Tag Archives: evolution of a home

Big Announcement… Big. Huge.

Big Announcement today. If you’ve noticed that things have been a little quiet here on the home front for the last week, you would be right. But there’s a really good explanation. At the moment, we are a teensy bit buried in boxes because WE’RE MOVING!

I’ve been trying to write this post for two days. Despite the fact that we’ve been in the middle of this process since late March and are currently buried under mountains of boxes, it still doesn’t quite feel real.

Dexter and the boxes | Hannah & Husband

Last year, we’d planned to move to New York City for both of our careers, but in late November James was offered a position here in Tennessee that was just too perfect to pass on. So we made the decision to stay in town and hopefully find a new project house. We looked around for about a month in an area we really dug, but just couldn’t find anything that screamed us. Then, late one Saturday night we ran across THE listing. Within the week we’d seen the house and put ours on the market. BTW, the power of social media still blows my mind.

House for Sale | Hannah & Husband

On Sunday, we had four showings and on Monday, it was sold! We will close and move in the next two weeks so posts, and we are so excited.

Rivermont | Hannah & Husband

Our “new” home, built in 1904

Needless to say, we will be sharing a lot about this move on the blog. The house has a rich history and will provide us with (seemingly endless) projects. We’ve learned so much during this process that we want to share with you!

That said, I’m currently working on a new series about buying and selling our home so I’d love to hear if you have any questions!

Are you considering buying your own house?
Is there a part of the process that really freaks you out?

Click this link to send us a message, comment below, or tweet us: @jamesaslaughter & @hb_belle.

The Kitchen Renovation: Evolution of a Home Pt. 5

Last week when Husband was traveling, I woke up early one morning to find the light was perfect in our kitchen. So I grabbed my camera to capture a few of the moments while I cooked breakfast. I decided it was the perfect excuse to finally share pics of our kitchen renovation.

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

If you don’t know anything about our house, it was built in 1935. You can read about the history of the home here or see pictures from before we bought the house in this post. (Please note the strawberry contact paper as I spent hours getting that stuff off the walls!) When we moved in, we painted the house a classic palette using lots of blues with red accents. It wasn’t very ‘us,’ but it definitely did the trick.

(Before) The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

Then last year, we decided to move (we didn’t), so we thought we should redo the kitchen. While this may seem counter-intuitive, you should know that one of the only rooms in your house that you can actually invest money in and expect to get it back at selling is the kitchen. A nice kitchen is a must-have on virtually every home buyers list, but it’s such a big investment, not to mention a pain to have that room torn up, that most buyers will never want to do the work themselves.

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

Homeowner Tip: If you can redo it yourself, update the kitchen before you put your house on the market. 

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

So we went about drawing up a simple plan. We were lucky for two reasons:

1. Husband was able to do the work himself because he was doing contract work from home at the time and could make his own schedule. This saved money but also insured that we wouldn’t have a group of strangers in our home that we had to nag about a timeline.

2. We bought new appliances in 2006, which majorly cut back on our costs. (Our biggest expense was the countertops.)

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

By far the scariest moment of this renovation was cutting the hole for the sink in that gorgeous piece of butcher block.

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

We ended up making a total of 6 updates to the kitchen:

  1. Butcher block countertops (We get a lot of questions about these, and I’ll talk about caring for them later this week.)
  2. A new undermount, single bowl sink
  3. Painting the walls and bottom cabinets (inside and out)
  4. Adding a tile backsplash
  5. Shelves with a small countertop on the other side of the range
  6. Under-cabinet lighting

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

 

Evolution of a Home Pt. 4

Otherwise titled…

And Then, Hannah Went Over to the Dark Side

So eventually, as will inevitably happen once the chaos of college is over, we found our own style and no longer found the look to be ‘Us.’ Totally normal… Although, I may not be the best person to judge: my mother used to wallpaper and rearrange furniture on nights she couldn’t sleep. (As a result, she’s also had more stubbed toes than anyone cares to count.)

Anyway, the one room that we really hadn’t touched in the house was the downstairs bathroom–quite the “novelty” when it was added in the 50s I’d learned from the Lord girls. Nevertheless, there was quilted country gingham wallpaper and a big popcorn ceiling that just had to go. So over the course of a few days, Husband ripped down the ceiling and took up the floor.

Then, six months later, he replaced it.

Evolution of a Home Pt. 4 | Hannah & Husband

And I completely fell in love with the floor. Isn’t it fantastic?! So here’s the thing about small spaces. Some people tell you to make everything light and airy to open things up. I say…

If you live in a small house–make bold moves.

Evolution of a Home Pt. 4 | Hannah & Husband

The print was from a letterpress shop that used to be in Knoxville called Yee-Haw Industries.

I loved that floor so much. So I thought, let’s go with it! The beadboard in room was in great shape so Husband just added a little top trim, a coat of white paint, and then I picked the paint color: Black. That last part was met with more than a little trepidation. Black walls? We all love The Addams Family, but are we really those people? This from the boy who used to love houses decorated with different shades of beige–eeshk. But, second piece of unsolicited advice…

If you’re going to try something that scares you, try it in a space that’s small enough to fix quickly.

So he went with it, loved it immediately, and we’ve never looked back!

Evolution of a Home Pt. 3

Evolution of a Home Pt. 3 | Hannah & Husband

The monogrammed metal container holding the roses was actually something my mom made for the end of a few pews at our wedding.

Two or three weeks before our wedding, we completely overhauled our house. And by “we,” I mean Husband, me, and numerous friends and family.  They came in and stripped up layers of carpet (adhered to the floor with what I’m sure was at least three times the recommended amount of nails and staples), painted ceilings stained yellow, and gave every wall a fresh coat of paint. And while they did all of that, I spent days steaming and scraping the strawberry contact paper off the kitchen walls.

Evolution of a Home Pt. 3 | Hannah & Husband

These pictures are from a little tour that I made for my Aunt Vangie our first winter. Looking at these always makes me laugh. When we bought our house we were so young. Neither of us had ever lived by ourselves, and we had no idea what our personal styles were–let alone what our styles would look like when they were combined!

So I went through folders full pages torn from magazines and sketches of houses I’d been designing since I was 12. From that I pulled a color palette I knew I liked–very American, very Cath Kidston, very homey. Here it is…

Evolution of a Home Pt. 3 | Hannah & Husband

Painting by me. Arm of the chair eaten by puppy Dexter.

Evolution of a Home Pt. 3 | Hannah & Husband

Evolution of a Home Pt. 3 | Hannah & Husband

Please note Loverboy’s Specialty Cake on the counter! Click here to get the recipe.

Evolution of a Home Pt. 3 | Hannah & Husband

Evolution of a Home Pt. 3 | Hannah & Husband

Evolution of a Home Pt. 3 | Hannah & Husband   Evolution of a Home Pt. 2

   Evolution of a Home Pt. 1

Evolution of a Home Pt. 2

Evolution of a Home Pt. 2 | Hannah & Husband

This is part 2 of our home’s evolution. To read part 1, click here. 

As I mentioned in part one, I’ve been lucky enough to know all the families that have ever lived in our house. When we bought our house in 2006, we bought it from really good friends. They knew I’d always wanted to live in the house and, since they were planning to start building in the country, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. It was fate I suppose.

A couple months before we moved in, we brought Woo-Woo and my aunt, a real estate agent visiting from her home in NYC, over to see it. Our friends were still living there and the one thing that my aunt went on and on about was the “spirit” of the house. It was friendly and inviting from the moment you stepped onto the porch. I like to think a small part of it was the house, but it was also due in big part to its inhabitants. Through the decor, they put so much of themselves into the house, which you can see as you flip through the pictures.

Evolution of a Home Pt. 2 | Hannah & Husband

I loved Trish’s hippie garden. She now has a much bigger yard with wildflowers everywhere! (Also, please note that we come by our Volkswagen devotion honestly.)

Evolution of a Home Pt. 2 | Hannah & Husband

The front porch is always one of the favorite rooms of the house. It overlooks the city park.

Evolution of a Home Pt. 2 | Hannah & Husband

Of Note: Carpet and white walls

Evolution of a Home Pt. 2 | Hannah & Husband

The living room’s mixture of Americana and antiques.

Evolution of a Home Pt. 2 | Hannah & Husband

Evolution of a Home Pt. 2 | Hannah & Husband

Of Note: contact paper on the walls with a 60s-tastic strawberry print

Speaking of strawberries: Trish is the one who taught me how to make strawberry jam! Get the recipe here.

 

 

Evolution of a Home Pt. 1

As with any place that one chooses to call home, there are ups and downs to living in a small town. For instance, one Sunday shortly after we got married, we decided to lay out of church–a practice that’s severely frowned upon when you’re the daughter of the preacher. By 2 o’clock that afternoon, we had four messages on the answering machine and two offers of casserole because surely someone had fallen deathly ill! You can never go to the grocery store without expecting to run into at least half a dozen people you know. And God forbid you get pulled over for speeding–we won’t even talk about what happens then.

But to be completely honest, more often than not, it’s nice to have people that care enough to be ‘all up in your business.’ I enjoy seeing friends when I’m waiting in line at the deli, and it’s fun to see families grow and change over time. The same goes for the town itself, houses, schools, and neighborhoods evolve as well. And I’m a firm believer that some houses carry spirits within them–the stories and feelings that you might catch  glimpse of on a sunny afternoon when all the windows are open or lying in bed listening to the birds sing the sun up.

Our house is one of those houses. I always wanted to live in our house. It faces the church I grew up in and the park that most of our city was originally built around. Since its construction in 1935, it has been home to several families and, aside from the first owner–the works manager at the plant who lived here for four years–I’ve known them all. So I thought it might be fun to share the evolution of our home that we love so much with you.

The Evolution of a Home Pt. 1 | Hannah & Husband

This is the Lord family. I had the pleasure of meeting the two sisters several years ago when they were in town. A childhood friend of theirs is in our church and arranged a visit. They came over to the house with a bouquet of flowers and walked around telling me stories. Their parents, Dick and Kay, owned the home from 1939 to 1959.

Originally from Pennsylvania, they moved down to Tennessee with ALCOA. But still unwilling to let all of her Yankee pride go, Mrs. Lord hung a picture of General Grant in the stairwell. I’ve been on the lookout for one, ever since I heard that story! It’s a tradition that should stay with the house, don’t you think? (Just for the record, East Tennessee fought with the North in the war, but that is neither here nor there I suppose.)

The Evolution of a Home Pt. 1 | Hannah & Husband

The Evolution of a Home Pt. 1 | Hannah & Husband

In 1949, they built the addition where each of our offices now sit. In fact, that window with the ladder in front is where I’m looking out right now. Husband is currently wrestling with that tree’s stump.

And Dexter is sitting on the front porch right in front of the door where the girls used to play games with their friends on warm Spring days like today. I am happy to report that those floorboards leading from the screen door to the front door have had to be replaced because our house has always been a place where people are welcome so they’ve gotten a lot of use over the years.