It would totally appease my vanity by allowing me to be narrator/host. Plus it would give me more blog content while Jake and I wade through this tediously slow part of renovating.
So I think I might do that.
But thinking about how I actually should do that, I realised that I never took you on a photo tour of what the entire house looked like before.
If I was any kind of GOOD blogger I would have taken a million more pictures than I did (I was too excited to get started when we bought the house) and I would have done this months ago.. but alas, here we are...
So sit back and get comfortable, because this is one doozy of a post!
EXTERIOR
The exterior of the house was one of the first things I fell in love with. The house suffered through the cement/stucco craze that seemed to make its way around town in the 60s or 70s but this house was done very differently from most of the others. In pictures, and from a distance, our house looks like a stone house. Which is awesome.
What isn't awesome is the fact that the siding is cracking in multiple places and likely won't last too much longer without allowing water to get in. We think that in the short-term, we will keep it as it is for as long as possible and then, when it becomes necessary, we will fill the cracks and holes and just paint the entire exterior.
Ultimately we would like to take it down and add real wood siding to bring back some victorian charm, but that will be very expensive so it will have to wait.
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Storm window that has seen better days. |
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Original wood soffits. Just need a scrape and some fresh paint. |
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Front door. |
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End of driveway, gate to backyard. |
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Side-entrance. Leads into kitchen. |
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Gorgeous. |
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See?! |
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So many flowers! |
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I can't wait for them all to come up this year! |
Vestibule/Stairs:
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Stairs |
This is how small the area is:
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Yep. That's it. |
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Front door. |
And the transom will eventually get refitted with a custom stained glass piece (because that glass is broken).
Living Room:
The living room is huge. It's (if I remember correctly) 22'x12'. So huge, but long.
This actually works well for us because we plan on creating a few different spaces visually. The couch / fireplace area, and then a small gaming table (by gaming I mean like, chess and backgammon ha ha) with two chairs by the front window.
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Living Room. View looking to back of house. Kitchen is through that doorway. |
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1970's panelling and blue carpet! |
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That stonework was a beast and took up so much floor space. |
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One light. |
Kitchen:
Another nice, big room is the kitchen. We totally lucked out here because most old houses have teeny, tiny ones. Our kitchen is an addition to the original house, hence the great size.
It's got two interior doorways that lead to the living room and the office (dining room is connected to the office), and two exterior doors that lead to the driveway and the backyard.
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Kitchen. View looking to front of house. Side door on right, living room straight ahead, office through the doorway to the left. |
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Kitchen. View looking to back of house. Sliding glass door on right leads to backyard. |
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Clearly hasn't been updated in a while. |
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But a gas range! |
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So much unused space |
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This is the wall that my baking counter will eventually go on. |
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Dated, but otherwise fine appliances. |
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This is the space between the side door and the fridge. We will be building a pantry here. |
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Side door, interior view. |
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Huge closet perfect for all of our coats and boots! |
Office:
I don't have many pictures of what the office looked like when we bought the house, but just know that it's got one window and three doors that lead to the main floor bathroom, kitchen, and dining room, respectively.
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Office. View from kitchen doorway. |
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Dining room doorway is to the right. |
Dining Room:
Again, another room I have very little photographic evidence on what it looked like before.
This was a big selling feature for me though because I really like formal dining rooms and cannot wait to entertain properly. (Our apartment was really too small to have anybody over)
This room is a really good size and again has amazing natural light thanks to the three large windows.
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Dining room. View from front of the house looking into the office. |
SECOND FLOOR
Hall:
The upstairs hall is great. It's a decent size and as a result is bright and airy.
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Bannister. |
Also, if you look at the above picture, the section that looks like a bookshelf with a window above it used to be a door originally. I have no idea when that got changed but it happened before the siding was put on. Jake and I keep going back and forth on if we'll put it back. I love me a good balcony, but we may just go with a porch instead.
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Top of the stairs. Guest bedroom to the right, master bathroom straight ahead. |
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Horribly dirty fan. |
Guest Bedroom:
Another space with few pictures, and those pictures don't really show anything that is relevant... like the size of the room...
For a guest bedroom it will function perfectly. We'll be putting a single bed in here because it will likely also double as our library... and that means I need room for bookshelves..
Master Bathroom:
Ugh, this is the ONLY picture I have of this room before we started tearing things out...
I have zero excuses... The blog existed by this point... Sorry.
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Master bathroom |
We are turning the whole thing into a bathroom with a water closet.
Oh and this room gets HOT in the summer.
Master Bedroom:
The master bedroom was originally two bedrooms. Then at some point it was made into one big room. And then again it was split into two rooms. We have since opened it back up into one big room again. Confusing, I know.
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Master bedroom, back section. |
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Wall that split the two rooms. You can see in this picture that it wasn't even attached at the top. |
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Only picture I have of the front section, aside from one that pretty much only shows the floor. The window on the right is the one that originally was a door. Doorway beside that leads to my closet. |
Ali's Closet:
And as you all know, I'm crazy and turning a bedroom into my own closet.
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My closet, view from doorway. |
While this room will be a fully-functioning closet, we are adding the electrical in terms of it being a bedroom because for re-sale value (if that day ever comes) we will list the house as a three-bedroom, counting my closet as one such room.
To our mind, the space is put to far better use as a closet than a second guest bedroom that would likely never get used.
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This room was pink! |
BASEMENT
Unfortunately for us, the basement is one of those creepy, wet, dungeon types. Which totally sucks since our laundry will be down there...
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Basement |
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Old panel. |
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Horribly creepy crawl-space. |
It will definitely need a dehumidifier running practically 24/7 but we'll deal with it.
I need to clean the windows badly though to let more natural light in. And maybe one day we'll add doors to hide the crawl space and utility room.
So there you have it!
That is officially the tour of what the house looked like when we purchased it.
Look forward to a video tour of the construction zone sometime "soon". 😀
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