Hallway
The hallway started out in yet another poorly-applied, outdated wallpaper but has some nice features like the antique bell chandelier, high ceiling, and pretty moulding.
For the walls, we went with the same color scheme as our living room - Light Khaki above the chair rail and Garden Urn below (both from Lowe's Seaside Retreat collection).
Master Bedroom
We love our large master bedroom, especially since it can fit my best furniture purchase (Lexington/Bob Timberlake entertainment armoire which I got for a complete steal!) with plenty of room to spare. This started out entirely blue...that means light blue walls, robins egg blue trim, and blue shag carpet. So we went with our favorite neutral color for this house - Light Khaki - for the walls with white trim. It also had some way outdated drapes, which we replaced with faux wood blinds. And the biggest change was for us to rip out the nasty carpet, which left untouched hardwood floors!
The room now has a peaceful feel with great light and simplicity. If we were going to be in it longer, I would probably replace the single closet door with double doors to make the space more accessible (the closet is basically the width of the wall, so I currently have to climb into it to reach some of my clothes). We also bought some nice-looking linen curtains from Wal-Mart (very comparable look to these for half the cost!) but still need to hang those.
Guest Room
Our guest room had the same finishes as the master bedroom, and we went with the same color scheme there as well, just to keep with the simple nature of our style. After a year and a half in the house, we have finished this room, much to Billy's relief, with the addition of pictures from our trip to Europe and finally putting the bed up on a frame.
Bath #1 - The Blue Lagoon
So apparently when our house was built, it was a big deal to have not only colored tile walls and flooring but also colored sinks, toilets, and tubs. We love having two baths in this house, but that also meant having two different colored (but equally bright) bathrooms. It was also in style to have coordinating wallpaper and window treatments (which we were fortunate to have in both baths and the kitchen). We're on a limited budget, so we opted not to gut the bathroom and instead embraced the color in each bathroom. We did strip the wallpaper and painted the walls Seashore (also from the Lowe's Seaside Retreat collection) and the trim white. We tossed the window treatment as well, replacing it with faux wood blinds. This is our beachy bathroom, so we have beach-themed art, a bamboo bath mat, and a woven basket for our towels.
We have something in our house that is rare in our area...a basement! We love this part of our house...it's the best insulated area of our house, has a full bath and a second kitchen, and has a fireplace that we use regularly as soon as there is a nip in the air. The "man room" or den didn't need a whole lot of work...just new window treatments. It has beautiful pine paneling and is the coziest room of the house (although I'm sure Billy wouldn't want that to be part of his "man room" description :)). We have recently finished the improvements on the rest of the basement...our last major work on our house.
Den a.k.a. Man Room
Before 
After
(minus the slipcover on the sofa, which we have resorted to removing because of Jefferson's digging habits with our furniture)
Basement Kitchen/Laundry Room
It's great having a second kitchen, which Billy has deemed "his kitchen" since it's near the man room. To this day, I'm not sure he has ever cooked in our main kitchen unless he's helping me with something. This kitchen was in fine shape but just needed a little cosmetic work in the form of painting the cabinets white and the walls ??? It's now much more inviting and feels more lived-in. This kitchen doubles as our laundry room, which is a little strange, but we still love the extra cooking area as well as the generous cabinet space it offers (since many older homes also do not have pantries).
Bath #2 - The Green Monster
Before
AfterBlue is both of our favorite color, so we're more ok having the blue bathroom as our primary one. I like green just fine too, but I'm not sure this deep sea green was ever meant to grace the interior of a home (and in such great quantity). We've made it work, though, by removing the outdated wallpaper and window treatment (this was the best - and probably only good - wallpaper job in the house...we ripped most of it off barehanded all in the excitement of seeing how easily it came off!). Billy selected Park Bench, a deep green color, for the walls. I was very skeptical of this color, as I always thought darker/richer colors close up a space and make it seem small. But I was wrong...it's a very nice compliment to the sea green walls, floor, sink, toilet, and tub. When we painted the trim white, everything came together! Now, we have a very man room appropriate bath and have made the most of both of our cosmetically challenged bathrooms!
Yard
We have made some decent improvements in the backyard, although our limited budget won't let us do everything we'd like (i.e., adding a patio and furniture in the backyard) for now. Last fall, my construction-savvy brother began constructing a fence in the back of our yard to give us a little more privacy from the neighbors. Almost a year later, we finally had the fence completed, helping us worry less about letting Jefferson out and also giving us a more defined space in our backyard. We've also cleaned up the beds, added some pavers at the top of the stairs (no more digging for Jefferson there!), and added a few plantings (favorite is the red hibiscus outside the garage). In the front yard, we've done some minor improvements, including removing a couple of sad looking boxwoods and an island in the middle of the yard, changing around the planting bed by the sidewalk, and adding planters to fill with seasonal flowers at the front of the house. It would look great to add shutters and replace the existing boxwoods with something else (I have a planting plan from a local nursery that would look great!), but for now, we're trying to limit costs since it won't be a long-term house for us, so the improvements we'll do in the near future will be to move the mailbox (strangely placed on the side of the front yard - see picture) and paint the front door.
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