Before and After: Our Fixer Upper Story, part 2

To read part 1 (the UPSTAIRS renovation), CLICK HERE!

When we moved in, the kitchen had already been cleaned and organized (I did it little by little – each time I drove from the mission apartment I brought some boxes), and the walls had been skim coated in the living room and dining room.  We ran out of time to paint, so things were dusty because they had not even been primered.  Ben had been using the front room as his tool area for the whole renovation project.  We transplanted the tools and work items to the basement alcove (there used to be a separate apartment in the basement, so there is a door to go out front and it has a nice crawl space and alcove).  The “mudroom” didn’t get much of a makeover…it didn’t even have washed walls until last week!  But its very functional…for shoes!

The back yard was overgrown completely and mostly contained poison ivy.  My mom and I clipped all of the overgrowth and poison ivy out, and my dad and Ben’s dad trimmed tree branches and helped with general cleanup.

Our townhouse has two single-car garages out front.  They do not go into the house, so you still have to go up the steps and through the front door.  The top of the garage is flat and used as a patio.  When we purchased the house it was a mess of tar and rolled roofing and it leaked very badly into the garage.  Part of this was because the drain was clogged.  We fixed the drain, sealed the roof, and had concrete poured for a nice patio.  We’re not real thrilled with the quality of work that was done, but this was our first job to hire out to a local and we didn’t probably ask enough questions.

From the front of the house moving to the back, there is a closed in room – probably originally the porch, but now a mudroom and coat closet.  Love this!  Then there is a doorway/short hall into the main hall where you either go upstairs or through the hall to the dining room.  There is a door on the right to enter the living room.  The living room and dining room originally had French doors separating them, but now it’s just open.  In the dining room there are stairs to the basement, or you can walk through to the kitchen.  Through the back door we have a back yard in three levels:  small patio off the kitchen, down a wobbly ladder to the basement entrance, or up steps to the back yard.  Much of this is common space shared with our neighbor.

{Clicking on any picture will enlarge}

Mudroom – Before

  
Nice big “mudroom”  - you can see the original brick of the house, but all of the neighbors (we are a row of four identical houses) have closed in these front porches.

 
Closet in the mudroom – now my coat closet

 
Looking into the coat closet // The little “hallway” between mudroom and hallway to the living room & dining room.  The door you see there is where the original front door would have been.

Mudroom – After

  
Hooks for the kids to reach // Bench with storage in the seat (perfect for mittens) from a friend

Coat closet  

  
New Front Doors!

Living Room – Before

  
Looking from living room into dining room // The living room had a mirrored wall.  We removed the mirrors pretty quickly!!!

  
Living room looking to front of house // Progress after removing mirrors

  
Painting the Living Room

Living Room – After 

  

  
Looking to the front of the house // The doorway into the hall.  Left is the mudroom, right is the dining room.

Dining Room – Before

  
Door to the basement // Looking into the living room

  
See the yellow patch?  There was a hutch there.  They didn’t move it to paint when they changed to white.  // Hallway to front door

Dining Room – After

 
Mom’s “office” // Dining Room

 
The grey cabinet is our homeschool stuff as we will do school in this room // Steps to basement

Kitchen – Before

The kitchen was in the best shape of anything.  Eventually we will paint.  We had a ceiling leak from the bathroom which was repaired.  They originally had a chest freezer in the empty space, but we filled it with a microwave cart.  I got to pick out new appliances.  

  
When you enter the kitchen doorway, the stove is on the right, the fridge on the left, and the back door straight ahead.

  

Kitchen – After

It’s going to be a coffee theme, but I don’t have things on the wall since we haven’t painted yet.

  

  

Back Yard – Before

I didn’t get any before pictures.  Here is some of the clean up pictures.  My mom and I were prepared for hazmat…but we only handled poison ivy.

The kids carried sticks through the house to Grandpa’s truck (my parents came and helped us for a week) to go to the dump.

Back Yard – After  

  
That’s the door into the kitchen…and our grill.  All the drains work now.  // Main level patio.  We share both set of steps with our neighbor.  Not pictured are steps to the basement entrance.

 
Back yard prepped for winter and to keep poison ivy from returning until we plant grass next summer.

  
“The Pit”

Front Patio / Garage Roof – Before and progress

  
Since the drain didn’t work, we had a ton of standing water, and water going into the basement, with each rain. 

Yuck!  As a roofer’s daughter, this made my skin crawl!

Front Patio / Garage Roof – After

I absolutely LOVE having my devotions out here…especially now that I have to wear a sweatshirt in the mornings!