My First Home Remodel

I loved this house. It was our first house purchased together. I don't think I realized it at the time but this house was "happiness". This was also our first attempt at remodeling. Again, I did not take the pictures I should have. Who new?

We purchased this house in 2002 for $104,000. It was 4 bedrooms / 2 bathrooms / 1 car carport / approximately 1,700 square feet. We invested about $15,000 for remodeling and sold the house in 2005 for $205,000. Money well spent.

We did not spend a lot of money on the front of the house (oh, how I would do things differently now!). We did put on a new roof, added a new front door, added sprinkler system and some new landscaping. This is a picture of the "before", I had to get it from the original MLS report (sorry for the quality). The afters are actual a combination of several "durings."

Before
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During
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Before and Afters of the Kitchen. We painted and added molding to the cabinets, tiled the countertops & floors, added bead-board to the backsplash, new lights, hardware, wallpaper, & plumbing fixtures. Byron built a pantry that housed the refrigerator & microwave.

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You can see the built-in pantry from these pictures of the dining room. I painted the walls a darker color, added a new light fixture and Byron built this really cool sliding door that leads into the hobby room.

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The master bedroom was tiny! We actually got a king size bed in the room but it was tight. I had to use a stock door as the headboard and Byron rigged this really cool corner entertainment center by attaching bi-fold doors to the wall & adding wheels to the bottoms of the doors. I painted and distressed all the "furniture". Looking back on it now, I would have used something other that black & cranberry. It looks like a bleeding animal!!

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Awe, my sweet baby boy's nursery. Byron and I loved this room. It was his first attempt at moldings (shelf molding around the room). I made the box pleat valance and the dresser was my grandmothers. Even the rocking chair got a makeover. It was mine as a baby and it was that honey oak color. I paid someone to refinish it in a mahogany stain (I did not want to screw it up!).

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The living room. Not really a before & after picture (another "during"). I don't have any "true" before pictures. I was probably still using a 35mm camera!!

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Some of the other rooms. One we used as a gym, the other a guest room and our small master bathroom. What I regret the most, is not having more pictures of our hobby/laundry room. It was killer!! We added bead-board to the ceiling, pull-down attic stairs, cabinets and counter tops. The hobby/laundry room had the animal cages out-of-site underneath the counter curtain and I had an area for sewing. Loved it!

211MiscRooms

Now that you have seen my first remodel job. What was your first?

XOXO-


PS. Today is my BIRTHDAY!!



25 comments:

Carolyn said...

Holy Moly! Nice. I love the paint color in the dining room!

Laurel @ Ducks in a Row said...

Happy Birthday - what a DIY this post is! You are awesome.

Unknown said...

happy birthday!
love the chair covers, the door headboard and the nursery! :) fantastic!

Blue Creek Home said...

Everything is just beautiful. I bet you are glad that it is done.

Happy Birthday To You!!!

jaime @ a place out west said...

How great! I love the colors in the nursery; those are the colors in my son's room too.

Beth@The Stories of A to Z said...

Happy Birthday and what a nice transformation of the kitchen and rest of the house!

Tiffany said...

Wow! That is some serious remodeling. I love the beadboard backsplash and the door for a headboard. Nice job.

Its So Very Cheri said...

GREAT job and you sold at the right time another year and you probably wouldn't have made that kind of money with the housing market crashing--good job!!!
This is my first time to your blog but I am adding you to my home spun friends (other wise known as a Blog roll) will become a friend and hope you come over and do the same. I also started a new KNOCK OFF KNOCK OUT party and I bet you have some things to put in the party-it's every Monday.
Cheri
Its So Very Cheri

Amy {The Red Chair Blog} said...

Some great shots! Thanks for sharing. Love that door headboard!

Sunny said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Love the room with the beadboard ceiling. Stopping by from ASPTL!

michelle@somedaycrafts said...

Love it! I wish I couldfind an investment that that!!!

Embellished Bayou said...

It's always fun to take a walk down memory lane! You did a wonder ful job. I'll have to dig up some photos of our earlier projects to share too.

Let it Shine said...

LOVE your dining chairs! Gorgeous!!

Anonymous said...

It is just fabulous!!!

Delightful Dwelling said...

Wow, you guys did a lot of work in just a few years. I love how all the rooms turned out.

Becky K. said...

A belated Happy Birthday...Hope it was great!

I love your before and afters.
Your son's room really caught my eye. Love it!

Becky K

Ashley said...

Cool! My tastes have changes dramatically! I'll have to post pics of my first house ;)

Amanda @ Serenity Now said...

We're still in our first. ;) 6 years now. It is a real work in progress. I LOVE your kitchen!!!! Visiting from Kimba's party. :)

Trish said...

Happy Birthday! Our first remodel was a house in Dewey, AZ. I hope the next remodel project will be something really old or mission style. We shall see...

:)

Nellie's Cozy Place said...

Happy Birthday to you!!
Loved your first remodel, you guys did a great job, some very
ingenius ideas. Liked the tv behind the doors in the bedroom,
and the sliding door. But all the
decorating was just beautiful.
You guys are talented what can I say!!
Have a great day,
Eat some cake and ice cream
Blessings, Nellie

Katie said...

I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy! Wow, that remodeled home of yours was FABULOUS!!! You don't happen to live near Richmond 'causer girl, you got some style! Send some of that my way. We just put tile in our kitchen dining area and have to keep the rug down on the floor 'cause hubby put some tiles in to late at night and you can really tell. Oops. I grouted, enough said. I swear we were awesome by the time we were done, its just that we started in the most noticeable part and ended in the least.:)

Unknown said...

Just posted your laundry room, thank you very much!

Crystal said...

The kitchen remodel is amazing!

I have a poll up on my blog about my BIGGEST decor dilemma. Come on over and vote, I need all the help I can get!

http://imnomartha.blogspot.com/2009/08/first-poll-ever-to-paint-or-not-to.html

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday! Those transformations were fantastic. Love the nursery.

Evangeline Parker said...

changing the roof pitch is a major bit of work, it is likely the existing roof and its framing would be entirely lost. It might be possible, depending on the current roof's structure, to salvage some of it. One reason it would for not being able to reuse the existing roof is the lengths of the existing rafters and/or beams in the direction of the slope are fixed, you can't add to them and as the roof slope increases, they would have to get longer, which they can't do. It could be that moving the existing beam and adding some additional ones, you could save some of the roof, but it would depend on the existing and final layouts and how much the slope is increased.