West Little Rock - New House Pics (Before & After)

This post is for our friends and family who have asked to see pictures of our new home in West Little Rock. Warning that there are A LOT of pictures. If you're not interested in these or in remodel work, then go ahead and skip right over this post =) If you are... then come take a tour of our new house via Before and After pics!

House hunting in West Little Rock was difficult, to say the least. We chose this little pocket of Little Rock for the schools as well as the great location - our house is within blocks of all the major shopping, restaurants, etc. However, there is very little new (affordable) construction in this area so most of the houses are quite a bit older than we were used to. (Or "charming" as Ben and I came to know them. Ha.) We wanted to keep our house payment the same as we had in Dallas/Fort Worth, and we were definitely shocked at the variance in price per square foot for this West LR area. We went from having 3200 sq feet in DFW to 2300 here in WLR for the same price. Ouch. But... after a grueling hunt... we FINALLY found (and love) our new home! (Or at least a floor plan that we liked. You'll see below that pretty much everything else has been redone.)

Front of the house - BEFORE

Front of the house - AFTER. Basically, we just had the landscaping cleaned up and mulched out here. We also had the front door repainted white rather than grey. Eventually, we will have the outside of the house repainted instead of the yellow color it is now.

Back porch - BEFORE

Back porch - AFTER. Not much back here except for some clean up. Please excuse the furniture out there... Getting some new patio stuff is next on my list =)

Back yard - BEFORE

Back yard - AFTER

View of back yard from back porch - BEFORE

View of back yard from back porch - AFTER

Walking in front door - BEFORE (You can't really tell in this pic, but all of the trim in this house was either pink... yes, pink... or brown. Charming. Ha. Ha.)

Walking in front door - AFTER. Every last surface was repainted. Multiple ceiling fans removed and new can lights dropped in.

Formal Dining - BEFORE

Formal Dining - AFTER. Everything repainted and new flooring.

Living Room - BEFORE

Living Room - AFTER

Living Room - BEFORE (I'm standing by the back French doors looking towards the front)

Living Room - AFTER

Living Room - BEFORE

Living Room - AFTER

Living Room - BEFORE

Living Room - AFTER (the only thing in this house that did not have to be repainted were those entertainment cabinets. Lovely. But they did get some new hardware.)

Living Room - BEFORE (These french doors lead into the den area)

Living Room - AFTER (French doors to den area)

Den / Family Room - BEFORE

Den / Family Room - AFTER. All new paint and flooring.

Hallway down to Reid's room, guest room, and guest bath - BEFORE

Hallway down to Reid's room, guest room, and guest bath - AFTER

Guest Room - BEFORE

Guest Room - AFTER. New paint and flooring. And the decor is not finished yet.

Guest Room - AFTER

Guest Bath - BEFORE

Guest Bath - AFTER. All new paint, cabinets, hardware, flooring.

Guest Bath - BEFORE

Guest Bath - AFTER (Yes... I'm going to start working with Reid on potty-training! Oh happy day!)

Guest bath - BEFORE

Guest bath - AFTER

Reid's Room - BEFORE (the little dude had to have somewhere to nap while we met with contractors!)

Reid's Room - AFTER. All new paint and flooring.

Reid's Room - AFTER

Reid's Room - AFTER

Reid's Room - AFTER (It's hard to tell in the pics, but he has a huge room which I love... all of his toys fit well in there!)

Reid's Room - AFTER

Back out to the Living Room - BEFORE

Back out to the Living Room - AFTER. In this pic, if you were to go LEFT... that is the Den area then the hallway to the guest room, bath, and Reid's room. To the RIGHT is the formal dining and two doors that lead to the kitchen area.

The Kitchen - BEFORE. All I can say is "charming". Ha. This was a doozy to fix up.

The Kitchen - AFTER. Everything is new except the floors.

Kitchen - BEFORE

Kitchen - AFTER

Kitchen - BEFORE (I took a pic of this b/c that plated glass is the only thing I kept for the new kitchen)

Kitchen - AFTER

Kitchen - AFTER

Breakfast Nook - BEFORE

Breakfast Nook - AFTER

Breakfast Nook - AFTER

Laundry / Mud Room - BEFORE

Laundry / Mud Room - AFTER. Again... all new paint, cabinets, hardware.

Laundry - BEFORE

Laundry - AFTER (also the new home to Fat Jack & Johnny... they even have their own private "water closet". Haha!)

Master Bedroom - BEFORE

Master Bedroom - AFTER. All new paint and flooring.

Master Bedroom - BEFORE

Master Bedroom - AFTER. (The tray ceilings are still there... just didn't show up in these pics)

Master Bath - BEFORE

Master Bath - AFTER. New paint and cabinets. Will hopefully replace these countertops and all the brass down the road.

Master bath - BEFORE

Master Bath - AFTER

Master Bath - BEFORE

Master Bath - AFTER

And that is the grand tour! We welcome visitors so please let us know if you are ever in the area!

STILL ALIVE (in Arkansas)!

Yes... yes... yes... we are still alive and kicking! And we are now residents of Little Rock, Arkansas =) To say this last month has been completely overwhelming and crazy would be an understatement. We have moved an entire household to another state... sold a house... bought house... completely remodeled a house (kitchen just finished TODAY!)... have rented and moved into a new office space for Ben... have desperately tried to feel settled... have gone on vacation to Orlando... have been staying busy with a VERY active 2 year old... have found a new church... have met some sweet new friends... have reconnected with great old friends... and are trying to carve out our new life here in West Little Rock. Whew! And I'm tired all over again. Too tired to post much tonight... BUT... the posts are coming people!

Here's what to expect in the very near future:

1. Before, Remodel, and After pics of our new AR house

2. Misc pics of the most handsome angel baby EVER

3. Pictures from our vacation to Orlando, FL

4. And a glipse into our daily lives (thus far) in Little Rock... there are definitely some funny stories. Mainly about my yard people.

But since none of those posts are going up tonight... here's a little video of our happy baby boy (the real reason you all read this blog anyway!). These two completely crack me up!

BIG WEEK!

My apologies to the Blogosphere for being on hiatus... but in case you haven't heard, DFW was iced over and shut down for the past week. CRAZY weather for Texas! Reid and I camped out at my parent's house for a little bit of company, and we have all been SO GLAD that the roads are better and our nice weather is coming back (for a bit). But on to more important topics...

Many of you know that the first week of February is so very special to our family! The first big event is February 2nd. Ben and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary this year - hard to believe it's been so long! (We didn't actually celebrate considering we were both in two different states, but we are taking a week-long adult-only vacation the first week of March, so we are looking very forward to that.) I love that man more every day and am so thankful to walk through this life with him!

Then... on February 3rd... Reider turned the big T-W-O!!! We obviously already had his birthday party... and despite the icy weather, we still had a great day! We made a chocolate "Happy Cake" (as Reid calls it) that he REFUSED to share with any of us. We all became closet cake eaters to avoid the Reider wrath. =) Here he is enjoying some of the "happy cake":

Then... we ALWAYS celebrate February 5th. What a blessed day that is! Makes me tear up just remembering... February 5, 2009 is the very first time we ever laid eyes on our sweet baby boy. What a complete gift he is! You can see pictures from that day HERE. Hard to believe this was just two short years ago! Can someone please tell me how to slow this time down?!? We will always be so grateful to Michael Reid's amazing birth family for entrusting him to us. They showered him with unselfish love and we are so thankful he has such a wonderful story. We can't wait to share more of it with him!

And... we are adding to the momentum of our very special week with a MOVE TO LITTLE ROCK this year. As I am typing this, the movers are here and packing us up. They will be here through Wednesday, then we all drive out on Thursday morning. As I have said, it is bittersweet for sure. We will miss being so close to our families and great friends. But, in the same breath... Reid misses his Daddy (and I miss him like crazy, too!!) so we are very thankful to be living under one roof again soon! Prayers for serenity this week would be much appreciated. =)

And... to end... here's a short little video of my budding "musician". This is what we do when we're iced in ALL DAY LONG. Reid loves playing the piano and singing!