BEFORE House Pictures- First Floor

As I posted last week, we are officially homeowners!!  We bought a home that has been owned by the same family since it was built in the 1920’s.  It is exactly what we had been hoping to find – a home that had been cared for (AKA not walking into a “money pit” for major repairs) but that was in need of some major updating/cosmetic work.  The only big expense is that we’re currently having an electrician update the wiring from knob & tube.

The inside is definitely dated- old peeling wallpaper, wall-to-wall carpet, etc.  DON’T get excited to see those moldings get painted – they’re going to stay this way!  My husband would rather die than see these be painted over, and since they’re in perfect condition, I’ll let him have it.  It just means I have to get more creative with modernizing the space!  The wallpaper is in the process of being torn down right now (ugh this is no fun!) and the carpets will be ripped up after we paint because there’s original wood floors under there!

OK – enough talking – here’s the pictures!

Room #1: The glass door you see to the right is the front door (leads out to a super cute porch).  This is the door we have a skeleton key for.  We will use this door to have people come into our house, but when we do our daily travels, we will use the back door (it would be hard to have a skeleton key on a key ring!)

We love that this house has a lot of windows & natural light!

This is the view you would see when you walk in from the front door:

Room #2:

This room must have been used as a formal dining room, but we’re going to take out that awful light fixture and make it into extended living space.

It’s nearly impossible to take pictures of one of my FAVORITE parts of the house – the window seat!

The wood seat lifts up (in 3 different sections) for storage.  I’m in love!

The Kitchen:  When I saw pictures of this house online, I thought the kitchen was going to be the “deal-breaker” in this house.  I just thought it looked absolutely too small.  Now don’t get me wrong – it IS small.  But it’s also completely functional, and has great potential for expansion in a few years.  In the meantime, we’ll deal with the awkward lay-out and get rid of some of that brown.  Oh, the kitchen is SO BROWN.

It opens up to a little area on the other side, where we’ll put our kitchen table:

Coming from the eating area of the kitchen – you will be led into the back part of the house – which has laundry and a full bathroom:

This is the door we’ll be using to get in & out of the house most often.

The bathroom is small but serves its’ purpose.

But the layout of this does drive me nuts – the window is over the sink & the mirror is the left of the sink.

And that concludes the first floor tour!  I’ll be posting pictures of the second floor & the outside areas soon.  We have a LONG way to go before I can show you any “after” pictures though – but you’d better believe they’ll be coming!

Do you own an old house?  Do you stay away from old houses?  Tell me what things you love & hate about them!