Mid-Century Not So Modern

I happened upon this estate house that had been on the market for awhile. The house was built in 1947 and the original owner had passed away a few months earlier. The house was on a busier road but had a quiet back yard and a nice floor plan and was located in a desirable part of town with a great school system. The style of the house was not one I typically would gravitate toward, and I was not happy with the color of the siding, but it had just been put on a few months ago by the family, and it had a new roof, so I decided to focus my energies on the inside.

The eat in kitchen was nice although small. The peninsula idea was good, but it really cut the view of the kitchen and it felt like it squeezed you in to a small work environment.

Upstairs family room. The paneling was really heavy, and I knew right away that I would paint it rather than remove it to give the room a casual, almost lodge look.

The fireplace really broke up the flow of the kitchen to the family room and it was not a nice brick, so I needed to figure something out with that.

Upstairs bath. This too had been renovated recently, but I knew that if I was going to target a family, a tub/shower combo would be the better choice. So I would end up gutting it and getting rid of the large window to give more room.

Copper range hood. Really cool and my scrap metal guys were thrilled to get it.

all three bedrooms had a central nook with closets on either side. The wallpaper was put right over the plaster, so it was really tricky to remove and alot of patching had to be done.

Basement family room. Even though it was "finished" off I still had to gut it to updated the wiring and put up a vapor barrier for moisture. Another fun fact: some carpet suppliers don't like to install over brown tile in the chance that it has asbestos in it. They will glue down the tack strips instead of nail so as not to disturb the tiles.

Very sorry looking basement bath.

I tired to save the original cabinets by painting them, but it really didn't have the look that I was going for so I kept the boxes and instead had new doors made that we could paint.

The cabinet door maker is scratching his head wondering what I got him into.

This dude here needs some help. Painting it would not look right, so I went with a dry stack stone that could go right over the top of the existing brick.

Dry stack in process. There is still some grout that needed to be added to get rid of a few gaps.

The dry stack and painted paneling worked well in the overall scheme to keep it casual and warm without breaking the bank. The floor is wood, but it is engineered version that was less expensive than solid but had a 25 year warranty.

Upstairs bath

View from kitchen

I was going to keep a peninsula, but it ended up being too close to the refrigerator on the left side.

Same original cabinets, just new door faces and a great paint job.

Because the kitchen had limited room to eat, the stager brilliantly broke the family into two living spaces.

Lower level entrance off of the garage.

Transformed basement bath.

Fourth bedroom in the basement became an office.

Screened in porch

The Farmhouse with Potential

This little house was being sold by the family whose mother, now well into her 90's had to move into a nursing home. The "kids" were all in their late sixties and seventies and needed to get rid of it.

The house had not been selling because, in addition to it being outdated, it only had two small bedrooms upstairs and a partial basement that was mainly dirt crawlspace.

One thing that attracted me to the house was a new addition that really opened up the family room and brought light to the whole house

From this family room addition you could see into the rest of the house and it was a great space for a great room, but I knew that in order to sell this house later,  I would need to make this area into a main floor master bedroom.

The kitchen cabinets were old, but they were super solid  44" cabinets that great potential once painted, so I kept them.

Main floor bathroom. I would combine this bathroom with the laundry and make it one large space.

A little peek at the hardwood floors in the dining room

Upstairs bedroom 1

Upstairs bedroom 2

little sitting room off of bedroom 2 that would become a closet

Original upstairs bathroom. Seven people shared this bath when the five kids were growing up in the 50's

The house was full of paneling and once that came off you could see how bad the framing was, so the first thing we did was reinforce the framing

Starting to frame up the new bedroom. Seems like it is going to be dark, but it gets better.

The floor joist on the second floor were 24 inches apart and the floor sagged, so we had to reinforce the structural by adding a joist every 12 inches. Better than new construction!

New bedroom. This side is where the closets will be.

Kitchen cabinets getting painted. When we took out the ceilings we discovered another ceiling that had been buried, so we gained an extra foot of height.

The original maple floors starting to take shape after the first sanding.

Floor refinisher laying down the first coat.

The old siding style worked well using a dove gray, white trim and black shutters. I removed the awnings and it brought in 50% more light.

I had this rock brought in at the last minute to make a statement when you first drive up to the house.

Simple rough slate tile made a nice entrance off  the deck.

Floor are done, and for the first time I tried a stager. That was probably one of the best investments as it really made the rooms come together.

I also invested in a photographer who could take much better photos to really make the place come to life on the MLS.

This is now the new family room. Since it was narrow it really need to be staged to show potential buyers how the furniture would fit. The master bedroom would be on the right side of this room.

The cabinets with a fresh coat of enamel and new hardware. I love the uneven slate for the mudroom area.

Great nuances of the old hardwood floors. The kitchen had three layers of linoleum and plywood over the top of it, so they were really well preserved.

Main floor bathroom

Upstairs bath. The space is only 44" wide, so I didn't have any room to add on to it, but we were able to get in a shower instead of that little tub, to make it usable for today's family.

Bedroom #1

Bedroom #1

Bedroom #2. Also original wider plank red fir floors.

This room was a closet but was also staged as a playroom/nursery.

Main floor master

We kept the deck and restained it a coffee color and added some flowers by the new boulder. It was a great house in a nice neighborhood with nice neighbors. The woman who lived next door used to play with the kids in this house when she was a little girl. She was blown away with the transformation, but the most rewarding thing was to show the family the rehabbed home. They were so happy to see the home preserved, but the character still remained.