New House!

KK: We took possession of "New House" in mid-August I believe, but we didn't move in until the end of September because we had a lot done to the house.  Let me start by showing you what the house looked like when we purchased it....

Cute, single story, grey house on a cul-de-sac in Newport Beach.  Only about 2 miles from the beach, 2 miles from Fashion Island, 1/2 mile from the grocery store/coffee shop/restaurants and 4 miles from where we used to live in Corona Del Mar.    Great condition but almost completely original 1960s on the inside.


Dining room.  We will be adding a french door here and turning it into a kitchen nook and kid/family room.  The original thought was to tear down the wall on the left which adjoins the dining room to the living room but it was too much effort and boy are we glad it worked out that way, we now love the separation between kiddy chaos and living space.

Kitchen - Mom & Dad are excited about all the space and storage.  Already updated.


Living room, very large but the fireplace has this funky wall above it that sticks out a couple of feet into the room - very odd.  Will replace the door and overhaul the fireplace.

Bedroom 1 - Dylan's future room.    Sliding door will be replaced with new window.

Bedroom 2 - my future room (KK!).  Will be getting a new window.

 
Bedroom 3 - Mommy's office and guest room.  Will be adding a window on the left and replacing the other window.

Master bedroom -windows will be changed. 

Master bathroom - already in great shape.

 
And the best part....the yard!!!!   In my short little life I have never seen a yard this big except at my Nana's in Colorado.   Not exactly our style but we're stoked to have the space!

 

 

The side yard.

It is a very large side yard so it will soon become usable space - the window there is the kitchen, which will soon be a french door. 

Once the remodel started, I hung out here a lot.  Mostly playing on the iPad so that I didn't get into any danger.   This process has been full of surprises for my parents - like the fact that all the electrical had to be redone, the house didn't have any lights and the fireplace behind the strange wall was even more strange.   And, they were constantly having to make decisions - who knew there were SO many door handles?

I helped out as much as possible.  It was awesome - I love watching Bob the Builder ("Go Bob") and this is like having my very OWN Go Bob in my own house!

We replaced the doors throughout.   Where does a girl go for some privacy around here?

We completely changed the fireplace.

We had a chimney sweep come and I kid you not....this is him!!!!   Straight out of Mary Poppins I heard.  How perfect.

Paint was a huge ordeal for my Mom and thankfully I was a really big help to her - painting new swatches on the walls to make our decisions.

We completely gutted the yard, except for the grass area.  

And tore out the whole side yar.

We added a retaining wall, shed space and an area for a veggie garden.

Lots of action - two semis in our driveway dropping off machines!  This is better than TV!

Chopping down the big evergreen tree was a huge pain - they had a massive drill and still almost couldn't get it down! 

Wow - the old tree pile is twice as big as me!

I'm confused - even rooms were weren't really doing much to, like the front bathroom, were still under construction....

It's a good thing we are not trying to live through this!!!!