Updating underway

Our realtor has advised us that we should get our current house on the market by the end of January, so it's a good thing the updates for our new digs have kicked off this week. Now that the seasonal decor shelving was assembled in my garage and filled yesterday, it's time to start working on the interior changes.

All of the unattractive old granite was pulled off in anticipation of building out the bar serving area at counter height, reworking the ventahood, replacing cabinet pulls, adding new granite and a backsplash. Thankfully, our contractor was able to save big chunks of the old granite as well as sink and faucet. Hopefully that can be repurposed in the barn's new bathroom and/or kitchen area. I hated the idea of tossing out the old granite, even though I'm not a fan of it in the main house.

We removed an unattractive storage cabinet to replace it with a coffee station, see below. The cabinetmaker will give us lots of deep storage drawers across the bottom, with the same kitchen backsplash tile running up the wall accented by a couple floating shelves to hold cups and decor. I think it will be a great use of this space because the husband and girls are big coffee drinkers.

Around the corner where the large family who built the house had cubbies for each of the kiddos, we pulled those out to create a butler's pantry. The house already has great storage, but a bit more will make it even better. 

Tomorrow I'm working with our decorator to select new ceiling fans and light fixtures. The front dining area's chandelier is lovely, but absolutely is not my aesthetic. Especially after I have our contractor build an accent wall behind it like the one below. I'm all about clean lines with a modern twist, not fussy or fancy. Let me know if anybody's looking for a slightly used crystal chandelier.

 

I also need to order the dining tables since I didn't get that accomplished before the holidays hit, as well as look for a long, skinny coffee table for the living area downstairs. Decisions, decisions. These projects always start off small and then tend to snowball a bit. While we've got a cabinetmaker creating custom built-ins for my office, why not have him make new cabinets for the master bath, too?  And what about a coffee station? That's how it goes, y'all.