House Projects for Our Growing Family
On a budget…
In a split-level home…
My husband and I bought our home in February of 2019. Like most newly married couples, we were just thrilled to have our first home. It felt so big to us and God opened many doors during our home buying process! As our family grows it gets smaller. However, like many others, locked into that wonderful low interest rate we got before the market changed, we really don’t want to give that up just yet!
We slowly made it our own. Tore down a half wall between the kitchen and living area. We took the old, chipped railing down from around the stairs and added a half wall in its place with wooden beams. Completely remodeled our kitchen and put all new cabinets and countertop in. Got new flooring in the kitchen. Painted every wall that was once grey, made it white, and added crown molding and new trim. Replaced almost all of the interior doors and door handles, Updated the bathrooms with fresh paint and new faucets, changed out light fixtures, and took off the garage door and framed it in. None of which would have been possible without family! Every project done was with the help of our family and we are forever grateful!
In June of next year, our little home will have my husband and myself, our son and newborn, 2 cats, and a dog. One big, happy family!
The layout of our home doesn’t give us a lot of options, but we are going to make the rooms we have work! Our layout is 2 bedrooms and a full bathroom upstairs, and one large room with a half bathroom, the framed garage, and laundry room downstairs.
We have made 2 out of 3 rooms our master since living in this house. We are currently downstairs, in the largest bedroom in the house, but soon will be moving our bedroom upstairs so that our son’s room will be across the hall. That will mean moving the playroom and my office downstairs into the large room. The baby will be in a bassinet in our room for the first few months. If the garage is unfinished by the end of 2025, we can just put the crib in our son’s room for a while. The playroom will be downstairs so there will only be their beds and a dresser in the upstairs bedroom. It’s not ideal, but it is doable. Upstairs is the main part of the house, so having everyone sleeping upstairs makes more sense until the garage is completed. I prefer for all of us to be sleeping on the same level.
This is the goal for the garage. It is the length of both bedrooms upstairs so it will easily convert to two decent sized bedrooms. Allowing each child a separate space to sleep. And eventually moving all 3 rooms downstairs at some point.
Here is a rendering of the Playroom/Office space that will be in use until the garage is completed. Minus it being downstairs, it’s still a large space and perfect for a play area. I love that there is a half bathroom, so I won’t have to take my three-year-old upstairs to use the bathroom. The recliner will come in handy when I have the baby in the playroom with us. Having my workspace in the playroom should work pretty well since I can fill orders while the kids play. I love how large this space is because there is so much room for the kids to move around without running into something!
Remaining Reno Goals for our home:
Convert garage to bedrooms
Open up upstairs closets
Build Mudroom/Laundry room off back corner of the house
Replace Windows
Paint Siding
We could not be more excited about our little family growing! When I look back at all the progress we have made on our home, I can’t help but be excited to get to raise our family here!
