When we moved in we did a kitchen renovation, but the rest of the house just got a fresh coat of paint and that was the extent of what we did. Looking towards improvement and most importantly, getting rid of the nasty carpet – we did the flooring in the front half of the house early this spring.

The carpet throughout the house was a basic solid cream color which is absolutely terrible in a country house with cats, dogs, people, and mud everywhere. Needless to say, it wasn’t that great when we moved in and over the course of the last three winters looked horrible. We also had some poorly defined spaces that needed a touch-up and a purpose.

Bridgett has a good eye for detail and color and we decided to go with a heavy-duty engineered vinyl plank. It has the distressed wood look and feel and honestly it’s hard to tell its not real hardwood. We chose a neutral gray/tan color that should go with just about anything we want to paint with and maintain a light appearance.

We did cover up the oak hardwood in the dining and kitchen primarily because it had some deep scratches and warping where water had leaked at some point in the past. We also are not a fan of the golden oak look.

For the front room in the house, we figure it was probably either a dining room once or maybe a formal living room. We could see where they removed a wall between the entry and the main living room. We didn’t have a great purpose for it so bought a bar height table and chairs along with some other furniture to make it our game room. Adding a pendant light brought some character and brightness to the room.

Next, we updated rugs and moved the TV off the wall in the living room to rearrange and make the space more open and bright. I think it looks great and the flow in the house is much improved.

We moved onto the dining room with some green paint to help define the space and some new dining chairs to replace our old rickety chairs. We put in a similar light to the one we have in the game room and moved it more central to the room so it is more appealing to the eye.

Lastly, we replaced the cruddy bifold doors on the laundry and pantry in the kitchen with club doors.

We did not get to the bedrooms with flooring before COVID-19 hit so those are planned later in the year. Eventually, we want to be rid of most of the carpet or at least replace it with a better quality carpet that will hold up better and show less dirt.