Our Home Renovation | All the Details

This post has been a LONG time coming! We have lived here for four years now… transforming a few rooms individually: My Home Office, Caroline’s Room, The Dining Room, and most recently Carson’s Room–but now it’s time to say farewell to the former design as we are embarking on a HUGE renovation that starts at the end of the month.

So here I am answering a few of your burning questions, and filling you in on some of the brand new design that’s coming our way soon:

WHY | That’s the question I get most frequently… isn’t your home “new, so why are you renovating?” Basically, Jeff and I had plans to renovate this house when we moved in a few years ago, but life happened and we got busy, so we worked one completing one room at a time. Eventually, we looked at moving elsewhere in Brentwood, buying a new home, etc… but weighed our pros and cons and decided our neighborhood is where we want to be for the foreseeable future and don’t plan on moving until our girls are finished with school. That said, it’s time to hit the go button and we are OVER THE MOON excited for what’s about to happen.

WHEN | Demolition starts October 3oth, so we’ll be moving out the week before. I think our friends and family believe we have completely lost our minds, but so be it… we’ve been working on the logistics of this transaction for months so we are ready to get the show started. Sure, it’s the craziest season of the year for Jeff and my businesses, but we thrive on pure chaos so here goes nothing! I’ve been packing for a few weeks now, organizing everything we intend to keep in storage and then donating hoards of other items to local non-profits, including my favorites–Hope for Domestic Violence and ARC–as well as regular drop-offs to Goodwill, too. This is the perfect time to purge and declutter so I’ve been actively working to tackle this before we move out.

And yes, you read that correctly, because we’re renovating the majority of our home, we’ll be moving in with Mimi and Pappy = one big happy family!! The girls are on cloud nine that they will get to be with their grandparents every day and we’re glad for the extra support, too [although let’s face it… I’m sure we’re all going to drive each other crazy as well-LOL]. After seeing some of our friends live in their home during full renos and how difficult it was, we knew we needed to leave. And for all of you asking–the tentative timeline is 8 months- yep, we will all be living under one roof for 243 days = good thing they love us, right?!?!

WHAT | No, we won’t be changing any of the rooms that we have already completed, but every other room in our home is getting renovated. Here’s a small breakdown of specific spaces, design elements:

• Kitchen: Full renovation, including larger island, new cabinets, new appliances, new caesarstone countertops, marble backplash, new pendant lighting… yes, totally new and redesigned– here are a few images we’ve been using for design inspiration
• Butler’s Pantry: adding all new cabinetry, backsplash, beverage center, refrigerator and freezer drawers, dishwasher, ice maker, and wine storage rack
• Laundry Room: changing out hardwoods to tile flooring, building custom colored cabinetry, adding drying racks, built-in hampers and storage
• Family Room: taking out bookshelves and windows and adding two sets of french doors, rebuilding fireplace and mantle
• Breakfast Area: adding in built-in banquette seating, changing out windows, new lighting
• Guest Bedroom/Bath: new lighting, new tile and bathroom design including custom cabinets with new bath
• Master Bedroom: adding a seating nook and taking over the outside patio area to make our room larger, new lighting
• Master Bathroom: all new design–custom cabinetry, new walk in shower, new floor tile and lighting
• Mudroom: new built-in desks for Caroline and Carson, new cabinets an cubbies for storage
• Playroom: ripping out carpet and adding in hardwoords
• Foyer: new lighting, new stairway banisters and iron rails
• Additions: we will also be adding three additional rooms to our home, including another guest bedroom upstairs as well as a new Sugar Bit storage room and a media room
• Outdoor: finally, we will be adding an outdoor grill/kitchen prep area since we love to grill so much! This will also include pavers and a pergola as well
• Paint: ohhh yes… we are painting the outside of our house, too, so we’ll say adios to the yellow brick and we’ve opted for a traditional white brick and trim, with dark colors for the shutters

Sounds like a lot, right?!?!? Ummm yes. Quite overwhelming, but thanks to an AMAZING contractor (Ron Davis) and designer (Kendall Simmons), we have a dream team that is just as ecstatic to make this house our forever home and we are fully confident we’re in good hands with these two.

Ready to follow along?!?! Buckle up… it’s going to be one fun, WILD ride. I’ll be checking in weekly with updates and sharing design specifics so be sure to visit often for everything renovation related…