Home Tour

Welcome to our home!  Our home is a work in progress.  Every home we have ever lived in has been a work in progress:)  Until it is done.  Then we move.  I guess you can say we are DIY addicts.  We have been in this house for 8 years now and plan to stay here until our 3 boys finish school.  It is a 1950s split level with a master bedroom addition.  Before us, it was last updated in the 1980s.   Little by little, we are re-doing all of the rooms.  

We live in a NJ suburb where home prices are high, and taxes are even higher.  We dream of living someplace more affordable where life moves at a slower pace.  A split level style home would never be our first choice of home style, but after lots of home shopping, we realized that this was the style of house that would get us the most square footage within our home budget.  

 Entering the house through the front door, you arrive at our foyer, where there is always a Golden Retriever (or 2) with a wagging tail to greet you.   

Our foyer opens up to our Family Room.  We remodeled this room 3 years ago and you can find more pictures and read about it here.

I love finding ways to create a beautiful home affordably.  I shop mainly at Target and HomeGoods and only add things to our home that can withstand the daily abuse of kids and dogs.  Big hairy dogs. And 3 rambunctious boys.  I have learned, through lots of trial and error, what works best for a busy family.  Yes, I like my home to look pleasing and put together.  But the most important consideration is function and durability.  Our family room encompasses the entry level of our split level house.  We enlarged this space a few years back.  It is the most rustic space in our home and represents our family's love of the outdoors and the mountains.

 We carved out some space from our family room to create a small mudroom.  With 3 active boys, this may have been our wisest DIY project to date.  We used some Ikea Bookshelves to do it and you can read about our Ikea Mudroom Hack here.

Let's head up the numbered stairs that lead from our family room to our kitchen.

Next up, is our kitchen that we renovated 6 years ago.  This is where I spend most of my time and it is my favorite area in the house.  We DIY'd all the cabinets, including the installation of our farm sink.

Another project we completed on this home was removing the wall between our kitchen and living room.  We hacked some more Ikea products to create the open shelves.

We recently swapped out our over the range microwave for a DIY mantel hood and replaced our backsplash.  Read more about that project here.

By removing 2 walls, we created an open floor plan on the level.  It functions much better for our busy family as one large space.

We completed our DIY Master Bathroom for just under $7,000.  I wrote a post about all the sources we used here.

Boy Bedrooms

Our outdoor space includes our covered patio area and pool.

I love to change things with the season.  Here are some of our seasonal home tours:

 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Please come back again soon.  We always have some sort of a DIY project ongoing.  Things are always changing around here!!