One Month In: What I Learned After 30 Days of Change

It’s hard to believe we’ve already been here a month. To be honest, the house still looks pretty wild in places: blue trim everywhere, wallpaper in multiple rooms, a bright salmon living room, old carpeting on the stairs and in the closet, and furniture that was set down on moving day and hasn’t been finalized. Some rooms feel like we just moved in yesterday, while others—especially upstairs—already seem transformed compared to how they looked before. Here’s a clear look at how the house is shaping up one month in.

The foyer:

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The kitchen:

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The table is still too small for the space, but it already feels a bit calmer than on moving day.

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The sunroom:

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The office:

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The living room:

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The dining room (confession: nothing has changed here since day one):

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Here’s the half bathroom:

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It’s already looking lighter and brighter after removing the wallpaper.

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The guest room:

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This room has improved a lot. Here’s how it looked a few weeks before we moved in:

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The hall bathroom:

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The spare room / possible future nursery:

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It’s already changed a lot from the mauve-trimmed, carpeted room we started with.

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Clara’s room:

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This room has also come a long way. Here’s what it looked like a few weeks before we moved in:

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Our bedroom:

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Night and day compared to this pre-move photo:

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Our bathroom:

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We still have plenty of just-moved-in moments, like a kitchen cabinet full of tools:

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And our closet needs some organization:

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Overall, we’re thrilled with how things are progressing. For instance, upstairs we went from walking into a mess of old carpet, blue trim, and wallpaper to a much cleaner, fresher hallway that makes me sigh with relief every time I climb the stairs. The railing still needs an upgrade, but even with many rooms far from finished (we typically take a couple years to paint every room), we’ve already completed a lot:

  • Removed a lot of carpeting
  • Installed hardwood floors upstairs
  • Painted the doors and trim upstairs
  • Added new doorknobs
  • Removed wallpaper from the half bathroom
  • Taken down doors between the foyer, kitchen, living room, and dining room
  • Completed tree work outside
  • Removed the glass shower doors and re-caulked the tub
  • Hung curtains in the guest room
  • Stripped old carpeting out of the sunroom
  • Installed new blinds in all bedrooms and bathrooms

We’re slowly starting to feel like this is our home, and we really love it—blue trim and all. We don’t have every plan finalized for each space yet, but we prefer to research and plan as we tackle projects, and we’ll share the details as we make progress.