On Tuesday, July 15th, 2003, I signed my life away and bought myself a "Fixer Upper". This is where you will find all the pertinent information, including PICTURES!
Here's my new house, as viewed from the front. It looks much cuter in this picture than it really is. You can't see some of the age damage. This house is at LEAST sixty years old.
The less beautiful side of my house. In this picture, you can see better why we are removing all the siding and the roof to replace it with new. The windows are also all being replaced, all of which will hopefully make this home a lot more snug in the winter.
This is probably going to be one of my sadder replacements. I will be getting a new front door and losing the beautiful faux etched glass window in the current one. There's a possibility that I may be able to fit this door into back door space, which also needs a replacement.
This isn't the best picture of the living room, but it shows the three windows and the center "support", which doesn't actually support the ceiling, but I like the looks so I'll hopefully be keeping it.
I'm really hoping to salvage the floor. Although it is fir, which is not considered a great hardwood floor, with refinishing and judicious rug use, I should be able to utilize it's beauty and ease of clean up (I have cats and I have a baby on the way...mess city).
Here's the ugly chimney wall. Notice the big scorched spot in the middle. Part of re-roofing the house involves removing the chimney, as I don't want to have wood heat and the new heat source vents directly out the wall of the house. At the very least, this big chunk of space taker will be pared down to a one wall thickness partial wall and place to hang pretty stuff or front for some book cases.
Here is the view from the living room into the dining room. There's a nice wood paneling wall that I'm also hoping to keep, which is unusual for me, because I typically hate paneling.
This is a slightly better view of the dining room wall. The door at the right of the picture goes into the hall and to the bathroom, where most of the interior contractor work will be done
I definitely won't mind doing some "fixing up" on this corner of the bathroom. The shelves are great, but everything else needs touched up, the color, the medicine cabinet (which has no shelves, by the way), the sink. Some of these will be staying until I have the money to replace them, as they are still functional, but I know that I need to get as much done before moving in, as it's easy to live in someplace dingy. You just learn to live with it and stop seeing it after a while.
Here's one of those "Thank GOD I'm replacing it" things. The shower is, as you can see, pretty yucky, but still fully functional. The wall seems to just interrupt thought. It is being replaced by an angle shower, which is one of those nifty little corner jobbies. It's gonna be gorgeous. Of course, they have to completely replumb the wall of the bathroom, but hey...at least they'll have fun tearing stuff up.
Not a complete view of the tub, but the general idea. This house came with a beautiful (ok it needs a scrubbing, but work with me here) old claw foot tub. It needs new faucet fixtures (one of them is bearing a wrench, I believe), but it just screams out "bubble bath".
Upon leaving the bathroom, this is what awaits at the end of the hall before returning to the dining area. It looks like it could be a good place (once sterilized) to keep towels, or cleared out and made into a coat closet. The other end of the short hall is empty, which could make a really good place for a linen cupboard as well.
I really like this little arched entryway into what I've been informed is a "Galley Kitchen", because it's a narrow space with an aisle in the middle between workspaces.
I keep repeating "Cozy, it's Cozy...I will be able to bake cookies without having to run a relay race". It's a far cry from what I'm used to, as I was raised in a kitchen-centric house. The family ate in the kitchen, we did homework at the kitchen table, when we were grounded, it was usually after a lecture at the kitchen table. There are homes where the kitchen is the focal point of the home. This isn't one of them.
I almost didn't include this picture. It's very dark, but it gives a view of the windows in the nook off of the kitchen. I'm considering putting my "office" in this space, since the "dining" area is through the arched door to the left. My computer desk, file cabinet and computer stuff would probably go well in here, although I'm not sure about the sunshine on all my computer equipment.
Not the best picture of the utility room, but it gives a little idea. The washer and dryer will be replaced by ones that aren't stacked (and will have a capacity to do more than six items of clothing at a time). This is a fairly nice utility space. I can see myself doing many loads of laundry in this room. There are even several cupboards that have plenty of storage room for cleaning supplies and various and sundry items. There's also basement access off of the utility room, but I don't have pictures of that, and probably won't. I'm not a basement person, so will probably go down there twice in the entire time I own this house...if that many times.
Here is one of the LESS appealing things about my new house. The neighbors really ARE that close. I am intending on putting up a six or eight foot privacy fence along that side of the property, to prevent them from critisizing the fact that I mix my white and my colored clothes. I would rather look out at a nice fence than end up watching Oprah through the window on their television.
This is the last thing of note. I haven't mentioned the bedrooms. Let's just say they're fairly small and each has a window and leave the description at that. This is the closet in one of the bedrooms (there is no closet in the other). I like it, it's quite spacious, compared to the room, and will probably be much more appealing after it's painted a much lighter color.
All in all, I really like my little house. It has plenty to offer and a lot of potential. Once the renovations are made, I definitely will consider it my palace. I will try to put up some yard pictures later, although I will have to wait until next spring for you to be able to see the lilac bushes in full bloom, the way I saw it when I first looked at the property.
And we haven't even discussed the shop yet.
I will do another page with the different renovations as they are completed and eventually will meld the two into before and after pictures. Hope you can wait that long. :)