We bought our house in the summer of 2009. Fresh-faced, excited, and now broke we were ready to handle the trials of homeownership. We looked at our house as a blank canvas. Ok, not really a blank canvas, more like a thrift-store canvas that needs to be prepped and primed first. I like that, our house was a thrift-store canvas ready for our love to nurture it from 1978 to now. We had no idea how to decorate but we were willing to try and we both come from parents that value doing it yourself. We grew up helping our parents build or re-model houses. We learned early on how to handle a paint brush and about not being afraid of a little (or big) plumbing repair.
We had a set price range, an area we liked, and were looking
for a bargain. We looked, and we looked,
and we looked. Buying a house is hard.
That show House Hunters makes it look so easy, but it’s not. We wanted a house
with good bones that we could upgrade. When we first saw this house, I hated
it, but Erik really liked it. It took me a couple of weeks to come around, but
eventually when compared to the other homes we looked at, I started to like it
too. This shot above shows the house when we first pulled up to look at it.
Yeah, misshapen arborvitae.
The next room to the bathroom was the master bedroom. The room featured what we can only assume was the original brown shag carpet and dark brown wood trim. Like the whole house, the master bedroom had a popcorn ceiling. You know the kind that collects dust and spider webs. The ceiling made the whole room feel smaller.
The second bedroom was in a rough shape. It also had the brown shag carpeting. There were no doors on the closet, but someone had hung curtains over the closet. The room had the popcorn ceiling and dark wood trim.
The kitchen in this house was actually in great shape.Well, maybe not pretty but very
usable. The cabinets were dark and old, but worked well. The appliances were
used, but hey they worked. After coming from an apartment, we were not so picky
about the details. They were really clean and passed inspection. The floor in the
kitchen was this gorgeous Brazilian cherry. I really liked this floor. The previous
homeowner however, was in love with the floor. He told us at least twice how he
only put in the floor because he thought that he was going to live in that
house forever and that he would have not put in such a nice floor if he knew he
was going to sell it. Gee, thanks. When we redid the floors in our house ( so
that they all matched and we went from 5 kinds of flooring to 2 kinds) I was a
little sad to rip it up. Erik kept it and its sitting wrapped in plastic wrap
in the garage until the day we decide to either use it somewhere or give to
someone else.
One of the best parts of this house though was this huge room off of the kitchen. It was an extended garage that had a large room attached. This was a great big space that we dreamed about what we would do with. First though some details about the room.
The room featured a lovely wood paneling that when you looked closely at bucolic scenes of animals and forests hidden in the wood grain. Yup, Bambi was staring right back at you. It also had an air conditioning unit that had multi-colored carpet squares around it? (Why oh why?). The room had a lovely vintage 1970’s/early 80’s carpet that if you looked at too closely would pull you in and never let go. And last, but not least a huge, huge wood stove up on a pedestal. The room already had a heating vent, but also came with a woodstove.
One of the best parts of this house though was this huge room off of the kitchen. It was an extended garage that had a large room attached. This was a great big space that we dreamed about what we would do with. First though some details about the room.
The room featured a lovely wood paneling that when you looked closely at bucolic scenes of animals and forests hidden in the wood grain. Yup, Bambi was staring right back at you. It also had an air conditioning unit that had multi-colored carpet squares around it? (Why oh why?). The room had a lovely vintage 1970’s/early 80’s carpet that if you looked at too closely would pull you in and never let go. And last, but not least a huge, huge wood stove up on a pedestal. The room already had a heating vent, but also came with a woodstove.
So, that it. The house as it was
when we bought it. I suppose now you want to know what we did to it. Well let
me tell you it’s a lot. You will have to wait for now though. It’s a work in
progress. I will upload pictures as I can give you the nitty gritty details.
Thanks for reading and coming along for the journey. I hope that you enjoy what
you read, and may you never, ever, have to deal with wood flooring glued to
your walls!
I can't imagine why you would take down all that wonderful wood paneling! =) You guys have done an amazing job giving the house new life and I can't wait to see what the 'new' kitchen will look like!
ReplyDelete