House Tour

This page will give you a (brief) tour of my big, floppy house. Where I have already “toured” a room or space, you can click on the link for more information.

My house, like most people’s, is a work in progress that will probably never truly be “done.” I enjoy many aspects of my home, even though there are many things I’d love to change too. My house was built in 2004 as a custom home for a builder and his wife. They lived in it while they built it (we were told by a neighbor) until they ran out of money, which meant that they used cheaper materials to finish the house.  We were told that the wife really loved the house, but her husband needed the money so they sold it.  It was bought by a company who tried to flip it (without updating anything), who eventually went into foreclosure a year and a half later.  We toured the home, and we were frankly floored by the amount of space for the money.  Our offer was approved (out of three they received), and we were ecstatic!  Well, I was anyway.  I think with compounding fears about the economy (the stock market hadn’t crashed yet) and being able to really live in the home and see its flaws tempered my husband’s feelings.

We did know a lot about the home going into it.  Not only did we hire a home inspector, but we brought in two engineers, a chimney sweep, an HVAC technician, and a septic specialist to check things out (our bank insisted on most of it).  The reports came in that we had a great house- structurally.  The bones are great, and everything was done well, except the finish work.  There were some pretty big BUTs in there.  The chimney was fine BUT there is a small dent near the top inside.  The windows all work BUT every room has a different brand.  The HVAC works BUT it looks like it was put in by monkeys.  The list is too long and I’m sure you’re not that interested for me to go over it.  But let’s just say that we knew there was room to upgrade.  So without further ado, let’s get into it shall we…

A progress of the front porch and flower bed taken in the spring of 2011:

The before of the exterior of the rear of the house:

The current progress on the back  (you can read about our deck re-do here):

Walking in through the front door, we have the foyer:

Walking straight through the foyer, you can see it’s open to the family room. Before:

And some progress:

And these are the current drapes in the family room (you can see how I made them here):

Continuing from the Family Room, you come to the eat-in kitchen:

I guess technically it is a different room, but it’s open to the kitchen (click here for more pictures!):

Off the kitchen, is a small room that I am calling the studio.  Right now it also holds my (small) stockpile.  When we first moved in:

After painting and making curtains:

And now with the stockpile:

Going back through the kitchen, you come to a little hallway with the laundry room and half bath.  Here it is shortly after we moved in:

And with some progress:

I think you can see the color a little more true in this updated progress picture of the half bath (click here for more pictures!):

To the left of the half bath is the laundry room, but I have no pictures of that yet or of the garage interior.  The garage is nice though- it’s a three car garage and the walls are finished with drywall even though it’s not primed or painted.

Now for the real reason we bought the house, the garage.  I just have one picture of it, and it’s before we did anything to it.  It’s still completely unfinished, but we did add electrical outlets and fluorescent lighting.  My husband works out of the house and wanted a large basement.  Well he got it:

This view is just looking in one direction, but it has about 1800 square feet total and it’s all open.

The basement stairs come up between the kitchen and the dining room, which I currently use as an office.  This is a clean shot from a few years ago- I’ve added a few pieces since then, but it’s mostly just messy.

In the reflection from the mirror in the foyer, you could see a glimpse of the artwork on the walls here.  We haven’t painted or anything, so it’s still just a white primer on the walls.  Before we can sell the house, we’re going to need to turn it back into a dining room for show.

And the last stop on the main floor is the master bedroom suite.  I chose a very soft and muted purple for the walls which I love:

The purple also seems to go perfectly with my paintings (those are mine on the wall).  I’ve got a lot of things in mind for this room.

The only shot I have the bathroom is a before shot, but it’s painted a shade or two lighter than the bedroom:

I also did a brief tour of the closets in the house, including both master bedroom closets:

Now heading upstairs, there are two guest rooms, my craft room, and a full bath.  We’ll start with the bath at the top of the stairs:

And here’s the progress:

My craft studio is open to the family room below, which is one reason why I chose to use it as a studio, rather than a guest room:

The first guest room has a king-sized bed that I made an upholstered headboard for.  Here is shortly after we moved in:

And some progress I’ve made to make it comfortable for my guests:

And lastly, the other guest room which I call the twin room because it has a twin bed:

Well that’s it so far!  I hope you’ve enjoyed the nickel tour of my home, and please check back for updates!