Gates of Crystal: 07/01/2015

July 30, 2015

Home Tour - Summer 2015

It's been over a year since I've posted a 'Home Tour.' A lot has changed since then so it's definitely time for an update.

We bought our house almost 12 years ago. It sits on a little over 2 acres. It's around 4500 sq ft, including the basement. It has 4 bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms.

We recently replaced our front door. Come on in!

When you enter our home, you can go straight through this room to the deck and pool, or left into the house or right into the garage.

This view is looking from the deck as you enter from the back.

This is the wall next to the garage door.

When you leave the entry way and enter the house, you can go right into the living room, go straight ahead and up the stairs, or head a little to the left through a hallway to the kitchen. The master bedroom is at the top of the stairs on the right. Upstairs to the left is another bathroom and a bedroom.

The picture below is the view as you enter the living room.

Looking from the kitchen.

Our living room, dining room, kitchen and family room are all open to each other.

This is the view from the kitchen sink looking into the dining room...

and looking into the living room. The white door goes to the basement. The black door you see in the entry room goes to the garage.

From the dining room, you step down into the family room.

Our family room has windows on three sides.

From the couch you can look back into the dining room and living room.

This is the view as you step down into the family room from the kitchen.

Looking from the dining room into the kitchen.

You can step out onto the deck from the dining room...or from the entry room.

We have a cabana next to our pool with a bathroom, wet bar and refrigerator.

This is the view looking up from the cabana area to the deck.

My herb garden is on the deck for the summer.

On our main floor are two bedrooms.

One is a guest room; the other is my husband's office.

For more photos of the guest room click here. We are currently planning on moving my husband's office upstairs. I stay out of his office and won't show you any pictures - maybe after we move it. We are then planning on making the second main floor bedroom into another guest room.

The main floor bathroom is in a hallway off the kitchen with both of these bedrooms. We are also planning some updates in this room.

Upstairs are two more bedrooms - the master with an attached bathroom, and my son's bedroom, which I also am not going to show you.

Our master bedroom and bath look out onto the back yard and the hills beyond.

More photos of our master bedroom

More photos of our master bathroom

Immediately at the top of the stairs to the left is my son's bathroom, which I've never shown you before.

We made a lot of changes to this room several years ago, adding bead board, painting the vanity and adding a new sink top and new toilet.

This is a more accurate picture of the paint color. The light fixture made it photograph more yellow than it actually is.

My son's bedroom is on the front of the house. All of our rooms upstairs have the slanted ceilings, which you can see a little of in this picture.

In our basement is another family room, a fifth bedroom, a half bath and a weight room. More photos of our basement

These are winter photos - nothing has changed much there - and all my guys are hanging around so much I can't get any new pictures!

Thanks so much for visiting!

We are continuing to make changes on our kitchen right now and have plans for several other rooms. I hope you'll visit often!

love and blessings~

"O LORD, I love the habitation of Your house And the place where Your glory dwells. " Psalms 26:8

I'm joining these parties:
commonground
impartinggrace
thecharmofhome
.frommyfrontporchtoyours
too-much-time
.frenchcountrycottage
ivyandelephants
akadesign
craftberrybush
romantichome
tatertotsandjello
thededicatedhouse-blue friday
oursouthernhomesc
.dwellings-theheartofyourhome
.karensuponthehill
betweennapsontheporch
.stonegableblog
astrollthrulife
cupcakesandcrinoline
linda-coastalcharm
savvysouthernstyle

July 27, 2015

From "Farmhouse" to "French Country" Part One

Hi all! Hope you're all enjoying your summer!

We have been so busy around here with house guests, babies being born and lots of summer fun. I promised myself I would not spend my summer working on home projects and I've done pretty well! lol

And our kitchen changes are not done yet but we've done a few things that I love.

Last year I posted our long over-due kitchen make over. Before starting I went back and forth between making our cabinets pure white or going more French Country. In the end, I made the wrong decision.

It wasn't long after I spend 3-4 months painting everything Sherwin Williams Alabaster that I looked around and realized I had gone too 'Farmhouse' and not enough 'French Country. For more photos click here.

So we've been making some changes.

I started out by painting our island in the dining room a chocolate brown and then antiquing the cabinets in the kitchen. (I still have not painted the lower cabinets in the kitchen island and the family room. I will finish them when the summer is over.)

Then we started adding some architectural details. We added some corbels and a shelf to our vent cover.

This spot used to house an ice maker...that has never worked since we've lived here. We searched for about a year for a wine fridge that would fit this space but could never find one that had the right dimensions, price and quality that we wanted. So we finally finished this space with a raised floor and an arch. I found this vase at a Pier One store closing for half price.

We also added some corbels on both sides of these pillars that hold the built-in china cabinet.

I had originally bought these corbels for another project that didn't work out and they fit perfectly for what I wanted in the kitchen! I found them on Amazon and was going to attach a link but it looks they're no longer available.

We are still planning on getting a new stainless gas range (our white stove really stands out now) and doing a travertine back splash. I'm also hoping for a farmhouse sink with an oiled bronze faucet.

When we're finished I think the kitchen will have a much more romantic, rustic feel like the rest of this space. I don't know how soon we'll get this done and when I'll post 'Part Two' but hopefully it won't be too long.