The Heart of the Home

I will start with the kitchen, since it really is the heart of our home.  We decided to do a little flip flopping with the spaces.  The previous dining room became the new kitchen and the previous kitchen became the new dining room.  The dining room happened to be very large and the kitchen very small.  Since we are a casual kind of family, we decided we didn't want to have a huge formal dining room that would rarely get used.  So we took out the wall between the dining room and kitchen and made it one big space.

Here is the kitchen before

Here is a picture of the dining room before (the wall my husband is pointing to is the one we had removed),

Now here are some pictures of the kitchen (old dining room) after.

Mudroom (right off the kitchen)

Another view of the mudroom

Here are some pictures of the dining room (old kitchen) after.

I am such a novice at photography and blogging, so please bear with me.  It took me a long time to take the pictures, edit them, download them, upload them, etc.  So I think one room a day will be my goal.  This really counts as two rooms, right?  

Oh, and here's one more picture.  

The three reasons we took on the adventure of renovating this house.  

This picture is such a great representation of their personalities.
 It was taken before an outdoor photo session with a photographer.
 I kind of prefer this one over the professional ones.
Notice the fake tattoo on my older son's arm.  Oops!!

I linked this post to the following blogs:

Miss Mustard Seed

 Between Naps on the Porch

The Nesting Place

Blue Cricket Design

Houseography
The DIY Showoff
Cottage and Vine