Monday, May 6, 2013

Saying Goodbye

2 months ago we said goodbye to our home of two years.  The house we first lived together in.  The place that we fixed up ourselves.  Put a lot of time, money and energy in to.  The home we created and styled and made ours.  The spot that became a gathering for all our friends.  We have lots of good memories there.

I spent our last day of home ownership working at home (not because I'm that sentimental but for other reasons) sitting on the hardwood floor on a single sofa cushion.  With no Internet at our temporary apartment yet this is where I camped out. 



That evening we cleaned and said our goodbyes.  I took pictures of an empty house (save for the items the buyer bought from us).  My husband told me I was crazy.  Although these are an after from what I originally showed in this post they aren't what I still want to show you.  I'm amazed at some of the things we managed to accomplish together and not kill each other.

Besides before and after's from the old house, I hope to get back to blogging soon once we get "organized" in the new house.  Who wants some styling posts?

Non the less, these are some really good "after" shots of how we transformed our foreclosure into our home. 

FIRST FLOOR

Living space (aka Family Room):  ripped up carpet and laid hardwood, new higher baseboard, painted walls, built shelves, installed light/fan unit, hung curtains at back slider
 
Kitchen: removed vinyl flooring and replaced with tile, new higher baseboard (to replace the grey plastic stuff), painted walls, installed light fixture, repaired ceiling (OK, we paid someone to do that)

Kitchen: replaced all appliances, new hardware, granite counter, installed backsplash, painted our orange accent wall here into Family Room

Half Bath: removed vinyl flooring and replaced with tile, new higher baseboard, painted walls, removed builder grade cabinet for stand alone sink unit, new mirror and light fixture, hung art.  This was probably our most "complete" room thanks to being so small!

UPSTAIRS

Master Bedroom:  removed ugly teal carpet and installed lush beige carpet, reinstalled baseboard, painted walls and all trim, repaired ceiling (paid someone), installed light/fax unit, hung curtains at window, painted door (minus sliding closet doors)

Missing this place already...

Upstairs Bath:  removed vinyl flooring and replaced with tile, added real baseboard (not the grey plastic crap), painted walls, installed new leak free toilet, built towel rack (see part of it in the mirror)

Upstairs Bath:  removed builder grade single sink unit for fancy double sinks (do NOT miss the black granite shows every water spot and dust particle counter top), installed mirrors and light fixtures after removing the large single mirror, new shower head and shower curtain bar

Guest Bedroom:  removed teal carpet for beige carpet, re-installed baseboard, painted all the trim and walls, installed light/fan unit, hung curtains and blinds

Note:  Walls were NOT this yellow.  They are same as the hallways and living area

BASEMENT (nothin' fancy)

This would have been the biggest change had we got to it.  It was in the plans but when we listed we knew it wouldn't help a lot with re-sale (based on the time/effort that needed to go in to it), so it was nixed unless we didn't sell and stayed here

I DON'T miss basement laundry.  Down here all we did was fix the pull string light fixtures

Basement Full Bath:  patched the walls (think previous owner kept a pet in here) and painted the walls.  Super nice to have this down here when we were re-doing the upstairs bath.


So that's it.  Nothing amazing to see as it is still an unfurnished yet much more finished canvas.  Can't wait to share the before and after renovations. 

Let's suffice it to say this place definitely brings back some good memories (and some not so pleasant ones).  You will be missed my first place!

What types of renovations did you do in your first place (could be house or apartment)?  Did you do them for future re-sale or just because.  We definitely have a mix of the two.