The Before Pictures of Our Very Vanilla, Builder Grade House to home transformation
Some houses are born with character and some develop it over time. Some have taken decades to become cool and some a few years. You are witnessing the beginning of a character development process. I say this builder grade house is very vanilla with all the love in my heart. In case you are new to the blog here is a quick backstory. 
We just moved from a town we have lived in for the past 10 years, out of a cool 1950’s ranch home that we completely renovated to a new town across Texas for my husband’s job. Our house sold in three days and there were no “instant character” beauties on the market where we were headed. There weren’t even any great fixer upper candidates.
Instead I went for bones, room count and potential. Our new house has all those things and the fun adventure of personalizing it and stamping our style all over it has now begun. Vanilla is easy to work with. Currently, I have more plans and dreams than time or money, but you can bet I will put my best foot forward on making this space cozy and our kind of stylish as quick as I can. Any day you get to own your own home is a blessing no matter the style or size and we for sure have blessings heaped all over our heads with this home.
The exciting news for my kiddos is that we moved to a more traditional neighborhood. They are already burning up the streets riding bikes and hopefully new friends will emerge from neighboring houses soon. Where we lived before they could only ride bikes in the driveway and the neighborhood kid scene was a ghost town. Kid friendly was a priority for us in this move.
The new yard resembles a postage stamp compared to the 1.5 parklike acres we forfeited. But that was another facet of our goals. Along with leaving the swimming pool way behind. Which I never loved. I know I’m weird but they just aren’t my thing for multiple reasons. Now the yard takes hardly anytime to mow and the entertaining area we have dreamed up is stellar. My young tween son has officially earned himself a new job with this yard. 🙂
The kid’s wish list was simple. They each were starry eyed for their own bedroom, separate bathrooms for the boys and girls and stairs. They love some stairs. We were able to oblige with a bedroom to spare and that lead to fulfillment of my wish list… craft room! I am so excited about this space I can hardly stand it!!!! Big plans including a Murphy bed are in the works because we have to have a place for guests too. 
Just check out the stair situation in this house, we have a double staircase, that’s what I call dream come true time to for the kids!
I have paint ideas for a few spaces and some rooms that haven’t quite show their personality yet. I’m on the hunt for a few pieces of furniture to make up for the built in storage we lost. You know I love the hunt. 
Our new kitchen will get a mini facelift as we change out the countertops and add new hardware to the cabinets. It might sounds crazy to redo new, but we didn’t get to make any selections in the home building process because we had to buy so quickly. Instead of living with something we sort of like we are going to bite the bullet and make it something we love.
Loving your space will be the common denominator for the whole process if you stick around and watch the story unfold. Life is too short and we spend too much time at home as a family to not make the very best of what we surround our self with daily. 
We have had the fortune of living in a number of homes, all different shapes and sizes over the years and with 11 different abodes in 18 years of marriage you learn a thing or two about making a house your home.
I hope you will follow along as we share tips, tricks and ideas that don’t cost a fortune and turn this vanilla builder grade home into a unique, cozy and personal space for our family. I promise the journey will be a lot of things, but none of them will be vanilla.
I’m really looking forward to following your journey in this house that I’m sure you will turn into a lovely “home”! Thank you for sharing and God bless your family in your new home!
thank you so much Karen, it is a little overwhelming but so fun too!
Congratulations on your new home! I so enjoyed seeing the pictures and look forward to seeing how you change the spaces to fit your family. Blessings to you and thanks for the tour!!
I’m so happy to have you follow along, it means so much to have partners on the journey!
Hi, Patricia here. Love your blog. The house tour is great. Thank You for all your tips and pictures.
Welcome to the neighborhood.
I am in Benbrook. Blessings to you and your family.
well hello neighbor, that is so cool. I am thankful to have you join me and we are loving the area, need to venture over to your area. I have so much to learn about our location!
Vanilla is added to most recipes to give a hint of sweetness. I can not wait to see what you do to this new home. From my point of view it is like someone has handed an artist a blank canvas! Sitting on the edge of my seat here!!!
That is so true and I really love vanilla anything! Should be a fun journey and I am so ready to get started. Thank you so much for following along.
Thank you for the tour of your new home. I can’t wait to see what you do with it. I got your post the other day about your old home being featured in a magazine and I went right out that afternoon and bought it. Congratulations on a new beginning.
You are the sweetest, your support means so much to me! I sincerely appreciate it. We started making changes yesterday so they will be coming at you soon!
Even in its “vanilla” state your house is quite beautiful. Good luck and congratulations!
Thank you – I agree, it is so pretty, just so excited to personalize it a little 😉 thank you so much!
Love it and excited with you! I feel better now ????????
lol – hope you can visit for a tour someday!!!
Wow a clean slate so you can do just about anything! Can’t wait to see your magic and creativity! How fun for you!
It is a great jumping off point, should be a great project house!
I can’t wait to see what you do with the space – it has such a good foundation to start from! I am also blessed with a craft room/guest room combo and we love having a Murphy bed in there. I don’t know if SpaceMan goes that far north, but we would definitely recommend them for Murphy bed installation if they do.
thanks for the suggestion, I will check bc I haven’t picked a bed yet and I need to get on that ASAP – that room is a total train wreck because there is zero storage!!!
Thank you for the tour. I love your new house! I can’t wait to see what you will do with it.
I’m ready! We, too, moved to a new home and I’m still trying to make it ‘homey.’ Our last home was so much fun to fix up and I miss it! Looking forward to seeing what you do with your incredible talent!
With God all things are possible, it is a pretty place and when you are done it will be a warm and wonderful place. Thank you for sharing with us and have fun making it a home.
What a beautiful place to grow into. I am unable to deal with stairs, being “ably disabled”, though I see why your children love the dual staircase. I look forward to sharing your journey with you.
We did the exact same thing! Bought a brand new home and re-did the kitchen! I got Taj Mahal quartzite for the countertops. It is very similar to the stone my sister got for her kitchen that is called Princess White. It is natural stone and looks like marble with veins of light gray in it. Absolutely gorgeous. You might want to have a look at it when you are out shopping for countertops. All the transformations we did were so much fun! Enjoy making it your’s!
Oh the fun you will have!! It is just beautiful! I will miss your ole’ homestead too…but change is good! God bless you and your family on your new adventure.
Will be following every step. What a beautiful “vanilla” home. Looking forward to following the changes you will make. Happy and blessed home!
I have been waiting for the invite! And I can’t wait to see your journey on this one. I wish you a blessed, happy home~
yay – the invitation is open ended! thanks so much
Looking forward to seeing your transformation unfold from afar, I know it will be amazing! ????
you are sweet, we have a lot of work to do :/
Ahhh, I am so happy to see it and your peeps in the photos too! It will be a fun process – I can’t wait for the reveals along the way, sweet friend! Miss you so…
miss you too 🙂
Oh, Kim! I LOVE the size and shape of the house and I can’t wait to see how you all make it your own. Congratulations on the move! I’ll be praying for the kids to make some great friends nearby and for you to do the same. Blessings in your new home!
thank you – we are working slowly but surely. We have some lovely neighbors, but I welcome all prayer for my kiddos to make great friends, I appreciate the prayer more than you can imagine. blessings
Can’t wait to follow along. We are in the process of finalizing plans for our new abode.