House Remodel: Before, During, and After (sort of)

The time has finally come for me to take the time and blog about buying our first home which happened to be a "fixer upper".  We have a love/hate relationship with remodeling.  The "after" pictures really aren't truly "after" pictures because we still have things we need to do and updates we want to make.  But this is how we are currently living.  I have big plans this spring and summer.  Here is our journey so far.  


Here are the lovely before pictures.  You will be able to see why Clark DID NOT want this house in the beginning.  He couldn't see the potential at first.  We looked at this house twice and when we found out there were other offers, we decided to jump at the chance to be home owners.  

Ain't she a beaut?  

Henry's not too pleased with the living room

Standing in the living room looking into the back family room

Dining room with door out to garage and stairs to go downstairs.  I will also add that our original plan was to also get rid of that little wall space right there so it would be completely open.  But then I got cold feet and wasn't sure I wanted it so open (especially with a messy kitchen).  So we kept it.  I'm not in love with it, but I do like a little privacy from my front door to my kitchen.  

In dining room looking to the front door.  And yes, the previous homeowners left us a lot of beautiful treasures like that gold mirror and candle holders complete with fake flowers

Family room straight from the 70's.  This family room and kitchen were an addition to the home.  The dining room was where the kitchen used to be.

"retro" kitchen with a disgusting fridge (not even kidding, there was dog/cat hair inside) and some fun magnets.  

Clark taking down the nasty curtains.  Notice how there are just two big windows... we may have added a back door.  Just wait for the after pictures. 

This is the front bedroom, that was originally two bedrooms but for whatever reason they tore the wall down to make one long room with two doors, two windows, and two closets.  We made it back into two rooms. 

Hall/Guest Bathroom

Master bedroom

Looking into the lovely blue master bathroom (that was also added on with the back addition).  Although it is blue, we are happy to have a master bath. 

The random closet in the master.  The other closet was added in the little hallway going into the bathroom.  We fixed that issue...

This is the basement.  I think they were in the middle of "remodeling" because the flooring was torn up so it was just a cement floor.  They did "update" the bathroom, although they put in the ugliest floor.  But it's fine for now.  The basement has a family room, furnace/laundry/storage room, two bedrooms and a bathroom.  It has a shower in it, so it's actually very functional for a guest bath.  

June 2013: We were officially homeowners the last week of June.  I had just finished running Ragnar and was headed to girls camp so Clark's parents came up to help watch Henry and get started on the renovations.  Our initial plan was to be out of the rental and into the house by the end of July so we didn't have to pay rent and a mortgage.  That didn't happen!  But we did spend ALL summer working our bums off.  Mostly Clark and his Dad.  But I tore down wallpaper, painted the whole downstairs and most of the upstairs (with help from my awesome Dad) and chased Henry around and made sure he didn't get hurt in the "construction zone".  I would say it was a team effort from everyone!  

Demolition:

Good bye ugliest kitchen

Terrible picture of me... but I had to show I put in some effort to tear down walls :)

I also forgot Clark got rid of the ugly "popcorn" ceiling in most of the upstairs (minus the dining room, kitchen/family room, and master).  

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We hired a professional (Ken Raiger) to help us take that wall down and add a beam since it was a load bearing wall.  Ken also mud/taped all the drywall in the house since that is the worst job ever.  

Clark was a superhero and got rid of that nasty wood burning stove and the ugly fake stone that was behind it.  

Goodbye half wall... hello Mom having a heart attack!  Clark did screw an old door to the wood to make it safer with Henry around.  Then we eventually added a nice banister built by my Hubby and Father in law.  

Okay so this is where we moved the wall so we could move the master closets.  So the family room became 2 feet smaller and we put in his and her master closets and got rid of the random closet in the master (which then made it so we could move the doorway into the master so that we had better usable space).

Hard to see but we moved the door about 2 feet.  This way we could actually fit our bed with 2 nightstands on that wall.  

So you are looking into the master bedroom.  It is the little hallway going into the bathroom.  

Proof I tore down wallpaper.  Henry would nap in the pack n play in one of the bedrooms with the fan blasting to keep him cool, and I would tear off wallpaper little by little.  

Basement.  Picking wall color.  We went with the second from the left.  Behr Mineral.  

Henry helped when he woke up from the nap.  

Henry standing in between the 2 upstairs bedrooms.  He is walking from his room to the extra room.  

July & August: The rebuilding begins.  So many things happened, and really I don't even know the half of it.  Clark and his Dad worked so hard.  Even little things like moving outlets and re-wiring stuff, to big things like putting walls back up and drywalling.  Oh and knocking out a window to add a back patio door!  

Goodbye window

Henry loved to "help" Papa and Dad

I LOVE having a back door.  One day we will build a nice little deck.  

They also made the window opening slightly smaller and we added a nice brand new window

Kitchen's are nasty when they are all torn apart. 

Our "fake" wood floor is going in.  I've been happy with our laminate flooring.  I would rather wood floor, but sometimes you gotta go with the "budget friendly" option.  Thankfully my Brother in Law Tyler came up to do our carpet and help Clark get the floor started.  Plus my sister and the kiddos came so that was a fun weekend! 

It's pretty nice for budget friendly :)

Clark helping put the carpet pad down.  Is there anything he doesn't do?  Tyler taught him well.  

Our nice soft carpet! I'm very happy with it.  Apparently I went above budget with the carpet (oops!) but it is so soft and I love the color.

Yeah for a banister!

For the first few weeks we had our "family room" set up in the living room since the floor wasn't finished in the family room.  

This picture stresses me out looking at it and remembering how we were living for the month of September!  Half the floor and dust everywhere! Also notice my "shelving" for our food.  

My beautiful cabinets are going in!  It would be months before I had actual doors on them.  But they were 100% better than what was there before. 

It's coming along.  Which means less dust!

Professional paint sprayers.  They had a system set up to spray all of the new doors.  Money well spent on upgrading doors. 

How many men does it take to install new windows? Just three.  Ken, Clark & Blaine.  

New windows!  It would be months before we had blinds on them :)  haha!  I know Clark had a million and one other things to get done.  Plus when you tare out a window, all the drywall goes with it.  So we now have blinds, but the drywall hasn't been fixed.  Clark just needs to tape and mud around the new windows.  Add it to his "honey do" list.  

We moved in the very end of August.  Over Labor Day Clark went down to Kaysville to finish my cabinets and bring them home.  My mom and sister Adrienne came up to help me finish bringing boxes from our rental and cleaning the rental.  My sister babysat while my mom and I cleaned the rental.  That place never looked so good!  Plus we got our full deposit back!  We are the queens of cleaning apparently.  

So these photos I will label After, but really it's not officially after since there are still little things we need to do and I need to start "decorating".  But that will come eventually.  I try to be patient and remember how far we have come.  I'm just happy to have so much space and have our cute first home.  We have been renting tiny apartments or living in family members basements for 6 years, so we are very happy and grateful to have our own place.  

After (sort of):

We painted the yellow part of our house white since the sides and back were white.  One day I want to paint the brick since it is ugly and is different than the brick on the garage.  Then we will probably repaint the siding.  But for now I like it much better than Davis High colors brown & gold. 

New sage green shutters.  Also this spring I hope to plant some nice shrubs and flowers in the front flower beds.  Our house is in desperate need of some landscaping.  

I added this picture to show you what I did with the little wall between the kitchen and the dining room.  So it is nice to have a place to "decorate" in my kitchen.  

Extra random room that stores Henry's toys and the baby cradle

Henry's room

This is the extra room downstairs that doesn't have a window.  We bought new egress windows to go down in the basement and we will add one to this room on that far wall.  The list of things we need to do keeps getting bigger as I write this blog post!

Basement bathroom.  Not terrible, but I would prefer different floor.  Oh well.  The guests will have to deal :)

Guest bedroom downstairs.  

I added this photo because these are all the drawer boxes for my kitchen that are being held downstairs until Clark has time to install them.  I can't wait for my big pantry drawers! 

Living room with hand-me-down furniture!  The piano is awesome and was my Great Grandmas and had been at my aunt Mary's home.  It is a solid piano, and Clark keeps saying he refuses to move it ever again.  But it's an antique!  The chair is from Clark's parents living room back when Clark was Henry's age.  I don't love the print, but it's actually not horrible.  One day I hope to find someone to recover it for me.  I love wing back chairs!  The couch is an old one that was in Clark's high school bedroom and I just put a cover over it.  I don't love it, but my visiting teachers don't mind :)

Family room off of the kitchen.  We hope to add a big wall of built-ins where the TV is and one day get a nice sectional and move the leather couches to the living room.  Also notice that green thing in the ceiling behind the fan.... yep that's still the exhaust vent where the old wood burning stove was.  We just taped it off with painters tape for now!  Clark will eventually climb into the attic and take it out then add some drywall.... 

My mostly finished kitchen!  I just need drawers, a backsplash and a new light above the sink.  But that's easy stuff compared to what we started with.  Ahh I just love the space.  Makes me actually want to cook... sometimes.  We also chose a "budget friendly" option for our countertop.  Yes I would have loved a stone countertop, but our laminate one is perfect for us.  I love it. 

Hall/Guest bath upstairs.  My plan this spring/summer is to paint the walls, add new trim, and paint/update the vanity.  Also get new fixtures so I don't have a gold towel rod.  New floors will happen eventually :)

Master bedroom.  The random chair is from me blogging today :)  Notice how I didn't get our messy nightstands in the picture!  

This picture is me sitting on our bed and taking a picture of our closets and the pocket door into the bathroom.  I also forgot to point out all the beautiful door trim that Clark made to go around all of our doors.  AND I had to fill all the nail holes in EVERY SINGLE ONE IN OUR WHOLE HOUSE and I will one day have to give them another coat of paint.  I've finished some rooms... I still have a lot to go.  

Our dresser with our computer on it.  This is where that one closet was that we knocked out. 

I also forgot to mention that when we moved our Master bedroom door we had to get rid of the linen closet.  And I HAVE to have a linen closet so Clark added one at the end of the hall.  We had to cut into some of the closet space in Henry's room, but we made a nice closet perfect for a kids room.  One day I will do a post just on the custom closets Clark did.  They are sweet!  Maybe he's in the wrong profession :) 

Oh and notice the beautiful trim around the doors.  You can't see the nail holes either, huh?!  But don't look too close because I haven't painted them yet.  Or any of the base trim.... My summer just filled up quickly!  

Okay I hope you enjoyed the tour.  I'm probably leaving things out.  I know Clark has some pictures that I don't.  But you get the gist of it.  Come visit anytime!  I will even let you come help me do all those projects I just talked about :)

Also, I'm not proofreading after that long post!  Sorry if there are errors, which I'm sure there are. Hey no one's perfect right!