Celebrating 2 Years at Berrybrier!

This past weekend (August 17th to be exact!) was my second year at Berrybrier! I cannot believe how time has flown and how much things have changed around here. I’ve been so busy renovating this house for so long, that when things were mostly finished, I took a two and a half month solo road trip across the US and back. It was a much needed break from the breakneck DIY projects and general pace of life. I’ve struggled a bit to get back into my regular blog schedule since my return, but I’m trying to get more focused. Today, though, I just want to take a look at where things started and see where things are now!

The Exterior

Do you remember the exterior of the house in its original glory of overgrown crazy?

It took almost exactly a year before it was all painted due to some major issues with my painter. Once it wrapped up in August 2018, this house looked stunningly better and the color still makes me smile to this day. It’s bold and fun and sweet.

I’ve been spending a lot of time working on the gardens this summer and hope to have some transformations to show you in early fall! It’s been a slow progress on the garden front – who knew weeds never died?!

Still to come?

• Build fence (if you follow me on instagram you know that’s my project of the moment!)
• Remove weird post and arch
• Switch the stairs to come towards the front of the house and not the driveway
• Add stone pathway through garden and mini seating area with bench in the front
• Plant edibles and perennials and lots and lots of evergreens

The Entry & Living Room

As for the inside, when you first walked into the house, you were greeted by this view originally.

I recently showed an updated view of this space in my post about hanging my curtains!

The living room has been in constant transformation since I bought the house. It functioned as a kitchen during the major renovations. I am planning to share a big post about how that room has changed and evolved next week!

Still to come?

• New sofa to replace my hand-me-down one
• Styling
• Painting some furniture pieces to better match my style

The Dining Room

The dining room was pretty sad and depressing at first.

A coat of paint, completely transformed the space though! This is why I love a bold paint color.

Still to come?

• Build built-in bookshelves surrounding the room with window seats
• Rework the entrance to the Master Bedroom and the dining room closet
• Upgrade furnishings!

The Kitchen

The kitchen is another room I’ve been chugging along in. It was straight insanity when I moved in. Wallpaper! Old crumbling vinyl floors! Cabinets covered in grime! What more could one want?

I have a whole slew of projects to show you in that room, but for now, here’s where things landed after I slaved away desperately attempting to save the 100 year old fir floors beneath all that red vinyl, sanded down the cabinets, and drywalled the back section of the kitchen.

I’ve since added new counters, brought in the stove, painted everything, and added and island! I’ll be sharing all of that soon!

Still to come?

• Paint, paint, and more paint!
• New appliances
• Fresh countertops
• New exterior door with half-light
• Phase II kitchen gut renovation!

The Main Bathroom

The bathroom off the kitchen had a rough start in life. It was… very magenta. In your face magenta! This room became one of the major renovations at Berrybrier and I tackled a lot of projects like tiling and drywall for the first time!

Now this room is looking so much better! I have a final reveal post planned showcasing the final touches and styling, but the space below pretty close to complete! Boy is it nice to no longer scootch around that oversized tub to get to the toilet!

Oh yeah, and that shower is also pretty nice!

Still to come?

• Final styling and reveal!
• Eventually steal the shower from this room for the Master Bath and putting in a new wall where the shower curtain currently is!

The Master Bedroom

The last room, on the first floor is my bedroom. this space was one of the nicer ones in the house at first.

I got as far as painting the whole room in subtly contrasting greens before my attention turned to other projects! I’m thinking this room could be a good project for the Fall One Room Challenge since I need a bit of encouragement to complete the space!

Still to come?

• New-to-me furniture!
• New lighting
• Building a bed canopy
• Curtains and rugs
• Styling!

The Master Bathroom

The master bathroom (through the 24″ wide door in the picture above) was originally covered in a layer of seemingly impenetrable grime! It’s only a tiny half bathroom, so it wasn’t on my original list of things to tackle, but once I had to open the wall to remove the bathtub from the main bathroom, this space moved to the top of the to-do list. I gave myself a small $600 budget to completely transform the space.

I finished it for the Spring 2019 One Room Challenge and had a blast restyling it before Apartment Therapy featured it. Now it’s bright, light, and refreshing, while still packed with storage. The tiny room works sooo hard and is really a great place to get ready in the mornings. I love the subtle pink calamine lotion color!

Still to come?

• Complete round 2 gut renovation with possible new plumbing locations as I make this a true master bath by knocking out the right wall and stealing the shower from the main bathroom!

The Stairwell

The upstairs has seen a lot of changes as well. Starting in the stairwell, removing the gross railing and painting everything did wonders for the space! Before it was pretty plain.

But now this space is so full of fun drama! It really helped set the tone for the whole house since it connects to so many spaces. By adding a dormer when I re-roofed the house I was also able to turn a barely useable attic space in the eaves into a fully functional storage room. It’s just an unfinished space that I’d eventually like to renovate into a bathroom, but it’s still useable for now.

Still to come?

• Adding cute little dust corners to the staircase for some glam
• Installing a new frosted glass half-light door to the dormer
• Building a custom linen closet/cabinet to the right of the dormer door
• Turning the dormer into a bathroom, complete with a tub!

The Back Bedroom

This room started out a shade a blue that looked pretty good until you realized there were marks of picture frames on the wall because the paint had faded!

My aunt and uncle painted the walls of this room when they came up to visit. A quick touch up on the trim was the only other thing that was needed! When the electricians did work throughout the house, they rewired the ceiling fixture to house a new fan with a remote! Such an improvement on a pull switch fixture!

Still to come?

• Transforming this room into an office space with new furniture

The Front Bedroom

This room had a rougher start with some weird textured walls. Although it has since been transformed, it’s been occupied ever since and I still haven’t photographed it!

Still to come?

• Turning this room into a guest room once I no longer need to have tenants in the space!

Conclusion

It’s fun to step back and really see how much has been accomplished in just two years! I still have many projects left to share. Thanks so much for continuing to follow along! I have so many things planned for the rest of the year and for 2020!

And now I need to go finish putting up my fence!