Green Eyed Gal: November 2014

A while back I mentioned that we were doing some work on our other house (here and here). Well, it's time to summarize this thing.

This house, which we affectionately call 1944, was the house Drew had before we were married. Once we got married, he moved to the house I had and we just kept renting 1944 to the guys that were living there at the time. We had some idea of maybe moving there ourselves at some point, but no concrete plan. It's a great house and a great location.

So we kept renting it out and then one guy moved out. We found a replacement renter and he was there for about a year before he got married and moved out. Then we found another replacement renter and he was there for a couple of months and he moved out. Then another guy told us he was moving out. That left us with one renter and 2/3 of the mortgage to pay every month. We talked about it and went back and forth about whether we should move down there to do some remodeling and try to sell our current house or rent our current house. In the end, we decided that we'd probably only live there for 2 years and it just didn't make sense for us to move down there. So, we rolled up our DIY sleeves and set to work getting 1944 updated and ready for sale.

Did I mention that boys had been living there for 8 years? There was quite a bit to be done.

We had replaced the roof in 2012 and replaced the furnace and AC in 2013 so those were pretty big projects that helped us with the sale. But the interior needed some updating.

Living room, looking from the front door.

Dining room, looking from the front door.

Drew really wanted the view when you first step in the front door to really pop so the first thing we did was tear down that purple grass cloth. Then Drew did some wainscoting around the dining room and beefed up the casing around the doors and windows and the base around the room. We replaced the dining room light fixture with something not brassy and more modern. Then we painted everything: ceiling, doors, trim, and walls. It never ceases to amaze me how a much a fresh coat of paint can change the look of a room. The final step to these rooms was to clean up the wood floors. Those floors probably should have been sanded and sealed several years before Drew ever got the house; they were pretty rough. If we would have moved there, I would have had them done professionally. However, since we were just trying to get the house ready for sale, I used a product I read about that really helped shine up the floors. It didn't fix the areas where raw wood was exposed, but we covered the biggest spot with a dining room rug and even that looked better after the application.

Shiny floors after using Rejuvinate

After! Living room, looking from the front door.

After! Dining room, looking from the front door.

The bathroom had some wallpaper that required removal. Had it been in good shape, we wouldn't have bothered, but it was peeling and the seems were popping. Probably due to it being in a bathroom. So down it came. Unfortunately, the walls underneath were plaster, not drywall, and they weren't in very good condition. Drew spent hours skimming those walls to try and make the pock marks disappear. Also there were so many different colors of paint under there. Yikes. We replaced the light fixtures that came out of the mirror to more modern looking ones, painted the ceiling, painted the cabinets, replaced the shower curtain, replaced the blinds, and painted the walls the same color as the living room.

Bathroom before (we'd already pulled the wallpaper before this shot was taken).

After!

The front bedroom, Drew's old bedroom, we had repainted in last summer (1 week before the nugget was born!) so we didn't do anything in there. Those blinds had been replaced last year too so we really just had to clean and stage this room.

After!

The back bedroom had the last renter in it up until about a week before we listed the house. I didn't have the energy anymore so we cleaned and staged the room and called it good. A nice coat of paint would have helped, but by the time the room was actually empty to be able to paint, we really needed to get it on the market. Had it not sold quickly, I would have painted it.

Not really an after, not really a before. This bedroom just was.

The addition. This room was used as a smoking parlor for the gentlemen that lived in the house over the years. The walls and the ceiling were the same color. We painted the ceiling white and the walls a dark taupe since there was so much natural light. I scrubbed the floors and got off years and years of grime. Then we hung some curtains to make it look like a usable space. I found the curtains on Amazon for cheap enough that I didn't even think twice about making them myself. Now the genius of my husband. Curtain rods are expensive. Especially for long lengths like we would have needed for this room. So, he found some conduit and had it cut to the appropriate lengths. Then he found some end pieces and we attached them to cover up the ends and we had an industrial-chic look going. Maybe not, but we spent less than $15 to get all three so that was good enough for us.

After! The addition, looking toward the dining room.

After! The addition, looking from the dining room, And our industrial chic curtain rods.

Oh the kitchen. The bright green sad looking kitchen. Drew had big dreams for this space, but we also had a budget so the man did what he could with the money he had and he knocked it out of the park. He had new drawer fronts and cabinet doors made and painted white. He then replaced everything, including hardware, to give the whole kitchen a more modern look. He put some back splash on the walls to add some interest and more color to the room. The paint color was the same color we used in the nursery and it matched the counter tops pretty well. We replaced the light fixtures and my mom scrubbed the floors and made them look like new again. One of the things he kept saying was how tired the old kitchen looked and how he wanted to update it so it didn't drag the sale price of the house down. Mission accomplished.

Before. Kitchen, looking from the dining room.

Before.

Before. Kitchen, looking toward the dining room.

After! Kitchen, looking from the dining room.

After!

After! Kitchen, looking toward the dining room.

Outside we added some fresh mulch and trimmed the plants. Drew built the post on the front porch out for more of a modern look and he replaced the fascia around the whole house. That made a huge difference in the exterior look of the house. Huge. He also added a plant shelf to the deck to cover up the hole that was made when we had the AC unit replaced (it got moved to the other side of the house). I spray painted the screen door white since it had been a cream color and it really clashed with all the new white out there. We repainted the garage door and spray painted the formerly brass door knob on the screen door an oil rubbed bronze for a cleaner look.