Since hearing that our house has had an offer, I’ve had a few requests to post before and after pictures of our home. I for one love sharing them because even I sometimes forget how far we’ve really come. The small (and sometimes enormous) projects have added up and though there’s always something else that seems to need attention, I think it’s safe to say that the house is done. Or, I should say, “done” because houses never really are complete.
This is the entryway that used to greet people. It didn’t set a very high bar for our guests with a bare, concrete slab, weirdly textured drywall, and dark wood paneling. We tackled the entryway a couple of years ago and even though we just recently put the finishing touches on it, we really love the bright, clean, welcoming look we enjoy now.
No, like all things, in my lack of magical abilities, it took a lot of hard work. A lot because that is one huge room. We had to rent scaffolding to paint the ceiling, the wood flooring took days and days to cut and lay down and the stairs were a monster of their own.
Now, one of the rooms that was there, mostly for use as a work room (or as an indoor bouncy house spot) is one of my favorite rooms in the house. It’s spacious and attractive and bright.
The guest bathroom was one room that, had I the time, I would have transformed into something more magnificent than it has become.
There are some redeeming things about the bathroom (I don’t know why but I love the corner toilet…), so when we were getting ready to show the house, we worked with what we had.
Like everywhere else, it got a new coat of paint and I used tiling the mud room as warm up for our bathroom. It’s a simple, unadorned room but that’s okay by us!
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| Not that impressive but better… |
Living in the literal crossroads of America, it has been super nice having a guest bedroom and it would be an understatement to say it’s been well-used. Friends and family are always welcome!
The first thing I did was–you guessed it–paint. Kilz was the first step to cover the nicotine and seal it in so it wouldn’t leach out. An overhead fan and light and a bright paint color made loads of difference.
Granted, I lived with subflooring in our bedroom for four years but I was patiently biding my time until we could get carpet. It was well worth the wait, although we seem to have the bad habit of only getting carpet when we are about to move, thus enjoying it for only a couple of months. Guess it keeps it from having any chance of getting dirty.
Through our room is the once infamous bathroom. Of all the rooms in the house, it’s hard to wrap my mind around the decor of this room, which has kind of the air of a heart rate monitor over a checkerboard. It was one of the most challenging rooms to renovate in part because of the size but also because of how much needed to be rearranged. Do you ever admire the plumbing and electrical work in your home? No? Well, after doing all of that in our bathroom, I appreciate a job well done much, much more.
When we moved in, there was a shower but I hated using it, so I ended up going down the hall to the girls’ bathroom since it was renovated first.
Where the vanity once stood is now where the big soaker tub (which I will miss very, very much) is now. I almost hate to admit it but every time I look at that nasty vanity, I practically gag. In my overwhelmed state when first viewing the home, I didn’t peek in the drawers so as a welcome home surprise, we were greeted with an abandoned rat’s nest under the sink. Gross! I had nightmares for weeks that I would come across a rat should I ever have to use the restroom in the middle of the night.
All of that is behind us know. I can look at where the tub is and not shudder with disgust because, with a lot of backbreaking labor, sweat, and Kilz, all is right with the master bath.
Next is the very polarizing blood-red living room. People either love or hate the archways. Me? I kinda like how quirky they are. It was the icky red paint, foggy old windows, and tacky vinyl flooring that detracted from its appeal.
After the ceiling was painted, then it was the walls, a free door and $20 windows, and fresh carpet. It’s barely recognizable!
On top of the windows being foggy, the only access to the deck was through the kitchen. Once we installed my sister’s door, the kids could run circles in and out of the kitchen to the living room, then back out onto the deck, and vice versa. Maybe I should have rethought putting in a door…nah. Still love it.
The cubbies are used for hanging backpacks, the sewing desk, and rousing games of hide and seek.
The kitchen was just…oh, my. What’s the word? Disastrous. Yeah, that’s it. Brown carpet on the island, squiggly green painted walls, an enormous, ill-placed island, and yellow countertops. To say that entertaining in it was embarrassing is like the understatement of the century.
One of the biggest changes was taking out the island and rearranging it so we could fit a table in the kitchen. We had to move some wiring and repurpose the cabinets, then move the stove.
The outside of the house has been greatly altered, too, but we didn’t have a lot of before photos. So, enjoy a photo of our deck, one of the best parts about this house. Painting it took quite a while–it was all edging and weird angles but it looks so great and boy, oh, boy, did the underbelly take f-o-r-e-v-e-r. The deck is like a built-in outside playpen for the kids. Even if it’s raining or snowing outside, if the kids want to go out, they can! We love eating dinner out on the deck, barring any incredibly hot weather or persistent bugs and have watched many hours of farm tv. It’s a great place to ponder or safely watch impressive lightning storms. Plus, the cats love using it as their own playground as well.
When we moved in, the house just looked tired and faded. After choosing a rich maroon for the siding and neutral beige to tie in the trim to the stone, it was just a matter of putting up the siding, giving the house a total facelift. Oh, and a new roof.
With the house looking like this when we pulled up the first time to see it, it’s kind of a surprise that we even bought it at all…guess you could say we like a project.
The back of the house went through a similar facelift. We took out the door that was in Henry’s room (the original builder of the house really, really liked decks–there was one on every side of the house), pulled down the decorative wood, sealed windows, caulked sauffets, hung siding, and painted and painted and painted.
It was one of the longest running projects on the house but it was almost impossible not to be because fiber cement siding isn’t a one person job and it’s hard being on a ladder when pregnant and trying to watch little kids. But, it got done and it looks great.
I don’t know how the kids feel but I am really going to miss their playground. The new house doesn’t have one and that is one of the very top priorities on my list. Heck, even I enjoy a good swingset!
Though the house we are buying has a super cute barn (I can hardly believe we’ll finally have our own barn! Hooray!!), the horses and I have really enjoyed having a sturdy lean to for them. There was a bit of remodeling to do to the interior and we found some tin that perfectly matched our house color and in a couple of days, the tired old shed was repurposed and revitalized.
It’s hard not to look at old photos of our house and not feel a sense of pride. It’s not a haughty feeling but a humble joy, seeing our labors come to fruition, feeling blessed we were able to have the vision of what a dilapidated old house could be, satisfaction at having the skills and means to complete the individual projects, which summed up to a totally different home in only a few years. Of course, there is always a price we pay for such accomplishments–bruised knees from kneeling to put in tile or wood flooring, hot showers spent scrubbing paint and caulking and construction adhesive off our skin, stitches, scrapes, and being so bone tired we don’t want to be on our feet one minute longer–but it, like any challenge, was worth it. We’re looking forward to a brand new home and putting our personal touches on it but for right now, we’re going to enjoy our Indiana Mansion for as long as we can!
