Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Looking back

I found some old pictures yesterday of our last house. It was our first real DIY experience. We had done a few things to our first house.... some painting and tile. But this old 1920's brick house was in a whole different ball park. We were only there for two years because my husband got transferred. While I am so glad we are where we are now, I do wish we had been able to see that project to its completion. I thought I would share some before and after pictures of that house, because it is a big part of my "DIY identity" if that is even a real thing! :) Please don't judge too harshly! This was before I knew anything about the DIY blogging world or even photography! Just a fun little piece of my past. I hope you enjoy!



Living room before

Living room after paint & our furniture

Another view of living room with some pictures and accessories
Den/Office before

Den/Office after

Master Bedroom before.....Not kidding!

Master after paint, carpet removal and refinished hardwoods


Nursery before

Nursery after

 Now, onto the major renovations!! This kitchen was a huge undertaking for us! We could not afford new cabinetry or to have anyone come do it for us. We had to do a lot of work with what we had and improvise quite a bit. But we were really proud of the final result!

Before

Before Alternate view
 
After

After
Quick rundown: We painted the existing cabinets and bumped out the cabinet in front of the sink a little and added the detail of the twisted posts. We got granite counter tops (We got the same effect for less money because we got the thinner cut.) The island and the knobs were splurges for us. The island was from Crate and Barrel and the green glass knobs from Restoration Hardware. The large white tile on the walls was original to the house and is an all glass tile called Vitrolite. It clearly dictated the color scheme in our kitchen. I fought it for a while, but ended up falling in love with it. I loved that kitchen! It made me feel happy! It is the reason I can't shake the urge to paint our oak cabinets in our current house.

Our other large undertaking was the main bathroom.

Before

After. That beautiful original tile was being covered by that awful grayish blue!!
I know what you are thinking! All that work and you left that hideous fan in there??? I know I know! I hated it too. But there was no ventilation in that bathroom and when you got out of a hot shower it was pretty miserable. It was one of the many things on the list we didn't get a chance to get to.

We removed all of the existing tile and put up White subway tile. That job was NO JOKE!!

We also added new light fixture, medicine cabinet and of course the bead board!!

We actually had a number of other makeovers we did to this house but we didn't think to take good before and after pictures! We did a complete overhaul of the second floor of this house as well. But we did it just to sell the house and I have no photos! I will probably regret that for a long time! Oh well.

2 comments:

  1. I love subway tile and wainscoting! You're after my heart!

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  2. YOu guys did a fantastic job. I love the changes you made in your kitchen. It would have a fond place in my heart as well. I painted our kitchen cabinets last summer and love, love, love them. I've always adored white kitchens and now I have one (well and gray, but i love that too).

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