The beginning . . .

My sister-in-law, Jen, gave me the idea to create a blog about our new house showing off our accomplishments.
We closed on our new home the week of August 27, 2012 and it is definitely a fixer upper. I am posting some "Before" pictures.

Shots of the front, back and eastside of house . . .

Front yard

Northeast Corner

Eastside. Bedroom windows.



Backporch

Looking at back of house from property line.

Backporch

Looking at backyard from house

Garage/workshop

The Living Room and Dining Room . . .

The hardwood floors in these rooms installed in the 40's and replaced the original floors from the 20's. When we purchased the house they were already sanded with the exception of the edges and corners. After some thought we decided to keep the floors in lieu of replacing with wood laminate flooring.

Dining room

Dining room

Dining room. Wall my office hutch will be on! We would like to eventually replace wall on the right with a breakfast bar.

Sanded hardwood floor installed in 40's - dining room

Living room looking from front door

Living room looking to right from front door

Sanded hardwood floor installed in 40's - living room

Looking into living room from dining room

Looking into living room from dining room.

The Kitchen . . .

The back of the house consists of the kitchen, bathroom and Lydia's bedroom. We were told that the back was added in the 40's. We have decided that people were really short then or at least the original owners were! The ceilings in this part of the house are about 7 foot! Kevin and David definitely walk funny in this section! No ceiling fan in the kitchen for sure. In order the raise the ceilings we will have to replace the roof. Needless to say, it won't be happening real soon. The kitchen and bathroom were remodeled around the 90's.

looking left from dining room

looking straight back from dining room

looking right from dining room

looking in from back door

looking at stove from sink

looking left from backdoor

pantry

looking into hall from kitchen, pantry door

just a shot of kitchen cabinets

I hate this gap between cabinet and wall. Not sure what they were thinking. What to do with it now?

Kitchen sink

The 7 ft. styrofoam ceiling . . .

closer shot of 7 ft styrofoam ceiling

looking at cabinets and entry to dining room

looking at cabinets and entry to dining room

The Bathroom . . .

I have already told some of the bathroom story with the kitchen. I would also like to point out the ceiling fan! I understand the purpose because taking a shower or just being in the bathroom with the door shut can get real stuffy and hot. However, when you are over 6'3" and male, using the restroom becomes an adventure! The entry into the bathroom is hardly 6 foot so anyone taller has to duck to enter. Behind the door is a cubby (linen cupboard) that is covered by "shutters?" there are no hinges, you just remove them to get what you need and then hang back on screws when your done. I would love to visit with the contracter in charge of this remodel and ask a few questions.

The Master Bedroom . . .

This room is completely covered in paneling . . . ugh. And it smelled funny, the kids say it smells like old person. The flooring had been removed already but we could tell that there was hardwood under the plywood. Fingers crossed, we are hoping it is good condition. In the third picture you can see the closet and the entry way into the room. Again I would like to speak with the designer and collect his thoughts. The closet is big and roomy which is nice but it created about 3' x 3' entry into the room that became useless space. Plans are to completely gut this room, frame it out, insulate & drywall. I can't wait to see finished!

David's Bedroom . . .

David's room has already been framed and insulated. The walls are textured with plaster and look nice. It has 3 old single paned windows. We will probably be replacing them in the future. Half the original hardwood floor had been removed so we will be putting down wood laminate flooring. The closet is going to be removed and replaced with another larger closet and utility closet that will have entrance from the hall. The door that enters to hall will be covered. That makes David sad because he won't have quick access to the bathroom! The other entrance that leads to the dining room will become the doorway to a small hall so Kevin and I won't have to go through David's room to get to ours.

The brown square you see by the two doorways will become a small entry way to both rooms.

The closet that will be torn out and hall entry way that will be covered.

The darker hardwood is original from the 20's.

Big step from David's room to hallway.

Lydia's Bedroom . . .

Not sure what this room was originally suppose to be but it was a bedroom for the last owners who had 3 children. After the father passed away, the mother remodeled the kitchen and bathroom and had the hot water heater moved from the kitchen to this room. She also had the washer and dryer connections placed in here so it became the utility room. Lydia loves the windows! As of right now, there are no plans to replace these windows. The flooring had been removed in this room as well and will be replaced with laminate wood flooring. We are planning to update to a tankless water heater and as noted before, we are building a utility closet in the hallway to house the washer/dryer. There is no closet so we plan to frame one in along the wall that you see the hot water heater on.

Front Porch . . .

It was explained to us that the lady of the house requested a screened in front porch and she got an enclosed front porch. It is a nice extra room but from the outside it really makes the house look smaller and it appears to swallow the front yard. We are going to use the windows to replace the windows in the living room, master bedroom and dining room. There is concrete pad so we will be able to have a nice front porch.

Updates are coming . . .