Introducing Our New Home! A photo tour of our new home and some ideas about the changes we’ll make.
I’m so excited to show you our new home! After six months of searching, we finally found our dream house!
If you remember, I wrote a post on house hunting awhile back talking about all of the things we were looking for in the next place and we’re glad this checks off many of the boxes of our list.
It has been such a process to get here. In six months, we have found only two houses that matched our criteria and we lost one to another buyer and then finally found this one.
Needless to say, we are so thankful and excited that that very hectic time of our lives is coming to a close and now we get to make this place home sweet home!
It’s a 2700 sq ft house in a cul-de-sac with a big lot and the pool of our dreams. We’re moving cities but it’s only about 10 minutes away from our last house which is nice to still be near some of the places we had gotten used to having.
The pool definitely sold us and we’re so excited to finally have the pool that we’ve been dreaming about so quickly because we originally thought that we would have to put the pool in ourselves. So it’s a very happy surprise that we get to enjoy it so soon!
It is a newer home, built in 2007, and while it is still a lovely home and well taken care of, I’m definitely looking forward to making the place “ours”.
With our last renovation, everything went so quickly because it was uninhabitable in the shape we purchased it in but with this one, everything is already plenty nice enough to live with so I look forward to just getting to slowly tackle the house room by room.
Even though this home is not any type of disrepair like our previous fixer upper, this house will still be a complete renovation. We will pretty much be changing everything cosmetically from top to bottom and I couldn’t be more excited to see this place transform. The bones are truly so great and it’s going to be such a fun adventure. I’m excited to bring you all along for the journey and share our designs and hopefully some helpful home renovating and designing tips along the way!
I have a full video walkthrough of the house coming soon but until then, let’s have a little photo tour, shall we?
When you first walk in, there’s a large room to the right that traditionally would be used as a formal living and dining room. I don’t have much need for either, as I really prefer the dining table to be with the kitchen/living space. But this room was actually a big selling point for us because one thing we really wanted was space to build out a bar.
We love our Nitro Cold Brew on tap and plan on building an entire bar with the theme “Coffee ’til Cocktails”. We’re huge sports fans over here so this will be a fun place to entertain, watch games, drink coffee, host happy hours or even get some work done!
When you continue walking, you get to the kitchen. To be honest, when we originally saw photos of the house, we didn’t really like the kitchen. The island is not my taste–I don’t like split level islands and I don’t like the curve. But once I actually walked the property, I realized this would be a really easy fix and I’m actually excited for the layout. That entire right side will make a great area for a buffet during parties and holidays!
Then there’s room for the dining table and after that it’s the living room. The living room is plenty big for a nice big sectional couch and it looks out to the pool which is nice as well. Eventually we’ll probably change the windows on the back wall to panoramic doors for some true California living. Can you just imagine?
The ceilings in here are 12′ so the space feels massive (especially for short little old me at a whopping 5’2″).
On the right side of the house is a powder room and then the master retreat with a master bathroom and walk in closet. The master bathroom has a jet tub and a nice sized shower plus a very large space for a vanity. 101″! I can’t wait to have a custom vanity built for that space.
The master closet is also a good size and will be plenty of room and have tons of storage once we do a built in closet system.
On the left side of the house is the rest of the bedrooms, the guest bathroom and the laundry room. Technically the house is 3 bedroom + den but the den also functions as an optional fourth bedroom (those were the builder options). We actually love the den because we need a home office and it’s a perfect space. Instead of enclosing it, we’ll probably add some fun sliding French doors or something.
The laundry room is small but fits everything we’ll need, including a sink for washing our dogs! Through the laundry room is the three car garage. I’m so excited to have a three car garage and part of it will become a home gym and we’ll also store our Hiker Trailer in there as well.
Now back to the house and onto the backyard. The backyard is really nice with a beautiful salt water pool (and slide!!!) and built in planters as well as an outdoor kitchen.
Truth be told, while it is nice as it is, it is a bit of a concrete jungle and there are lots of plans for this space. I’m not a fan of palm trees so those will all be taken out along with most of the current landscaping. The planters will be re-worked and we’ll be adding a few garden beds.
We’ll also tear out the current outdoor kitchen because while it’s nice, it’s in kind of an awkward position and I want to reconfigure it to open up that space more and add a TV and maybe even build in my Big Green Egg.
This is just a basic photo tour to give you an idea of the space but I’ll have a full video tour coming soon and of course we’ll talk about and share more of the renovation process as we get it under way.
I can’t wait to see the house transform and I really, really can’t wait for the all my days spent going down that slide!
Shauna Richards says
Awesome house. Love, love, love that kitchen!!!! I hope before I die that we can put in an outdoor kitchen. Keep the pictures coming.
Kayla Demint says
Thanks so much! We’re enjoying it. You should definitely put in an outdoor kitchen!