Here is the outside of our house. It didn't change much on the outside. But boy, did it change inside.
A few things we liked about this house:
Brick exterior - fireplace - carriage-style garage doors - good, solid construction. And it was cheap.
We paid $77,900 for it in February of 2007. When we sold it in December of 2011, it went for $76,000. With about $10,000 - $12,000 worth of improvements. All paid for with cash - no credit cards, no loans. Thanks, housing bubble.
And now for some before and afters, because I know those are everyone's favorite.
This is the living room the night we closed on the place.
This is the living room just before we listed the house for sale last year. My apologies for the picture quality - it was taken with my cell phone. But at least I have photos. Chuck likes the changes.
What we did to this room:
Painted the walls - Painted the trim - Installed hardwood floors - Refinished the fireplace surround with marble tile - Removed doors going to sunroom - Misc. decorating
Here is a view of the dining room the night we closed on the house.
And here's what it looked like before we sold it:
I think I eventually found curtains for the dining room. I just never really liked curtains in there. I'm just not a huge fan of curtains, period.
What we did in this room (plus the sunroom):
Painted the walls - Painted the trim - Installed hardwood - Replaced lighting - Removed doors to open up the space - Custom-built hinge-top cushioned window bench - Replaced front door
Ah the bedroom. I don't have any before photos of it, but it was four blank white walls, glossy oak trim, and two windows. Plus one tiny closet. This is the only photo I have after I worked on it. And the bed's not even made. Jeez. Here's another crappy cell phone photo.
I make my bed every day now, but I didn't think to do it for a photo. Probably because I never thought I'd be showing my unmade bed to the world. Hindsight's 20/20, you know.
What we did in here:
Sanded + Refinished original parquet wood floors - Painted walls - Painted trim - Wallpapered main wall - Misc. decorating
The K + P are from Urban Outfitters and I ordered the wallpaper online. Ikea bed, K-Mart shelf and dresser. Lucite lamps from Target. The peonies are my wedding bouquet. Awww....
The bathroom. What a nightmare that turned out to be. Here's what it looked like when we moved in.
That's a painted yellow (cast iron and heavy as truck!) bathtub, faux-marbled grey plastic tiles (with burgundy accent tiles!), pink wall paint, and (trust me, it's there) a burgundy ceiling. With floral pink and grey linoleum. At least the toilet wasn't Pepto pink. We looked at one house that was an entire bathroom covered in Pepto pink.
The toilet actually sits in an alcove (where I'm standing when I took the photo), that had built-in storage next to it.
Unfortunately, I didn't take photos when I staged the house before we sold it, but here are some fun reno photos to check out.
The vanity's gone!
We took out the old yucky built-ins and moved the toilet to where the tub used to be. That opened up this alcove to become a walk-in shower with a custom tile surround and seat.
Of course, it's not done in this photo (check the caulking gun), but we did add a really nice frosted glass door to the front, so it was like being in a spa sauna. Definitely worth the effort. And not bad for two kids that had never done plumbing or tile before, right?
Notice the control lever isn't attached. Ha! That was an ordeal. But we made it though.
It was a lot nicer when it was all done. And had a mirror. And a faucet.
And finally, the kitchen. The biggest change of the whole house. Remember what it looked like when we first bought it?
There was a whole section of the kitchen (where I'm standing when I took the photo) that wasn't being used. So one of the first things we did was move the refrigerator to the other wall to give us more room along the window wall.
Flash forward to February 2011.
Time to start tearin' things up. Some of the things we HATED about this kitchen:
There are two different colors of green on the same wall - The ceiling was two different colors - I scorched a big hole in the linoleum floor when I caught an egg carton on fire (my bad) - The cabinets were built-in and didn't have a bottom to them (so you're literally putting your pots and pans on the floor) - There was no dishwasher - The exhaust fan venting to the outside of the house was a finger-chopper waiting to strike - The oven was right next to the back door so you had to lock the door to make sure someone didn't come in and smack into the oven door when you're taking out a hot pan - The counters were only 32" from the floor (typical is 36") so we were always hunched over when we were cooking or doing dishes - There was not enough storage - The scalloped valance. Need I say more?
So I came up with a plan.
Luckily, I was working for the largest cabinetry manufacturer in North America at the time, and had access to professional kitchen design software and a hefty employee discount. Otherwise, I don't know what we would've done. Not be able to do a kitchen remodel all by ourselves, paying in cash for everything, in just 2 months.
Just painting the walls and ceiling made a huge improvement in the lighting.
So did adding the ceramic tile floor. Get a load of those straight grout lines!
Then we added some cabinets and a new back door.
And soon we had a whole new kitchen.
Again, sorry for the junk strewn out on the counter (we had a fish tank?). Didn't know I was going to be sharing these.
The cabinets are Aristokraft Sinclair Birch Sarsaparilla and are available through kitchen showrooms / dealers only. The glass inserts are 1 1/4" bevel edge glass, which I had made custom through The Copper Box in Jasper. The black appliances are all GE from Home Depot. The counters are Wilsonart Premium Milano Quartz 4726 with a double roundover edge. They were pricy, at about $1,400 (okay that's pricey for us), but were measured and installed by Home Depot and totally worth the money to know that it was going to be done right and look great. And they do - they totally look like they could be granite in this photo. The backsplash is white porcelain subway tile with off-white grout. The knobs and pulls are from Amerock's Manor Collection in Satin Nickel finish. The light fixture is from Home Depot.
The shelf cubbies above the window were my design solution to a soffit and header beam issue we ran into during demo. I knew that I needed something to go up there, but wasn't able to find anything the right size (it's less than 12" of space to work with), so we built this shelving unit, had paint custom matched to our cabinetry by the good folks at Home Depot, and added the same cabinetry trim across the front to give it a seamless look.
Plus, it gave us a place to put the cookbooks and my white ceramic chotchkes. I really like the way my Buddha statue ties in with the tile, don't you?
Here's a look at the other wall. Working around that archway was a bit of a challenge - and I broke a big design rule - by having to put a little 3/4" filler between the oven cabinet and the base cabinet next to it. But I got the spacing to work out, and because the cabinets are so dark, it's really not even noticeable.
The refrigerator is on the far left wall, just before the doorway to the hall. It's a GE stainless steel side-by-side from Home Depot. Sorry, no photo!
So there you have it. That's our first house - our first baby - our own little piece of real estate in Jasper, Indiana. We put a lot of hard work and money into that house, and although we didn't get any of it back when we sold it, we learned a whole lot about ourselves. Heck, I even found a whole new career for myself because of that house.
We're really looking forward to getting the next house and starting a new chapter here in Cincinnati. I'll be sure to take better photos from now on, I promise!
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