Renovating our house

As many of you know, the house we bought was a foreclosure. It had been vacant for a few years, and then went on the market a year or so before. We saw it once when they had an open house but it was priced a lot higher and there were a few deal breakers for us in the house, so we passed. Time went on and the house foreclosed, then went to auction and didn't get purchased, so came back on the market as a foreclosure. We ended up deciding to take the plunge because the house did have a lot of nice features (the windows had been replaced, hot water heater was new, HVAC was in good condition) and the main issues seemed to be cosmetic. We had a few contractors come through to give us some estimates. The two big things we wanted to address before moving in were the kitchen and fireplace. In the kitchen, the appliances weren't functioning and counter tops were peeling which led to changing them out, and then cabinets had to go because appliances wouldn't fit, and I wanted to add a gas range (in lieu of the electric that was present). We essentially ended up gutting the kitchen and starting over with a relatively similar layout (so we could avoid plumbing, etc.), but with new appliances, cabinets, and counters. The second issue was that in the family room - the room we planned to use for the majority of our "living" had a massive brick fireplace that expanded from the wall (with built-ins surrounding it) just over a third of the way into the room. It took up a ton of space, and along with the dark built-ins and burgundy carpet, made the room very dark. With the arrangement of the french doors and windows, we also weren't able to fit more than one full size couch into the room, which with a family of six, doesn't seat everyone. One of our major priorities when looking at houses was a big family room that everyone could gather in. This is the room we spent the vast majority of time in at our old house and figured that would likely remain true here. With that in mind, we had the fireplace, chimney, and built ins removed, and opened up the top half of the kitchen wall (removing a closet) to open the kitchen up to the family room. This made the family room muuuuch lighter (it seemed like a dungeon before)! We did lots of other (less major) things and have a lot more to go! We plan to eventually put a fireplace back in the house, but one that doesn't come so far into the room taking up so much space. Anyway, time for some pictures! Keep in mind we haven't started hanging anything on walls yet - we're still working on painting in some of the rooms.

Family room before & after - the wide angle lens used in the before pictures make the fireplace seem much less obtrusive than it actually was! Also, one day (when the kids are a bit older) we will get different furniture.

Kitchen before & after - there is an "eat in" area of the kitchen that we don't yet have a table for. I'm actually not sure if we'll put a table there or if we'll use the space differently. Ignore all the dishes and stuff sitting around!

Front hall before & after - all we did here was paint!

Dining room before & after - here was just paint, too, so far.

Living room before & after - we put in hardwood floor in here and painted. We hope to turn this room into an office.

There's the downstairs! We have a lot of little projects to do here and there, plus of course have to start hanging things on walls and getting rooms a little more set up, but overall we are living in the space and love having more space! It's been a very good transition so far.