Remodeling Guy Roundup!

I decided I'd go ahead and post about the home remodel for the 2009 Spring Remodeling Guy Round-up - I know some other folks had asked about the work that we did on our house, so I figured we could do both with one post. This was an old project, though, so I'm not sure if it meets his qualifications for the roundup - but if it's ineligible for The Spiffy Prizes, well, that's okay. We still got to show off our work.

Below are some before and after pictures of the remodel of our house. It was a HUD foreclosure (this was several years ago, by the way), so it needed a fair bit of work - replacing plumbing, some drywall, all appliances, new roof, etc. It was quite a project, and we were all relieved when it was done - especially my father-in-law (his back is visible in one of the shots), who worked himself into pneumonia during the remodel. We all survived, though!

First, the outside. Mostly cleanup, but from this angle, you can see the small side porch that was closed in for the master bath (with the old exterior doorway becoming the master bath entrance, and the door itself being reused as the new door into the bedroom from the rest of the house). Otherwise, outside was mostly cleanup. The roof work was the only thing we contracted out; the remainder was done by family and friends. And that ivy? It's all over that side of the yard now. Makes the hubby happy; less mowing!

That side porch area, now - before and after. You'll (probably) be happy to hear that the ever-so-lovely skirting has since completely been replaced by hardiboard siding. I wish we had more pictures of the creation of that master bath from inside; we borrowed space from the den (the leg of a really awkward "L", which became the shower) and the existing hallway bathroom (which was long and narrow, so it could give up some of that space) to help form the room.

This is a shot with my cell phone of the niche left above the "borrowed" area from the den. The floor of the niche is reinforced (plywood); if the kiddos manage to get up there, we didn't want them to end up putting their leg through drywall and into the ceiling of the shower.

Mantel area - Glass in the door needed to be replaced, and with the thought of children soon, we wanted that gas heater out (though we certainly weren't just going to discard it). The mantel is just screwed against the wall. After - Dining room visible through the french doors. The gas heater is gone (still have it, in the garage), line capped. Had to cut through the floor to do it, so now a matching tiled hearth to replace the removed floorboards (which we used to patch other parts of the floor in that room). Tapestry over a bit of foam board in the middle of the new tile "firebox" surround; that tile is on plywood (which the board is mounted to as well).

Living room - Rather plain, but no serious issues in this view (and as dark as it is, it's hard to see that the floors need to be refinished, but they did). After, floor refinished, walls repainted. The furniture has since been rearranged, and pictures moved around a bit. FYI - the only new "furnishings" in the house are cabinets, appliances, lighting and (some) plumbing fixtures. For the remainder, we are at least the second owners (mostly through garage sales). It's reusing/going green now. Then, it was just being cheap frugal.

Dining room - Kitchen visible through the bar type window. This room wasn't bad, just needed to be furnished and repainted. After - the only rug in the whole house. Furniture was on sale at an antique store.

Kitchen - I have no idea what the deal is with the missing cabinet doors. Looks like partially installed new upper cabinets with older lowers, but hard to say. After - New cabinets, sink (there was none!), plumbing. New color also. I can't stand bright yellow. I am considering repainting to match a deeper color from the tile, but not sure right now. The old cabinets, by the way, are now installed in the garage. No sense wasting them!

Detail of the kitchen counter - Wood counters, tile insets - edge of sink just visible. One of the colors from that narrow tile would be what I'd consider. That tile, incidentally, was also supposed to border the backsplash, but between the time we decided on that and the time we purchased, the price went up to the point that we couldn't afford that much of it, so we just used it to edge the tile on either side of the sink and stove (that wall isn't visible in any of the shots; too bad, as we closed in part of a window to gain the wall space. The remaining half of the window is STILL huge - we could just as easily have knocked the window out for a doorway.)

Kitchen view 2 - before - Pantry is visible through the right door, dining room through the left. After - I've since found stuff for the bottom shelf. The china cabinet (from a friend of the family) in the dining room is also visible from this shot.

Bedroom - my father-in-law in in the pic. Yes, in a suit. Yes, that's pretty normal for him. Some drywall patching, texturing, painting needed here. Not visible, the area we closed off to use as a closet, and an exterior door that became the door into the new master bath (a side porch we closed off). After - we did add plain white sheers, not shown. With 8 windows, it's about all we could afford at that point! Color is a deep greenish hue.