31 Days to a Complete Home Renovation: Day 19

Update (August 2018): I have created a new + easier to navigate website: www.elitafriesen.com  Come visit me over there, y'all!  

After 28 days of renovating, working into all hours of the night (including quite a few 5 am mornings and installing the floors the night before we moved in), we did it.  Or actually, Ryan did it.  He had tons of help along the way from friends and family.  But I am massively proud of him and I love living in something we dreamt of together and he created.

On to the pictures! {Today we'll focus on the main living area.}  

Remember the lovely entrance to the dump? 

Here she is now.  Come on in y'all!

Let's have a look back at that lovely entry-way:

And now:

This was the layout of the kitchen, dining room, and living room before:

Standing in the same spot, here's the new view of our open-concept living/dining/kitchen area:

The living room before:

And then mid-way through construction:

And the living room after:

And finally, the living room looking into the dining "room" … but really it's more like a dining area.

We bought this map from Ikea after looking at it for a little over 2 years.  This giant wall seemed like a perfect fit for the map and we absolutely love it.  It's completely changed our dinner conversations with the kids. Each week we take turns picking out a country and then we study it for the week.  It's been so fun learning new things about countries like Iraq (liquorice is one of their main plants!), Turkey (it's larger than the state of Texas!),  and the Kerguelen Islands ("the Ker-what" you ask?  Oh, it's a real place. It takes 6 days on a fishing boat to get there from Madagascar. We can thank my 4 year old for picking that one out).  We do powerpoint presentations and then by the end of the week we learn how to pray for that specific country.  Oh!  I love it, I tell ya.  And so do the boys. Apparently I miss homeschooling.  

Well, I hope you're just as thrilled with how it's looking as I am.  There are things we still have on our list to do.  But for now, we are settled and oh so happy!  Come back tomorrow for more after pictures of our kitchen and the rest of the upstairs! 

Happy Wednesday Y'all!

E