Good Bones And A Little Imagination

We looked at a TON of houses before we found this one, we’d guess about 50 or so. I personally LOVE looking at homes and imagining all the changes I would make or how the space could function better (I’ve been know to spend my free time sketching out new floor plans before an offer is even made!).  We actually made an offer on another house but it ended up falling through and while we were incredibly disappointed at first it definitely worked out for the best and this house fits our life better.  And I think Mace lucked out because he didn’t have to do the bump outs I was dreaming about, its not that hard right?!?

Like everyone else in the house hunt we had a long list of wants and needs.  The main things that sold us on this house were the amount of land & privacy, a walkout basement with the ability to add a deck (Mace has experience building them), decent sized bedrooms, a nice flow/layout, and number one was probably that it had good bones and had not been touched since it was built in the 50’s (we saw a lot of shotty craftsmanship which Mace was not having).  As with most home purchases there were a few things on our wish list we had to compromise on, mainly the fact that it wasn’t a 2 story home, it didn’t have a garage, it only had 3 bedrooms, and the square footage was on the smaller side on the first floor ( oh and the first house didn’t check all our boxes either). But we very quickly were able to use our imaginations and create a vision for what this place could look like. And we knew we could add a few of those items on our want list to the house over time. We’ve also realized that some of the compromises aren’t so bad.  While 2 floors was our preference ranch style homes are easier to renovate if you have to move HVAC, plumbing, & electrical, moving day (and moving new furniture some day) is easier with less stairs, having everything on one floor does make for easy living, and a smaller house is faster to clean! So I thought I’d share our initial update and renovation plans (subject to change of course) along with some pics of what the place looked like when we first moved in.  Please pardon the mess, we did just move in!

Front of the House & Carport

1. Turn the carport into a garage (a MUST for Mace, gotta keep the Harley and his tools somewhere!)

2. Beef up columns on porch

3. Update landscaping, its a little boring

4. Update light fixtures

5. Paint front door and get new hardware

6. New shingles & shutters

7. Add flower bed by mailbox

8. New mailbox

Mudroom & Laundry

1. New appliances

2. New flooring, possibly heated

3. Add lower and upper cabinets

4. New sink

5. Add seating and coat storage

6. New window treatments

7. New door & hardware (this won’t meet fire code once a garage)

8. Paint (ceiling, walls, & trim)

No, Kobe didn’t go blond and lose his curly tail!!  This is our friends dog Irish, he likes to photo bomb when he stays with us!

Kitchen

1. Strip wall paper

2. Refresh with painting cabinets, backsplash, & walls

3. Add crown molding

4. New light fixtures and recessed lights

5. New flooring, possibly heated

6. Reconfigure kitchen layout

7. Add breakfast bar peninsula

8. New appliances, cabinets, hardware, farm sink & backsplash

9. Take down walls between dining room and partially into the living room

10. Paint (ceiling, walls, & trim)

Dining Room

1. Remove window and replace with slider

2. Remove valance, curtains, & shutters

3. Add crown molding

4. New light fixture and recessed lights

5. Create 1/2 wall into living room

6. Refinish flooring

7. Add casing to opening

8. Paint (ceiling, walls, & trim)

Entryway/Foyer (not really but I can pretend)

1. Paint door & shelves

2. New lighting fixtures

3. New door hardware & hinges

4. Add rug and display accents to shelves

Living Room

1. Update and/or replace fireplace hearth, brick, and mantel

2. New lighting fixtures & recessed lights

3. Built-ins on either side of the fireplace

4. Add crown molding

5. New window treatments

6. New thermostat

7. Refinish floors

8. Paint (ceiling, walls, & trim)

2nd Bathroom

1. Strip wall paper

2. Refresh walls, vanity & tile with paint

3. New curtain & rod

4. New light fixture

5. Add shelf above toilet

6. Turn medicine cabinet into open shelving

7. New ceiling vent

8. Remove wall heater

9. Eventually gut and reconfigure

10. Possibly heated floors

11. Paint (ceiling, walls, & trim)

Hallway

1. Remove shutters (already gone in the pic but they were just like the ones in the dining room, felt like a saloon!

2. Remove whole house fan

3. New light fixture

4. New thermostat

5. Refinish floors

6. New closet organizer & bi-fold doors

7. All new doors, door hardware, & hinges to all rooms

8. Paint (ceiling, walls, & trim)

Office

1. Add closet organizer & new closet bi-fold doors

2. Refinish floors

3. Repair walls

4. New window treatments

5. Paint (ceiling, walls, & trim)

2nd Bedroom

1. Strip wall paper

2. New light fixture

3. Refinish floors

4. New window treatments

5. New closet organizer & doors

6. Paint (ceiling, walls, & trim)

Master Bedroom

1. Double the size of the closet (a MUST for me)

2. New light fixture

3. Refinish floors

4. New window treatments

5. New thermostat

6. Paint (ceiling, walls, & trim)

Master Bathroom

1. Refresh vanity and walls with paint

2. New window treatments

3. New door, door hardware, & hinges

4. New light fixtures

5. Eventually gut and reconfigure

6. Possibly heated floors

7. Paint (ceiling, walls, & trim)

Basement

1. Refresh with paint/update paneling

2. Paint built-ins

3. Improve textured ceiling

4. New light fixtures and recessed lighting

5. New window treatments

6. Refinish basement stairs

7. Remove 2nd railing

8. New carpeting, possibly new tile in front of slider

9. Replace 1950’s slider

10. Possibly wrap posts & beams with wood

11. Turn ½ bath into full

12. Expand unfinished area

13. Add 4th bedroom

Backyard

1. Remove plant from center of yard

2. Remove Crabtree

3. Build HUGE deck from the dining room (a MUST for both of us)

4. Update patio area

5. Add a fire pit

6. Update landscaping, add privacy trees on the side of house

We also planned to change all the switches, receptacles, wall plates, and ceiling vents throughout the house to make it feel newer and less dated.  And those are double prong outlets, not triple prong like we’re all used to, so the first few days of living here were interesting since we couldn’t plug much in!  The wall plates were also painted on, such a joy to remove!  I can’t wait till we no longer see these ceiling vents throughout the house!

So those are the plans for this place in a nut shell!!  Quite a few of our first round updates and refreshes have already been done (I told you we’ve been busy!) and we’re in the middle of a few right now so I plan on getting everything up shortly so you can see what we’ve been up to!