getting these put up, and we’re both happy with how they turned out! This is something that ALWAYS gets a compliment when someone comes into our home for the first time.

The now painted backsplash! It may not be for everyone, but I really like it and think that it looks super cool! The painted white stone gives it a little bit of a different look and I love it. It’s also actually easier to clean with this paint on it than it was with just the stone.

DINING AREA BEFORE:

DINING AREA AFTER:

Not too much has changed in this area- as there really wasn’t much there to begin with! We moved our teal bar into this area and it fits the space perfectly, we love it. We then recently purchased this nice buffet to place on the opposite wall where the broken and bent bakers rack once lived. Believe it or not, this beautiful buffet is actually from Walmart! For only $100! Above it hangs an awesome wine rack given to us for our wedding.

I’m not 100% in love with this space, I feel like I need to do something a little different to it, however it is a big step up from what it was before! We are also on the look out for a new dining table. Though we like that this one is the perfect height for a dog who likes to beg… we would love something that has the option of seating more people. A table for four just isn’t big enough sometimes!

GUEST BEDROOM BEFORE:

GUEST BEDROOM AFTER:

Bedrooms are hard to photograph for me, with all the natural light that comes in! However, I LOVE the changes that have been made to this room. It’s so much more welcoming (actually having a bed for guests to sleep in helps some too). It’s light and bright and contains some awesome little details that are so incredibly special to us. When you stay in our guest bedroom, you’re able to take in a little piece of us as well and we love that!

Some details in this room:

Hanging on the wall across from the bed is the welcome sign that was placed outside our venue at our wedding. We then brought it inside during cocktail hour and guests signed it with their well wishes and congratulations! This piece is so special to us and we love that we’re able to share it with our guests in this room. As you can see, across from this hangs some framed botanical prints (of lavender and eucalyptus of course)

These pieces are on the shelf above the guest bed. The “It is well with my soul” sign was at our wedding, and it’s placed next to one of my FAVORITE pictures from our wedding (yes, I have many, but I absolutely loved my bouquet and this film photo captures it so perfectly).

This piece next to the door was a gift given to us for our wedding from my oldest brother. It’s a framed Vermont picture and it’s beautiful. We absolutely love it and it reminds us of our first home where all our family lives. So we love that it’s included in our guest room for all to see.

HALLWAY BEFORE:

HALLWAY AFTER

Not too many changes here, just a coat of paint and some artwork for the walls but I actually love this little section of our home. This is our “military” section of our home- if you can call it that. On one wall is the American Flag pallet piece that I saw and fell in love with. I found this piece just a couple of days after we moved to Florida and knew I had to have it in my home some place. Across from that is a framed picture of our saber arch kiss at our wedding- a special military tradition that we were so excited to have on our day- “Welcome to the Air Force Ma’am”

OFFICE BEFORE:

OFFICE AFTER:

SO DARK… ACK! I’m sorry!!

Not many changes made here either! Some new pictures put on the walls and things actually packed up and put away. However we did add this book shelf to display some of Conor’s Air Force things! It contains some of his stuff from the Academy as well as Pilot Training and his time in the Air Force so far.

MASTER BEDROOM BEFORE:

MASTER BEDROOM AFTER:

Jaggs man on the bed…always. He’s upset I’m interrupting his naptime

This room has undergone just a couple cosmetic changes- new comforter and pillows, and then we actually have things put on our walls! In time I’d love to get some curtains hung in here and make some sort of changes to make it more cohesive- I’m not quite sure what those changes would be, but the room is just so big I don’t know how to fill it up properly!

Some details from this room:

This is a LARGE canvas that I purchased while we lived in Oklahoma. It matched NONE of our decor there and definitely isn’t something someone who lives in Florida normally has in their home (as it’s a winter scene of birch trees), however I love it. Something drew me to it when I first saw it and I didn’t know why. However, now it fits into our home perfectly. Our bedroom is filled with wedding pictures surrounded by winter snow, touches of gold, and barren birch trees. It’s almost like I knew I was destined for this winter wedding years ago when I purchased this piece 😉

“I have found the one whom my soul loves”… a piece from our wedding

Our special piece of Oklahoma- Salt crystals we spent hours digging up from the salt flats of Oklahoma.

And our special piece of Florida… sea shells from the beach near our home

In my original home tour last year I shared pictures of our bathrooms and closets- well really not much has changed there. As for the bathrooms we’ve just hung some new art, new towels, new shower curtains. And for the closets… well.. somehow mine just keeps getting more full! Hmm…

And as for Jaggs… well.. he still thinks every bed or couch is his. But he loves this home just as much as we do 🙂

And that’s all! This place has kept us busy for the last year, and I can honestly say as much as I love projects I’m glad to finally have them all done (for the most part)! We love this house and there’s so much of US and our story here, I think that’s what makes it feel so much like home. We already know that in the future it will be so incredibly hard to leave this home as there’s already so many memories made here. But, we can only hope we have similar adventures and new memories to make ahead- wherever this crazy Air Force life takes us!