Many of you know - as I have posted about it for the past year or so that we have been renovating our home. After the multitude of storms in 2004 & 2005, our house became a wee bit shabby - ok ok, a lot shabby. It was as if the house aged 10 years in those two. We also found out that our termite company was not properly treating our house for 7 years and we were infested. SO many factors came into play when we decided just to go for it and get it *refreshed*

We have done a lot of work on the interior as well as the exterior. Some of the work is :

renovation of the main & master bath (master still has a bit of work to go)
all new windows
new sliding glass door
new garage door
new carpeting (thanks Jackie!!)
painted kitchen cabinets (thank you stina!!)
new appliances
new exterior (removal of stone facade & wood to all stucco)
light landscaping
tree thinning out (some brazilian creeper thing on it?)

TO DO left:
kitchen countertops & tile backsplash
fence
master bath tile & tub

some pictures as its just not all finished yet. phew! its been exhausting!

(please don't laugh at my ooogly house - i love it dearly even though it was a shack! )

BEFORE:


AFTER:




OOOGLY kitchen when I first moved in eeeeek!


1/2 of the kitchen afterward


Main bath (which I have posted before) eeeeek!


After





Phew!

looks very nice
i'm guessing the before pic of the yard was in summer?

Beauteous!!!

I want my shower like that. Can I come take a shower at your place?

Looking fabulous, LaL! I'm currently undergoing renovation myself for our home (as you know!) and can't wait for the day when I can say "it's done!". That's going to be years down the line; could have gone to prison for less!

Seriously, looking good, girlie!

BEAUTIFUL!! When's the party? lol

Thanks! It was not an easy task to coordinate all the contractors, etc. Most didnt show up!

Charles - that before picture was taken just after winter. That's when we have our dry spell. It turned all green a few months later.

Mags - I don't envy you and your project! I nearly tore my hair out just doing this simple refresh!

I love the colour of the kitchen cabinets btw. Oh and if you're ever in Indiana was you may get roped in to help. Run, hide whilst you can!

wow.... great job! I really like the way your exterior looks... and the curb appeal! The bathroom and kitchen look great too!

All we did this year was to replace all our windows... I think it was a total of 58 windows in all (including garage and basement). But we had a contractor do that. Now that we have done the windows, I'll sit hubby down and go over our other projects and put them in order of priority (and maybe give ourselves a kick in the behind to get things started!).

Right on All we have left is the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom. I hope to get that going within the next two years.

Oooh La La! Lovely!

great improvements!!! your hard work is really paying off! i can't wait to someday do the same. i love watching renovation and decorating shows on HGTV!

Got you a housewarming present! The house looks WONDERFUL

thanks all ... i am realy pleased with how our little started home came out. we plan on moving, but we wanted to have it in sellable condition and also wanted to enjoy it ourselves for awhile

eau - 58 windows i cannot imagine. we only have 5 and it cost an arm & a leg!!

Looking Good

wow looks so nice... And I too watch HGTV. I get alot of ideas from the shows. I came to a stop still, on my house till my hubby gets here to help. but God only knows when that will be.

Wow that looks great !!! You guys did a fantastic job -- enjoy for now, and enjoy again when it comes time to sell !



-MK

Absolutely beautiful! Do not discount your home, you have made it fabulous!

Boy do I understand your pain on this. We decided in April to remodel our Master bedroom/Bathroom. It was pink, and I just can't handle pink unless it is a baby's room. The 8 foot countertop, and walls were all tiled in white and pink, with pink wallpaper any where there wasn't tile. The carpet was also pink, and was in both the bedroom and bath. There was no shower in the entire house. We tore off all of the tiles, wallpaper and carpet. The walls didn't fare so well so we had to redo the sheetrock and texturing. The bathroom is huge so we built in a separate shower. We have retiled the entire bathroom, changed the bedroom carpet, and so far it is way beyond what I imagined.....as well as the cost...lol

We did all of the work ourselves (nice way to break in my poor husband) with the exception of the framing of the shower and the plumbing. Due to this, after 6 months it still isn't done, and its getting pretty chilly trying to cut tiles outside in 50 degree weather! Its a lot of work, but there is nothing like taking what was mine and making it ours.

Oh wow! What an undertaking. We did change the bath into a large shower, probably should have left the main as a bathtub, but for now, its still my house!

The biggest headache I had was the cabinets. They were a huge pain to paint. I wish we had the additional budget to purchase new, but there are just more important thing to take care of.

I hear you on the *making it ours*. This all makes my husband feel as though *my* house is now *our* house which is an awesome bonus of the whole project.

i do hope you replaced the mixing valves on the shower/tub while you were at it. it's a major pain to replace one otherwise, i did that about a month ago

Yeah, 58. Our county decided to up the value of our property even though we had not done any major renovations on it. Since we were going to be taxed based on that higher value anyway, we decided to re-finance and use the extra money to replace the windows. They were still the original windows (1956 house) and were drafty. Replacing all of them at once has certainly helped our power bill. Can't wait to see what effect it would have on our heating bill this winter!

don't you also get a tax break on the federal taxes for that too?

Your home is coming along very nicely! Everything looks so pretty and new. I LOVE the shower!!!

Did I hear tile backsplash? I know someone that designs awesome backsplashes

Jackie

I think the house looks great!

Looks great Laura!!!

That's really nice!

what a cute house! You really did a great job updating it! I am impressed!!!!!

Nice job there I like that stainless steel - but painting cabinets ... ouch. I hate refinishing cabinets, it sucks. Crowbar + sledgehammer remodeling for me, thank you very much. New cabinets = the lazy way. Heh. ( well, more fun involved - smashing all the stuff you don't like about your house is fun! Well, as long as it's during a renovation that is )

What stinks about what we did here - we've got a real old house (1898 - That's New England for ya! ) it's still got some old cast-iron pipes ... ugh. One of them died - er, partially died and leaked all over the place. A whole wall rotted out.. but worst of all, it killed the newly installed kitchen sink counter. All waterlogged and dead.

Doh!

( So the lesson for today: check your pipes! )

Laura---you guys did a fantastic job! I love that shower too, just like everyone else . We're doing renovations too but nowhere near done.





Oh yeah...same thing happened to us but thankfully happened BEFORE we started renovating...our house was built in 1889 and still had plaster on the walls in that part of the house not anymore.......lol

That we do! A whopping $600 that we can deduct from our taxable income.

YAY New England houses! *cries* I miss that so much. My little bungalow is shaping up, but will never replace what I feel is a *real* home as they have in CT. I guess I will have to take a trip up to see my family sometime soon. I missed the fall though, so maybe next year

/sigh *real* colonials....

Wow - Eau - $600 ... well, it does help! but darn, that might not even cover ONE window cost!

Well, if you came right now I will tell you your hometown is the brightest and most gorgeous I've seen! VT and northwestern MA had no color in comparison. If you want I can send you some lovely photos I took in the cemetery next to the fairgrounds!

And if you come visit you'll have to stop by and say hi

you are gettin me all nostalgic . For those who don't know, me & Sparrow are file twins! She lives in my hometown (tiny tiny tiny) and we both have Egyptian SO's! I miss the aura of the northeast so much.

me too!!! i love that style so oooo much!

You did a wonderful job in your renovations! Looks absolutely great!

I understand what you are totally going thru. My husband and I totally remodeled our whole house inside and out with new windows , vinyl siding, and carpets. We totally gutted the kitchen and bathroom. We have worked on it for over a year and are almost done. It truely has been a labor of love but it is indeed special as we did all of the work ourselves in making it "our" home. We had a lot of fun picking out colors and new things for the house.

It is a wonderful feeling! You truely did a great job!