UPDATED TO ADD:
- Month 1 Update (porches, wallpaper & budgets)
- Month 2 Update (wood floors, painting trim, demolition)
- Month 3 Update (painting, kitchen demolition, burst pipe & working with a toddler around)
If you’ve been following me on Instagram or on Facebook, you’ve heard the BIG news that we’re bought a “new” house. In reality, this house is pretty old. 112 years to be exact.
I’m going to try to make a long story short so we can get to the pictures. That’s what everyone really wants to see, right??
- My dad & I talked about flipping houses together as a business venture before I had Isaac & bought our first house. I said I had too much going on & couldn’t start right now. Plan goes on the back burner.
- Fast forward 2 years…I started getting excited about the idea again & mention it casually to my dad.
- My dad gets all excited too, and we begin looking at properties right away.
- He finds an open house for an auction house & goes with my brother.
- He comes back & tells me the house was pretty great, and has a feeling I would love it.
- Reminder: I am NOT thinking about moving/buying another house for many years.
- I say, “You’re crazy, but I’ll humor you and go for a tour.”
- We see the house, and kind of think it’s awesome.
- We come up with a budget for renovations & then see what we can pay for the house. It’s a super low bid, and I try not to get my hopes up. It probably won’t get accepted.
- We go to the auction (hello nerve-wracking) and we are the only people bidding on the house. Our low bid is accepted, and the reality is suddenly hitting us.
- Technically, my parents bought the house, and they will be putting the up-front cash down for renovations. We will then buy the house for them for the base cost + all renovations in the spring.
SO. There it is. It’s only about 15 minutes away from the house we’re in now, and it’s close to double the amount of space we’re living in now. We calculated out our budget so we will be paying the same amount that we currently are for the mortgage in our current home.
We always knew that we would have to move from our first home, but didn’t imagine it would be this quickly. We planned on having 2 kids in our current home, but we would talk about moving after that. This house has SO MUCH SPACE. It’s a house that we could potentially be in forever – and that’s such an amazing feeling!
That being said – the house needs a LOT of work. We’re going to be having contractors do some structural & electrical fixes before we move in. Then we’ll be doing tons of wallpaper removal, ripping out carpets, and painting walls. Other than that, we’ll be doing a lot of the cosmetic work over years of living in the house. AKA – don’t expect it to look amazing when we move in – ha! I’m going to have years of projects ahead of me – and that makes me more excited than you know! Follow me on Instagram for allll of the “work in progress” pictures!
Let’s see the house!!
OK – let’s talk porches. This house has THREE. One ginormous wrap-around porch, and then 2 little porches. I still don’t know what we’re going to do with all of them!! These porches need some structural work before we can move in:
When you go in the front door, there’s an amazing little landing. It’s the cutest, and it’s already Isaac’s favorite spot in the house.
It leads into the hallway – which is one of my favorite parts of the house:
Let’s take a closer look at that detailing:
Guys – I really REALLY love it.
But let’s back up – the room we’ll use as an office is the first room in the house:
It connects to the family room – which has a window seat!! I knew we would miss our window seat so much when we moved, so I was thrilled this house had one:
This room leads to the kitchen – which needs a lot of help. Here’s where the table will go:
But the other side is what really needs the help:
Mmm. Yes. We’re brainstorming the best way to configure this odd space! You can see here how it has a door that leads to the hallway & stairs:
This door leads to the basement:
Attached to the kitchen is a small and cold (unheated) bathroom:
Off of the kitchen is another door that leads to the breezeway, which I will hope to eventually make into an entry/playroom space for the kiddos. It is HUGE!
Looking back up into the kitchen:
And the other side leads to the garage (we have a garage!! What?)
OK getting back to the front of the house – let’s go upstairs:
At the top of the stairs is a bathroom (yes, that is mint tile. And yes, it will be staying there!)
Bedroom number one (will be the nursery)
This bedroom actually has it’s own balcony!
The master bedroom has amazing windows – but we’re going to need to do some brainstorming to add some closet space:
Walking down the hallway to the third bedroom:
This bedroom is huge – it’ll eventually be shared, but it’ll be Isaac’s bedroom when we move in:
And although that’s a ton of space – there’s ANOTHER floor! This one really won’t be touched for years – and it’s a mess. But it’s got a lot of potential!!
Whew. That was a ton of pictures. If you made it to the end of this, I will love you forever! I can’t wait to take all of you along for the ride of renovating this old house and making it our forever house!
Congratulations on your new home!
Thanks SO much, Brie!
Love your new home and fun it will be to make it yours, love the windows in the master bedroom!
We love the windows too, Rondell!! Those are the same as the family room window seat windows, and since they’re southern facing, there’s SO much light!! 🙂
Amazing old house! You have your work cut out for you but how fun!
Oh YES we definitely have our work cut out for us!! But that’s what I love to do, so it’s the perfect long-term project for us 🙂 Thanks so much for commenting!! <3
congratulations your doing what I want to do eventually can’t wait to see what you post about the house love it and enjoy zen hugs all around
Thanks, Lorraine!! We’ll be sharing every step of the way – can’t wait to see where it goes from here! 🙂
Great job with the pictures!! I like how we all got in them…the house is being lived in and loved again. It will be beautiful when its done. Exciting project
That is gorgeous, I am in love! A true old home does not have many closets, and if it had heat it was taxed, so most closets are built ons and so that is why bathroom = no heat…Love it, love the charm rip out carpet, BUT love that old patern, and window seats! Ikea has a ton of closet ideas, my favorite is the one were they build the closet in the middle of room, and butted up the bed to the closet so your bed faces those gorgeous windows, and when you walk in you see closet and then around the closet would be bed//does that make sense?
Thanks so much, Marilou!! And what an awesome idea about the closet in the bedroom – I would have never thought of that!! We’re planning on raiding IKEA to see what we can find – they’re awesome for storage!!
It has tons of character! I love that! That staircase molding detailing is incredible. So much potential for greatness. I can’t wait to see how you update it!
Congrats Christina and Hubby!
How very exciting! I can already imagine the kind of magic you’re planning for this beautiful space.. What fun you will have. Did you know we’re currently in a 1904 Victorian? our bdrm isn’t so different than yours, except we have closets along the door wall that is opposite the windows. We put our King bed up against the windows and you’d be surprised how nice that can look.
Is this new location closer to your parents too?
I think the kitchen will be easy for you to fix up, and looks completely usable meanwhile, do dont be daunted!
Can’t wait to see what you do with this great space. Hugs, Donna ^ Al
how exciting!!!! It’s a great house. Love all the porches!
I don’t know what you are talking about… I don’t think it needs that much work. hehehe! Ok, so it may be a LITTLE out dated but such a fun project!! That kitchen definitely needs some help and can’t wait to see what you figure out what to do with it. So fun!! Can I come visit? I’ll help with wall paper! 😉
LOVE! The pics remind me a bit of the ESC parsonage and it’s character, particularly the attic which was Stan and Steve’s bedroom. And those floors…yummy! Closer to your folks? Sure looking forward to ease-dropping on your newest journey!
WOWee! What an amazing house! Can’t wait to see how things progress as you renovate. It’s a BIG job, but it’s going to look amazing, I’m sure!!
I LOVE, LOVE old homes and this one is a beauty. The window seat, the staircase molding and the landing are some of my favorite features. Can’t wait to see what you’re able to do with it all. It will look fabulous!!!
Ah thanks so much, Heather!! We fell in love with what it could be too…can’t wait to get it there!! 🙂
I’m way behind to your blog party. Just stumbled upon it via Instagram and got hooked. We remodeled a home in WI before I took a job in Philly and we moved to South Jersey. Do you live in SJ? Your home looks like a lot of their Victorians and some of the other houses you post have that vibe as well. Sorry to creep on you, just excited to find someone potentially with that passion like I do.