The girls bathroom--before and after

Living room--before and after pics

Even though the kitchen is the big wow (and the biggest money stealer)--the living room will always hold a special place in our hearts.  When we first saw it, it was "the room," everyone had an emotional reaction to. It was our wow. 

Even with the terribly bad attempt at built ins, complete with piano hinge doors, half done electrical, and a fireplace hidden unsafely between wood on all sides, we loved it :)

One step towards the window, however, sent most of the contractors running.  It seemed water had been running poorly down the side of the house, off of the driveway, and anywhere else it wanted to (for years) and the floor was all soft and rotten. You could tell an attempt to fix it had happened at one point, but the real issue was in the wall.

After the carpet came up and the wall came down, we had a better idea of what we were dealing with.

Again, I figured since we were at it, why not take out the built-ins too.  I'll never forget it, that first day during demo, Eric and I had ran out to look at granite and my mom texted me a photo of the fireplace.  I asked her what that was, and she replied "your fireplace!!"  uh--ok, so behind those bookshelves was this super cool feature someone covered up.  Sure.

We had trials and headaches trying to make the fireplace into something cool and custom, but with some help, we got it done.  Rob at Specialty Gas was even so excited about the project that he made the faceplate at home in his shop, just to make sure it was exactly the piece that would be perfect in our home.

Also, I knew I wanted a mantle (for stockings) but a traditional mantle wouldn't work--so we got creative.  We used some of the salvaged 12x's from the wall and floor and had our contractor repurpose them. 

We even left the hand-forged nails in the edges and they make THE PERFECT stocking hangers! I absolutely love them.

So all in all, we had to patch some of the floor, which wasn't a big deal since we had to match floors in the kitchen too, figure out the fireplace and mantle, completely reframe and build the wall, take all the crown down and put it back up again (since it didn't match by the built-ins) and then decorate. 

It took probably the longest of all the jobs, just because of all the moving parts and scared contractors, but it is THE COZIEST room ever. 

 I love that we kept the wood chute door and it's filled with our logs--even though we ran a propane line in there, much easier and cleaner with the little ones around.  This is taken from the front entryway--I'm thinking I need another photo to help with perspective here :)

(view from the parlor/ playroom)

(coming around the corner from the dining room)

(view from near the stairs back towards the front porch, parlor on the left)

The parlor/ playroom--before and after

The parlor started out as a big, open, square room.  Very neat, but not a lot of character and not sure exactly what purpose it would serve for us.

You could tell it was "the formal room" with what was left of the curtains, the wallpaper, and the VERY PLUSH, cream colored carpeting.

They wallpapered the ENTIRE room, including this little closet in the corner--we weren't sure if they were trying to make it secret--and we thought about making it TRULY secret with a bookcase at one point, but decided a hallway to the dining room would be much better.

So the wallpaper had to go--and mom likes to tear off wallpaper, haha.

So Garhett helped too, then he decided he wanted to take the curtains down--we did save the cornice frame in case we want to do something with it later though.

And Kalvin was helpful with the taller spots--all of our legs got tired doing all that work on the ladders!  Those 10 foot plus ceilings are killer!

Cora had fun playing in all the paper scraps.  There wasn't much to be done structurally, especially at first, but it all had to be cleaned up anyway.

There was wallpaper ALL over the first floor, so we all got plenty of time with that--especially my dad.  I know he spent a whole week or more at one point.

The last shot of the closet, sans door, before it was turned into the hallway/ pass through.

After the carpeting was gone, the floors were refinished and boy did it ever change that room dramatically!

The walls were painted a deep grey, all the trim got a fresh coat too--and then we started to load in the play room.  Oy.

 

Amara was a lot of help...telling us where to put things, haha, especially once her built-ins were in, and painted.  It added such a nice anchor to the room.

It really grounded those front corners, flanking the big window in the front.  For now it's for toys, puzzles, books, etc. but we're hoping as it grows up, that those built ins will house photos, trophies, and games too.

We also had the can lighting put in--not very common of houses built in the 1920s, but with those huge ceilings and walls, it really needed it. It would have been impossible to have floor lighting or even ceiling lighting in there that would have done it justice.

Again, we used all of our existing stuff, just moved it around a lot.  Believe it or not, we used it as an opportunity to downsize some of the toys! 

I love this photo--this is taken from the vantage point of the closet (now pass through) so you can see how large it is and how now it looks right into the living room.  The kids absolutely love playing in there and it allows us all to be together.  I realize some people wouldn't want a toy room as a main room in their house, but I kind of love it.

 

Downstairs full bath--before and after

The downstairs bath, as odd as it first seemed, was a nice feature.  Having a full tub, shower, etc. right there seemed good for a lot of reasons, but it would NOT work as it was.  It had sad carpet (ew), floral wallpaper, and a soffit over the tub, making it Closter phobic in there!

Not to mention the tub was only a 5 footer (believe it or not) which made it tough to get both girls in there, or a normal grown adult for that time.

We didn't include it in our normal plan, we were just going to rip out the carpeting and do it along the way, but once we got started, we saw it would be so much easier to just do it now, so we did.

Just like much else, had to take it down to the studs--in this case to allow for a new longer tub, vs. the smaller one that was in there (and removing the soffit).  All that stayed were the tiny built in little locker style closets.

The contractor, Gary, was up in the access panel running electric when he noticed there was actually a 2nd ceiling--and that we could take out another foot if we wanted, but they were too far along, so we passed.

Gross.

Stripping that wallpaper was bad.  They hadn't prepped the walls, so between that and the paper being cheap and just the whole space in general, all of the walls had to be skim coated.

We weren't going for granite and a steam shower, but it's clean and nice and the girls quite like it.  The tile has a linen finish in a running bond pattern.  The full shower/bath gives us the option to have one girl in each bath--which we appreciate now and I'm sure they will in just a few short years.

We reused our art and rescued this sweet ladder from a local shop that was closing--it fits perfectly!

We kept the vanity, just cleaned it up and gave it a new Fawcett.  The walls are a very soft greenish grey that Melissa tells me is very close to the color Restoration Hardware uses--I'll have to go check that out.

We did put in a new med cabinet and sconces just to make it easier.  The old openings were quite small and it was easier to reframe and run the electric while it was torn up.

This bath gets used a LOT like I said--so I'm glad we have it and even more glad that we updated it now instead of waiting!

Dining room--before and after

The dining room may not be a "room," exactly, but it's a super cool area I've grown to love.  For the longest time, after we had demo'd it--it held our kitchen appliances and was a fun hiding spot for the girls.

When we first saw it, with all its green carpet and floral wallpaper glory, I seriously thought there was nothing I would keep--

BUT, it has this chandelier and light sconces--I was CONVINCED they had to be plastic and would toss them and find some cool modern thing, but go and figure, it just seemed plastic b/c it was covered in years of muck--what exactly, I have no idea.

My mom literally spent several days cleaning each and every crystal on the darn things with krud kutter, and now it is amazing--I could not believe it that day when I walked in.

The whole area was just so overwhelming and tacky I couldn't handle it...but we lived with it and especially after we punched a hole in the wall that let in the light and energy from the parlor/playroom, the feeling changed entirely. 

There was also no banister (apparently not 'code' at whatever time the last update/inspection (if ever) was done...but we had to add one, according to the terms of our renovation mortgage (and now I like that too).

Here you can see the condition of the old floors and the new next to each other. Believe it or not, most of that brownish is just dirt.  The guys who refinished the floors were certain they had never been done before, but were in fact original.

Once we started moving the appliances into the kitchen, we started thinking about the vision for the room.

And this is what we ended up with!  Eric and I also found a really neat graphic wallpaper that coordinates well with the kitchen, and partner that with some of our existing pieces, and now it's warm and inviting and sort romantic in a way too--even though it's a glorified hallway, and we pass through it a zillion times a day.

The double doors lead outside to the covered (awning) patio--where we lived and ate during most of the renovations in summer/fall.  My favorite work from home space for months!  The hallway/ pass through was just a wall before, but backed up to a virtually unusable closet on the other side, so we punched right through it, creating a really need nook for charging all our electronics.

View from the hallway, passing into the kitchen.

And from the far corner looking into the kitchen again.

And back towards the living room.  It's simple, yet kind of dressy and is just a really neat space.  I can see the kids doing homework there, working on projects, or even stacking up tons of cookies like we did this weekend!