Home

For the past eleven years, we have called New Jersey home. For the first four of that, we lived on base in military housing. We had some issues with the unit we were in and the military refused to fix it (termite infestation, complete with random swarms across our living room floor with a toddler that crawls on said floor) around the same time that my husband was transferred to a new squadron for four years. Knowing we had at least four more years here, we bought a house in February 2005.

If you come by my house today, it looks vastly different from the day we bought it. My husband is a very handy person and over the past seven years, we (we=mostly he, while I supervised and input my opinion) have transformed our house into a home. New Jersey is an extremely expensive state to live in- property taxes are insane. Therefore, our enlisted military pay doesn't go very far, but I am pleased with it. Other than wishing for more land, the only thing I would really change if I could (other than move it to another school district since I now officially hate ours) is I would consider selling my soul for another bathroom. One bathroom is definitely a challenge.

Since I know I like to be nosy and see other people's homes (or photos of their homes), I thought I would take you on a tour of mine.

Here is a before and after of the outside- we have a new roof, new front door, new outside lights, added window boxes and plants and fenced in the entire yard: (top picture is the day we moved in, bottom is just recently- I will have to take another picture in the spring when that sad-looking hydrangea by the door is blooming and my flower bed and window boxes are full of life)

Side note: funny thing about the yard- the corner of my property is a bus stop for several different buses and I was appalled at the fact that the kids that stand at the bus stop just walk all over my yard. Not on the edge, I don't mind that- I wouldn't want them to stand in the street- but all OVER the yard! I once caught a kid sliding down the kids' slide in the backyard and another little girl that lives down the road, used to come right up to my front door in the mornings (I usually open the main door and let the sun beam in through the storm door) and peer in at us. So, yeah, we fenced it all in.

Come inside! Here is the entryway- I don't have a before picture because it was just white walls with nothing there. We changed the door- you can't see it very well here because it is dark outside, but it has black wrought iron scrollwork in the middle. I love it!


Here it is!

Our one and only bathroom had a blue tub, toilet and sink and only one dim little light. We were unable to replace the tub (we called Bath Fitter and they can't fit over it either, they said they would have to tear it out and replace it) because it is all one big giant piece and would have to be cut out and removed. So, I covered it with a shower curtain.

He replaced the doors, flooring,mirror, sink and toilet, and added recessed lighting and a vanity light over the mirror.

Here is one view of the eat in kitchen before we moved in compared to now. We did so many things here. He replaced the sliding door with french doors (and eventually added a sunroom on to the back of the house right there), we added some cabinets because it made more sense, changed the tile, counter top, bought a gas stove and overhead microwave, added a kitchen island and painted.

The view looking the other way:

Just off the kitchen (that door you see in the above photo), you find the laundry room (and also the only room we have for any kind of storage- it had no cabinets and we had to add some to make a pantry. Half of this room is taken up by the enormous central heater/air conditioning unit.

Here is the living room, before and after. The entire house was covered in this blue carpeting. We still have it in the hall, Noah's and Zoe's rooms, but hope to eventually change it all over to the Pergo floors.

The bedroom was this lovely (NOT) shade of mustard yellow. The ceiling and inside the closet were painted that color too. As much as I hated it, we fixed everything else first and saved our room for last. We just FINALLY repainted our bedroom this past May when DJ returned from deployment. I am so glad I don't have to stare at that yellow anymore!


When we moved in, Noah was eighteen months old and the third bedroom- the smallest one- was just fine for his purposes. It was already painted blue and so we just moved his furniture right on into it. Later, when I found out I was pregnant with Zoe, we moved Noah to the bigger bedroom and painted this room for Zoe.




I don't have a "before" picture of Noah's room, because it was originally an extra bedroom with a treadmill, computer desk and all the extra "junk". Here is Noah's room now (he does not have any room for another single toy or Lego- ahem, Grandparents!)



Finally, we have the sunroom. Originally, just a patio- DJ reinforced the concrete and made it into a room!




This room is now painted a khaki color that matches the kitchen (since it is sort of an extension of the kitchen) and there is a nice patio with a table and chairs right outside these french doors. I would take a picture for you, but it is a mess right now as it is where I had the Christmas tree and we are in "we've taken down the Christmas decorations but not put them away and so there is stuff stacked everywhere) mode right now.

Here is a picture of the Christmas tree this year (you can kind of make out the color of the walls and the patio outside the door)


The house was originally 1200 sq ft and I *think* if my memory serves me correctly, this sunroom added an additional 150 sq ft. What you see is what you get at my house- we have no garage or basement. It is definitely a challenge finding somewhere to PUT everything, but we have managed to do it.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of our home.