Renovation Updates

 Hi there friends! I hope you all had a great week! We have been visiting my parents up in the Blue Ridge Mountains since Tuesday afternoon and it has been a dream. The weather has been perfect and there are still plenty of beautiful leaves to see. I will do a post on Monday with all my pictures but if you want to follow along for now, check us out on Instagram @dontmindourmess. And here's a quick sneak peak:

Today I am doing a quick update on how our renovations are going. I have been getting a lot of questions about it from friends, family, and you-- my online friends!

It felt like the renovation process was moving along very quickly, and then all of a sudden it slowed down. It wasn't necessarily that it actually slowed down, it was just that now they are doing the electrical work and plumbing, so there isn't a whole lot to show for what they've been up to. 

That being said, I wanted to show you some quick before and afters of what it looks like now. So here was what you saw when you first walked in the front door of our little 1970's home:

And here is how it looked about a week ago (since then they've taken down all lighting fixtures and have put some more recessed lighting in).

So the stairs are moved, and the kitchen is getting ready to be put in! 

Here is our old kitchen from another angle:

I used to complain about our tiny kitchen to just about everyone I knew, because this isn't the norm in Charlotte (where we live). But then in the fall of 2015 a girlfriend and I went to go visit her sister in NYC and when I saw how tiny Julie's kitchen was and knew it must've cost a fortune (it was in a great area), I realized I actually have very little to complain about. It served our family well for the 7 years that we had it! That being said, there's nothing wrong with a little updating!

Now that wall has been ripped out and the space is much more open (and bright!). Since this picture was taken, the ceiling lighting has been taken out and the wires have all been fixed/put away.

Now once we go downstairs, the space has opened up tremendously. The #1 reason for doing this update was to have a bigger/more open kitchen, but the added benefit is that our entire house is actually much more open and feels bigger!

Here is our downstairs den/TV area before:

In this picture I am standing right in front of our fireplace. See those stairs right in the middle? 

This was the view from our back door:

And here it is now:

See how much brighter it is? Both sets of pictures were taken on rainy/cloudy days, yet now that those stairs are gone the basement fit getting so much more natural light. The electricity was out in the renovation pics (because they were working on electrical work), yet the pictures are so much brighter.

Anyway, needless to say we are SO excited with how things are going so far! Now for the fun of getting walls put back up, paint up on the walls, and our kitchen!!! They still haven't done any work on LG's bedroom or the master, but they'll get there.

Thanks for following along today! I am linking up with Andrea and Erika for Friday Favorites. Hope you all have a great weekend!