I love "Before and After" blog posts. Everything looks even more fantastic when you put a "before" photo up to show that something has been improved like I did for the kitchen here and the deck here. Last year was a major remodeling year. It took us four years of living in this house before we figured out how we wanted to change things based on the traffic flow of people who visit. For example, people rarely went down into the backyard, they always stayed on the deck. We learned the spots in our house that were the most popular like our bar area that really isn't even that large. Areas next to windows of the view were always popular. Interestingly, the kitchen in this house is not a hangout area, although it is a very functional kitchen. People just tend to gravitate to the windows to see the view which isn't surprising. By the time we found a remodeler, we knew exactly what we needed to do - enlarge the deck and make better access to view areas. The remodel lasted from April 2019 to December 2019. (way too long!) Also 2019, I got my hip and knee replaced (not at the same time) which took the whole year plus some. And just as I was starting to get back to normal, covid-19 hit and we've been sitting around at home ever since. But not quite...Now that the remodel was done, we decided it was time to figure out how we wanted to furnish our new digs. That's the fun part! We couldn't figure it out on our own so we went to Ethan Allen furniture store and a designer helped us. We've done that before after our two remodels in Idaho and once when we lived in our first house in Seattle (before kids) and we LOVED everything they did. This was our fourth time using them and once again, our designer was right on as you will see. I basically knew what I wanted but I don't have the eye for a lot of things like window coverings. The sun beats into the living room and dinning room in the mornings, mostly in the summer and the main floor turns into an oven since only our upstairs has air conditioning. We added a ceiling fan in the living room during the remodel and it made a world of difference. We added two sets of French doors because of the crowded traffic flow in those areas which made for more windows so more view, makes sense. But I really didn't know what to do for window coverings for French doors, thus the designer's expertise. She also had good ideas for rugs, another weak area for me. We needed so much advise, actually, it was a little overwhelming but it was so easy for her. One of our problem areas was our huge picture window that has a great view.
The previous owners had two swivel chairs here, makes sense. We didn't have swivel chairs so we rotated multiple pieces of furniture there over the years like our bar table and stools. People loved sitting there.
We also had a love seat there half the time and people also loved seating there, too. And it fit in the space just perfectly but your back was always to the view.
But guess what is there now? Two swivel chairs. They really are the perfect solution and make the most sense. They are super comfortable, they don't look like they belong on a cruise ship, and you can turn all directions to see the space needle or Mt. Rainier. Perfect!
Take note that we still need to get some end tables, lamps and pictures on the walls so things aren't completely finished yet. The bar table and stools have moved over to bar area where they should be. When we first moved in, we put our kitchen table in there that was way too large for the space. After we started having people over and observing how people gravitate to the bar area...well, disaster.
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After
Notice the wallpaper is gone and we now have a rug and lovely window coverings.
The French doors that go out to the deck has an awning that comes down so we can shade the sun that way.
No more bottlenecks. My pet peeve.
See how crowded this room would get? We have this huge house but this is where everyone wants to be.
Of course, this is also where the beverages are and we always put out snacks so there's that.
The dining room was the next area of concern. We knocked out a wall in 2017 which was a huge improvement. I wrote about that here. I couldn't even find a photo of that wall because I hated it so much that I always angled my photos so it wasn't in any photos! The dining room was out-dated and too small. With the wall gone, that solved one problem. But our furniture was too formal for this house. Our dining room was no longer a formal dinning room but more of a fun area for large food gatherings. We do have lots of sit-down dinners, too, but we'd had that Queen Anne style dinning set for over 35 years and it doesn't fit the personality of this house. Time to go!
Before
After
This is now my favorite room in the house. It's the same size as our old table, comes with two extensions so it will seat 10 people which was my biggest concern because we have lots of family dinners.
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After
Here's my cute little seasonal center piece. It's really fun to decorate for the season when you have new furniture.
The living room was next. The goal here was to eliminate the recess lighting (per advise of the lighting consultant from our remodel), get rid of the messy TV corner, allow for enough seating for the large gatherings that we have but not totally focused on TV watching necessarily. Our living room is actually more of a family room. People often stand around here socializing while looking at the view but we need enough seating, too.
Before
After
You can't see the TV corner here so here's another one minus the rug. (I think we were getting ready for our Mariner ticket party so that's around 30 people and we always roll up the rug.) Notice how much space the TV takes up with that TV stand, speakers and whatever.
After
The large picture window now has window coverings that are see-through so you can still see the view, yet will block the sun from coming in.
For the dinning room French doors, we put up a sheer window covering that we pull open or close, as needed.
Prior to the French doors here, we had a tiny exit, way too small for our needs, as you can see.
Now, much better but they did need some type of shade or window coverings.
Unfortunately, we did not have that much time before covid to be able try out our remodel but we did have a big party for Nick when he was visiting in September 2019 with 27 people (family and friends to see him). See how great those French doors are there, especially with the barbecue right outside there.
Bruce's sister, Lynn, came to visit for Thanksgiving last year so we had lots of people over for that.
And then Christmas last year was one of the best yet.
We had a Super Bowl party in February and saw friends we hadn't seen in 25 years. Like us, they moved away from Seattle and came back. We're so glad we had that party because little did we know we would not be seeing people very much for the rest of 2020!
But before covid hit, we had one last family gathering for my nephew's wedding in the middle of February which was super fun. We did not know that would be our last family gathering for a long time.
Our house gets a lot of use and it is so worth it to figure out how to make the most of it. I can barely stand it to not be able to have parties here because of covid. Now, with all our new stuff, I really want to use it all. But for the time being, we will continue to work on getting side tables, lighting and the fixing the bare walls. If you own a house, you know there is always more that needs to be done. But don't wait to enjoy it until it's perfect because you never know when it might be your last opportunity.
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