The House that went from Drab to Fab - Living/Dining Room

 Our Living Room was the 2nd Room we renovated.  After almost three years in our home, I couldn't stand the ugliness of this room, plus the fact that it was the first place people saw when they entered into our home.  The room needed some major repairs to say the least.  When we first moved in I would over decorate to hide the hideousness.  By the pictures below you can tell it really didn't help much.  The mirror above the fireplace was not my style, and it had some well worn parts to it.  I wanted my husband to remove it as soon as we moved in, but he was afraid of what may lie behind it, so it stayed.  The room had an unnecessary door leading into the bedroom (girls room) that we put the couch up against until it could be enclosed.  We put temporary window coverings on the windows (especially after we had a few comments made from neighbors that they saw us eating dinner...as they drove past), and I didn't like the feeling of being in a fish bowl. The room needed extensive T-L-C, and (if you look closely at the 2nd picture below, you will notice next to the kitchen doorway a really bad patch job next to the console table, we believe the wall had been kicked in).   The ceiling was covered in black soot, since the fireplace was improperly ventilated causing the smoke to come into the house. And to top it all off, the fireplace cover itself was pretty, but needed some attention, but the tile surrounding the fire place was an orange brown, which also appeared to have been painted with stain.  A few more highlights were that the room had no lights, ugly 80-ish maroon carpet that smelled like animal urine, the hardwood floor under the carpet had several holes in it (large enough that we could not salvage the floor), outlets were just boxes randomly placed in the floors around the room and there were too few.

The process began in late spring.  Most of the furniture was moved out of the room, and the the process of gutting it began.  The paint-able burlap like wallpaper was removed from the walls (it went from one side of the room across the ceiling and down the other side), the one wall had all the lathe and plaster removed and the hardwood floor was removed along with all old electrical.  The photo below in the first picture, shows how the electrical boxes were placed throughout the house just against the wall, and in some places just in the floor.  The photo below to the right shows the holes that were randomly in the floor.

Once the room was completely gutted, the process of putting it back together began.  The ceiling was furred out to add insulation (and boy did this house need it).  The wall that was behind the couch had the door framed in and additional framing was added to studs that needed some additional support.  Plywood was put along the floor to make way for the new bamboo flooring.  The outside walls were drilled out to add electrical boxes, recessed into the wall.  And new electrical outlets, switches, and fan boxes added.  While my husband was crawling around in the yucky attic he found that at one time the family room had had a light. We wondered as to why any one would want to remove it.

Once all the rough work was done, new Sheetrock was added to the walls.  To help smooth out the outside walls, Sheetrock was added to them also, as the lathe and plaster was basically plastered to the brick. Trim was added around all the doors and windows and wainscoting was added around the room.  The fireplace mantel was sanded down and a shelving system was built in on the corner wall to make the space usable.  By September the room was all prepped and ready for paint and flooring.

We used a raisin-red paint on the upper walls with a light rose glaze ragged over the top.  The combination was quite beautiful and made the room feel very cozy.  The white trim and wainscoting kept the room light and airy.  My husband installed Bamboo flooring which I immediately loved and it made the room look and feel so complete.  The Fireplace Mantel was stained and the fireplace cover was refreshed.  We removed the tile, but found the brick underneath to be quite charming, so we never did re-tile it. We had custom blinds ordered for the windows and boy was this such a treat for me.

Below is a collection of the room at the time it was finished.  I know they are a bit dark, but they were all I had.

Below are pictures of the Living/Dining room at the time we sold the home.  It was one of my most favorite rooms in the house, and I really miss the coziness.  We were given such compliments over the years for this room and most people thought that the red paint was wallpaper.  Even all the Realtor's who we had come and viewed our home, commented on the "wow factor" this room possessed when you walked in.  Soon my husband will start on our new family room and give it the same trim and paint job.  We even kept the old square wood windows from above the fireplace cabinets (when we had the new ones installed) that we will add as a decoration to our new fireplace mantel.

The House that went from Drab to Fab - Girls Room

Shortly after the outside repairs were done on the house, we found out we were expecting our first baby.  We immediately knew what our next project would be, but did not know how huge it would become, and the time it would take to accomplish the task.

The room we chose as the babies room was across the hall from our room and as you will see from the pictures it had some very ugly, old, and worn paneling.  This room also had two entrance doors to it; one from the family room, and the other from the hallway.  The light fixture was hideous, to say the least, and consisted of one light bulb on a two light bulb fixture, and the glass cover was missing.  The carpet was an ugly maroon, and very dirty.  We suspect it was installed in the mid  1970s.  The moldings were broken and in some places missing completely.

The door shown in the picture above became obsolete and the only access to the room when finished was from the hallway, giving the room more functionality.

 My husband worked tirelessly tearing all the old molding and paneling from the walls and what should he find below...hideous wallpaper.  He then worked on opening the closet to its full potential. The original small door that was on the closet, only allowed easy access to half of the closet space.

The room pretty much received a total makeover.  The plugs were recessed into the walls (most of the plug boxes in our home were boxes against the walls, making it hard to have any furniture flush against the wall), new light switch and plug covers, new moldings, Sheetrock to smooth out the wavy, damaged walls, the outside wall was furrowed in a bit to add insulation.  Upgrades included new moldings trim, and rosettes, hardware, fan light, carpet, blinds, textured ceiling, bead-board style wainscoting and the walls were painted a light green with a sage green sponged over the top.

I became pretty stressed in February, when this project was not quite done and I was due the end of February.  The room was such an intense project that my Hubby spent all his extra time on it.  The carpet was delayed (causing me more stress) and was not installed until the Friday before my due date (which was Sunday).  Lucky for us the Baby ended up being 4 days late (amazing since I was so stressed out).  This room became my favorite room in the house and when I walked in it, the light was rejuvenating and the room felt as though I was in a completely different house.  It was hard to believe that this beautiful room now existed in such a drab house.

Ready for Baby:

At the time of sell.

The House that Went From Drab to Fab - The Beginning

In 2003 my husband and I decided to buy our first home.  My husband suggested we buy a fixer-upper, and gain some sweat equity.  After many weeks of searching and touring many houses (with crazy floor plans) we found a quaint cottage style bungalow.  Despite its appearance of disrepair, we focused on the positive potential in our little "Diamond in the Rough." With its three bedrooms, all on the main floor, it was a rare novelty in the area.  It was also the only home we looked at that didn't require a stroll through a bedroom to get to another bedroom.  We loved the nice big porch, decent sized kitchen and abundant storage in the hallway (also a rarity in the area).  The negative aspects included a musty animal odor, a basement full of rubbish, outdated tile counter tops, ugly brown paneling in every bedroom, an old window swamp cooler that no longer worked, stained burgundy carpet straight out of the late 70's, broken doors, holes in the walls, 50+  year old linoleum tiles in the kitchen, and the walls that were painted had a thick layer of smoke damage from the old fireplace (which wasn't to code).  Seriously, what were we thinking when we decided this was the one!  The only nice thing in the house was a newly tiled shower (but the urine stained grout on the bathroom floor distracted from that).  We made a reasonable offer, and after a day or so of negotiating, we settled.  As soon as we moved in the deep cleaning ritual to bring new life into this old home began.  I hated all the holes in the house, so I would just put decorations everywhere trying to hide the ugliness.  We knew it would take time and money to help this little home regain respect, and we started to prioritize and budget for the repairs.  The slow process of fixing up the house began.

Due to money being held back at escrow by the lender, the first thing we did was work on the painting of the eaves and windows.  My husband began the process of sanding the underside of the eaves. One day after several hours he determined the sanding to be in-effective. When I arrived home from work I found that he had torn all the eaves down.  I was in total disbelief at the sight.  Instead of painting the old rotted wood, he installed new vinyl soffit and fascia.  The application added depth to the eaves that enhanced the roof line, provided better ventilation for attic space, and gave the home a new crisp and clean aesthetic.

Next we replaced 10 windows, two doors and a storm door.  This left only 10 windows that still needed to be scrapped and painted.  We didn't have enough in our immediate budget to replace all of the windows just yet.  The front and back doors were immediately replaced because they both had large gaps around them creating drafts that could be felt from several feet away.  We also replaced the front screen door with a beautiful glass "forever" door. The front picture windows had "Queen Ann" style perimeter grid included to match some of the interior details of the home and add character and "curb appeal."  My husband worked tirelessly scrapping and painting the exterior of the remaining windows, giving them fresh new life.  He also learned how to cut glass and replaced all the cracked basement windows and re-glazed them. The frumpy trees hiding the porch were removed, and the remainder of the garden was pruned. We then added 300 tulip bulbs as frosting to our newly decorated cake.  The tall vent coming out of the right side chimney of the house was cut down to a more reasonable size. Finally the holes and cracks in the cement skirt on the house were re-stuccoed, and then painted to add contrast and depth.  We installed a new porch light, hung a house number, flag mount, and hose rack, removed paint drips on the old brick, and adjusted the rain gutter down spouts.  Making the home look good on the outside made it more enjoyable to pull into the drive way.  Looks can be deceiving though, and mild depression set in every time we walked in the door and realized how much interior work still needed to be done.

Three Years later the white gate was added.

Here are exterior photos of the house at time of purchase...

and at time of sell...

Photos of the Tulips in full bloom (annually in March).