Destroying a Very Large Purchase



 

It's very stressful to renovate a house. We spent a lot of money to buy a cute little house then promptly started to destroy it. WHAT HAVE WE DONE?? 

Our living room (before)

Our kitchen (before). Hey, it actually looks pretty good in this photo. It could be the dim lighting...or the devilishly attractive female with the screwdriver.

 

But in the cold light of the flash...it's another story.

 

The other side of the kitchen. Note that one of the sinks is the size of a large hot dog. Who does that? 

 

Relaxing in our new kitchen

 

Laundry room off the kitchen

 

 

Demolition reveals a boarded up chimney that contained coal remnants and a toasty bird skeleton that Matthew relished showing Kellie and I.

 

So our first priorities are the kitchen and the floors. Those two things seemed good to get out of the way before we actually moved into the house. The floor refinisher starts tomorrow on the hardwood throughout the house, so that's one thing out of the way. Then we need to level the kitchen and dining room floor and pick an engineered hardwood to put down. We spent days getting up the Spanish tile, which was grouted to the cement board which was glued and screwed to the plywood underneath, so we might hire someone at this point to do the leveling.

 

The kitchen is interesting too. I think the chimney connected to the original kitchen stove, and the original kitchen was what is now the laundry room. I'm putting cupboards in the laundry room that match the new kitchen and taking out the sink behind the door and making it a pantry closet, basically turning the laundry room into a butler's pantry. Actually I just like saying "butler's pantry." I'm not sure if my laundry room qualifies as one. I'm a little nervous about the kitchen.

 

The basic idea

Except I don't like farmhouse sinks, or faucets that are hard to clean. Or those door pulls. Austin wants to go with white subway tile, but I worry that it's too much white. Plus everyone these days is doing a white kitchen with white subway tile. Too trendy?

We have a lot of decisions to make...any input is appreciated.

The Return of the Blogger

Here it is! I call it our new old house. In my mind I wanted a cute little brick bungalow, but this cute little brick colonial revival cottage definitely fit the bill. It was built in the early 1900s and built to last. We're close to Sam's school, three parks, church, BYU, and other fun places in a neighborhood that's full of life and diversity. However, our cottage needs a lot of work, and is slightly overwhelming in that everywhere you look there's something you could fix up. The huge backyard needs tree removal, chicken shed pulled down, a gate, landscaping, new fence sections, a new garage, a built in trampoline and a play cottage. The inside needs new floors, a new kitchen, new bathrooms, wall touch up, trim touch up, paint, new wiring, and a less creepy basement. And oh yes, did I mention it needs a new roof and a paint job?

It was definitely livable when we bought it, but livable like a cheap hotel where you don't actually want to live there, just stay there for one night. Not that it's decrepit. It just needs some TLC, which I am fully prepared to give. Because Austin loves me and knows I want the house, he too is prepared to throw in some TLC. We bought the house exactly a week ago and have dived into renovations so we can actually move in and let my parents have their house back as soon as possible. We're staying with them while we complete the two projects that we thought it would be hard to be in the house for: Floors and Kitchen. That's its own post, so more on that later. So far its been really stressful, a little bit fun, and good bonding time with family members.

More to come!