Cape Cod (“Sutton”) Final Home Tour | Camp Lejeune, North Carolina

The time has come to do our final house tour of our current home. When we moved in three years ago, I thought this post would come within just months…maybe one year later. Little did I know that I would literally spend our entire time here working on this house, only calling it done in the weeks before moving…and not because it feels done but because the moving trucks are arriving, and it’s literally time to go. I’m filled with such emotion, amazement, satisfaction, and pride as I look at all these pictures (and caution: there are A LOT of photos 😉 How the house actually all came together…one idea, one project at at time. What all I (and we) created with our own ideas and own two (or four!) hands. I didn’t really know where this house would end up when we started, and there were so many wrong turns as well as excited moments along the way. This was real life trial and error done for the pure enjoyment of creating homey, pretty and personal spaces for me and my family. And here…at the end…I’m just so…proud.

This house is an 1800-ish square foot single-story Capecod-style home aboard Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a detached two-car garage (although we hardly ever parked our cars in it!). This house is military base housing to the core: nothing special, nothing fancy. No architectural details, no fancy appliances, no high-end finishes, and not a lot of windows. It has builder basic bathrooms and a kitchen, popcorn ceilings, worn carpet throughout, and fake and mis-matched flooring across four rooms. We weren’t allowed to tear down walls or rip out carpet or tile back-splashes or paint cabinets…but with a ton of ambition and all renter-friendly ideas and DIYs, we transformed this boring and basic home into something truly special.

Okay…grab a drink (seriously, this is a long one…go grab a drink and maybe a snack!), sit back and relax, and let me give you one last look at this, our 5th home (sniff).

We affectionately call this home our “yellow house.” In addition to giving the front porch several makeovers as seasons changed, we dug out the front flower bed and did all the landscaping ourselves. On most days, our driveway was littered with kid toys and project supplies. We use every inch of this home…inside and out!

Come on in!!! Since we actually don’t enter the house through the front door, our foyer is much more decorative than functional. A lemon-lime console table and gallery wall greet visitors, while we store our book collection in a nook behind the door. The front hall closet actually functions as toy and seasonal storage instead of coats!

Right in the front door, off the small foyer, is a great room that measures about 13’x18′. We split this large room into two different zones: the playroom and our family room.

Our large, blue sectional serves as a room divider, creating distinct spaces that are unified through a consistent decor scheme. One of the very last elements to come into this space was the grasscloth-covered trunk, which is possibly one of my most favorite projects ever!

As you continue to move toward the back of the house, you come into our spacious dining room, easily one of my favorite spaces in our entire house. Immediately to the right, is a hallway that leads to all the bedrooms. Further back and to the right, is the kitchen and laundry room. The sliding glass door leads to a 3′ square concrete slab and an alleyway, so we essentially have no backyard.

The kitchen is right off the dining room and has cabinets and appliances on the only three walls of the room. This space was high on storage and brown cabinets but very low on design and natural light. This is our version of making lemonade from lemons!

Between the dining room and kitchen is our laundry room/pantry. This was one of the very first spaces I completed in this home, and it didn’t change a bit our entire time here!

As you come from the dining room and down the side hallway, you come across an alcove that we transformed into our family command center and drop zone. Since we always enter/exit through the side door that is further down this hallway, this turned out to be an awesome use of this awkward space!

Just to the right of the command center is our hallway/guest bathroom/Henry’s bathroom. It is basic and simple…bright and cheerful.

Across from the bathroom is a very large linen closet that we outfitted with all sorts of baskets, totes and bins to hold everything and anything our household needed!

Directly across from the command center is the first, large bedroom that we used as a craft room and office. As you walk in the door, the “office” side of the space is directly ahead, with the craft side of the space off the the right. The far wall features a workstation with countertop while the fourth wall holds my sewing desk.

We removed the standard closet shelves and stacked cubed shelving as high and tight as we could to hold all sorts of craft supplies, books, and more in a single closet!

Right next to the craft room is Henry’s bedroom. A bright, fresh and really fun space that he is proud to call his own and show off to anyone who comes to visit!

At the end of the hall, before you head out the side door is the master bedroom along with an en suite bathroom. It is a small and awkward room but thanks to a great paint job and glamorous finishes, it is a serene and comfortable retreat at the end of busy days!

As you walk out the side door into the garage, this is the back corner work space, that I wish I could say looked this clean and tidy all the time. The reality is that our garage is in a constant and fluctuating state of chaos. The other side and back storage room have never gotten to a place that I felt like I could photograph it and show it off!

And with that, I’m bringing this, our North Carolina home for the last three years, to a close. It’s time to pull everything apart and return this house back to its blank slate status; to box everything up and move it all to our next home that is awaiting our personal touch (and to keep documenting it all right here for you guys!). I hope you enjoyed this post, as well as the past three years of projects, wrong turns, and successes in making this empty space our home! For all you renters and military spouses out there, just because we move frequently and often live in bland/boring housing, you can make a space that feels like home no matter how far from home you are. You can make a sanctuary that feels real and true for you and your family to create memories in and endure tough times in. You can give a boring home loads of personality through renter-friendly projects. And at least for me and our family…the effort, time, and cost are all totally worth it. Farewell, Yellow House…it’s been so, so, so good.