Sooter Cottage House Tour and Project Outline

I was brainstorming today about projects that Nate and I want to do to our house and I realized something – I haven’t given you guys the house tour yet! What a horrible hostess I am. Most of you lovely readers have no idea what my house looks like, so I thought I’d take you guys on a quick tour as well as map out some projects that I would love to do in each room in the future as time goes by (and money allows!) Nate and I moved in in November, but we haven’t done much to our house at all yet, aside from a little paint in two of the bedrooms. Basically all of our furniture is what we pooled together once we got married and is comprised mostly of hand me downs, childhood furniture and quick Ikea trips. We hope to change and add more over time, but this what it looks like right now! Fasten your seat belt and enjoy the ride 🙂

Front Exterior

This is the front of our sweet little humble abode! The previous owners did a great job with the different kinds of shingles, board and batten, and the shutters! I can’t wait to add some flowers to the cute little planter in front right window! Notice how nicely hubby has taken care of the lawn!

Projects:

– Take out some of the dead plants and spruce up the landscaping.

– Eventually take out the three big trees (they are a hazard because the powerlines run directly through them, they block sun, and they drop those darn needles everywhere!) and add in some bushes/shrubs and a half privacy fence.

Entryway/Drop Zone

We love to entertain and have friends over, so we knew we needed to have a bit of a drop zone to welcome people into our home. So far we have a little table set up for mail and keys, and to the right of that we have a coat rack and some hooks to hang bags on. When lots of people come in the door it’s a little tight because of the wall right there, but it works fine just the same!

Projects:

– Paint the wall in the first picture (that currently has my floral intial and wedding canvas) with chalkboard paint and stencil a nice welcoming message on it with chalk pen.

– Change out the flooring (this will be true through the entire house – we aren’t a fan of the cheap light faux wood laminate or the splotchy tile.)

– Add more decor touches and possibly a bench to the drop zone to make it people easier to take on and off their shoes!

Living Room

I love this room. I love how light and airy it gets as well as all of the board and batten detailing on the walls and ceiling. Everything in this room is either hand me down or craigslisted. The beautiful vintage trunk has been in Nate’s family since the 1800s and came from Sweden with his ancestors – how cool is that?? The hardwood chess board was found at Goodwill for $3 and we got the pieces from Amazon. Everyone is always impressed when they first enter this space!

Projects:

– Change out the flooring

– Get rid of the green paint (we thought it was clever that they didn’t paint the whole wall with it, but neither of us are really crazy about the color) and paint it white.

– Add a pallet wood plank accent wall for the whole length of the fireplace wall. This project has me SUPER excited and is one we likely work on this summer! Great thing about it? You can get pallets for free and nails/glue for cheap, so this will definitely be a budget project with big impact.

– Paint the fireplace white with heat resistant paint. They did a great job on stippling the red paint to make it look like the original brick, but we want something more clean and classic.

– Switch the old tired rug.

– Add more decor items and switch out Ikea furniture pieces over time.

Kitchen/Dining

The kitchen and dining area have a huge amount of square footage to work with. I love that their are two sets of doors to the backyard – the provide lots of natural light and fresh air from outdoors. It’s so nice to be out of the galley kitchen of our last apartment and finally in a place where Nate and I can both be cooking together in the kitchen at the same time! All the appliances came with the house and are nice stainless steel.

Projects:

– Change out the floor, particularly in here. Yeesh! I’m not sure what they were thinking with the half laminate and half white and teal tile, but it’s gotta go. The difference in flooring chops up the space in a disjointed way and not to mention, that tile grout is a pain to clean! Can’t wait to get it out of there.

– Get a bigger/better kitchen table that can fit more than 4 people!

-Add barstools so one can actually sit at the bar as it was intended.

– Switch out the pendant lights for something more our style and something that doesn’t hang so low. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve bumped into those…

-Ideally, I would love to do a whole kitchen makeover – take out everything, reconfigure for maximum use of the space, with all new cabinets and counters, with some open shelving, an apron front sink, etc. However, that may or may not be in our future. If it’s not, I’d still love to be able to update by refinishing the current cabinets to get rid of the shiny orangey pine look and maybe refinish the counters in some way. We will just have to see!

Tea Bar/Office Nook

On the other side of the kitchen/dining area, we have a couple of interesting features. One is the tea/coffee bar we set up in the empty space, and the other is sort of a work area/mini office nook. Right now, this nook is where Nate plays his xbox, and is also storage space for cat food and other odds and ends.

Projects:

– Change the flooring

– Rearrange and spruce up the tea/coffee bar and add some new decor items.

– Take out the nautical lighthouse wallpaper and spiff up the paint job.

– Find a permanent chair (right now Nate just pushes his desk chair back and forth between the office and here)

– Add more lighting.

– I hope to make this nook into more of a work station/homework area for when there are kids later on. It would make a great command center to work on the computer, keep track of everyone’s calendars/schedule, and do projects. It’s  a good idea, no?

Laundry Room and Large Bathroom

Don’t mind Oliver, I guess he’s helping lead the tour! Our laundry room, if you can call it a room, is a sad thing. It’s basically just a tiny box with doors that lead to the garage and to the large bathroom. We will always have to have stacked washer/dryers, because there isn’t room to have them side by side! Wah wah. The large bathroom is big and white and beautiful and it’s actually bigger than our own master bath! We think it was part of an add-on that happened sometime in the 80s. The jetted tub is luxurious, however, we have to turn up the water heater the day before if we want to use it otherwise we run out of hot water before we can fill the whole thing! Silly, I know.

Projects:

– Change the flooring

– Maybe paint the laundry area and add some wall hangings to make it look less sad.

– Get a new stacking washer/dryer – the one the previous owners left to us is literally from the 70s, I think. Oh, and you have to wedge a piece of cardboard in the dryer door otherwise it doesn’t work. Go figure.

–  Find a new storage wardrobe to replace the wicker one left by the previous owners. Don’t really like having all my cleaning supplies out in the open – tacky.

– Make the bathroom look a little less Roman-esque by removing the leaf/vine decals.

– Adding decor and wall art.

Family Room

Our living room is such a cozy place to curl up on the down feather couch (a craigslist find!) and watch a movie. The ceiling has dimmable lights which really make it feel like your own personal movie theater! The beautiful piano is an antique, and has been passed down from owner to owner of this house! How cool is that?! Since it’s been in the house for decades, we knew we had to keep it, at least for the time being. Neither of us play piano very well (although it’s always been my dream) but we have friends who come and play for us now and again.

Projects:

– Neither Nate or I like the blue paint – it just makes it feel too cold and not cozy enough. We don’t know what color we want yet, but we definitely know it’s not baby blue!

– Add more decor and wall art.

– Tile around the gas fireplace to make it look more permanent.

– Add new curtains and throw pillows.

Nook Room/Craft Room

And now we are moving onto the bedrooms part of this house tour! This little room is my fun and safe haven! I’ve shown the beginning of the nook room transformation here, but here are a few more angles of the room, as it is so far. I love the built in bed and bookshelves that hold some of my dearest stories! The other end of the built end holds a TV and bunch of toys for when my nephew, Lukas, comes over to play 🙂 The closet is filled to the brim with craft supplies and the gallery on the wall is my own art.

Projects:

– Change the flooring (the laminate in here was really scratched up and damaged, thus the rug 😉 )

– Add a chandelier to the built-in and more lighting throughout (right now I just have my one desk lamp for light!)

– New bedding and pillows.

– Move the litterbox and get a bigger table for crafting to go under my gallery wall.

– Add an armchair or another cozy place to sit.

– Add more decor and wall art.

Guest Bathroom

This guest bathroom is in the main hallway between all the bedrooms. Our cousin Russ fixed the pocket door for us (Thanks, Russ!) so it finally closes and locks again. There’s a big gap under the sinks – why didn’t they put doors on that thing? I don’t know. Otherwise, it is a perfectly serviceable little bathroom!

Projects:

– Touch up the paint (there are quite a few scuffmarks… but how did they get there??)

– Find baskets to put in the gaping hole under the sink and fill with towels or other guest items

– Eventually it would be nice to redo the floors and the countertop. Heck, it’d be nice to take out that big counter top altogether and put in a smaller vanity sink so we could utilize the space more. We will have to see what budgeting allows!

Office

This is the room that we’ve done the least amount to in the house so far, and it’s kind of just been the dropping place for everything that we don’t know what to do with yet. Again, the previous homeowners must have really loved the nautical theme and baby blue, because this room features more boat wallpaper and powder blue paint. Yech. A surprising amount of people we have shown our house to say they actually like this room, but I must respectfully disagree – it’s gotta go! Another interesting feature is that this room connects to our master bedroom via a set of french doors. We think that the two spaces used to be one giant bedroom that was later split. We have the shades on the french doors open for now so Nate and I can chat while he’s working on the computer and I’m lounging in bed!

Projects:

– Change out the floors.

– Get rid of the baby blue paint and boat wallpaper!!! We are thinking white for the beadboard/wainscotting

– Hammer down the trim/moulding (none of it is actually attached.. it’s just sitting up against the wall…what.)

– Get rid of Nate’s brown college rug that I accidentally burned with my iron. Oops.

– Add bookshelves and storage space and a comfy chair or two.

– Reconfigure the room for maximum use of space.

Master Bedroom

I. Love. Our master bedroom. This is always one of my favorite parts of the house tour whenever I show new people around. I’m in love with the fact that there is a gas fireplace in our bedroom and two doors that lead to the outside. And look at that skylight! Perfect for listening to the rain and gazing at the moon as you fall asleep 🙂 This room gets great light throughout the day and I love nothing more than curling up in bed with the hubby to watch a movie or read a book. We’ve already painted this room, so now it’s more furniture and decor that need adding!

Projects:

– Change the flooring.

– Add floating shelves under the TV and on the wall where the big picture frame currently is.

– Add an area rug to add texture/visual interest and keep our tootsies warm in the morning!

– Add a cushy chair and side table to have tea at or put shoes on.

– Switch out old Ikea nightstands for something more our style

– Replace my white childhood bookshelf with something that has clothes storage/room to put the cable box

– Tile over the green tile around the fireplace with something more contemporary and neutral

– Switch out the old Ikea lamps (our cats find these ones reallllly easy to knock over in the morning when they want food!)

– Add more wall art and decor.

Master Closet and Bathroom

Our master closet is straight off the bedroom and you have to walk through it to get to the bathroom and it’s basically a mess. The previous owners didn’t do much to maximize space or storage, so all we have to start with are a couple of bars. The black thing Nate’s shoes are on is actually an old Ikea coffee table we replaced with the vintage trunk in the living room! I hate to let things go unused, so a shoe rack it is. The master bathroom may be small, but it is the warmest room in the house! Sometimes I’ll go in there for a minute just to warm up haha. I also like that I get my own counter/area to get ready at and keep all my makeup on. That way Nate and I aren’t elbowing each other in the morning!

Projects:

– Change the flooring.

– Find a storage solution for the master closet to increase functionality. We don’t know what that looks like yet, but could take the form of built-ins or wardrobes.

– Get rid of the awful, stained, yellow-striped wallpaper. Who puts wallpaper in a bathroom?? Good grief.

– Paint bathroom a better color.

– Refinish cabinets to get rid of the shiny yellowy pine look

– Redo the countertops – right now they are a very stainable plastic laminate.

– Switch out the sink fixture.

– Put in a new showerhead.

Backyard

Our backyard is baller. The deck is amazing and perfect for entertaining once summer hits! The previous owners did a lot of landscaping, so the yard looks very nice and well-put together. There are not one, but two ponds; a frog pond by the master bedroom (we hear them quite distinctly at night!) and a goldfish pond/waterfall at the opposite end of the yard. Nate has done a great job making sure everything looks nice! I’ve loved sitting out there on the sunny days we’ve had so far – I’d really missed having a back yard!

Projects:

– Get a grill and patio furniture so we can par-tay with friends on summer evenings!

– Add fun outdoor lighting and decor

– Take out the frog pond – as much as we like the frogs, we think it’s unnecessary to have two ponds to maintain. We hope to make that area where it is a little fire pit area for s’mores and hot dogs 🙂

– Take out some of the trees/landscaping. We love that the yard is landscaped, but there isn’t enough grass for future puppies and kids to play on. We want to take out some of the harder to maintain landscaping and re-seed it with grass.

– Plant flowers and veggies in the planter boxes on the side of the house!

– Someday we will have to repaint/reseal the deck. We do not look forward to this day.

And that my friends, concludes the Sooter Cottage house tour! Thanks ya’ll for stopping by 🙂 I’m looking forward to sharing all of my projects with you as we complete them one by one!