The Little House That Could

How would you like to see our house? Well, I'm FINALLY going to upload a bajollion crappy pictures to show off what the house looked like BEFORE we moved in. We have done a TON of projects since then, so I'll upload those in another post. We still have some work to do, but the house is starting to have my name written all over it in orange paint feel like home.

The house was built in 1952. Originally, it was a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom house, but at some point (I think in the late 60s), a second living area and master bedroom/bathroom was added on nearly doubling the square footage of the house. The original half of the house had hardwood foors, while the second half of the house has a concrete underlayment.

The Outside

I know you've already seen this one, but I just want you to take a minute to notice the salmon-colored painted bricks paired with the baby blue trim. Ahh, beautiful.

The grout lines are [very poorly] painted in between (and onto) the bricks. Also, there are bars on every window because there's nothing more reassuring about the safety of your neighborhood than hoping the bars will be enough to keep burglars out...

 The Living Room

There's nothing more inviting than a faux-rug made of tile that has NOTHING in common with the rest of the tile in your house...

And one more tiled rug just for good measure.

What did she use this room for? There's a coffee table in the center of the room, yet no place to sit, not even faux-chairs made out of tile...

The Hallway off of the Living Room

This hallway houses 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a linen closet. Three things: 1) I LOVE this archway. The geometric design is really fun. 2) Look at that cute guy going into the bedroom! Hehe. 3) Notice that there is yet a THIRD tile pattern (the faux-base boards).

Bedroom #1

Offense #1: The smell of this room. Offense #2: Whatever the crap is all over this wall (pretty sure it was a mirrored wall at one point?). Offense #3: Indoor/outdoor carpet covering hardwood floors. Three strikes and you're OUT!

Bedroom #2

The hardwood floors are covered up by wood-patterned vinyl tiles. WHY? If there are two things we can tell about the woman who owned this house before us, it's that this lady was really into imitation and tile.

Front Bathroom

The lighting makes it look a little worse, but it's still not pretty...

 

 

Here's a picture where the lighting is much more accurate.

The Dining Room/ Kitchen

Looking through the archway from the living room, the dining room is straight ahead, and the pantry is housed behind the shutter doors on the left.

Ta-dah! Here's the tiny kitchen. Notice that the refrigerator is technically in the dining room because it doesn't fit in the kitchen.

She left us that pretty sweet oven, so she did do one nice thing. In her life. Just kidding. Maybe.

There's hardly any counter space!

The Family Room / Den /Living Room #2

The sliding glass door is pretty huge.

Ahh, Norwegian wood.

The Laundry area/ Hallway

Master Bedroom

His and Hers closets, faux-wood vinyl tiles (with a concrete border), and no light source. The ceiling fan doesn't have a light kit, and in fact, the ceiling fan seemed like it was about to fall off of the ceiling when turned on.

So many floor types!

Master Bathroom

Backyard and Patio

The fence needed to be replaced before we moved in (a cost that we incurred alone, since former home owner refused to pay for or make any of the repairs needed for FHA to approve our loan. We are bitter.). During the fence replacement, unfortunately the grapevines were destroyed. :(

So that's the house pre-move in. We've since remodeled the kitchen, de-wood-panelled the family room and plastered the walls, removed the tile, vinyl, and carpet (in some rooms we removed a total of 4 different floorings that had been laid on top of one another), refinished the wood floors, a lot of work to the backyard (unfortunately, it doesn't look like it...), stained the concrete floors, and done a LOT of painting! I'll post some updates soon. We still have a lot more to do, but it's been so fun and rewarding that I want to be a house flipper when I grow up. Or Paige Davis. Faux real.