Today I have decided to take you into my front door and share with you my colorful, lively household.
Welcome to Cambridge Drive, the place I call home. In four days we will have bought this house three years ago. We bought this place because of it's lay out and proximity to many important things. (work, school, family)
Enter with caution, for we are still a work in progress.
Before and Afters....
The house is slowly being marked with little touches of me. It has been a long time coming, but my house is truly becoming our home.
I have no defined type of style. I just see things that I like and try to make it work with what I have. I love to buy things on clearance or retail shops and make them work. The bigger the deal the more excited I get.
This is my new dining room. My CPA hubby laid these beautiful floors for me 1 week before Christmas. This room use to have carpet, wall paper and be the living room/tv room. Did I mention he is a CPA and has no real knowledge on house renovations. It is now quiet possibly one of my favorite rooms in the house.
I love that as soon as you enter our house this is the room that greets you to the left. The blue is so bold and bright and the curtain fabric puts a huge smile on my face daily. The fabric is one of the few items I paid full price for. YIKES....It is the most I have ever paid for fabric, but it was so beautiful I just had to have it. I have sewed every curtain on the main level of this house. It is one of my many pride and joys about living here.
I always knew this room was meant to be a dining room. For real, I swear the walls were talking to me the day we walked thru it with our Realtor.
This is what it looked liked the day we bought it:
Wow, I barely even believe the transformation. To think many others walked by with their Realtors and never saw the potential I always knew it could hold.
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As you walk into the dining room, you are greeted by my new den. This is were all my blog magic happens. This is the former dining room. It was always to small to be a great dining space, but as a den it is just perfect. I love the chandler and or course the curtains. The best part about those were the price. $4 a yard and they are 100% silk. Oh and the chandler was free from a friend who knew I would give it great love and return it to it's former glory. Total cost $25 and that was for new shades.
Unfortunately I can't find any pictures of it from the day we moved in, but I can tell you it was in desperate need of TLC. Old tired carpet, nasty 80's wallpaper and heavy drab curtains.
As you leave the den you enter the heart of the home. My kitchen. We have done so much work in here already, but have barely iced the cake. The amount that I still want to do is to much for me to try to take on now. Someday....it will get painted white cabinets and all the counter tops will be replaced, but for now it has only has new floors, new lights, fresh paint and a gloriously beautiful new granite island. Ahhh it is so lovely. And just one day the rest of the kitchen will match that breathtaking island.
Today Miss Bella is washing the dishing while I snap pictures. The kitchen flows straight into the family room. Since we moved in I can't seem to decide on the furniture or room placement. I not even sure the color is right. I have had 4 different couches and and countless chairs in this room. It still doesn't feel quite right, but that is probably due to all the toys and clutter this room holds. One day my children won't require so much stuff and then I will put more love into it. It has such a pretty fireplace that should be more of a focal point and those walls are screaming hunter or concord green.
And to think this is what the kitchen/family room looked like 3 short years ago:
As you can see, A family of five sure do require a lot of shoes!
Thanks for having a look around. Maybe I will get motivated once school gets going and start working on the upstairs projects. Those will be huge transformations when they are 100% completed. I have a horrible feeling that it will be at least 2 more years till I am ready to show you all around upstairs.
"MAY ALL WHO ENTER AS
GUESTS, LEAVE AS
FRIENDS."
Look at 
It is hard to believe, but the girl on the end is Gabby's age. She is tiny for her age and Gabby is big. The two boys in the middle are the oldest, Quinn will be in 5th grade he is holding the scooter and Nate who is right beside Gabby will be in 4th grade. Conner and Nicholas on the ends are both 3rd graders, but poor Nicholas (in the orange) was not a happy camper this morning! Ethan is the lone 1st grader (he is in between Gabby & Anna) 
Bella and Matthew are the big 5 year olds who just missed the kindergarten cut off for school. Here then are pretending to be waiting for the bus. School for these two preschoolers starts in 2 weeks. They are both pumped because they are being moved into the 5 day class. This year Bella will add play-n-stay twice a week which will give her the opportunity to eat lunch. 
Let's just say there are now more outbuildings then cars. About 5 years ago. He put a huge man made pond and about 3 years ago he put a mini log cabin. This is a view of the property from the cabin. The main house is the smallest of the three buildings. 
I love that as soon as you enter our house this is the room that greets you to the left. The blue is so bold and bright and the curtain fabric puts a huge smile on my face daily. The fabric is one of the few items I paid full price for. YIKES....It is the most I have ever paid for fabric, but it was so beautiful I just had to have it. I have sewed every curtain on the main level of this house. It is one of my many pride and joys about living here. 
Unfortunately I can't find any pictures of it from the day we moved in, but I can tell you it was in desperate need of TLC. Old tired carpet, nasty 80's wallpaper and heavy drab curtains.
