🚚 All Moved In! 🚚

Happy to be here

We have officially moved in! It has been over six weeks since we closed the deal but we needed every minute of that to get through the first phase of our home renovation. When we decided to make an offer we did so knowing there would be a great deal of work to do. Our list of projects was massive and we understood that we wouldn't be able to do it all before moving into the home. So, we prioritized the jobs that were absolutely essential or that would be a pain to do once our furniture and stuff arrived. The projects that we started with were foundation stabilization, plumbing, electrical, floors and walls.

We hired professionals to help with the first few. The entire home had to be rewired. Toilets had to be fixed in order to get home insurance coverage. The back porch was sinking in one corner due to the yard's slope and considerable erosion under one corner. These weren't the most fun and exciting projects to tackle but they were necessary.

I wanted to avoid redoing the floors but the sheer variety of flooring materials previously in the home kept haunting me. There were light wood floors in the entry, beige carpet in the living room, wood-look tile in the kitchen, and a random plywood in a small nook off the dining space. All the different colors and textures were really dividing the space in strange ways. I didn't mind the bathroom tile or carpet in the bedrooms, but we agreed having all one type of floor in the shared spaces would make the home feel more cohesive. We also knew that once we put furniture in we were not going to change the floors anytime soon. So flooring was the first thing we committed to. We toyed with the idea of laying flooring ourselves but ended up hiring professionals because we didn't want to mess it up and we didn't have the right tools anyway. We chose a medium brown vinyl plank with a bit of grey running through the wood-look planks. We are really pleased with the way it came out and think it was money well spent. 

Paint was the other big project we wanted to tackle before filling up the house with stuff. You can read all about our paint color choices here. Painting spiraled into a much larger project than we originally anticipated. Once we started, we kept finding more walls and more places we wanted to paint. For instance, we didn't even think about painting the back porch until we finished painting the inside white. We even decided to paint the patio floor, which had previously been covered up with mismatched carpet tiles (ugh). We also didn't think about painting the exterior but ultimately did get the back of the house freshened up as well. All of the painting was done by Todd and he did an awesome job. My mom even pitched in a little and helped with touching up the baseboards. Thanks Ma!

Back porch pre-painting and carpet removal

The aforementioned nook remained a mystery as far as how it would be used. First, I thought it might become a pantry; at one point we considered using it for a desk space, and I finally settled on making it a coffee/tea bar. I knew I wanted to use wallpaper somewhere and realized this little alcove without a firm vision would be a cute place to put some up. Once the paint was done, I got to gluing. I had a minor anxiety attack before starting - the result of watching too many YouTube tutorials to prep. Disclaimer: I do NOT recommend wallpapering when one is seven months pregnant. I'm pretty sure I pulled a groin with all the squatting I had to do. Ultimately, it came out great but I do not have any desire to become a wallpaper hanger.

En-suite bathroom prior to updating 😱

Another huge thing for me was the en-suite bathroom. Not only is it very small but it was uttterly horrid. It was a non-starter to move in with that bathroom in the state it was. We met with a couple of contractors about having the shower redone but the cost was so high for just the standing shower and I wasn't loving the materials offered. If I was going to fork out that kind of dough I really expected to be in love but I walked away from the consultations feeling meh. Being less than inspired, I decided to pitch Todd on a few ideas I found on Instagram that I wanted (him) to try. I figured we could spend a little bit of money on DIY ideas and, if they looked crappy, we could always hire out to fix our mistakes.

I'm happy to say we were able to update the bathroom quite nicely for very little investment, especially when compared to some of the estimates we received. I ended up reusing some of the wallpaper leftover from the nook upgrade, repurposed the paint from the bedroom, and purchased a few key elements: the new toilet, a smaller vanity, and black matte hardware. Those small changes made a huge difference! By the time we were all moved in I was very happy to get ready in my cute little powder room. I'll share the before and after in my next post and show off my wallpaper skills soon!

We all agree that it feels really great here. I'm so glad we took our time to make the space what we wanted it to be. We also had a chance to organize ourselves along the way so our moving day felt much less chaotic than it could have been. I wanted to give ourselves a chance to figure out how the space would function and get acclimated to the house before we plopped ourselves down. I think this helped our son to feel really excited to move instead of trepidatious or upset in any way. 

The whole family is quite happy to be settling in and exploring Altamonte Springs together. We have a lot of ideas for ongoing home renewal projects that we can't wait to share with you. We also want to highlight some of our favorite things to do in our new neighborhood. Now that the move is behind us I have a lot more time and space for creative home projects and blog updates, so come back to visit soon and say hi when you stop by! 👑