Our House Tour - Our Third House

We lived in our last house from 2012 to 2016, when we grew out of it!

We moved into this house in December 2012 – just 10 short days before hosting family for Christmas. It is a three-bedroom back split and larger than our last house – 1,350 sq. ft. versus 1,050 sq. ft. It is located on a quiet family-friendly court, which means no through traffic and lots of space for the kids to play.

How We Got Here

In the fall of 2012, we decided we had outgrown our little bungalow and it was time to finish up some projects there and start looking for a new place to call home. We took to MLS.ca almost daily and looked through a couple of houses before we hired a Realtor to take us on other house tours.

Initially, we thought we’d work on the remaining bungalow renovations over the winter and list in the spring, but MLS just kept drawing us in. We rushed through a few projects like finishing up baseboards we had never gotten around to.

We spent several evenings driving through several neighborhoods and specifically past this house one night while the kids were occupied at church. As much as we loved the neighborhood, the Realtor photos kept stumping me – the kitchen looked so tiny and the parquet was a total turn-off. Not to mention the old orange-y wood doors and baseboards.

We waited a couple of weeks.

I thought I wanted a more finished house this time around.

God had other plans.

We walked through three houses on a Friday evening with our Realtor. I thought for sure it would be the first house we loved. But it was a mess inside. And the second house was even worse – and far too big and expensive for us.

Honest to goodness, the second we walked in the door of this house, I knew – parquet and all – that this was THE house.

The bungalow was sold and the back split was ours just over two weeks later!

Front Yard

We began working on the gardens and front porch in May 2013 with the help (and a plan) from our brother-in-law, Adam. (Who totally rocks, btw!) The curb appeal and outside work will likely be a long work in progress!

The Entry

We finally got to replacing the light fixture in the entryway! Hallelujah!

The Living Room

We adore that this house has both a living room and a family room – something we’ve never had before.

Actually, in December of 2015, we swapped the living and dining rooms, and although each room is a work in progress we love the new layout!

Dining Room

Let’s face it, if you’ve seen the dining room in our last house, you know why we loved it so much! We sold the old dining table, chairs, and hutch to the buyer of our last house. They were totally suited to the space. Which gave us a blank slate to decorate again. Dean built the farmhouse table and I finished it. We also DIY’d most of the other accessories in the room. We moved the white Eiffel chairs to the kids’ desk and a craft table in the basement and added a new hutch in the fall of 2013.

Okay, as I mentioned above, we swapped the living and dining rooms in December 2015. And we are loving the new bigger dining room!

And we also switched out the table in early 2016.

Related: 4 Ways to Create a Stylish Home Office in the Living Room and Elegant Home Office Area in the Dining Room

Kitchen

This kitchen’s realtor photo threw me for a real loop. I just couldn’t imagine such a tiny kitchen for a family of five. What didn’t show up was that there was a good 8 feet between the fridge and the closest wall! We painted the cupboards, added a breakfast bar, and had to switch to a newer fridge in Spring 2016.

Family Room

This is currently where the big tv and the Wii live. And for that reason, the kids spend a lot of time down there. We painted just before our school year started and added some much-needed color! It functions just fine as a kids’ hangout…something we didn’t have before! There is also a pullout in the sectional, which has proven wonderful for having company over!

Master Bedroom

Our master bedroom is the room that was most finished first. It is usually the last room most people work on, but with the kids getting older and taking over more of the rest of the house, it was important to me (Shannon) to have our bedroom looking great!

Also in spring 2016 we switched out the yellow accents for blush pink.

Click here for our Master Bedroom Source List

Boy’s Room

Our son’s room was also one of the first rooms to be nearly complete, simply because it was already blue when we moved in and we had plenty of hand-me-down furniture to put in here. Like the old tv cupboard that works perfectly as a dresser/armoire for him. We still have to redo the flooring and trim.

We have since moved our son to the basement and given this room a huge makeover for one of our daughters. See below…

Girls’ Room

We finally finished our the room our girls share after almost two years in the house. It’s a little more colorful than the rest of our house! And now only one of our daughters is in this room.