Below is a photo tour of our house the day we took possession of it. We got to work immediately with the changes necessary to moving in, but the house is still a work in progress. I will be sharing more of the journey and the details to each project on the blog. The before photos are little frightening, but Josh and I couldn't be more thrilled with the progress we've made and are continually making. This house has been a tremendous blessing!!! We're enjoying this renovation even more than with the other house and it's going faster too!!
The kitchen isn't pretty, but the cabinets are a very high-quality, it's functional and HUGE! Therefore, it's low on the project priority list. I removed the wallpaper border and window shades and added a fresh coat of paint in a brighter shade of creamy beige. Josh and I removed the beadboard on the walls and laminate flooring in the dining area and replaced them with a dark prefinished wide plank wood floor that we LOVE! Eventually we will add more cabinets above the current one, replace the doors with more of a shaker style and paint all the cabinets white. We will continue the new flooring throughout and remove the current island for a longer, more narrow one running closer to the length of the kitchen. The lighting will be replaced with recessed lights.
The connected living area was dark and dingy from floor to ceiling. We removed the carpet the first chance we got. We had to repair and sand the uneven joints in the subfloor to prep for the new wood flooring that Josh and I installed throughout the main level. Josh used our paint sprayer to paint the ceiling. It took four coats of white ceiling paint to cover the dark wood. We also hired a contractor to move the stairs along the wall instead of jutting out into the room. We've got big plans for this room down the road. Mainly moving the half bath and laundry room into a future mudroom and replacing it with a stone fireplace going up to the cathedral. The extra room will make a perfect space for my sweet Nana's baby grand piano too. We would also like to get rid of the beadboard ceiling and replace the fans with two chandeliers. It's going to be grand!
If the upstairs was dark and dingy, the basement was a nightmare! Literally- I had some nightmares about it. The layout is all wrong: stairs lead to an awkward foyer area, two bedrooms when you first come down the stairs, with a small winding hallway that leads to a bathroom and rec room. Cheap dirty carpet, a drop ceiling, and floor-to-ceiling fake wood paneled walls. The basement had to be completely demolished, down to the studs and concrete. We found black mold and leaking along much of the back wall of the house. Josh and our contractor had to almost completely rebuild a large section of the back wall. The stairs were moved to come down in the opposite direction (into the center of the basement instead of down to the back wall of the house). We tucked one of the bedrooms and another extra room back where the old rec room was. The wall is where that red pole stands in the photo below. The space now has a much more open and functional flow. We added an extra room and closet, linen closet, and storage closet just by reimagining the layout of the space!
I'll have to start taking and posting some "after" photos soon.