Upstairs Paint and Bed and House Updates

I love some good before and after pictures, don't you all?

Last week, we had our stairwell and upstairs painted which is actually a pretty large space even though it's only one bedroom and one bath.    

Before:

After.  It looks really yellow in this picture...it's not that yellow.  We had the walls, ceilings and trim done (including baseboard and crown molding).  It got a complete refresher which was much needed.

This is the room upstairs - old lady pink walls and ceilings and very white trim.

After....including our new mattress and bedding.  The high gloss trim makes a big impact.  The white ceiling really opens it up.

Before...

After...so we are deciding what to do about the foosball table.  We are talking about building a two car garage with a man cave/Kevin's office above it.  The foosball table could go in there.  That project probably won't happen until next year...as you can imagine, it'll be a pretty penny.  But since this room is so big, it really is fine to stay in here for now.  Plus, this room won't get used very much anyway.  Our main guest room is still downstairs.

Last after picture.  We are going to probably move the bed frame from the downstairs guest bed up here because it would go well with this bedding.  Then we will get a new bed frame for the bed downstairs.  We need to get some side tables as we see them but I'm not going out and getting matchy matchy everything.  I hate matchy matchy.  As we see things, we'll pick them up.  I want to find a couple coral pillows to jazz things up.

Overall, I feel like we gained the whole second floor to our house.  It's a real bedroom now!  

If you all will remember, we moved in 2.5 years ago and moved a one bedroom, 750 SF condo into a 3,500+ SF house (we still have Kevin's condo fully furnished uptown).  Yes, we had a lot of furniture to buy and things to make our house a home to us.  I tell all of my friends who buy a house...be prepared to make the hefty 20% downpayment for the loan but also be prepared for $5k-10k in moving costs plus $20k for STUFF you need when you move in (ie - new fridge, washer/dryer, bar stools etc.). 

We have accomplished SO much over the last 2.5 years.  Maybe I should make a list one day...

Our house was in great shape when we bought it but we wanted to do things to make it ours.  I'm a big believer that even if you buy THE PERFECT house, you're still going to want to do things to make it yours...whether you don't like the backsplash or the front door...you're going to change things.  It's just normal.

The lady's husband had died a couple years prior so she was left with a large house to care for by herself.  She was so sad to leave the home but had to because she couldn't get around by herself any more.  She was 91 for goodness sake!  Sadly, she ended up dying a few months after we bought the house from her.  I will still hang on to the picture of the three of us at closing and the memory of her daughter bringing her back over to visit once we had moved in.  That was special!  At closing, she told us how happy she was that a young couple like us bought her home.  She said there were many years of love and happiness in that home (and only golden retrievers had ever lived there!).  We promised her we'd continue the traditions!

Anyway, I have no idea why I'm reliving this today but quite frankly, I'm proud of all Kevin and I have been able to do to our home.  Recently, we've been sitting on our back patio having dinner or playing with Mills talking about all we want to do to our backyard.  We have big plans and over the next few years hope to make some of them happen.