OUR FIRST HOME
My husband's job transfered to another city so we needed to find a place to stay. We looked into renting but we couldn't find a 3 bedroom apartment less than $750. Which for some of you that is cheap but we knew how much family members were paying for a house mortgages and they were paying the same or less so we thought that we would look into buying a house. We couldn't get a house because my husband hadn't been working for his job for 2 years. We looked into government rural development subsidized loans and we qualified but couldn't find a house in their boundaries. We decided to look into some other options and finally we found a bank that would qualify us. So we went and looked at houses. Most of the houses that were in our price range we either built in the 70's and needed updated or only 1000 sq feet. This house was a foreclosure and was a little more than we wanted to pay but we thought what would it hurt to ask less. My husband wasn't sure about it because it was a foreclosure and needed some work. But I really liked it because it was a newer house and was twice the size of the other house in our price range. Well we asked 6,000 less and they took it. We got a really good deal but we had a lot of work ahead of us. Welcome to our house. I will show and tell about some of the things we changed. There are before and after pictures so I hope you enjoy. As you walk through the front door you step into the living room.
Updated Outside
We are going to add black shutters.
BEFORE LIVING ROOM
The pervious owners took the rod iron spindles on the banister. The bank had to bring it up to code so they just screwed 2X4 on to the post. We had to get 35 new spindles. They turned out beautifully. Also there was a built in shelving unit but they took the molding off so we just pulled it out. We are going to put a nicer shelves in there eventually but for now we just have an empty space. They also took most of the lighting throughout the house.
AFTER LIVING ROOM
AFTER LIVING ROOM
BEFORE LIVING ROOM
AFTER LIVING ROOM
BEFORE OTHER SIDE OF LIVING ROOM
They kicked a hole in a couple spots in the walls so we had to patch them and paint the whole house.
AFTER OTHER SIDE OF LIVING ROOM
BEFORE KITCHEN
The kitchen and laundry room were probably the area that took the most work. The previous owners took the countertops, appliances, and sink. We heard from some neighbor that they had a flood in the laundry room and it ruined the floor and walls in the laundry room. They put in new flooring but it is not very good stuff and looks terrible. We will replace it soon. But we did replace the counter tops and we did beadboard backsplash. We got all our appliances for 500 bucks. The fridge was to big for the area so we had to remove the sheetrock and replace it with thinner stuff. We also had to run a gas line for the stove. We also got new light fixtures and new handles and knobs on the cabinets.
BEFORE KITCHEN
BEFORE KITCHEN
BEFORE KITCHEN
BEFORE KITCHEN
AFTER KITCHEN
AFTER KITCHEN
AFTER KITCHEN
AFTER KITCHEN
AFTER KITCHEN
BEFORE MAIN BATHROOM
We changed the countertops to match the cabinets in the kitchen. We replaced the mirror and got rid of the toilet cabinet.
BEFORE MAIN BATHROOM
AFTER BATHROOM
AFTER BATHROOM
BEFORE NURSERY
AFTER NURSERY
BEFORE BEDROOM
AFTER BEDROOM
AFTER BEDROOM
AFTER BEDROOM
BEFORE MASTER
AFTER MASTER
We got the ceiling fan for $3.00 at DI! I am still thinking of ideas on how to decorate this room.
BEFORE MASTER BATH
We changed the counter tops.
BEFORE MASTER BATH
AFTER MASTER BATH
AFTER MASTER BATH
BEFORE LAUNDRY ROOM
AFTER LAUNDRY ROOM
AFTER LAUNDRY ROOM
AFTER LAUNDRY ROOM
