Category Archives: House

Hallway Then and Now

The past few weeks we have been ripping up the last remnants of the deep, deep green (that’s right, its not Forest Green, its deeper than that) carpeting that was in the upstairs hallway and the stairs. The first few photos below are what the stairs and hallway used to look like. The last few photos show what it looks like now. Underneath the carpet is nice hardwood floors that are in really good condition. We are going to have them sanded and poly’d sometime over the next few weeks which will really look pretty nice. Then I can put the baseboards on the hall walls and that will be done. Also need to paint the fine ornate “should be outside but its inside” handrailing.





Kitchen

Here are some before and afters of the kitchen. In the kitchen, we removed the wallpaper, painted the walls, and bought new appliances to replace the circa 1980′s ones that came with the house. We also removed the sponge painting, replaced the doors, cleaned the cabinets, and removed the big “Ikea-type” cabinet on the right hand wall of the kitchen.

Master Bathroom

Again, back in January we shared photos of how the bathrooms looked when we purchased the house along with photos of them ripped down to the 2×4′s. Well, we are happy to report that, with the exception of installing a mirror in the kids bathroom, they are pretty much done. In the old bathrooms, the green sponge painted bathroom is what is now the red bathroom.


Master Bedroom

Here are some before and after photos of the master bedroom. As you can see in the before photos, there was some very attractive stenciling on the walls along with some nice greenery in the room. We essentially ripped out the old closets and the louvered doors leading into the “dressing area” and replaced that with a walk in closet and a new door to the bathroom. We used pocket doors for both the bathroom and the closet to optimize the amount of usable space. We obviously need to put some things on the walls of our bedroom. But this is what its looking like these days.




Outside

The past few weeks have been somewhat unproductive inside the house for a variety of reasons. The things we have done have been minor and the rooms we are working on are not at a point to share photos yet. They are close, but not done yet. The kids bathroom needs some more paint. Our bedroom needs baseboards and furniture, although we did rip out the nasty carpets and have the floor sanded. The closet needs a light. And the master bath is probably the farthest along, but still needs baseboards and a frame around the window.

We have begun to venture outside to address the mess that is our front and back yards. We are seeing some accumulation of dampness and water on the ground at the back of the house and that is definitely a problem. We think that a lot of that problem simply has to do with poor drainage from the gutters on the house, so hopefully that will not be a big project. Lisa cleared out a ton of leaves that were near the house and that should help a great deal.

More photos to come.

Ian’s Room Before and After

These are before and after photos of Ian’s room. We put in new closet doors and closet shelves, and obviously gave it a nice coat of blue paint. We ripped up the “beautiful” deep green (no, not Forest Green…it was deeper than that) carpet to reveal hardwood floors. Someone who lived there before wrote on the wood floors with permanant marker, so that made for some good reading. We had the floors sanded and that took care of the writing. :-) We do need to put some things on the walls, but we will get to that in time.



Rebecca’s Room Before and After

These are before and after photos of Rebecca’s room. As with Ian’s room, we ripped up the deep green carpeting to reveal hardwood floors. The flooring near the outside wall was a bit damaged but we can roll with it. It appears that the window has a little leak in it of some sort and that is something we definitely need to give some attention to. We put in new closet doors and shelves. Rebecca’s room is one of my favorite rooms in the house and she really enjoys playing in her new room.



Movin’ In

We officially moved into our house this weekend. We were delayed a couple of weeks because we had some immense problems with the appliances we ordered from Home Depot. Every one of the items were damaged in some capacity. And it took them over a week to respond and have the new ones re-delivered. In addition, we had some delays with construction and the bathrooms. Our first order of business is to continue to focus on the upstairs and get all the bathrooms and bedrooms in good condition. At present, Lisa and Steve are living in what will be the office as we paint the MBR, the bathroom, and the walk in closet. The kids bathroom also needs work but it is in functional condition.