does anyone even remember me?? probably not, as even i had to look up my password to log in to create this blog post!! it is truly crazy how time flies and this year seems to have flown faster than ever! perhaps because it's been a good year? a year with super fab projects wrapping up and a lot of work spent on one big one! i also started dating a wonderful man and you know what they say, "time flies when you're having fun!!". well that and to actually have a social life again means there's not much time left for important things, like blogging ;)
anyway... a little over a month ago this wonderful man proposed to me (and i said yes!!!!) and we bought a house!!! the man has some well-earned patina and i am whole-heartedly committed to him. the house needs a little work! and when i say a little, i am grossly understating it ;) think, no central air, radiator heat, all plaster walls (with cracks for extra character), floors so out of whack no drinking is necessary to embarrass yourself at a dinner party, electrical wiring that could start the next burning of the south...for this, you may need to commit me :) fortunately, i like a good deal and i will never back down from a worthy challenge!! i also decided now, more than ever, was a perfect time to make a recommitment to my blog and bringing you all along for the ride of my personal renovation of this hot mess to be love nest of a project! take a gander at the before pics and please check back (the goal is a once a week update on the house) for more fun in renovation and a potential fashion show featuring this season's straight jackets!
quaint, traditional tudor built in 1938 with pretty good curb appeal...will probably paint the brick (cause i'm not a fan of the multi-colored brick), remove shutters that don't actually fit the windows, swap the colonial windows for diamond grills, and coax a lovely vine up and over the 2 left windows.
top left is the view from the living room into the dining room. the wallpaper is actually kind of sweet and i'm gaga over that arch!!! the paper is going (cause the walls and ceiling need to be redone!), but the arch will just get pushed up, since it's a little low right now. i'm also going to have the same arch on both the walls leading into the kitchen. upper right is the living room with confused fireplace, that also seems to really want to be in the basement below, as it's angling for it! the screened in porch, where not a damn thing is plumb. not floor, not screen framing, not ceiling. the last pic is the extraordinarily deep linen closet and the telephone shelf! which i debated for about a second and a half to keep, then decided our washer and dryer would be much more satisfying in this space, so that was that! buh-buh nostalgia, hello washer and dryer between kids rooms which means kids can now do their own laundry!! score!!!
above we have the kitchen, which must have been renovated sometime in the past 20 years, i'd imagine. really not in bad shape, but there's some kind of dead animal smell and i live to design kitchens, so this is going. debating on keeping the original hutch. i see the left door was open at first, but now i cannot get it open to save my life!
in the back of the house are 2 bedrooms with the smallest jack and jill bath ever! while the tile in the entire house has really held up nicely and it doesn't look that bad, it's got to go, to make way for a slightly bigger bath and much cooler tile. i'm hoping awesome surroundings will distract and prevent the heathens from injuring each other too much in the battle for the mirror in the coming teenage years...
what will be the guest bath was the master bath. again, the tile work has held up, but the black dots on the floor are not properly aligned and it's slowly killing me... yet another check mark on the "do we commit her" questionnaire :)
come on upstairs to the attic! usually, i'm pretty creeped out with attics and basements, and this house was no different, but i'm committed to making this the best love nest ever, so i sucked it up and ventured upstairs!! on the left will be our master bathroom and on the right will be the bedroom. this space is probably the most work that needs to be done, but the roof pitch is so high that we don't need to do anything to the roof, just insulate and put up some walls!! gonna be an oasis!!
what may turn out to be one of the best attributes of this house is that it's already zoned as a duplex! the lower level contains a basement for the main house and an apartment! mr. wonderful jokes that there may be a clown colony living down there and he may have been right at one time, but not now!!! i had to hire a junk removal company to clear out all the stuff that had consumed the basement!! i took it upon myself to face my own fears and (slowly) open the extra large deep freezer (seen in the lower left pic) to check for dead bodies... i honestly thought i might find one!! the dark, creepy room entrance on the lower right is actually the coal room, where the coal for the fireplace was delivered! back in the day! the other pics are of the apartment in all it's pine wall paneled splendor and minty fresh bathroom tile!! ahhh.... yep, that's going!
so there's a little overview of the house i have committed to making a home for my groom-to-be and my kids. i've also committed myself to getting back at this blog thing and honestly, there's not a more perfect subject matter than one's own home to blog about, so let's do this!!
i'm committed...
beijos,
beth