Front room and kitchen before and after

This tiny picture is all that remains of how our house looked when we first visited. 

Our front room used to have bright turquoise carpet with white walls with plain baseboards. The carpet and pad were pretty worn out and not really our style. James put me in charge of choosing colors for paint and carpet and together we chose our baseboards and trim.

BEFORE

AFTER 

 Originally I wanted to paint or stain the pocket door for the closet but it didn't happen. In the end it doesn't bother me that much that we have multiple colors of brown in our front room, it's okay.

 The front room has a large window that was previously enshrouded by a gauzy lace topped curtain.

We are currently waiting for our blinds to arrive so that we have some privacy.  It should also help to block out some of the heat in the morning.  I guess that is what you get with windows that face East!

  

And this wall still needs a few pictures.  Theoretically it will look something like this when it is done:

Or something not at all like that...

 I think it is interesting how different the wall color looks in pictures and in different light.  Here it looks really gray but in real life it is brighter and blue-r.

We used Behr Premium Plus Ultra in Frosted Jade. We used the same color in our bedroom and the hallway.

On to the kitchen!
The kitchen had been updated in the 80's with nice cabinets and carpet.  I'm not a massive fan of carpet in kitchens or bathrooms so we wanted to put something else down instead of the lovely pink carpet.
 BEFORE

 AFTER

We added dark wood floor, tall white baseboards and blue-green paint. I wanted a color that would compliment the existing cabinets as well as the new flooring.  

 We also removed the extra tall door leading to the basement.

 BEFORE

 AFTER

BEFORE

 AFTER

 We also dropped the doorway down from the living room to the kitchen and added casing.  This helps to tie the doorway in with the other doors.

 It also makes it possible for Mina to do this:

She loves to jump!

 Our kitchen paint color was also Behr Premium Plus Ultra but this time in Lap Pool Blue:

Our House! (Door edition)

Back in April we closed on our house in Layton.  Over the next month we worked on the house to make it our own. James and my Dad did a majority of the work, I mostly stayed home and took care of Mina and made decisions. One of the first projects they tackled was to replace the doors in the upstairs.
The original doors in our house were really unusual.  They were tall, closed to the wall instead of into a casing and most of the latches were painted over so they didn't lock. I was familiar with this type of door because my Grandma Keller's house is in the same neighborhood.

The super tall door in our bedroom

The really tall door in the kitchen

The doors HAD to go.  Luckily, my Dad found a new method for installing a door using brackets. He and James tore out the existing door frame, built in a new header and hung the new door! It was a lot less painful than we anticipated, thankfully.

Mina's room and her new door

After the walls were taped and mudded, we painted and installed the trim.  Once again, the "we" was mostly James and my Dad but I did do quite a bit of painting. We painted the casings and baseboards before they were installed.   I patched the baseboards and trim and then covered the patches with more paint.  I really hated trim at that point but I'm REALLY glad we put new trim in our house. It makes a huge difference.

Mina's room, ready for carpet!

Mina playing in her new room