Surprise, We Bought A House!

After renting for over 7 years, I’m excited to announce that we are officially first-time homeowners!

This surprise has been months in the making, and wow, what a whirlwind it has been!

This market was crazy to adjust to as first-time home hunters. After bidding wars and multiple offers falling through, we finally found our home and got an accepted offer.

We officially closed on June 16th and moved in the very next day.

Our work is cut out for us, but I am excited to embrace the process and share the transformation along the way!

Home Details

Our 1993 builder-grade home is nestled on 0.8 acres surrounded by Carolina pines.

We’re in a quiet little neighborhood in a small country town, exactly what we hoped for!

The home needs a lot of updating. Although the previous owners did some cosmetic updates, most of the home’s interior is original or not what we envision for the home.

Home Inspiration

Based on the setting of the home and its small size (1500 square feet), it feels like a cottage nestled in the woods. Keeping the style quaint and cozy will feel the most natural!

My vision for this home is a Minimalist European Cottage style.

So, without further ado, here is a little tour of our new home!

Home Tour

Living Room

When you enter the front door, there is a small entryway with a partially open staircase. The living room is to the right. Here is the view of the living room from the front of the house.

The living room is long and narrow and runs the whole length of the right side of the house.

The previous owners did board and batten accent throughout the first floor and parts of the upstairs. Although I like wall treatments, we may eventually change it up since it feels a little overboard to have it in every room.

Eventually, I would like to add shiplap ceilings. I think this would add some different texture and also feel very cottage-inspired.

One of my favorite features in the home is the fireplace! I’m excited to reimage the surround and mantel to make it something unique.

If there is one element I hate, it’s the recently installed reddish LVP flooring throughout the home.

The dark color is dated and shows dust and baby finger smudges so easily. It’s also very cheap as we have discovered it scratches easily.

The only silver lining is that the LVP flooring runs throughout the entire house, including all the bedrooms. I’m thankful we don’t have to deal with different crazy flooring in every room!

To the right of the fireplace is an empty corner, and to the left is a built-in desk with open shelving. Although I love open shelving for styling purposes, this built-in is not functional.

Since there are no storage closets in the house besides bedroom closets, we desperately need some closed storage. I plan to demo the built-in desk and shelves and add symmetrical built-ins with closed storage on either side of the fireplace.

Screened Porch

The screened porch right off the living room was a huge selling point for us. It is completely private and the perfect spot to enjoy the outdoors without bugs!

We are excited to use this space, especially in the Fall and Spring.

Dining Room

The dining room entrance is to the left of the front door.

We are still working on a plan for this space, but we would love to do a fun wallpaper on the upper wall and a bold paint color on the board and batten.

The room is almost a perfect square, so a round table would maximize seating and floor space.

Because of the screened porch, natural light is pretty limited in this house. The windows in the front are narrow and don’t allow much natural light to come in. In the future, I would love to replace these with a double-width window to improve the lighting.

Kitchen

The kitchen is tiny and completely separate from the rest of the main floor spaces.

It doesn’t offer a lot of storage or counter space. The cabinets are original to the house and desperately need to be replaced as well.

Since a kitchen renovation would be a total gut, I think we will probably do a budget-friendly update until we can afford a complete reno.

Ideally, I would love to open the wall between the kitchen and dining with a case opening. This would be a way of expanding the kitchen and creating a little more open-concept living with the dining space.

One thing I love about the kitchen is the gas line for the stove. This is our first time having gas to cook with, and it’s seriously life-changing!

Laundry + Powder Bath

The laundry is right off the kitchen, and the powder bath is through the laundry room. At some point, we want to add a pocket door to hide away our laundry space.