Show and Tell 8.12.09

Before and After Photos

As I mentioned in a previous post I am on my third (and final) house. Our second home with four bedrooms and a big yard was bought in preparation for having babies. It was a true fixer-upper. I come from a family of people who buy fixer-uppers. In fact, when my parents bought the house they are currently in back in 1977 my dad’s mom cried because the place was such a wreck. Their parents thought they were nuts for paying what they did. My parents saw the potential. They turned it into the beautiful Arts and Crafts home it once was. Now it is one of the best houses in town.

House number 2 was an Estate and we were only the second owners since it was built in 1941. It looked like they hadn’t touched the decor since the 70’s. We saw the potential. We owned this house for 4 years-our entire duration of infertility treatments. I was trying to get pregnant when we bought it, and we moved out one month after MinMan came home. I closed the door on that house and never wanted to look back. Way too many difficult times occurred behind those doors. New son, new house, new life.

However, when I drive by now and look at how pretty it is, I feel proud. We did so much work to that house, and it is lovely. There is nothing like seeing your hard work and efforts turn something from ugly to beautiful. In many ways that house was a huge distraction from our grief because we kept doing things to fix it up. I painted all 9 of those rooms including the back porch. Some rooms were painted more than once. Redecorating that house was an outlet for me. I was able to see progress. In a time where our plans were stagnant if not completely setting us back, re-doing our house allowed to have control over how something turned out.

Here’s the house when we closed in 2004.

The kitchen 1980’s re-do. The back splash was linoleum (bonus).

An example of wonderful 1950’s wallpaper.

The downstairs was army green. Picture walls and carpet combined.

Here is DH muscle man pulling up the 30-40 year old carpet.

Here are the photos from when it was on the market. Remember I am a REALTOR.
New roof, paint job- $11,000
*Return on investment- $0 dollars


Our $1,000 kitchen remodel.
Paint cabinets, remove some cabinet doors to display items, ceramic & glass tile countertops installed ourselves, new hardware on cabinets, wainscoting backsplash.

*A little unsolicited real estate advice. New roofs, paint of exterior, vinyl siding, new driveway are considered deferred maintenance. In other words, these are expenses that should be put forth in order to keep the property in good shape. They do not necessarily make your home more valuable, but they should make it more saleable.

Next time I will show you before and afters of our current home.

Check out the rest of Show and Tell.
P.S. Come visit tomorrow. I will be a featured blogger on SITS. I am doing my first giveaway.

31 thoughts on “Show and Tell 8.12.09”

  13. That’s the best show and tell I’ve seen! Great work. You’ve inspired me on my veerryy slow remodel of our house. We’ve just got to keep going!

  26. I am in the middle of a lengthy remodel. We are only in year 2 so wish me my sanity. Hopefully at the end of this we will be wiser, still happy and in a “completed home”

  28. oh I did this – my first two homes – TONS of work – I vowed to never do it again – the last house- our current – brand new from the foundation up!

  29. OMG. I’m totally stealing this idea for my next show and tell. I grew up in a family of fixer-uppers too. My husband and I are still in our first house b/c he’s not as fired up about it as I was..but we finished the interior and are holding off on exterior stuff for a year or so. Oh the days of sleeping in the living room while we were refinishing wood floors, etc. etc. Glad they are behind us. Thanks for sharing. What a beautiful house and great job!

Comments are closed.