The Great Big Before: Meet the Farmhouse

Earlier this month, I did a full and proper tour of the Creative Green Living townhouse. We sold that house at the end of September and moved into our new house in the next town over in October. So while I've been calling the old house is "The Townhouse," the new house is being called "The Farmhouse." Not because it came with a farm (it didn't) but because I've got big plans for our backyard to turn into a microfarm. That and "modern farmhouse" is the aesthetic I'm going for in the makeovers and decor.

And boy-o-boy will there be makeovers!

We basically bought this house for two reasons:

1. I desperately wanted a yard
2. I need projects to work on and write about for the next few years. 

So, let's meet The Farmhouse shall we?

Front Room

When you first walk in the front door, this is what you see. It looks a bit taupe in this photo, but the walls and ceiling are actually mauve. Semi-gloss mauve at that. There's also that interesting cabinet and a chandelier swagged over to the middle of the room from where the front entryway light should go.

If you turn around, here's what the rest of the room looks like:

Dining Room / Living Room

Walk down the hall from the front room and we end up here:

Here's a close up of the fireplace:

Kitchen

The mauve from the front room is also duplicated here. The cabinets are very 1990 - hardware-less oak with almond colored formica countertops. The fridge, microwave and dishwasher are all newer, stainless appliances, though.

It does come with a very large pantry. Check out those weird pantry stains on the carpet. Makeover coming to this space for sure!

Office

Now clearly, this wasn't an office for the previous owners of the house. From talking to my neighbors, it seems this was a teenage girl's room. This is where all the Creative Green Living magic is going to happen.

Laundry

It's not a laundry room so much as a laundry closet. I do think it has potential, though! Just you wait.

Master Bedroom

The wall color in this room isn't too bad - kind of a seafoamy green. The thing that kills me is that all the trim and doors are painted that weird blue color. 

Here's the bathroom:

The oak cabinets match the kitchen. The oak beadboard wall was added later and has some installation issues I need to fix. In fact, I'm kind of scared to look behind it. I've got the sneaking suspicion that they put it here to cover something up.  

If this were your house, would you take it down to look behind it? Or would you just leave it as-is and paint it? (tell me in the comments!)

Bedroom 1

The thing I find most interesting about this room is that they painted the wall, door and trim the same shade of blue. The closet doors are cream but they keep falling off their tracks so I'm going to need to come up with a different solution for the closet.

Bedroom 2

This is the nursery. The boys shared a room in the last house but with my oldest getting up to go to school it made it hard for the baby to sleep any later than 6:45. So for now, baby A has his own room. We are playing with the idea of graduating him into the big boy room when he is older and turning this room into something else. We've also played with the idea of doing infant foster care once the youngest is a bit older and doesn't need as much hands-on help. 

So that's it! I think you've seen the whole thing now. Stay tuned as the projects roll in. Use the CGL farmhouse tag to see any posts related to this new house or #CreativeGreenFarmhouse to see pictures on Instagram.

About the Author:
Carissa is a green lifestyle expert and mom to two boys. The owner and lead writer for Creative Green Living, she is also the author of two e-books including the best-selling beverage cookbook, Infused: Recipes for Herb & Fruit Infused Water, Tea and More. Her goal is to empower families to make healthier choices that are easy, taste great and are fun!

Follow her on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter or join the Creative Green Living community group on Facebook.

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