Our New Home - Intro + Progress

I realized the other day that I jumped right into our kitchen design plan (probably because that is all I can think about these days) without introducing you to our new space! So today’s post is full of “before” photos and some updates on our progress!

We moved to San Antonio in May and began searching for a home to purchase. We left a townhome in Houston that was sunny and full of sweet memories so this new house had big shoes to fill. We looked at several options before we found this one. We knew that we wanted to find a home that hadn’t been renovated so that we could design it ourselves but there are a few items we knew we wouldn’t be able to add. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, an attached garage and natural light. In case you couldn’t tell I am crazy about natural light in a space…it is something you can’t change and it makes me SO happy, so it was a must on our wish list. This home checked off all of those boxes and so we pulled the trigger! We closed in July and began renovating shortly after.

There were original hardwoods throughout most of the house, a few rooms had engineered wood and the kitchen and utility were vinyl. The hardwoods were very shiny and sad.  

The house needed a little love but altogether had great bones and huge potential. I loved the large dining room and was planning dinner parties in my head long before we closed…

There was a wall/cut out situation separating the kitchen from the living area.

The first thing we (and by we, I mean our contractor) tackled was taking out the wall in the kitchen. There was an immediate sense of relief as the room felt larger and less claustrophobic. The entire kitchen was also removed. If you missed the post about the kitchen design plan you can read about it here. 

We continued the hardwood into the kitchen/utility and had the entire floor refinished. If you have been following along on Instagram, you may have noticed that the stain selection for the flooring was the hardest decision of the entire process. It took around a week to land on a final option and I am sure our installer hated me by the end. The short story is that I originally wanted a “raw” unfinished white oak look...the problem: our floors are red oak. When you try to seal red oak it turns PINK. I went round and round trying to figure out how to achieve the look that I was after until finally giving up and choosing a medium brown/gray stain. Once the decision was made I held my breath for an entire week while they stained and sealed the floor. And you know what? I think what we chose is better than what I originally wanted!

It feels SO good now that the floor is stained and the walls and trim are painted. I talked about the kitchen in detail in the kitchen post but we basically went for a light gray/putty color on the cabinets with white quartz countertops. We did a flat/inset cabinet style...the goal was simple and modern in here. Here are a few sneak peeks of the progress.

We are currently almost finished with this phase of the renovation (both bathrooms will be phase 2 in a few years!) and are moving in this weekend!! I am so happy with the transformation and can hardly wait to get furniture in here. Check my Insta stories this weekend for peeks at the finished space!

PS- The exterior of the house is getting its own makeover next week. Stay tuned for a separate post about our plans for out there!