Our Recent Project!

Originally we didn't think we were going to live in Coeur d'Alene forever. But after a trip back to our hometown, we realized that wasn't home anymore and we felt more comfortable in CDA. So within a matter of weeks of that trip we decided to buy a house and put down some roots here.

We bought a major fixer upper - a split level from the 70s that was awful - the only redeeming quality was the square footage and the beautiful & big yard! While we were house shopping, there was a good 3 days that I gave Delta the silent treatment because he didn't want to buy this beautiful new house (the yard wasn't big enough for a future shop).

After I got over that, I realized a fixer upper was going to be better in the long run. But the only way I agreed to it, was that I got to design the house and he had to do what I said (within our budget of course). So we bought it and started the demo immediately!

I wanted to do a before post with some of the general ideas I have for the remodel for just the upstairs. Be on the lookout for a post about the basement, bathrooms, & exterior! Prepare for some iPhone quality photos of the best 70s house you will see...

Exterior

For now, we aren't doing too much on the exterior - except adding a window above the front door. But the next remodel stage we will build a front porch with some charming columns in order to add some visual interest to the flat front elevation. I also want to paint it, but I don't have any idea what that will be yet. 

Entryway

My least favorite part of the house - my whole life I always said that I would never buy a split level because I hated having a small entryway before the stairs...now here I am trying to make this work. I already mentioned we are adding a window above the door but we have so much more planned. We are shiplapping the walls (Joanna Gaines is my inspiration), painting the door (color TBD), tearing out that closest above the stairs and making it railing, replacing all the railing with (hopefully) wrought iron, replacing the fan with a chandelier, and the closet by the front door will also be torn out - we will make a little open alcove with a bench and hooks. Let's hope we can keep it tidy!

Living Room

Isn't Hunter so cute running through his new house!? The living room is getting some basic remodeling done. Other than new paint and Trim we are ripping out the carpet & adding a laminate floor. The wall to the left has been taken down to open the space up to the kitchen & dining room. The fireplace rock has been torn down and we are adding shiplap above the mantle and tile below. Someday in the future we might include some built ins to the right of the fireplace. The popcorn ceilings throughout the house have been scraped off! They had zero lighting in the room before, but Delta has installed some canned lights that make a huge difference. 

Kitchen & Dining Room:

I am the most excited about my new kitchen! We are trying to save money so we are installing already made cabinets on our own...fingers crossed because it could go horribly wrong! But Delta has worked in construction so I have all the faith in him. Anyways, the general layout on the perimeter is basically staying the same - but we added a new window that is 14 inches wider with a HUGE farmhouse sink centered beneath it. Instead of the peninsula we are doing a large island with barstools. There will be canned lights & pendants lights going in and the dining room will get a chandelier. Both the dining room & kitchen will have the laminate floor continued from the living room. The perimeter cabinets will be white and the island will be a medium stained wood. I was going to do a colored island - like a gray blue/green - but I decided the stained wood would be more timeless, especially in Idaho!

I won't include pictures of the bedrooms until everything is done because they are all getting the basics: new carpet, paint, new trim & doors. The bathrooms will stay old fashioned for now - but we plan on updating them asap! 

It will continue to be a long process (we officially owned the house on Feb 8th and are maybe going to move in the middle of May). And we will still have a lot of work to do once we move in.

Here's to making memories & raising my babies in this house!

Love,

The Mathie's