Once Upon A Time I watched WAY to much DIY...

Once upon a time, I watched way to much DIY and HGTV.  About the same time we decided to put our first home on the market.  Then, I/we got the silly idea to buy a fixer.  After finding a house with good bones, we decided to make an offer.  We moved in and went to town.  On the first day we started knocking down walls and before we knew it we had the whole first floor demolished.  Whoops, we were a little over zealous.  Now, the challenge of putting it back together!!  Well that took a lot longer then taking it apart.  :-)  At times, I thought we had bit off more then we could chew.  Life is busy raising two smalll kids, let alone raising two small kids and renovating a home.  But my husband and I,  we love a good challenge!

                                                           But we did go from this....

To This!!

 This is the same position as the first before photo.  This wall came down about 30 minutes after signing the closing papers and getting the keys.  After we took the wall down, we had all the popcorn ceilings removed.  As well as canned lighting put throughout the entire home, which totally updated it.  We removed the pink carpet and installed a engineered bamboo flooring throughout the main level, aside from the bedrooms were we added me frieze carpet.

In the kitchen, we took the walls down to open it up and create a great room.  The kitchen got new appliances, a full back splash,  Corian counter tops, a new silgranit sink (it is a Blanco, and I am in love with it!!!  My new house has the same sink)  We painted the cabinets a white color and applied a chocolate glaze, and put hardware on them. We also installed an island with a deep brown stain (this came from Lowes), and hung two beautiful quoizel pendants above it.  These lights are gorgeous! 

The whole house got four inch interior trim, and white six panel doors with oil rubbed handles. 

We changed the gold fire place insert to black. 

In the bathrooms we installed tile, and framed out the mirrors. As well as installed oil rubbed fixtures.

Master bath: Received a new tile shower and a seamless, taller shower door.

Here is the exterior before and after.  We painted the outside, including the lower brick. We added new exterior light fixtures and a new front door.  I am also a huge fan of this door,  it came from home depot.  We took down the fence and removed a lot of the bushes to make a flagstone walkway up to the house. Our after shot is a little bleak because it was winter. 

We lived in the house for two years, and had our third child all while putting the house back together.  The day the house was finished, we got a for sale sign and sold it in less then a week.  Our hard work paid off!! I do feel as though I learned a ton about remodeling and DIY during those two years! 

From this house we moved into new construction.  I will share photos of our new home soon!

This has been a nice trip down memory lane.  While we were living in it everything was such a whirlwind!

Thanks for letting me share,
Shannon

I linked up to http://todayscreativeblog.net/
http://www.myuncommonsliceofsuburbia.com/
http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/
http://www.atthepicketfence.com/
http://www.remodelaholic.com/2012/01/quote-printable-and-ra-105/