Michigan House – The Beginning

This post has been a long time coming! As many of you know, my husband is in the Marine corps. He joined when he was 18 & moved from Michigan,to Florida, To North Carolina where we are now.So after we were married 5 years ago, I moved from Michigan to North Carolina where he was stationed.

Our first home here in North Carolina was a brand new town home when we were 19. We loved that little home, it was perfect for us, but we were tired of renting so we decided to buy a house here in North Carolina. Before he left on his second deployment we decided that I would go house hunting and buy a house while he was gone over seas. Well, a week after he was was gone, I didn’t find the perfect house, but I found the perfect neighborhood & the perfect model home that I wanted to build & I knew he would love it too! After talking with Mr. LMB about all the details we immediately started building. A long story short, 5 months later I was moving all of our stuff into our brand new home {I had 2 months to get the house together before he came home from deployment!} We have now lived in this house for going on 3 years. After one re-enlistment, the time has come to decide whether or not we are going to get out of the military life, and move back home or stay in the military.

Our house here in NC {via Instagram @lizmariegalvan}

This past summer my husbands dad died from cancer. Our world stopped. Losing a parent is hard. Losing a parent when you are only 25 is rough. Losing my husbands dad to cancer made our decision for us. We want to be by our families. We want to soak up all the time we have with them on this earth. We decided that in 2 years {That’s only 24 months from now, that’s not that much longer!} We are going to leave the military life behind & move back to Michigan. Out of the kindness of his heart, my father in law left us his home. We couldn’t be more thankful to have a home in Michigan to move home to. His dad had cancer for a very long time and was unable to work on the home or update it. So after he passed away we basically gutted the entire house & now we are re-doing the entire home inside and outside to make it our own.

 We are starting with a brand new kitchen, all new flooring, new windows, new ceilings, & finishing the basement, just to name a few. I wanted to include all of you in the entire process of re-doing our “new” home in Michigan. It’s going to be a long process, & it’s different for us because we will be “re-doing” our home from here in North Carolina with only occasional visits of going to Michigan to work on it while we have contractors and family working on it while we are out of state. Once we move back home to Michigan all of our DIY projects on the home & decorating can begin, until then we need to decide if we are going to rent or sell our home here in North Carolina. Are you ready to see the “before” of our Michigan home??

Some facts about the house:
{All of this including the finished basement}

4 bedrooms
3 living rooms
2 Full bathrooms
1 1/2 bath with laundry
It’s a tri-level home with a basement
2 car garage

These photos were taken after we started gutting the home, we had removed all
the flooring, and started ripping everything out of the house…

This picture was take before the guys took the kitchen out. You can see them scheming
on how they are going to go about doing it.. o, and look! a kitchen sink in the living room!
Don’t mind our mess. When I say we are under construction I mean everything & the kitchen sink 😉

Bye Bye cabinets! Here is the kitchen with everything ripped out. I love how everything is
going to be a blank slate so we can start over. We already got the 3D drawings for our
new kitchen which I will be sharing soon!

 Here is the view when you walk into the front door. You see living room #1, part of the kitchen,
part of the dining room, & the stairs upstairs.

This is a tri-level home so these are the stairs up to two bedrooms, a
bathroom and a linen closet. The stairs going down lead to the second
living room, another bedroom, and a bathroom. There are also stairs
below that lead to the basement which will be another bedroom, a
laundry/ bathroom,  and a 3rd living room.

Here is the full bathroom upstairs. This was before we ripped the cabinet
out, but after we ripped the toilet and the flooring out.

This is one of the bedrooms upstairs. I wish I would have taken pictures
after we had thrown everything in the dumpster, but you get the idea.
This room is very long and has two large windows. I love all the light!

Here is bedroom number 2 upstairs. Don’t mind the curtains hanging over a large
entertainment center in the room. We seriously were construction mode and moved
everything where the was room in the house until we could either throw it away or
sell the items.

This is going to be the second living room. That hallway to the right leads to
the 3rd bedroom, the second full bathroom, & the stairs to the basement.

This is the 3rd bedroom in the basement, this is the only room we have
not ripped up the carpet in yet.

Here is the second full bathroom in the house. & to the right of the bathroom
is the stairs to the basement…

Obviously the basement needs the most work, but it’s going to be so nice to have
4 levels of our house where people can spread out. It’s going to be weird going from a house
with only one level, to four!

So, there you have it! The “before” I wish I would have taken pictures before we started
the destruction of the home, but actually this will just make the after photos that much better.
As you can see we have a long ways to go on the home & I wanted to take you on every step of the process
with us. We are excited for this journey ahead of us, and scared to leave our home in NC at the
same time. I’m anxious to see where the Lord takes us! Have you guys ever renovated a home?
What was your experience like? Do you have any advice for us? I would love to hear from you!