House Tour: Upstairs

Thanks for the birthday love, everyone! T and I had fancy reservations, but after spending my day off happily priming/painting and coordinating with gas and tv guys, cleaning up to slip into a dress was the last thing I felt like doing. We ditched our plans and ate pizza and drank champagne on the floor instead - and then got right back to work! It was perfect, actually... when else will I spend my birthday like this?

We're getting a ton done over there every night, but I can't show our progress until I've shown the rest of the "Before," right? Getting back to our House Tour, then, here's the upstairs.

(Photos courtesy of the sellers' agent.)

The master bedroom is at the front of the house, which means early morning sun for two folks who love a late morning and a good nap. In other words, it's high-time I order blackout shades. That fan's gotta go, too - it sounds like it's ready to come off the wall when it's turned on (and that's the nicest thing I can say about it).

The closets need some big-time TLC, trust me. And do you see everyone's favorite kitchen linoleum in the hallway? Well, you won't see it for long! The original floors underneath are in great shape, thank goodness. Why in the world someone would live with faux bricks in their hallway in this day and age rather than lovely hardwood floors is beyond me. 

Here's the middle bedroom, which has even more closet issues than the master. These needed to be rebuilt 10 years ago. One easy option would be turning this room into my office so that we could just remove the "closets" and line the wall my bookcases - but I sort of love the next bedroom and feel like it should be where I spend my working hours.

This room is so cheery and sunny - it just screams "Maggie's office" to me. Which means our guests would have to deal with the awful "built-ins" in the other bedroom until we come up with a grand plan for them. Hmmmm.

Bathrooms are the one area we're having to downgrade from what we're used to. The brand-new condos we've lived in here and in Dallas know how to throw up gorgeous, huge bathrooms. The house has one full bath, which is pretty standard for rowhomes, and it's small. We're going to have to get creative with bathroom storage, no doubt about it.

I know the floors are classic, but I hope they don't interfere too much with my crazy-pattern shower curtain made from our wedding tablecloths. Also, notice how white this wainscoting looks. I can assure you that it was nowhere near a bright white without the use of digital photo brightening - but it is now! Oops - I keep wanting to skip ahead to our projects. Still to come on the House Tour: the great outdoors and the infamous basement!

House Tour

Living Room & Dining Room

Kitchen

Basement
Outdoors