This Old House

This time next week we will officially be the owners of our new home.  This week I have been going room to room, doing what I normally do before a move.  Deep clean, organize, send things to goodwill, throw things out.  The feeling is very familiar, and I've pretty much been a wreck all week. 

I hate moving.  For twenty years (30 for The Coach), we packed up and moved every 2 1/2 years.  The routine was the same every time.  Just as we would get settled it would be time to commit to the next city and state.  I was a pro dealing with the familiar routine of getting rid of the stuff we weren't taking, and getting ready for the moving company to come and pack our things.  

As I started the familiar routine this week, I expected it to feel different because we weren't actually leaving the area.  We are just going down the road a bit.  It's different, right?

No.  It's worse.  And I'm very sad.  I don't want to leave.  As I go through cupboards, drawers, closets, and boxes I get flooded with the memories we have made here.  People think I'm crazy.  The new home is big, and it's absolutely beautiful.  But this is the most stable environment I've ever been in.   I put my anchor down here, and I don't want to leave.  We put our hearts and soul into this house when we bought it.  I can't tell you the number of man hours and the sweat equity we put into it and accurately describe it with words.  So, I am going to do it with pictures.  These pictures are the before and after of our labor of love.  You will understand after you see them.  Please keep in mind that we did 99.9% of the work on this house by ourselves.  There were no contractors, no hired folks other than three people.  We hired a plumber twice, a painter to reach just the eaves of the house, a granite guy for the countertops in the kitchen, and that's it.  

This is the day we closed on the house.  As you can tell, it was in bad shape, to say the least.  Everybody we knew thought we were nuts.  But we were looking forward to the challenge, and we knew we would learn so much along the way.  We were truly excited.

Outside before.

Look at my little kids.  Jack wasn't even a thought at the time.  We thought were "done" having kids when we moved in.  Justice was in pre-K and Shandi was in 8th grade.

Outside after.  A fresh coat of paint and lots of TLC.

Living room before.  There were two layers of carpet on the floor when we moved in.  Pieces of shag green carpet from the 70's and then a lovely 1980's layer of pink.  That carpet was a pain to take up, but it had protected beautiful original hardwood that was in great shape other than needing to be refinished.  

After.

Thankfully, the curved wall was in great shape and we didn't have to replace it.

What a sad little fireplace.

All of the fireplaces of this time period in this area were meant to burn coal.  They are shallow and aren't in use any longer.  We custom ordered an electric coal box for it and it looks very much like it did back in 1895, complete with cast iron coal box and even real coal.  It wasn't quite finished yet in this picture but you get the idea.

And this was the hallway leading from the living room to the dining room.  Oh what a mess.  This tiny little space took so much effort.

 This is the same hallway but from the other direction.  We carefully ordered the light fixtures to match the era of the house.

If the walls weren't covered in cracked plaster, they were covered in wood paneling.  But under that wood paneling was more cracked plaster.  In some of the rooms we couldn't save the plaster and had to completely rip out the walls.  And did I mention that when we moved into the house that it had been abandoned?  The previous owner left all of his personal belongings IN THE HOME.  There was even food in the refrigerator.  So not only did we have to deal with working around our own belongings, we first had to move his out.  It took weeks.  None of the things in this picture were ours.

When we pulled that red cabinet out, we discovered that this part of the house was an addition.  It was pretty clear when the wall behind the cabinet was actually an outside wall.  That was a lot of fun to fix. 

We removed this window in the dining room area and replaced it with french doors and a small deck out back.  It was a perfect place to sit out and watch the kids play on the playset we built for them in the yard.

This is the after picture of the dining room.  The little gold settee in the back right of the picture is 

where that hideous red cabinet was in the above picture.  We installed new pine-plank hardwood and finished it ourselves.  We re-did all the walls.  Actually, that wall where the buffet is wasn't even there before.  That was open and led to the kitchen.

Oh, the kitchen.  Ugh.  What a nightmare.  This is the old kitchen.  It was horrendous.  We gutted it and put up the wall you see in the above picture and then turned the old kitchen into a big walk in closet for the master bedroom.  Again, none of the belongings in this picture were even ours.

This is the area we moved the kitchen to.  The doorway in the after picture is the small door opening you see below.  We installed a pocket door to separate the kitchen from a small utility room where water heater and washer and dryer hookups are.

The kitchen remodel was a very difficult job.  We installed everything ourselves except the granite countertops.  We even installed the 375 pound antique cast iron sink.  The kitchen was an experience like no other.  It was a very trying time, and we decided afterwards that our marriage would survive anything since it survived that.  

See the little pocket door I mentioned.

There is tin on then ceiling, a gas cooktop, double ovens, and we drove six hours to pick up the cabinets from a warehouse.  The floor tile is handmade and the backsplash tile was imported from England and is a reproduction of old handmade tubeline tile of the Victorian era.  It was very important to me that we capture some of the old house qualities while having an updated kitchen.  While it's not very clear, the arch above the kitchen sink was custom milled to match the arch in the living room hallway. 

The bathroom was a nightmare as well.  This ought to put it into perspective.  The original claw foot tub is still in this bathroom.  We had to pull it out to restore it and also put the floor in.  That was heavy.  

But worth it.

The bedrooms were equally as disastrous, but they all finished up nicely with a little work.  We put carpet in two of the rooms where we couldn't save the hardwood.  

I wish I had a clear picture of Shandi's room.  Her room was beautiful.  Crystal chandelier, soft walls, antique furniture.  These are the only pictures I could find. 

This the only before picture I have of her room, but a little tiny picture can speak a million ugly words.  Her room had a considerable amount of old water damage and we had to remove and replace three of the four walls.  

After

Her room is now the boys bedroom and it looks nothing like it used to.  But for this posts purpose, I'm only using the first room re-do pictures.

And I think after the first few years we got tired of taking pictures.  But we were able to capture the transformation pretty well with the pictures we do have.  

This was a great learning experience for us.  We worked incredibly hard on this house.  And did I mention that The Coach had absolutely zero carpentry skills when we took on this project?  He didn't even own his own hammer.  I actually have the first hammer my Dad gave to me when I came home for a visit from military leave when I first joined.  It was a simple "hey do you have a hammer? No?  Here, you have to have a hammer" moment.  Well of course I needed a hammer.  I grew up with my Dad.  He built two houses from the ground up by himself.  He built a sailboat from the bare shell.  The thought of me not having a hammer was too much for him to take.  

So, he gave me a hammer.  And boy has that hammer seen some action at 630 South Main Street.

Thank you to my dear husband for picking up that hammer and willfully taking on this project with me.  Thank you for learning to do it all and for being able to fix anything.  Thank you for the wonderful memories we made in this beautiful home.

And thank you for our new home.  I know I don't act like it right now, but I am indeed thankful for it, and for all you do for us.   I love this old house, but I certainly love you much much more and I look forward to this new chapter of our lives.  We will make plenty of new memories in the new home, the one with perfect walls and level floors.