Here she is, our first baby. We weren't nearly as good at before and afters at this stage as we should have been, but here's a little taste of all the work we did in our "first born."
Exterior
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We added some landscaping, and painted the window screens and window boxes red to match the door. We installed new house numbers, a mailbox and an exterior light. We also ripped out the old chain link fence and installed a nice wood privacy fence.
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Living Room
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Creamy paint, warm window treatments and rust accents brought all these rooms together into one cohesive space.
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| We were really scared to paint the fireplace at first, but once it was done we were thrilled with the results. |
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From the Dining Room looking back to the front door.
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Dining Room
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Opening up the pass through to the kitchen as well as replacing the old, beat up chandelier really made a big difference.
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The Kitchen
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Initially our tiny kitchen had no very little counter space, which we tried to remedy with the white rolling cart you see in the photo above. We replaced the window with a much shorter one to allow us to span a counter top and cupboard all along the back wall.
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We carefully knocked out the wall between the Kitchen and our Dining Room built-in hutch, creating a pass through at counter level, and glass cabinets above that lined up with the glass cabinets of the hutch behind it. It opened up the space dramatically, and brought in much more light.
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Before the dishwasher on the left always blocked access the the cupboards on that wall, and the sink on the edge of the counter gave us no where to dry dishes once they were washed.
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We tried to keep this Kitchen reno really affordable, as to not over price the house, so we stuck with the same white appliances. We like the way the backslash really brought together the alliances, counter and cupboards all in one space.
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Main Bath
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When we moved in, this room had just a tub, no shower. So we got to work right away installing this external shower and 360 degree shower curtain, with actually lasted us a lot longer than we had anticipated, 4 years.
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| First After |
Here's a view with the curtain pulled back so you can see how we just frosted the window and used a shower curtain on both sides, which was suspended from a rod on the ceiling.
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| First After |
Eventually the wood window and wainscoting in the shower started to rot with water damage, so we finally got around to remodeling the full bathroom, including tiling in a shower.
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We weren't initially thrilled with the idea of putting glass block in the shower, but with a stucco exterior, it would have been a nightmare to try to patch and match it. We actually love how the glass block turned out though. It makes the room feel so much brighter and bigger.
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Study
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We loved how homey this little study felt for us, it was a great place to read a book. Our style has changed so much already though, which is the result of just growing over time and having a much more modern space to work with now. There's already a bunch of stuff I would change about the Bungalow, mostly removing a lot of a clutter.
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Ryder's Room
We don't have any before pictures of Ryder's Room, because it's just a tiny little closet like room, and it wasn't really worth taking any photos of before his little cutie-pootie showed up.
Master Bedroom
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We didn't take any pictures of the Master Bedroom on the inspection day, but these photos can at least give you a little taste of how our style progressed as we lived in the house. Were denim duvets ever really in style?
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Downstairs
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The first time we ever saw the house, while I was busy drooling over the wood work and built-in upstairs, this big empty space was love at first site to my hubby, who had big dreams of a family entertainment space.
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We built the bar together with the help of a good friend, and the projection screen TV works perfectly in the darker basement.
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Downstairs Bathroom
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This huge 10 x 16 bathroom had nothing but a toilet, a pedestal sink and a small shower in it when we moved in. Some new warmer tile, bold wall color and storage pieces helped fill in the space and make it more usable.
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Downstairs Bedroom
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Before Ryder-Man came into our lives the downstairs bedroom was just an exercise room for us. (With an old poster covering the electrical box.) But once the Extra Bedroom became the Nursery, we had to find a way to make both a bedroom and workout gear co-exist in this small space.
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Backyard
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Not a lot of change here, but installing the wood privacy fence, adding the paver patio walkway and installing the hot tub right off the deck gave us a little "Urban Retreat".
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This is the biggest bummer- I can't believe we never got a picture of the backyard from the other angle, showing the 90 year old, single stall, "horse barn" like garage that was too small to fit a modern car. We didn't think to take out the camera until we had already leveled it to the ground. Here's a shot from the deck with my Hubby rockin' the Bobcat and the rest of us tossing the debris in the dumpster (My Dad and my cousin Jake were generous enough to help.)
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In Progress
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And here's the garage after. This picture was unfortunately taken in early Spring, so you can't yet see all the great landscaping we planted around it.
So there you have it, our first little house. We put so much love into this little guy, that it was really hard to leave. Heck- we got engaged in this house, had our first child in this house, and used a nail gun for the first time in this house. We learned so much about home improvement here, but we're glad to think of this house as the "practice house" for our new guy.
