Hi everyone!
We started this blog to let you know about the renovations going on at our new house, but how did we get here...Well, in the summer of 2007 we bought a house in Weymouth and took our sweet time renovating it. It had been a bank-owned property, and it showed. In that house we knew exactly what needed updating, and got straight to work. Here is a list of things we did, and it's kind of in sequential order:
- Ripped out carpet, linoleum, fixed the sub-floor and installed pre-finished maple flooring on the first floor
- Replaced all interior doors and trim
- Painted the bejesus out of the place (hello closet full of "neutral blue" samples for the main living/dining room). PS- we chose "Nurture" by Behr in the end.
- Installed LED lighting along the main dining/living room ceiling
- Built new front stairs
- Re-sided the front of the house, and repaired siding on other parts, primed and painted formerly natural clapboards, added exterior trim
- Carpeted the basement ***
- Replaced the majority of the windows
- Created a crushed stone stairway/walkway in the side garden
- Spent days and days making the soil garden-ready by removing rocks, pipes, and other things from the dirt. Rusted gun, anyone?!
- Planted said garden then proceeded to move plants just about every year
- Leveled the backyard and seeded it
- Tiled the main floor bath, and installed a new vanity, mirror, lighting, etc.
- Tiled the bathroom in the basement and installed a new vanity, mirror, toilet
- Removed the kitchen cabinets and painted them Chelsea Grey with a paint sprayer
- Reinstalled the cabinets
- Installed Leathered Kashmir granite***
- Tiled the back splash of the kitchen with white subway tile
- Dave designed and built a shed
- Carpeted the upstairs***
- Renovated the master bath by re-tiling, painting, installing a new vanity, exhaust fan, lighting
***Denotes jobs that we didn't do ourselves***
Here are some photos of the work that took place:
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| Front of house before |
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| Front of house during |
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| Front of house after |
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| front of house after with plantings |
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| Main living space before |
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| Main living space before |
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| Main living space before |
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| Main living during |
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| Main living after. Photo credit Maryellen Jones. |
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| Main living after- disregard backpack! | |
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| Main level bathroom before |
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| Main level bathroom after- sorry, bad photo |
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| Kitchen during |
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| Kitchen after |
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| Side yard before/during |
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| Side yard after |
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| Side yard after #2 |
I'm sure I forgot some stuff. At the end of all of this I had the great idea that we should put the house on the market just to "see what would happen." Well, that place sold like hot cakes, and we had to find something fast. The search began.
As most of you know, we are 4 1/2 months into our renovation of a house that was listed as a "Frank Lloyd Wright" style home. To be honest, this was a house that I had looked at online months before we actually purchased it. At that time I wrote it off, but I'm not sure why. It was probably due to the price. As time went on, and as the price dropped, we finally decided to take a look. We had put our poor real estate agent through enough showings. At one point she brought us (at our request) to see a lovely colonial, and before we even entered she asked us, "What are we doing here? This isn't for you guys." She was right. We needed something that was in need of our touch, and something that was definitely not a colonial. Thanks for looking out for us Christine!
So here we are, up to our respirators in demo. We're sleeping on the living room floor (in case you are one of the 3 people I haven't mentioned that to), but it's great. We're looking at the big picture, and trying to get through the day to day reno, and still go to bed (on the living room floor) with smiles on our faces.
Our new house BEFORE:
These are the pictures that were on the listing. In this case the pictures actually do the house a lot of justice. After being on the market for a long while the house didn't exactly look like this...
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| Front of house. Photo credit William Raveis |
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| Front of house. Photo credit William Raveis |
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| Living room. Photo credit William Raveis |
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| Dining room. Photo credit William Raveis |
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| Kitchen. Photo credit William Raveis |
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| Master bedroom. Photo credit William Raveis |
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| Long bedroom. Photo credit William Raveis | |
These are the keeping it real photos. Real, as in I can't take a non-blurry photo real.
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| Other dining area |
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| Blurry picture of the other dining area, kitchen, and dining room. |
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| Check out this sweet shower in the master bath. You can't tell , but there are mallard tiles in there. Quack! |
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| Blurry picture of the other bathroom. |
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| Beginning renovations. View from the living room into the kitchen. |
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| It was those windows and that light that sold us on the house. |
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Ah, the rock planter. Too bad I have a brown thumb when it comes to growing rocks. Love the decorative marble. Big pimpin'. Don't be fooled by the rocks that I got.
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| Goodbye useless closet/pantry/fridge amalgam, and your little bank of cabinets in the corner too! |
This house is so much different from the last one. Nothing is easy to
decide. We're not just re-painting, and putting in new floors, we're
restructuring the rooms, and eventually adding a second floor. So,
stick with us to see what happens next. I'm sure we will make mistakes
along the way, but we hope to come out with an amazing modern house when
we're done! Thanks for reading........-A
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