Upstairs: The Bathroom

The bathroom is probably my favorite part of this house.  Favorite because it's the most hideous part of the house right now and has the potential to be the most spectacular.

Get ready for a major wallpaper crime against humanity:

Ahhh!  The horror!  The horror!

Dark floral wallpaper is SUCH a good choice for a bathroom, don't you think?

It's like some kind of 80s nightmare in there. 

But wait!  There is hope.  Look in the mirror in the above picture...see that nifty archway?  This bathroom is so cool.  It actually has a little vanity sitting area in a room BEFORE you enter the actual bathroom.  The arch is the doorway between the two.  Here's a better shot:

This is standing in the main door to the bathroom, looking in.

The little entry room has a linen closet to the right, and a vanity table and mirror to the left:

Adorbs.

This bathroom has huge potential to be spectacular, but a number of things need to happen first.  Namely:

• REMOVE THE WALLPAPER
• Paint
• Remove all hardware, shelves, window treatments, etc...we're gonna start from scratch here
• New mirror above sink (perhaps a medicine cabinet?)
• New sink & cabinet
• New shower doors
• Maybe eventually new shower entirely?  Depending on budget...
• New hardware (towel bars, toilet paper holder, etc.)
• New window treatments
• New stool for vanity table
• New light fixture/fan
• Radiator covers? Will have to see if they'll fit.
• New tile floor

The goal is to take the 80s out of this room and restore it back to a more traditional 1930s look that's functional and updated.

As far as paint scheme, I'm thinking we want to stick to something neutral so we can change the color in the room easily with towels and accents.  Better for the resale value and gives us more flexibility.  I'm thinking a soft gray, potentially even doing a lighter shade in the front room and then something a few shades deeper in the back room.  But I'm still open to ideas.

Random plug time, I found a great site called Houzz that's been really helpful.  Tons of photos to get ideas from, and you can save the ones you like to an "idea book."  Here's one inspiration:

Traditional Bathroom design by Boston Architect Frank Shirley Architects

I like how this bathroom maintains the traditional look while feeling modern and up to date.  This is also close to the color gray I was thinking of.  I'd like to add more splashes of bright color in the accessories, though.  

I'm probably the most excited to get my hands on this room and get started.

Heading Upstairs

Moving onward and upward...

I don't have many pictures of the stairwell, probably because stairwells aren't that interesting.  But in this one you can see the weird two-tone thing going on:

Who knows why they thought that was a good idea.  At some point, we'll see about replacing the stairs that are the weird color.

I'm also planning on replacing those stair treads with something more neutral.  Brody will love having those so that he doesn't fall down the stairs any more.

At some point we may want to upgrade the railing too, though that's very low on the priority list.

This is the door on the landing that goes out to the Juliet balcony.  I may throw a window treatment on it, and we'll definitely add some potted plants out there.

My favorite thing upstairs...laundry chute!

The wall color in the stairway/upstairs hallway will be changing, though I'm still deciding what.  Definitely something neutral.  Currently it is the same color as the living room, which would be easy and provide a nice flow.

We'll also swap out that ugly brass switchplate and knob on the laundry chute.

There are three bedrooms upstairs.  First, of course, is the master bedroom:

These photos are a little dark because obviously I didn't turn the light on...it's because I'm such a fantastic photographer.

 This is looking into the room from the doorway.  It's hard to tell from the picture, but it's a very nice sized bedroom.  With wallpaper, but probably the least offensive wallpaper in the house.  Still, it must go.

Turning to the right, facing west.

 The door on the right is the closet, which isn't huge but has a nice his side/her side thing going on.  Our current closet is small so I took it over and poor Sean has almost all of his clothes in his office.  However, that will change!

Facing the other way, these windows look out over the front of the house.

Not a ton to do in this room, but we still need our list:

• Remove wallpaper (notice a pattern here?)
• Paint - picking this color will be a doozy. More on that later.
• New window treatments
• New light switch plates/outlet plates
• New ceiling fan
• Radiator cover

Beyond that, I think we're going to need more decor to fill up this room.  We have enough room that I think we could create a little reading corner with a chair.  In time...

The other two bedrooms are smaller, but not tiny.  About the same as the current house we're renting.

Bedroom #2:

Looking in from the door

 This will likely be Sean's office, as it's slightly larger than the other room.  Same basic upgrades here: paint, new ceiling fan, outlet covers, window treatments, remove popcorn ceiling, etc.

This room has some fantastic built-ins, which will be great for Sean

Bedroom #3:

Judging by the decor, I think this used to be a room for their pet dragonfly.

I'd love to get a radiator cover for this wall that would extend to each end of the wall and double as a window seat & storage.

Close up of the dragonfly motif...they're wallpaper-like decals.  Cute, but they've still got to go.

This room will probably be the guest room.  Ironically, that means we'll paint the blue room green and the green room blue, but...what can you do.

Coming up next: I've saved the best part of the upstairs for last!

Lower Level, Part 2

On to the rest of the main level...

Through the right of the entryway is our dining room:

This is the view looking towards the front wall of the house

As you can see, there are some more serious wallpaper atrocities being committed in this room.  The dining room table and chairs are not ours.  You can, however, see the beautiful new windows in this picture...we are so excited that all of the windows in this house have already been updated!  They are in fantastic shape.

They also do this funky thing where they flip open so you can clean the outside while standing inside.  Pretty neat party trick, but don't think I'm going to start cleaning windows on a regular basis.

Turning around, here's the view of the other side of the room.  You can see the living room to the left, and the kitchen/stairway to the right.

 There's a nifty swinging door between the kitchen and dining room; sort of nice if you want to keep the chaos of the kitchen hidden, though I'm thinking we'll leave it open most of the time.

From the picture above, you can see how essential it will be for us to coordinate the color palette between the living room, entryway, dining room and kitchen.  I want to do all different colors, but they'll need to work together well.  I'm thinking neutrals for the entry and living room with strong complimentary splashes of color in the dining and kitchen.  Definitely not burgundy floral wallpaper and teal.

Here's the dining room to-do list:

• Remove wallpaper
• Paint - right now I'm thinking a bolder color for the upper 2/3 of the walls, though I'm not decided on what yet
• Replace chandelier
• Replace light switch & outlet plates
• New window treatments
• I can't remember if there's popcorn on the ceiling in this room, but if there is, then we're getting rid of that

Pretty simple. We already bought our awesome Amish dining table and chairs last year, which will fit beautifully in this room.  And the crown molding is already there!  I want to see if we can makeover this room from from country to something with a more traditional style, mixed with contemporary accents.

Good thing the dining room is easy, because the kitchen will be lots of work:

This is right when you step into the kitchen, facing toward the center of the house--the doorway towards the center leads to the stairs and living room, and the door on the far left goes into the dining room.

 In this photo, the wall color doesn't look terrible.  However, it's awful in person, particularly when paired with the dark forest green counter tops:

Whose idea was it to pair teal and forest green?

Really not a good choice.  Luckily the cabinets, which are original, are in good shape and the appliances are relatively new and in good shape.

The window in the picture above looks out onto our patio courtyard.

Continuing along the counter...the television will be the first thing to go.

Continuing to circle around the room.  This is facing east; the dining room is on the right and the stairway is behind you now.

I'm intrigued by the split dishwasher--it might be kind of cool, because we can just fill up half and run it without the other half being full.  We'll see!

The door to the dining room is just to the right of this picture.

 Excited about the fridge.  Our current fridge sucks.

 I also had to include this photo of the light fixture, since you can't see it in the other photos:

See how the plastic is cracked in the corner?  This sucker will be the first thing to go.  Right after the television, that is.

Lots to do in this room, but there is SO much potential!  It's definitely the largest kitchen we've ever had, and it's a big giant square, so we could do just about anything with it.  Right now, our plan is to come up with a short-term plan and a long-term plan.  Short-term plan includes:

• Paint over teal wall with a different accent color--I'm thinking maybe yellow?  Still undecided.
• Fresh paint on cabinets (and remove the contact paper inside)
• New hardware (pulls and hinges) on cabinets (silver!)
• Remove doors on upper cabinets to display our nicer and less-used stuff
• New light fixture!
• Hopefully new counter top & sink, budget pending
• Add center island for additional counter and storage space, possibly something mobile with wheels
• Find buffet or other similar furniture piece for far wall for additional storage
• Upgrade cabinet interiors to include slide-out drawers for pots & pans
• New window treatments

The mid-range plan would be to replace the laminate floor with tile and upgrade the appliances (stainless steel) in the next few years, budget allowing.

Then, long-term, if we did end up staying in the house for a while (at this point, who knows), we could gut the kitchen and do a total reno.  We don't have the cash for that yet, but I think we can do a small scale makeover on this space and make it feel like a whole new kitchen.  

Next up...upstairs!

Lower Level, Part 1

Next up: the entryway.  I think the entryway might win the prize for being the most hideously decorated part of the house.  However...we will change that.

This is standing just outside our front door, looking into the house.  Where do I even start?

Hmm...here we go:

• Remove ugly wallpaper
• Replace ugly tile floor
• Remove ugly popcorn ceilings
• New light fixture
• Paint--I'm still deciding on color, but probably something neutral on the walls and freshen up the white on the trim
• Perhaps change out handle on door (lots of brass in this house, and I prefer silver accents)
• Quick spiff-up of the front hall closet, which is through that white door you see.  It's already in pretty good shape, so we might just give it a fresh coat of paint and some new hooks. (Ignore the sign telling people to take their shoes off when they tour the house!)
• Decor--I'm thinking hooks near the doorway and perhaps some small artwork.  There's not a lot of wall space in the entryway.  You can see the arch to the right which leads to the dining room, and then there's an identical arch to the left leading to the living room.  So we probably won't need to do much in the way of adding furniture--I think just removing the ugly from this room will be enough.

If you hadn't had enough, here's a closer view of the hideous floor and wallpaper:

Who chooses that?!?!

I cannot WAIT to get that space updated.  That tile is on the list of things that have to get changed ASAP.

Here's the view through the entryway, standing in the living room (with a sneak peek of the dining room):

Hideous wallpaper on hideous wallpaper!

I love the way the arches echo each other and I think it could be really spectacular if it wasn't for the HIDEOUS WALLPAPER!

Next up: the living room:

Thank God...no wallpaper.

This room actually isn't so bad.  At some point the owners must have had a moment of clarity and decided not to wallpaper the living room.  The color is off on this picture a little; the walls are taupe but are a little less yellow and more gray than this.  Not our choice, but livable for the time being--though I'm sure we'll paint it soon.

Gas fireplace and those awesome brass outlet plates...oops, did I say awesome again?

We're still figuring out what to do with the fireplace; the home inspector said don't use it.  It's not a gas insert, but some sort of other gas thing that they used to do back in the 70s and isn't really safe any more.  We may just put the TV in front of it until we can afford to upgrade to a gas insert.  I actually like the painted white brick--am I weird?  It's better than hideous dark brick, and I'm guessing that's what they covered up.  At least it's neutral.

Slightly different view of fireplace and north end of room, and better representation of the wall color.

The french doors above open out onto the patio I talked about in my last post.  Once that's filled up with flowers and plants, it'll be such a pretty, colorful oasis to look out at!

Final view, looking towards the stairway.  You can't see it in this picture, but you can get to the kitchen from the landing.

There is a weird two-tone thing going on with the stairs (all of the hardwood floors are blond, except for the stairs which are a darker red).  But we could fix that down the line.

The living room should actually be pretty easy.  Here's what we're planning on:

• Remove popcorn ceilings
• Paint--undecided on color yet
• Replace brass light switch plates & outlet plates
• New ceiling fan/lighting fixture
• Radiator covers (I like these but we'll need to price them out...)
• New window treatments
• Eventually add crown molding

The rest is all decor, and that will be the biggest challenge.  This is by far the largest living room we've ever had.  I'm thinking a sectional or L-shaped sofa, plus some sort of stuffed armchair to put near the french doors for reading and knitting. Lots of bookshelves, of course.  We'll spend a lot of time in this room, so I want something cozy and comfortable but still nice enough to host an informal party.  

Coming up next: the dining room and kitchen!

An Outside Tour

Welcome family and friends!  I thought this would be an interesting way to show everyone our new project and keep our circle posted as we work our way through renovations.  

I think most people already know the story of how we got to here, so maybe I'll save those details for another blog post at another time.  The short story is that we are, after many trials and tribulations, finally buying a house in a small town in southern Minnesota, just a few minutes from the college where I teach.

It took a lot of looking and a few false steps to find something that we both felt really good about. The surprising thing (I think to both of us) is that this house is nowhere near perfect!  However, it has a lot of the good things we wanted: traditional charm and character, good layout/size, and good location .  We even got a couple of bonuses (like a two car garage--woohoo!) and a partially finished basement, though there are a few sacrifices we'll have to make (the back yard isn't ideal, but we can work with it, and our second bathroom is in the basement, which seems to be a pretty common thing here--but at least we have a second bathroom).

The biggest problem with the house is that it desperately needs an update from its tired, 1980s decor (it was built in 1935 but clearly underwent some sort of bad redecoration a few decades back).  This is exactly what I've been looking for--a cosmetic fixer upper!  The bones of the house are great, but it needs wallpaper removal, paint, and some new fixtures to turn it into a totally new house. The best part is that its been on the market for a while and the price had been dropped significantly, so we got it for a steal and we'll be able to put some money into fixing it up in our style.

I've got too many pictures to post all at once, so I'll just work my way through the house one post at a time.  Today: the outside:

The front of the house.  I find this somewhat amusing because this house is similar in look to the house I grew up in.  Not intentional!

Looking west down our street--I love all the green!  Lots of mature trees in the neighborhood, which was a must-have for us.

This is the view across the street--our neighbors have a huge yard!  More green!

One of the things we love about this house is that it's in a great neighborhood, and most of the other houses around it are larger, nicer, and more expensive.  So, we're looking forward to bringing our house up to their level!

You can't see it in that last photo, but if you continued down that street a little ways, there's a lovely park with a pond (lots of baby geese), bandshell, biking trails, and even a dog park!  It's a really beautiful area of town.

The front entryway

This is a peek at the front of the house, and a preview of what's to come (hideous wallpaper inside the entryway--more on that later).  Here's our plan to spruce up the entryway:

• Fresh paint on pillars/overhang
• New lighting fixture and mailbox
• New house numbers
• Potted plants on front stoop
• Repaint the front door?  Still deciding on that one. 

This is the view looking down the east side of the house.  The car you see parked is in our driveway, in front of our garage.

Here you can see the garage entrance and the little enclosed patio between the house and the garage.

The layout is sort of funky (why did they build the garage so close to the house and not at the back of the lot?), but I see it as a great opportunity to create an outdoor room in this adorable little patio we have right off the back of the house.  The pictures don't show much, and it's pretty much a blank slate right now, but believe me--I have a vision in my head!

Here's the view once you've stepped inside the patio.

That's our living room to the left, and the entrance to the garage is to the right.  The garage isn't attached, but it's a quick easy walk to our back door--that'll be nice in winter!  You can see there's already a great big vine growing on the trellis--I gotta figure out what that is...

If you turn around 180 degrees, this is the rest of the patio.

Again, total blank slate right now--but so much potential.

If you look up from where you're standing in that last photo, here's the "Romeo & Juliet" balcony!

Our home inspector told us that this balcony isn't very structurally sound (he was basically like, "You can stand on it, but I wouldn't jump up and down") but that's ok.  It's the perfect size for a few potted plants, and to step outside and test the weather when getting ready in the morning (the door is off of the landing near the bathroom/upstairs hallway).

Plans for this patio area include:

• Power wash balcony & fresh coat of paint
• Clean out patio floor (it needs a good sweep)
• Add lots of potted plants
• Add vine to east trellis, so that will be covered in green
• Fresh coat of paint on gate
• Add love seat, small dining table & chairs, and hopefully soon a grill!
• Decorate with lanterns & string lights (I found these but OUCH on the price!  Then I found these for a fraction of the price--thank you, Target!)

We do also have a small yard area behind the garage, which is nice since it's off the street and it's quiet.

Looking from the driveway towards the yard

Opposite view, yard towards garage

This is actually in pretty decent shape, but we'll do some landscaping improvements next summer, potentially to include:

• Finish fencing yard fully so that Brody can hang out unattended--the one strip by the driveway that you can see in the above picture is the only part that isn't already fenced, so it would be easy to do
• Remove dead plants, perhaps add some taller bushes along back fence for privacy
• Fix up patio and add seating--there's a nice mature tree there, so it would be a great shady place to read a book.

So there's the outside tour.  Next stop: the inside and some awesome wallpaper.  Did I say awesome?  I meant completely hideous.