One Year Later

It has been over a year since we moved into our home. Our first year of home ownership has been a great adventure. The home we bought was a foreclosure, so we got it at bargain price. We looked at several foreclosures, and this one was in pretty good shape. The person that lived here before us was an older lady that died and her kids let the loan default to the bank. The home had been vacant for three years. It needed a little updating and a little TLC. Amongst other things, we replaced the water heater, garage door opener (and springs), renovated two bathrooms (one extensively), one bedroom, new flooring throughout, new shades, and re-did the landscaping. It's been a lot of hard work, but we love our home. Please enjoy photos posted below. 

The Landscaping

The flower beds were overgrown and a lot of the plants were old and sad looking. People didn't like to see the rose bushes go, but we kept a few and put plants in that we wanted.   

Lauren wanted to have a bench in our front yard. It's a nice place to visit with friends and talk to each other after walks. Next year it will look better when the plants are a little more mature.

Here is a look at our back patio... notice the pavers in the corner.

The Master Bed/Bath

When we moved in, the master bathroom was a big problem. The shower pan had a crack in it, and was therefor not safe to use (we knew that when we purchased the home). Plus the shower was only 3'x3' with a six foot ceiling. The faucet on the sink would spray in several directions, and there was blue shag carpet in the bathroom floor. Our master bedroom is a pretty good size, so we decided when we renovated the bathroom, we would also make the shower bigger, with a higher ceiling. Enjoy the photos of our process.

Before and after plans that we submitted to get our permit.

Upstairs Office

This upstairs bedroom (we use it as an office) had two closets in it. One of them housed washer and dryer hookups. Since there was an actual laundry room downstairs, we decided to take out the additional closet and hookups. This made the room much bigger.

 

The Kitchen, Dinning Area, and Living Room

We do a LOT of cooking, so a big kitchen was a must. This Kitchen had everything we wanted. We didn't do much to this area of the house. The biggest thing was new floors. We also got a new garbage disposal and a new faucet for the sink.

Upstairs Bathroom

We didn't do much to this bathroom, we put in a new sink and faucet, and we added (the missing) shower head and toilet seat.

 

The Nerd Room

This is our bonus room in the basement. We spend a lot of time down here watching movies and playing games (and building Legos). We only put new carpet in this room (not a fan of the mint green).

 

The Downstairs Bathroom

This is the first remodel project that Lauren and I did ourselves. The toilet in here was gross! it was missing a toilet tank cover and a toilet seat. Instead of replacing those, we just got a new toilet. I have taken toilets out before, but I have never installed one. We also removed the massive medicine cabinet (that spanned almost the entire wall) and replaced it with a nice mirror that is not shown in the pictures.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you enjoyed our before and after photos. It was a lot of fun working on our house. For the time being we don't have any big projects, so now we just get to enjoy the work we put in.