HOUSEography: HOUSE Tour Link Party

Showing posts with label HOUSE Tour Link Party. Show all posts

8.01.2011

House Tour Room-by-Room Link-up Party: Finished Basements

This is the last room on the house tour until September. I am having blogging fatigue this month so I am going to only post when I can in August and then jump back into blogging in September. I should have a pretty good log of projects and updates to share then. Hope you'll stick around! Here's the updated tour schedule.

This week's house tour is headed down to your finished basements. We have a partially finished basement. The part under the new addition is completely finished except for a small storage closet under the stairs (our sump pump also is under there for easy access).

The main room is our rec room which I wrote about a few weeks ago.

We also have a small guest bedroom and bathroom wedged into this 600 square foot space. It's efficient to say the least!

The other half is unfinished and serves as Handy Hubby's workshop and our storage room (including extra refrigerator). We had planned to leave this space unfinished for a while but 6 months after moving into the house, we realized we wanted our basement ready for company and TOYS!

Now, let's see your finished basements or tell us about your plans to finish yours off, or fix it up! Don't forget to link back or grab my button below!

7.25.2011

House Tour Room-by-Room Link-up Party: Mud Rooms

I'm working on a whole bunch of projects which I hope to share later this week. I've been a lazy blogger this month so bear with me!

One thing we didn't get in our renovation was a true mudroom. We have what I like to call a mud area near our side door which connects to the driveway. But, this does work for us.

I have some ideas on how to improve this area but the space is limited. The kids use the steps to put their boots on and off. Fortunately they really only play in the snow less than 10 days per year (2009-2010 excepted) thanks to the mild Virginia winters.

We also have another area outside of our half bath which is a secondary area for dropping things. We have a small coat closet there which keeps my coat collection in check - no hangers, no new coats!

So, make me jealous and show me your awesome mudrooms, but I also want to see where you got creative and made a mud area where there wasn't one before. Can't wait to get some inspiration for my areas! Don't forget to link up or grab a button below!

7.18.2011

House Tour Room-by-Room Link-up Party: Play Rooms, Rec Rooms, Lofts & Bonus Rooms

I've lost count on what week we're in and I too need to check the schedule when writing these posts. Hopefully everyone hasn't disappeared for vacation! This week we're talking rec rooms, play rooms, lofts, and bonus rooms. Here are a few new shots of our basement rec room. This are is affectionately referred to as "downstairs" by my 2 year old since most of his big (and favorite) toys reside here. As a result, our space often looks like this as you enter.

I'm not sure I've ever shown either view of this room. Probably for good reason. This is our furniture graveyard where furniture goes to finish its life. Fortunately, it doesn't take long to clean up this space thanks to the awesome built-ins that Handy Hubby finished up earlier this year (more about those here)

Here's how the space looked after 10 minutes of much-needed toy put-away time. Honestly, I don't mind seeing the toys because this is the rec room.

I hope to change the hodge podge feeling over the next year or so by moving the red chairs out and some blue chairs in. I want this room to have a beach feeling although without being kitschy beach. Of course all of that will take a lot of furniture moving up and down the stairs which may require lots of begging for Handy Hubby to find a friend to help out. At this point, I'm planning to make these moves next winter. Hopefully. The couch will likely stay and the coffee table is actually my grandmother's cedar trunk. It needs some work but it will work in the space I hope.

p.s. In case you are curious about the toy train set, it's Fisher Price GeoTrax and any 2-6 year old boy or girl would LOVE it.

Your turn! Please don't forget to link back here or add my button below.

7.11.2011

House Tour Room-by-Room Link-up Party: Garage

Well, not the most exciting of the link-up parties but we are down to the garage. We have a nice little garage which is made to fit a car but which will probably never house a car since it's really a big shed. I would love to get the car in there on occasion just not sure it will ever happen!

We had to tear down our old garage as part of our renovation (basically, the addition could not be within 8 feet of the garage). It would have been too limiting to keep it so we took it down. We wanted a really cute garage which fit the style of our home and looked a bit more like a carriage house than a standard garage.

The brick around the foundation was actually the brick from the old garage which was original to the house. The foundation really helps tie it into the house which also has a brick foundation. We chose the carriage style doors but we really should get the extra hinge hardware. Add that to the list...

We are always reorganizing and we are planning yet another reorganization shortly. Just need to buy some bike hangers and I think we'll have what we need. Generally I love organization projects but this one is overwhelming and the weather hasn't really been cooperating.

Here it is on a good day.

Usually it looks much, much worse with many more bikes thrown around.

Here is my favorite view of our garage.

I'm not going to think about how many times we'll replace the glass in those windows over the years!

Let's see those garages - inside, outside, or both! I could really use some organization inspiration!! Please link back to my blog or use the button below in your post. Thanks!!

6.27.2011

House Tour Room-by-Room Link-up Party: Front Entry, Stairwell and Hall

We had a great weekend, including a quick trip to New Jersey for my cousin's wedding. It was a lot of fun hanging out with parents, brother, and cousins for an evening, but then we came right back home yesterday so we could attend an event at Elizabeth's school, a birthday party, and squeeze in some pool time as well. Wow, I'm still tired! I'm really looking forward to the 4th of July long weekend!

It's Monday so it's house tour day again! This time we're touring your front entries, stairwells and hallways. These spaces are often ignored so I wanted to give them the attention they deserve. After all, you pass these spaces many times per day so it's a great place to display items you love to look at.

We don't have a front entry but one of the best features of our house is our stairwell. Before we renovated, our stairs were one of the better features of our house. They ran up the back of our living room. We installed a runner to cover their imperfect finish but they still were very fitting for our colonial.

We wanted to keep the stairs where they were or modify them in the renovation process but ultimately our architect convinced us that moving them to a new location opened up so many options for us (including making a useless 4th bedroom into a perfectly sized room). Thank goodness she was persistent!

Here's how our stairwell looks now...

The stairwell goes up four stories - basement to attic - with no interruptions. My kids often eat a snack sitting on the bottom step. That step is also our time-out seat.

We originally planned to have a short banister to the right of the refrigerator but then our builder asked whether we thought we needed it because we all loved the open look. We did not need it for code purposes since we had the other handrail and it was less than the minimum drop off. We decided to leave it off knowing we could add it later, and we never looked back. Also, one other fun fact - the newel post at the base of the stairs in the picture above is actually our original newel post from our old stairway!

We have this small wall gallery of family pictures started on the first flight of stairs but we hope to extend that up the stairs as the years go on. I found the M at Ross for about $6 a year or two ago. They often have them if you are looking for something similar.

I also love how it's the centerpiece of our house both inside and outside. Here's the view from the driveway which gives you an idea of the height. It almost looks like a tower on the side of our house but it's so pretty in the early evening with all of the lights on.

This door off the driveway is the one we use most frequently now. Our tiny mud area is right inside to the right under the window.

Your turn! Please link up any post about your front entry, stairwell, or a hallway in your house. Did you do something fun? Do you have big renovation plans? Let's hear it (and see it!). Feel free to link up to 3 separate posts.

6.20.2011

House Tour Room-by-Room Link-up Party: Front Porch, Stoop, & Door

Summer will officially arrive this week, although it has been here weather-wise for quite a while! So, it's time to get those front doors and porches ready for the good weather. I love walking around the neighborhood admiring everyone's door colors and wreaths. Now I get to cruise around my virtual neighborhood and see all of my blog-buddy's doors and porches with this week's house tour link-up party!

I've done quite a bit of work on our curb appeal this year. We got our flag out for Memorial Day weekend, of course.

A few weeks before I realized we had never filled the holes and repaint the spot where the flag bracket was prior to the renovation. Woops.

I got out some spackle and fixed the holes and Handy Hubby (with my Handy Dad looking on) sanded it down and repainted before Alex's birthday party. Considerably better now!

I had added some tickweed perennials as well as some liriope grass to fill the border. I also added a couple of knock-out roses which aren't flowering yet. Maybe they are deciding whether they like their new location and whether they want to stick around and put on a show.

I also filled my urns with new plants for summer but they still need some more height so I need to get some spiky plants to define them a bit more.

Not sure if I ever pointed out the view from the street to our screen porch. I love waving to our neighbors walking or driving by when we sit out there.

Here's a shot of our mailbox which caused me a lot of heartburn to find. Most mailboxes are horizontal but we didn't have enough space between our shutters and door frame. I finally found this one online. No idea where because it was more than 5 years ago!

Here's the wreath that my mom made for me about 3 years ago while we were renovating.

I love the yellow and purple with the fun poppy accent.

Now it's your turn - let's see your front door, front porch, stoop, walkway, or whatever other curb appeal you have to show-off. As always, torn up and in-progress posts are more than welcomed! Please don't forget to add my button or link to your post or blog.

And here's my party button!

&lt;div align="center">&lt;a href="http://www.houseography.net" title="HOUSEography House Tour Link Party">&lt;img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JGIsAMeEFtM/TZvQQMB4TQI/AAAAAAAAFHM/XsRknFYMYSs/s1600/HOUSEography+Button+HOUSE+TOUR+PARTY.jpg" alt="HOUSEography House Tour Link Party" style="border:none;" />&lt;/a>&lt;/div>

p.s. Like this post, vote for HOUSEography on Picket Fence Blogs by clicking here (and that's it!). Thanks!

6.13.2011

Our Screen Porch

CHECK OUT OUR REBUILT RENOVATED SCREEN PORCH HERE!

Summer has definitely arrived in Northern Virginia. We had 90+ degree temps here for the past week. This week promises to be cooler and dryer. I really don't mind the heat so either way it's fine with me. I like the 80 degree temperatures so people stop complaining about the heat!!

We love eating out here in the summer. We keep an extra booster for my son out here to make it as easy as possible to skip the kitchen table and pretend like we're on vacation for a night. The only downside to this space is that it's pretty small. We are considering options for expanding it while also fixing the structural (rotten fascia boards) and aesthetic issues (peeling floor paint, missing exterior trim pieces). I'm sure we'll share every detail if we do decide to embark on this next home renovation adventure.

And, YES, we did renovated. See the completely rebuilt and remodeled porch here!