"The Bad and The Ugly" House Photos

Don't get me wrong, I think it's incredibly sweet when folks write and tell me that my home is so lovely and pretty. But at the same time, I kind of shudder at the thought because, you see, it's not. Our completed projects like the red cabinets and the new windows and french doors in the kitchen, the painted living room and...(*gulp* I think that's it so far!), did turn out nicely and I'm really happy with the results, but I'm truly not joking when I say this place is a "glorified shack" and not very easy on the eyes (or my emotional well-being!). I have to work really hard at not getting extremely depressed here and let's face it - sometimes despite my best efforts, I'm ready to throw in the towel and move. Not that we could actually ever sell the place in it's current state. There is so, so, SO much left to do and with hubs being a busy manager at his company and with our life outside renovating, things get done around here very slowly. I know *now* that when we start anything around here, no matter how small of a project, it will literally take weeks, if not months, to complete. That's our reality, lol, and I'm trying to deal with it as best as I can. Some days I just hate this place and other days I'm thankful to have dry place to lay my head at night.

So moving on...thank you to all who have complimented my home in the past and I'm really sorry that I'm about to majorly disappoint you with these photos, lol. I can say, though, that I truly believe that their is potential in anything - from people to neighborhoods to houses. What I do have going for me is that I can *see* what the house is going to look like when finished. My frustration stems from not being able to bring my visions to fruition say...yesterday! I'm tired of the dirt and dust and ugliness. I'm tired of packing away all my thrifty Goodwill finds until I can use them. I'm tired of the gutted bathroom and looking at studs around every corner. I want a completed house so that I can...bake or sew or something fun!!! (Patting myself on the back while saying, "Patience, my dear...Patience!")

Ok, this first photo is from our storage/sunroom. It's basically a porch with lots of sliding doors. This is where we keep our computer and I freeze my booty off in the winter and sweat like a pig in the summer. What you are seeing is water damage caused by heavy rain the first week we moved into the house. The previous owner gave us $4000 to fix the roof, but wouldn't you know, the central heat and air stopped working the day after we moved in, so we used the "roof money" to replace the heat and air unit. We had to wait a few months to fix the roof, but fortunately, this was the only spot in the house that sustained damage. See all those cobwebs. I know, I know. The ceilings in here are very tall and I haven't yet been motivated to drag the ladder in to clean.


Here you can get a glimpse of how high the ceilings are. There use to be skylights up there but we opted to have them removed because they were improperly installed and not that attractive. When we get around to this room, we'll have to redo the ceiling completely. There are beadboard panels up there right now. I think this would make a great little craft studio, personally. Lots of light in here! See, there's me being positive about an icky room...Yay, me!



This is the threshold between the kitchen and the sunroom stoop/steps. Gotta love that old lino and berber combination. This will all be seamless hardwood when we do the kitchen floor.


*Sigh* This is the lovely threshold between the kitchen and the living room. There use to be berber in the living room, but we pulled it all up and sealed the plywood up with paint until we install the flooring. Can you imagine all the dust that would settle into carpet during a whole house renovation?


"My, ain't it purdy!" *sniff* The contrast between the green primer on the kitchen walls and the yellow living room walls is atrocious in this shot. We'll be adding beadboard halfway up in the kitchen, dining, hallway, AND living room for a more cohesive look. I didn't think I would add it to the living room, too, but I think I've changed my mind.


When you walk into our front door, this is what you see. I find myself apologizing profusely to every soul that comes in. "We're renovating! Excuse the mess!" Those rugs are such a pain and are very unsightly, but they look a little better than the bare white floors that seem to attract dirt like a magnet.


No shiny white pristine baseboards in this house. No baseboards at all!


Here is the entryway. There is no door trim in our house either, lol. We will be removing the coat closet completely and building a built in shelving unit/desk in it's place. The popcorn ceiling will be replaced with the same ceiling treatment in our kitchen, pine planks painted white.


I hate hollow doors.


This is the tile in our entryway. It's the very same tile that was on our fireplace surround. These tiles will go when we put down hardwood.


Oh, yeah...a little glimpse into the kinds of messes we make around here. Messes like this, even after cleaned up, create messes like....


THIS! See all the dust on the ceiling fan and the popcorn ceiling in the living room? I can hear every tidy housewife across the globe gasping collectively right now. I know. I have to bring in the big (12 foot) ladder to clean it all. The 6-footer only gets me so far. This is another reason why I hate popcorn ceilings. They will be replaced with pine planks just like the kitchen, and a new beam will be installed. We took down the old beam when we mudded the living room walls.


From the living room, you get a great view of our currently very scary hallway. It's so dark and depressing. Hopefully, though, the changes we make to it will be very dramatic. We'll be raising the ceiling from 7 feet to 8 feet high and installing pine planks (once again, down with the popcorn!), replacing the ugly light fixture, installing solid pine six panel doors, adding white beadboard halfway up, and painting the wall above the beadboard the same shade of cheery yellow that we have in the living room. And of course, we'll be putting down our flooring in the hallway, too.


This is the bathroom door. We moved it down the hall about 18 inches to create a nook in the bathroom for the toilet. We put off doing the drywall work until we officially get around to working on the hallway ceiling and walls.


The right side of the bathroom door...The electrical junction box use to be here but hubs moved it to the laundry room. It looks much better hidden, but the hole it left in the hallway wall is quite unattractive right now.


A shot to show you just how low the ceiling is in our cave-of-a-hallway. Hopefully raising it a foot will make a huge difference in how the hall feels.


Hubs is going to love me for posting this photo, hehe. But I was trying to capture what our dining room normally looks like (and provide proof that we really do work on the place!). Piles of renovation material everywhere...Hubs was working on walling up the doorway between the dining room and laundry room.


Just another shot to show how we don't have any trim. It's very unpleasant to see. Kind of like looking at someone without eyebrows.


Well, that's all I've photographed though I assure you that there are many more ugly parts to our home. Don't forget that our bathroom is gutted and we haven't even touched the bedrooms yet. I don't think the girls' temporary bedroom makeover counts because it was just make-do-for-overnight-guests-till-we-get-around-to-doing-it-right. Oh, and then there's the exterior....OH, the exterior! I don't even want to think about it.

I hope that in some twisted way,LOL, you've enjoyed these. I will enjoy looking at them, too, *after* our projects are completed and we can do a before and after comparison. Thanks so much for joining us on this crazy journey we call home renovation!

May 2008 UPDATE: Yes, ever so slowly, things are improving here in our little home sweet home:) Here are a few "progress" photos that were taken of our kitchen, living room, and hallway since this post was originally written. Maybe there is hope yet?