New House! Home Improvements Part 1, Kitchen & Family Room

Last month a dream of ours came true: to buy a house here in Southern California, Murrieta to be exact. After really falling in love with this area we decided to stay here, and a couple years back we began dreaming of home ownership. I’m beyond grateful that, due to a very unexpected turn of events, this September we were able to make an offer on a house, which was accepted. 😀

We were absolutely giddy when our realtor showed us this house and we saw the mid century details (even though the house was built in the late 80’s) like clearstory windows, a 10 foot sliding glass door, and the fireplace wall of stone. Some of the other reasons we fell in love with the house included the mature trees and privacy, solid flooring (the first floor and stairs), newer paint inside and out, and neighborhood.

I’m really just pinching myself!!!

But of course, there were things we HAD to change (we need ALL, count ’em, THREE new toilets, oy vey), and things we just wanted to change. And it’s the way you make a house your own that’s the fun part. Well, the actual WORK of making it your own may not be fun, but the end result is fun anyway! 🙂

One of the biggest eyesores for me was the lattice that ran the length of the patio, some 25 feet. It made me feel claustrophobic and it made the patio feel smaller than it really is, because it didn’t run parallel to the edge of the patio floor, but the edge of the deck above, which is about 2 feet shorter than the patio.

The link to our TV cabinet

Here is the new view, sans lattice. Actually, you can see some lattice which I still have to take down, through the window on the right, over the kitchen nook table. Unlike the longer piece of lattice, which was screwed into place, the one on the right is nailed in on both sides. And since Andrew threw his back out, that project is on hold!

In this photo you can also see that there are cream colored blinds across that enormous slider that we adore. (The slider really makes you feel like the yard and the family room are one. Love!) Close up you can see that the cream blinds are not plastic, but some kind of fabric that reminds me of felt. I’m going to replace them with the IKEA curtains that I’ve had for years.

The fiddle fig tree is from Costco early this year, and the ottoman is by moi. I took a rustic wooden ottoman from the thrift store and added a tall piece of foam, then wrapped it in faux leather and stapled 🙂 Still gotta deal with the cords situation under and around the TV stand. Is there a gadget for cords that I should know about? Could use some help with that!

You can find a similar blanket here. (I’ve had this one for over 20 years.) The pillows are custom. My daughter’s friend sewed them for me with fabric that I got at JoAnne’s. They have zippers for cleaning. I’ve had this grey wool area rug for a few years now and its held up great! I got it because I wanted to keep the big family room pieces, like furniture, walls and rugs, in neutral grey and brown tones, with colorful accents like throws, seasonal pillows, and so on. 🙂 When you see my new living room/office you’ll see that I went bolder with the big pieces in there.

Turn to the right and you’re in the kitchen. Here is the view from the kitchen into the family room above:

I have to laugh, we rented a house in Colorado that had a corian counter and it was the EXACT same blue as this one! Ha! Must have been very popular in the late 80’s! What I love about the corian is that the sink is seamless. It’s not what I would have picked, but that’s okay! 🙂 The color is neutral enough, and I feel lucky to have these counters.

I also love the bar height ledge that makes the kitchen a little more private from the family room. It’s not deep enough for stools, but I’m good with that too.

I’m going to paint the original, very grainy orange-colored kitchen cabinets white. Soon. Like next week soon. Can’t wait to show you!!

We JUST replaced the original corroded kitchen faucet with this one and I loooooove it! It looks great, functions so amazingly well, and doesn’t show spots. Super excited about it!!

The yellow soap is watered down Dr. Bronner’s hand soap, because I was previously using the dish soap on my hands and they were getting sooooo dry. The clear soap is watered down dish soap, something environmentally-friendly from Costco.

And it’s a small thing, I know, but these soap pumps and towel holder are also making me suuuper happy! I searched and searched for pumps that wouldn’t rust, which fit on a standard (not wide mouth) mason jar. These black ones are plastic so they won’t rust! I got the mason jars at the thrift store, my favorite place to find them! (Which reminds me I should show you the margarita glasses that I found there too! You know the ones – they have them at Pier 1 – they’re made in Mexico and they’re clear glass with a blue base and a blue rim. LOVE.)

The towel holder was a little less satisfying, because apparently nobody makes them tall enough for kitchen towels. They’re meant for “finger towels” (I had never heard that term before) in the bathroom. But my oven is not under the stove like it’s always been, instead it’s as close to the dining room as you can get, so we were dripping water all over the floor by keeping towels on the oven. All in all I’m very pleased with the towel holder, perfection not required. 🙂

Can’t wait to put up the mantle that I ordered and get decorating for Christmas! Also terrified to drill into that stone, wish me luck!!

Can’t wait to show you more!

♥, Kelly