This Old House

I'm finally almost finished with the current renovations I'm doing on our (new to us) home that was built in 1949. When this home came up on the market, I stalked pictures of it online searching for an idea of what to expect on the inside as it was initially only listed as "Coming Soon" with one exterior picture only. I found a few pictures from when it was last sold in 2012 and was instantly excited to see it- thinking, unless they've done something awful to it the house looked good! Spoiler alert- there was stuff done to it 😆This house was the second one I had made an offer on, and I wanted the other house I had offered on more than this one- but I am so glad it worked out the way it did. Especially because I had sold our house and needed to be out ASAP. I am so grateful to my realtor who helped me visualize taking out all the furniture and starting from scratch with my own things and touches- and then I was able to really think of this as our future home. 

I bought this house "As Is", agreeing that unless there were major issues with the inspection I would still buy it and not ask for any repairs to be made. I definitely didn't know what I was getting into with this fixer-upper, but I feel like I'm pretty capable and decided to use the profit from selling my first home to do as many updates as I could at this time. Not only so the house would be comfortable and great for us, but also for future re-sale value (a woman has to be smart, never know when change will happen again!) 

I'll go through room by room with before and after pictures and give an idea of the work that was done.

 

g a r a g e

Things I did-

Ripped up the old (possibly abestos) tile flooring

Power washed and de-greased the concrete floor

Painted the subwall and floor

Epoxy coated the floor

Painted the stairwell

Painted the garage door

Found and painted a free wooden step on FB Marketplace to use for the back porch door

Finally finished covering all that green paint and painted the cabinet 😅

Things I hired out-

Painted the walls and ceiling

New garage door and opener (thanks Dad/Eli/Martha)

Replace the interior and exterior doors

l i v i n g  r o o m

Things I did- 

Ripped up the carpet squares and old flooring tacks

Painted the fireplace and trim

Removed million year old wall mirror and 79 nails from walls

Tor2 out old window treatments

Tried unsuccessfully to wire new outlets (succeeded on 1)

Installed "built-in" IKEA bookshelves

Painted the hallway walls and ceiling

Things I hired out-

Painted the walls and ceilings

Installation of vinyl plank flooring

Fireplace and chimney repair to make it use-able after 9+ years

New windows (for the whole house too)

Exterior door replaced

Electrical work- replacing 2 prong outlets with grounded outlets, new light switches

k i t c h e n  /  d i n i n g  r o o m

Can you tell it's the room I'm the most proud of??

Things I did-

Primed and painted the cabinets and hardware (Graham helped)

Painted the countertops

Installed wallpaper backsplash

Demolished (with Dad's help) the old cabinet with stovetop/oven in it

Replaced all appliances (goodbye avocado green!)

Painted the trim

Painted the built-in

Painted the French doors (also thanks to Martha)

Found a table, chairs and bench set on FB marketplace for a great price

Installed a "locker" area by the back door with a bench for shoes, hanging racks for our bags/coats and "command center"

Things I hired out-

Flooring (same as living room)

Electrical work- needed to remove the wiring for the previous stovetop/oven and install new wiring for fridge, stove and microwave

New light fixtures and ceiling fan installed

Plumbing- installed reverse osmosis system and fridge water line, new sink and faucet, removed disposal 

Painting of the walls and ceilings

b e d r o o m s 

Things I did-

Painted both bedrooms (Eli did the high parts of B's room)

Replaced the 50 year-old window treatments in both bedrooms

Tore down the awnings blocking all the gorgeous natural light from outside

Things I hired out-

Painting of the ceilings and trim (so. much. painting.)

New ceiling fan light fixtures installed

b a t h r o o m 

Things I did-

Fixed the toilet

Basically nothing hahah. Waiting on my estimate for renovating the whole thing, not in a huge hurry because it all works fine- just needs a facelift!

b a c k y a r d

Things I did-

Power washed the back patio

Burned a million stray sticks left all over the property in that handy fireplace 

Things I hired out-

Moving her playhouse (thank you Perrysburg Movers!)

New swingset (Playground World)

The last thing to be finished is the basement- I'll give it its' own little post when that's finished, because I'm excited for it and because it's still not done 😜 It's been fun actually getting to choose my own things for this house, even though I simultaneously hate spending money and worry about that all the time. But bit by bit we've been making this home comfy and ours and I love this journey!