My parents came to visit us last weekend for the first time and it was a wonderful treat to have them here. They loved seeing all the progress we’ve made on our little house in Lexington, S.C. When I look around, I can’t help but see the work that still needs to be done. I admit I have a bit of a house-half-done problem. But when you have people to the house who have never seen it, walking them through the “we did this… we tore down this… we painted this…” helped remind me how much progress we’ve made in a short period of time. I’m very proud of us.

I’d hoped to share progress along the way, but that never happened. Now that phase one is almost complete, I figured I’d share some of the before/after pictures of our rooms and what we accomplished in 2014. My dad teased he didn’t realize we bought a “fixer upper.” I don’t think I realized that either, but making something our own was very important to me and this meant tweaking various elements of the house from the ground up. MainMan teases that the list of projects will never end. Maybe he’s right, but isn’t that part of the fun/challenge of being a homeowner? I think we’re up for it.

1. Dining room: We removed the popcorn ceiling throughout the entire house (the most unfun of all the projects, but if you ever decide to do it, don’t hesitate to ping me I’m an expert) and painted the walls a pale green color. We also took down the brass chandelier and replaced it with a Cabelas antler chandelier — a Christmas gift from my parents. The chandelier has since been spray-painted white and will be repurposed over our breakfast nook.

I hope to add more artwork to this room (the whole house, actually). I think it needs a buffet table agains the right wall not seen in this photo. The room’s on the tight side, hence the circular vs. rectangular dining table.

2. Sitting room/office: We removed popcorn and painted the walls a light salmon color. I also re-stained/painted my desk and an entranceway piece. We still plan on adding a built-in bookshelf to the far wall to make it feel more like a library. This room is where I work.

3: Kitchen renovations: We removed popcorn ceilings and painted the walls with Benjamin Moore ylang ylang. From here the cabinets don’t look terrible, but up close you couldn’t escape the scurve. Hair and all kinds of cooking gunk were stuck in corners, and the top layer of white plastic wrap was peeling off. They were also too short for our 9-foot ceilings. Not to mention the counters were blah. The floor is a linoleum that looks like tile and our next big project will be to replace that with actual tile. This same linoleum is in all the baths and I can’t stand it. Big major props to my hubby who did the cabinets all by himself. I might have held up a cabinet here and there. We still have molding to add, some spacers and backsplash. I think we’ll be using white subway tiles for the backsplash. I’ve also ordered custom Roman shades for the bay window and we’ll install those and remove the blinds. I HAAAATE blinds.

4: Living room: We removed popcorn and the carpet and MainMan installed hardwood floors. We painted the walls with Benjamin Moore revere pewter and hung curtains. I’m excited about how lovely this room turned out, though it’s definitely on the small size. I’d love built-ins here, but the fireplace is surrounded by windows and it’s too tight against the far wall. Still TK are a chair for me (I dream of this mustard yellow chesterfield club chair), possibly a couple Moroccan poufs and I’d like to paint faux-brick where there’s tile on the fireplace. We also talk about doing crown molding in all the rooms downstairs. I think it’d be fun to put some kind of faux-stone on the archway. Lighting is also a question. The white/gold fans are a bit old person home-ish and I’m hoping to change those out for fun brown ones.

5: Master bedroom/bath: We haven’t done anything too monumental in the master besides removing popcorn ceilings and repainting. We also got our first grown-up bed which was pretty exciting. I’ve wanted a bed with drawers forever and it’s nice we found one to fit our room. I’d like to hang something fun over the bed, like a wooden fish or a really cool piece of art. The bath needs a lot of work, but for now it’s a nice bright tropical turquoise color. I’m planning on swapping out the lighting here and hanging drapes, as well. I’d like a fun chandelier in the closet hallway and I’m hoping to wallpaper that section.

6: Guest bedroom/FROG (free room over garage): This room is so big we debated making it our bedroom, but it doesn’t have an ensuite bathroom. So now it’s our happy guest room. It is my crown achievement in the house. I figured out how to paint stripes, which I think add a fun spin to the room. I’m obsessed with Anthro bedding, so I ordered that first then took it from there. Won’t you come stay a while…

7. Hallway: I decided to stencil birch trees in the hallway. I love how it looks, minus a few of my paint botches. My mom talked me into finishing a few spots that look empty/blank so I’ll do that another working weekend.

Have some of your own ideas/suggestions/resources? Would love input. Share/comment away!