Tuesday, August 7, 2012

6 Years!

Six years ago today, I closed on the Cul-de-sac Shack, and it became mine (and the bank's)!  For a little nostalgia - here is what the place looked like when I looked at it for the first time, in July 2006.  Ready for a walk down Memory Lane?

Anyway, here is the front of the house when I purchased it.  Overgrown landscaping and all.


It was built in the late 1950s to be a rental, and the same family had kept it as a rental until I purchased it almost 50 years later.  I don't recommend purchasing a former rental, unless you want a lot of unpleasant surprises.  Rotted out wall?  Just put some paneling over it!  Ugh... it has been 6 years of me going "really?!?!" every time something else is discovered, but at this point, I think I have found all of their cheap cover ups.  The hidden rotten wall in the bathroom being the worst.

Here is the living room, kitchen, and dining room.  The seller thought it would help if they covered everything in hideous grape wallpaper.  It was the first thing to go.  They even used it on the beautiful wooden half wall separating the living room from the kitchen.


Here's the dining room - you can see the poorly built deck outside that I removed.  You had to go outside and walk through the yard to use it - what was the point?


The kitchen is mostly unchanged, except that the awful grape wallpaper has been replaced with avocado green paint.


Here's the bathroom - I've redone it, but I'm not happy with it.  Saving my pennies to really redo it like I want it to be.  I am keeping the tub and toilet.  I already replaced the sink - it was rusting out and couldn't be saved. (One of the very first purchases for the house - a toilet seat, as one was not included...)


And lastly, here are the bedrooms.  The main bedroom had the wallpaper painted over.  That has been fun to remove!  No wallpaper in the second bedroom, but they left the interesting brown 1980s sculptured carpet.



Have a great Tuesday!

6 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your home-owning anniversary. The changes you've made have really improved its looks. I love the layout of your kitchen/dining/living room area, how it's all open. Have you liked the open feel of it?

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    1. I love the open feel of it. That was one of the things that closed the deal. The house seems to have a much more modern floorplan than you would expect in a 1950s house in this area.

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  2. We bought our houses at almost the same time. You've made so many wonderful improvements to yours! You should really be proud of all the hard work you've done. I didn't have much to do, since the previous owner had completely restored mine, but in a way, I wish I'd had a clean slate, since some of the things he did, I would have done differently.

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  3. Laughing at the grape wallpaper. I'm afraid I went wallpaper mad a bit in the early 90s. It was what one did. Luckily it can be undid. Congrats on the anniversary.

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  4. Your house looks very similar to ours when we bought it- we even had the same sculptured carpet in all the bedrooms!

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  5. It's adorable!!! My husband and I just purchased a Mid Century Ranch House in Missouri as well (from 1959). I only just discovered your website so I'm in the process of flicking back through your blog entries, so I'm hoping to find some photos of how your house is looking now :)

    They're a work in progress but definitely worth it! Keep up the fab work with your site!

    xxxLottie Lee

    http://www.vintagewarbride.com

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