Our Home Journey (From Vision to Reality)

Let’s start with our home, which we have been in for a little over two years now. The
canvas we had in this house was perfect based on what we were looking for. Below, I
highlighted the non-negotiables we identified while on the hunt for a house. Now, these
non-negotiable items will change based on the person or couple buying a home, but
these were the items that were important to us!
KLC’s Criteria
3+ bedrooms

2.5 bathrooms (needed at least two full bathrooms; a half bath was a “nice-to-have”)
Finished basement
Laundry on the first or second floor

Open concept kitchen / family room

Good bones / character
Within 30 minutes to downtown Milwaukee and 30 minutes to my parents
Western suburb of Milwaukee
More than a ½ acre

There were certainly a few houses that I fell in love with over the 2 years that I was
house-hunting, but this was the perfect house for us to end up in, and looking back at it
now, we wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. Below are some photos from the listing
when we first moved in. It looks okay, but not cute, right?

Looking back on it, there were things we would have considered when we were looking
at houses. For example, when we saw the house with our realtor, it was the middle of
the day, so we never considered the lighting in the rooms. As it would turn out, most of
them did not have great lighting and would get very dark past sunset.
Additionally, we didn’t think about the functionality of where appliances are placed. For
example, our refrigerator is placed near a key entrance / exit to the kitchen. After being
here for a few years, we understand that it isn’t super functional for us. While we were
able to change some of the things that aren’t functional (like adding lighting), there are
others that just weren’t in the budget, like moving appliance locations.
The next few blogs will showcase the before and after photos of this house, with details
on what we did and the products we used. Most rooms just got a little bit of TLC, but a
few got a full makeover! Let me know if you are interested in the financials of it all as
well. We could break down the budget of what it actually costs to make changes like this
in a home!
Join us next week for the den / laundry room update!
XOXO
Kat Christian-Vaubel”