Home Renovation: The Grand [BEFORE] Tour

Welcome to our new home renovation project! This is our first home purchase EVER so needless to say we are very excited, but also a little nervous because we have no idea what we are getting ourselves into.

Our plan is to renovate the house, pretty much from top to bottom. Since we will be living in the home, and both have full-time jobs, our time to renovate will be limited so we expect the project will be more of a slow burn. It is livable as-is, but it’s begging for some serious cosmetic updates!

Check out the details and photos below.

We love the color of this house! While it has just recently been painted, they were pretty sloppy in their work so that’s something we will need to address eventually with some minor touch-ups. I’m also hoping we can get the front door back to it’s original wood instead of the brown paint that’s currently on there. If you look closely, you can see a unique lion carving on the front door!

This is what you see when you walk in the front door…lots of light and space that we don’t exactly know what to do with. It’s sort of a living room, but as you can see, the real living room is up the step with the fireplace. We’re considering connecting the kitchen to this room and creating a built-in dining area.

Enter living room number two! I LOVE this room. While it’s outdated, it has so much potential. I plan to spend every evening this winter sitting by the fire, drinking wine, and writing to you all about our home adventures 🙂

Ah, the master bedroom. The french doors leading into this room hooked me the first time we saw it, and I fall in love each and every time I walk through them. Right now, there is a walk-in closet and a small bathroom, but we plan to make the closet smaller to allow for a larger bathroom.

The kitchen…the most exciting part of this whole house because no matter what we do, we can’t make it worse! It has lots of potential, but also lots of clashing surfaces and styles going on — those need to go. There’s a brick chimney hiding behind the yellow brick road in the left corner, and I don’t think I can free it fast enough.

P.S. There are original hardwood underneath ALL of the floors that they have covered up with linoleum and cheap wood. We can’t wait to uncover those gems!

Wow, there is a lot going on here. This bathroom needs some major work, but we plan to keep all the plumbing in the same place, so it should be mostly cosmetic which will make our job a little easier. We aren’t quite sure what the room is supposed to be that connects the kitchen to the bathroom, but we hope to make this the laundry room.

I see a fire pit in my future…lots of nights will be spent sitting out here, enjoying the space and the room for Winston to run.

Well, that’s it! At least for the main floor. There’s a full basement apartment with almost as much space, but we will save that tour for another day. Overall, this place has lots of potential and charm, but it’s going to be a huge undertaking. We can’t wait to see how everything turns out!