House Update

We have been working really hard on our house since June, and wanted to share some before and after pictures. The house was a foreclosure property, and was severely neglected. It is a raised ranch house from 1957, and still has some of it's mid-century charm. The previous owners may have been a hoarder/drug dealers, It was scary!  Thankfully all that was left was dirt, and a whole lot of work to do.

 

 

The outside needed to be painted, trees had to be trimmed and cut down after years of neglect, and we leveled the earth and planted grass. The house is on a main road and you couldn't even notice it from the street,  now I think it stands proudly. I chose a sunny yellow door, and gray shutters to complement the roof.

 

 

 

The Entry:

 



The door is original, and one of the only things in the house I really liked, we added a peephole. There are hardwood floors thoughout the house hiding under old dirty carpet. That was really lucky.  The over sized artwork is from MYHABIT, originally from the Saturday Evening Post. The table, was free, and used to be in a mechanic's garage with car doors on top. It is in almost perfect condition, fits perfectly and I would buy the same one if I saw it in a store, I love when things work out.

 The Living Room:

Red carpets, dirty walls, scary sconces and a lovely smell are only a memory. I love this room, it's really fun. The ottomans are Missoni for target I found on clearance, and they make the best coffee table/ foot rest. The rug is from gilt group, I wish I got another one for the dining room, and the lamp is from Costco. The art over the fireplace is from our wedding, it was displayed at our wedding, it says our names, the reception location and the date, I love it's vintage vibe. This picture is a little dated because we now have curtains, but you get the idea.

The Kitchen:

 

 

 This room was disgusting. I won't even show you what was on the floor. We ripped out the range, the vent, the tile, and painted all the cabinets. We added the subway tile back splash, which I love, changed the hinges, switched to a gas range, and added a vent hood. I was inspired by my dinnerware that I love so much (previously blogged here) and went with a turquoise and yellow theme. The island was a hand me down from my aunt, which was a forest green, and the stools are from the Christmas Tree Store, that we spray painted yellow and covered with fabric. I am in love with the giant cutlery on the wall. We bought those so long ago, and stored them until we had a place together.

The Hallway: 

 



 

 

 

 

The Guest Room:

This was the most disgusting room, and guess what: this was the drug dealer's room. The graffiti wall, a must in every home of course, said such things as "You'll never amount to anything in life" and various girl's initials that were crossed out and rewritten. That was so hard to cover-up, he ended up just spackling the whole wall. This room is nice and dark so my husband uses it to sleep during the day (he has the night shift), so I tried to make it a little bit masculine. The duvet cover is also Missoni for Target.

 

The Sewing Room:

 

 

 

 

 
Here it is, the most important room in the house. Before, it had scary, dirty flocked wall paper, and carpet that used to be pink. This is a nice a bright room perfect for sewing, with a large closet for storage. We repurposed and cleaned the light from the entry, which doesn't really give off much light but looks cute. The cutting table is new, from Home Decorators, I like the size of it, but it has some drawbacks. The armoire was also my Aunt's, lucky for me she did some remodeling, and holds my yarn/fabric stash. The setup works really well for me and I am finishing projects faster in my new workspace.

 You have already seen the master bedroom, so apart from the dining room, which I will show you next week with my Christmas decorations, that's pretty much it.

We had a ton of help from our family and friends, and are so grateful to all of them. As my Mom says we turned this "crackhouse" into a "dollhouse". Thanks for looking!