Before & After: The First of Many!

We finally have good internet! We've been doing lots of work around here and we're so excited with our progress here so far. So with that, here is an update on our little abode....

Cody replaced the door to the shop, the old door was pieces of plywood nailed together. The new door is a bit more trustworthy--solid core! With that complete, we were able to use it for dirtbike & camping gear storage. Next on the list is organizing the garage into a shop for Cody and the backroom of the garage into a chic shop (aka MY shop!). Very excited about having my own 'woman cave' sort of space.

And while we're outside, here is the view of the back porch area after the men tore out the screens on our moving weekend.

Moving indoors, we put the corner bookshelf in the kitchen because a) that's pretty much the only place it fits and b) its a make-shift "open air" pantry. Not exactly what Cody had in mind when he built this for me back when we were 18! He also built the table holding the coffee maker and the microwave.

And by now you've all seen the new stove (here). Major improvement right? We are pretty much bursting with ideas for this kitchen, it's quite roomy so it may be tough to decide what dream to go with. It's been pretty funny to get reactions to the "lovely" green floor however, its about 60/40 split on guests who have loved or hated it!

Our new, pretty toilet! I'm not completely sold on my bathroom choices. I can't decide yet what color to bring into the space or if I should just leave it black/white/gray. I do know for sure that a black rug is definitely the wrong choice. It shows every little fuzz from your socks, towels, etc. Not to mention the inevitable dirt that ends up here. It needs to be cleaned twice a day--at least. Drivingmeinsane.

Here is our dining room space that I didn't previously have a picture to show you. (One of our kitchen ideas is to open up the wall to the right of the picture). Our dining table set is a mix and match collection that I'm super energized over. The table belonged to my parent's neighbors and the chairs are dumpster treasures saved by my dad! They're all slightly different, but of the same style. The drapes (from Target) I've since moved because the print is not complete on the other side and it just looks awkward since that window opens up onto the porch. And I realize everything is oak/neutrals here...really need to finalize my house colors/theme so I can jump into bringing some life in.

Finally, here's Cody and his dad hanging our TV above the fire place. We totally love it up there. And you can see to the right where I moved the dining room drapes to. These windows open to the sideyard so its my print OCD is no biggie here!

And now I'm realizing there's so many other spaces/nooks/items that I need to photograph to share....So what home improvements have you all been making? Or rather, were you running around like mad to do everything at once when you got your first place too? What was the first thing on your lists??