House Tour Part II

Welcome back to the three-part Casa de Walker home tour. House Tour Part I covered the front of the house, entryway, living room and dining room. Below are pictures of the kitchen, family room, first floor guest bedroom and hall bathroom.

The Kitchen – Before:

The Kitchen – After:

Oh, don’t you just love the little galley kitchens that so many smaller homes from the 40’s and 50’s?! Ha! I do love the tile, white cabinets and extra large sink. We went from an open, expansive, more-cabinets-than-we-need kitchen in our apartment in Olathe to this closed-in, narrow, slightly claustrophobic, just-barely-enough-cabinets-for-everything-except-the-pots-and-pans kitchen in the rental house in PV that you saw above. Here is what our kitchen looked like (almost completely packed up right before we moved):

Yowza! It's like night and day... oil and water! BUT, we told ourselves that we love love love everything else about the house, so we can find creative ways to deal for a couple years. The first (and best) thing we did was purchase a pot rack. The landlord/previous tenant had a three-tiered shelf along the back wall, but it seemed too invasive and overwhelming in the small space. That, and the fact that we would have nowhere to put our trash and recycling cans or my trusty Kik-Step stool. Seriously, one of the best wedding gifts we received. It’s a rolling stool that you can “kik” (read: push or nudge) around with your foot, but once you place any weight on the upper or lower level of the stool, it plants itself and locks in place. We love our stainless steel one, but they come in a variety of cool colors. Check them out! 

Anyway, so we decided to skip the bulky shelving unit and go with a more modern look by using a pot rack. Some people may cringe at the thought of their (or anyone’s, for that matter) pots and pans out on display for everyone to see, but we love the idea. For starters, our wedding-gifted Calphalon set is still super nice looking so it wouldn’t be an eye sore, at least to us. In addition, we do a lot of cooking, so the thought of not having to bend down to get pots and pans in and out of the cabinets on a daily basis was super exciting, especially to my 6’2” husband! We looked all around, but I ended up making the final purchase with a site I’ve been coming back to time and time again, Hayneedle. They. Have. Everything!!! We’re talking over 220 stores (and counting) of online shopping heaven all combined in one website! If you haven’t checked them out before, I suggest that you do now. And I’m going to apologize in advance because you will probably be upset that you didn’t know about them sooner when you were doing all of your Christmas shopping. And the best part, they don’t have sales tax and they ship for free. Well, at least with the last 4-5 orders I’ve placed randomly throughout 2010 the tax and shipping was $0.00, oh, and you can sometimes find coupon codes out there as well. Happy Shopping!

So, I purchased the pot rack online and was very excited when it arrived less than a week later. The hubby opened, assembled and hung it on the wall in no time at all and a few minutes later I had everything (besides the wok and huge stockpot that are only used a few times a year - those will reside in the basement until they’re needed) neatly hung in its new hanging home. I love it! I still need to do something decorative and cute with the top shelf, but there is plenty of time for that.

The Family Room – Before:

The Family Room – After:

I love this room and am so thankful to the original owners for busting out the dining room wall 20+ years ago and adding on this amazing family living area (and the master bedroom). We love having a family room and have spent time in this room every single day since we moved in. It definitely makes it feel like home when we can be in the same room (whether we’re watching TV, I’m doing crafts on the coffee table or floor, Caton is working or playing on the laptop in the huge chair or we’re doing a combination of all of these) and we’re doing things together. We bought the matching couch, love seat (which currently resides in the living room, and will until we move to a bigger house with a bigger room that can accommodate all 3 pieces in the set) and over sized chair the week we moved in and we are so pleased with our purchase. The other piece of furniture we wanted I had to have was that incredible 9 shelf room divider (although we’ll always have it up against a wall). I first saw this beauty at the big NFM - Nebraska Furniture Mart - a few years ago and fell even more in love when my friend, Cindy, and are husband bought it for their home office last year. It is just perfect AND it matches the rest of our furniture in style, color, and design. I’m certain it was destined to be part of our home decor. I just love that I have a place to house a large number of our picture frames, fun pieces and decor, and even my 'Legacy of an Adopted Child' Poem (although, this isn't the exact one I have framed), for everyone to see.

The one and only thing I would have to complain about in this room is that wall paper. I’m not a huge wall paper person in general and, even if I was, this is definitely NOT my style. While we thought time and again about ripping it down and painting, we continue to tell ourselves that we don’t own this house and there is really no point in putting money into it. We are so excited to do home renovations on our own place some day, but until then we will deal with not-so-much-our-style wallpaper and be thankful that it at least goes well with our furniture and curtain color choices.

The Guest Room – Before:

The Guest Room – After:

I am so thankful to have not only one guest room, but two, in this house. This is the guest room on the main floor that will be used most often by our beloved family and friends that travel for miles away (or just drink too much to drive across town) to see us. The curtains were left by the landlord and I haven’t had a chance to replace them yet, but they will most likely be a simple navy blue to coordinate with the awesome Paisley bedspread (have I mentioned how much I LOVE Paisley print?! Don’t worry, you’ll get to see more of it in our master bedroom as well!). Unlike the guest room in the apartment, we did hook this monster of a TV up to basic cable so our guests, and nephews, have a place to get relax and unwind before bed or, in the case of the nephews, get away from the adults and play some video games or watch kid-friendly movies without interruption.

The Hall Bath – Before:

The Hall Bath – After:

The same goes for the wallpaper in this bathroom. It's just not our style, but I do like the color and we can live with it for a couple years (I tell myself this at least once a day, can you tell?!).

Stay tuned because the third and final house tour post is still to come. Last, but not least, we will tour the master bedroom and bathroom, the office/upstairs guest bedroom and the basement.