I hope you sang that just like Flo Rida.

This spring, we were able to realize our dream of purchasing our first home. I’ve wanted my own house for as long as I can remember -growing up, my parents’ house was always the “party house” because my mom had the best snacks and we had a basement full of board games. I’ve spent my adult life waiting and preparing for my own house to make the “party house.” I also wanted a place that needed a little bit of work. My oh my, did we get that and then some…

Colorado isn’t exactly affordable, and we were buying right in the height of the housing market frenzy – so we had a lot of trouble finding the right place. Nine offers and two failed inspections later, we finally found the perfect home for our little family. The 1947 cottage has oodles and oodles of unseen potential, and the backyard makes it the perfect “party house.” Now if I could just win the lottery, all my home dreams would come true!

Exterior Plans: paint the brick white, add shutters to the righthand front window, paint the shutters and upper trim green, landscaping (and more importantly, proper grading), and re-stain the porch pillars.

Living/Dining Room Plans: new floors (I’d much rather keep the original hardwoods because they’re beautiful, but they’ve been sanded down so many times that if you spill water, it runs into the basement. Not to mention nails snagging your socks. So, sadly they’ve gotta go.). We’d also like to add a faux fireplace, swap out the window treatments, and paint the front/back door trim.

Office/Workout Room Plans: leveling the floors and replacing the floorboards to match the LR, adding roman shades, and creating a built-in cabinet, bookshelf, and desk sequence for the office. I have a vision to paint the room a moody blue, wallpaper the ceiling, and swap out the can lights for a single chandelier.

Kitchen Plans: this entire space will be a DIY gut job to brighten things up. We’ll resurface the cabinets and paint them white, replace the hardware, swap the current hinges for soft-close hinges, add a roman shade window treatment, replace the backsplash and countertops (or we might try our hand at epoxy?), install a single apron sink, and add floating shelves. The big Kahuna will be replacing the massive refrigerator with a counter depth one, which might also afford us the space to install additional cabinet lowers. We’ll finish with a fresh coat of paint.

Primary Bedroom Plans: I honestly don’t know what I want to do for our room. It’s one of the only rooms in the house that hasn’t “spoken” to me. Don’t you hate that? Anyway, all I know for now is new floors, new window treatments, a new light fixture, and more closet shelving. I think we’ll go with a Southwestern vibe in here. If you have an epiphany, send it my way!

Guest Bedroom Plans: new floors (with additional floor outlets because there’s only one in here right now!), create a wallpaper accent wall, add window treatments, and add shelving in the closet. Voila.

Upstairs Bath Plans: this will also be a gut job. It’s tiny, but incredibly important since it’s the only upstairs bathroom (our basement bath is double the size, because why not?!). Here I want to turn the current tub/shower, into a glass enclosed shower with subway tile, remove all the wall tile and replace with beadboard, and swap out the vanity, mirror, and light fixture for more unique and modern pieces (preferably with more storage).

Laundry Room Plans: add utility room louvered doors, replace floor tile, and add shelving/storage.

Basement Bath Plans: two words – DOUBLE. VANITY. there’s so much room for activities!! I’d love to swap out the floor tiles, paint, and get a new mirror/light fixture. Otherwise, this isn’t where the budget will go.

Basement Living Room Plans: I’ve thought very little about this space, too. I bet we’ll end up doing carpet, but I also hate carpet. I think it would be a good idea to put some drywall up on the ceiling, too. Just one person’s opinion.

Basement Bedroom Plans: of course the biggest bedroom is in the basement, too! And this room gets a lot of light thanks to the egress window. Whatever flooring we do in the LR we’ll continue into the bedroom. I’d also love to fix up the closet that currently isn’t wide enough to even stand in sideways.

Backyard Plans: Jake is obsessed with the backyard, and I love that journey for him. Jake will plant things and grow the grass and whack weeks. We want to paint the shed green to match the shutters/door/exterior trim. We inherited the chaise lounges from the previous owner, so I’ll fix those up and get new cushions. About half the pool tiles are missing, so we’ll need to replace those – and really, I’d love to turn it from a chlorine to a saltwater pool. The gravel next to the pool drives me nuts, so we’ll have to do something about that – no idea what yet. Someday we’ll get raised garden beds and a fire pit out here, too.

So , there she is in all her glory!! I am completely obsessed. Although it’s not been the smoothest introduction to homeownership with several unforseen and very un-sexy expenses, it’s been an amazing ride already. I can’t wait to share the DIY projects and renovations we complete along the way!