Renovation

In November we decided to take the plunge and rip up our terrible old country-blue carpet and put down hardwoods. We moved in with our gracious friends Taylor and Lacy for what was supposed to be 1 week. I went around Matthews and Charlotte looking for the perfect/best color and wood for our home and by the time I laid out all the samples, we could have just put them together to form our new flooring! We settled on raw hardwood (White Oak Common #2, 4" planks to be exact) and we had it stained a walnut color. Our goals were simple: no red undertones and wider than standard boards. After the floors were installed we decided to paint, to make the house feel more complete and 'us'. That turned into fixing a hole in the ceiling (from the house settling over time), to removing the popcorn from the ceilings, to replacing can lights above the fireplace, to tiling the guest bathroom!!

I've been hesitant to post pictures since we don't have the finishing touches complete yet (new hardware, a rug, i'm dreaming of a pair of vintage upholstered 'club chairs' to go on either side of the fireplace, and we don't have window treatments/accents yet)....but - its so much better than what it was before, I will go ahead and show you the Houston's mini-extreme makeover.

A special thanks to Taylor and Lacy for letting us live with them for 4 weeks (even encompassing Thanksgiving!)!!!

BEFORE (From warm):

AFTER (to cool):