Looking Back

So it's been less than two years and we've taken on two intensive renovations during that time...we have to stay busy somehow! This week our realtor finally got me the pictures he took right before our cute old colonial house sold and I wanted to share them before I shared the "after" pictures of our current mid-century modern house. Just so we can all get some closure.

For a refresh, here are a few old posts about the renovation process: Destroying a Very Large Purchase, Little House on the Prairie, and Kitchen Reveal No. 1!

Here's what we accomplished in a year of living in the house. It was a lot of stress and a lot of hard work. We didn't have time to do everything we wanted to with the house, but I feel good about what we accomplished in the little time we had.

Cut down a tree attacking our water line, put up new fencing, put in new landscaping

 

Re-plastered a large amount of wall in the main living area, painted trim, added charm/décor

 

Put in new kitchen and laundry room and new floors in kitchen and dining room

 

 Transformed yucky storage area into kids' playroom

 

 

Refinished original hardwood floors throughout whole house, put in new lighting and painted

Repaired and refinished stairs and updated upstairs bathroom with new vanity, mirror, and lighting

Repainted the upstairs and made it cute

Fixed large sections of fence that were falling down and chopped down multiple dead and overgrown trees

 

 

We also let the lawn turn brown, but we won't talk about that. Coming up next, more renovation pics and hopefully a new baby. My due date's February 23, but I'm guessing I'll go into March.

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.