So yeah, that's why I've been pretty MIA around here lately. It's a really long story that I won't get into but basically, we looked at the house on a Monday, put in a bid that night (which was accepted after some negotiating), signed papers on Tuesday, loan approval and all the paperwork went through on Wednesday and we got the key on Thursday. The house was vacant (renters had already moved out) so the sellers had no problem with giving us the key early to start with all the renovations. We've been working in the house for almost a full week now and everything is ready to close as soon as we get our appraisal back. If all goes well, we should be officially closed by the first week of September. (And if you are reading this, we will have closed by now.)
The deets on the house:
It's technically a 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath ranch. There is a walkout basement which includes 1 bedroom and the half bath. The basement is considered partially finished but in our opinion, it's pretty bare bones....concrete floors and exposed ceilings. There is some unfinished drywall separating the rooms but otherwise, it's not much. We have big plans for down there but for now (and quite a few years) we won't use it for much besides storage and laundry. Compared to our current place, we are almost doubling in space in just the main level so we're not concerned with the basement just yet. The main level consists of 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, and essentially a big great room. We have a combined dining and living space which opens to a kitchen with an eat-in area.
To give you a better idea, here is a simple floor plan we drew up of our main level. Joe is extra excited about the 2 1/2 car garage and I'm excited to have more room in general and places to seat guests who want to come over.
We started renovating on Friday, August 19 after work and just in the last week, we've accomplished quite a bit. I'll update you on progress later but here are the "Before" pictures. The pictures don't really do the "ugliness" justice though. The walls were tore up (not to mention the awful colors), some of the screens and windows are in bad shape. The place was disgustingly dirty. They had a cat and a dog (though luckily, not much pet hair) and it smelled like smoke. We knew it had a ton of potential though so it is perfect for us!
Warning: I don't have a wide angle lens so my camera shrinks the pictures more than it should. The rooms are all much larger than they appear.
As you enter the front door, we have the great room area. I am standing right next to the dining space and looking into the living space with eat-in kitchen on the left. The windows on the back wall look out into our backyard.
Here, I'm still standing in the dining space looking towards the living space. The doorway on the right goes to the nursery, hall bath and guest bedroom...along with a few linen closets.
This is the view of the eat-in kitchen area while standing in the living room. Don't you love all the color combos! ;)
The living room fireplace. The windows look out into the backyard.
Turning around, you have the front door on the left and the dining room space. The doorway on the right leads to the garage and master bed and bath.
Back to the kitchen and eat-in space.
The kitchen isn't very big but still has double the storage than our previous place. We have plans for future expansion already in our heads. The white door you see in the background leads to our garage. Just left of that door is a coat closet and to the right are the stairs to the basement.
The other wall of the kitchen. You can see the front door in the background as well as the pantry door on the right side of the picture.
Back to the great room area. You can see the kitchen on the right, pantry is on the left, master bedroom is the doorway towards the back on the right.
Master bedroom
Master bedroom with walk in closet on the left and bathroom on the right.
Master bathroom and vanity
Now back to the other side of the house. We are standing in the dining/living space looking into the hallway leading to the other bedrooms and bath. The door on the right is the bathroom. The door on the left is the linen closet. The guest bedroom is back a ways to the left and the nursery is to the right at the front of the house.
Front bedroom which will be the nursery.
Back bedroom which will be the guest room. Do you notice the fabulous paint job (by an apparent 9 year old) on the baseboards?
Lastly is the hideous hall bathroom.
Stay with us as we get the updating and renovating under way!
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