A year later ... the "after" pics of the house renovation!

It's nuts to think we've been in the house for a year now. Nuts because there are still a few unpacked boxes tucked in corners and nuts because the walls are still largely empty. I'm not so great at this whole settling in and decorating thing, but I'm determined to get better.

I kept waiting to post "after" pictures, because I felt sure I'd get everything decorated and fixed up so I could show truly done pictures. I finally realized that that's going to take a while, and when I had a surprise visit from the family who used to live here, I decided I'd get the place as spiffed up as I could for them and would finally take some pictures.

The visit with them was wonderful. All three kids who grew up here came to visit. It was great fun showing them around, especially because we kept several things from their old bedrooms in tact. The daughter chuckled as I went on about all the "retro" stuff in the house that I loved, because it was all stuff she'd tried to get her mom to get rid of. We both agreed that it was a great thing that she didn't get rid of any of it, because I love it all so much! Just another sign that we were meant to be in this house.

Enough chit chat, y'all just really want to see the insides of the house, right? Let's get to it!

The front door is the perfect place to start, especially because it's one of my favorite things in the renovation. I never thought much about front doors, until I came across Crestview Doors. Then doors became all I could think about. My parents got the Langston doorlite kit (and a rad mailbox) for us as a house warming present. My husband had the awesome idea to put the windows down the center of the door, and it was perfect! I sprayed the escutcheon chrome, but we haven't been able to get new doorknobs yet. We painted the door the same soft aqua color that we used throughout the house. I never thought a door could make me happy every time I walk up to it, but this one totally does.

Man, what a difference ripping out cabinets can make! The space feels so HUGE and open, and it's awesome to come in and be able to see right out to the backyard. LOVE how it turned out.

Upper cabinets came down, and that made a huge difference. My inspiration for the kitchen was this picture of Frank Sinatra's kitchen Pam shared on RetroRenovation. We kept the original lower cabinets and countertop, and just added new paint and hardware. We put in a new vent hood and open shelving for everyday dishes. I love the tile, and the space feels ginormous - even though it's a galley. I actually really really love the galley. The light fixture over the sink was a $14 IKEA purchase to match the rad original light fixture in the breakfast area.

The laundry side of the room was also gutted (there was some water damage there) and built out to fit our washer and dryer. There's space to hang clothes and a cabinet for detergent, and a broom closet to the left. We keep our trash can and brooms/mops in there. Cleaning supplies above. It's kind of sad that this is one of my favorite spaces in the house, isn't it? I thought about pulling all the laundry out for pictures, but really - this is how it goes at our house. No need to pretend I stay on top of the heaps of clothes, folks. This is actually tidy for me.

   

We gutted the utility room and redesigned it for maximum efficiency. On this side, we put in a small mudroom kind of area with hooks for bags/coats and drawers for shoes. The three sections of pantry were custom built and outfitted with IKEA slide out shelves that are super handy.

   

The wife of one of Chris' co-workers had the brilliant idea to tear out the bookshelves in the living room and replace them with giant windows to match the rest of the windows in this part of the house. It made total sense and was one of the best things we did for the house. The contractor was able to match the frames almost exactly - I couldn't believe it.

 

Originally in bedroom 1 in the configuration on the left. We moved them to bedroom 2 (son's room) and consolidated them a bit. We *love* them.

  

Before, it was just a vanity, but we wanted to have sinks in this space instead of the shower area. The vanity design is based on a popular vanity design from the 60s. I love our metal rim sinks and faucets. The guys installing them just kind of chuckled at me "We've torn a lot of this kind of stuff out of homes, but never put it IN them!" That's just how we roll, fellas. Medicine cabinets above sinks and the cabinets below offer all the storage we need & make up for limited counter space. I actually prefer it this way - I hate having junk out on countertops.

 

This is in the room with the shower and toilet. We moved the sink out to the previous "dressing area" and had storage custom built for the space. The bottom left part is a hamper!

 

I could have gone more 60s and lest 30s in here, but finding affordable 60s-style tile was difficult. I decided to go with the classic subway/black and white action that I've always loved. It also feels weird to show a picture of our shower like this - and not "staged." Check out our shampoo! Look at our washcloths! Ehhhh!

 

Looking back at the kitchen all opened up now.

 

Aaaaan, the STUDIO! My Happy Place. A needlework wall on one side, space wall on the other. The couch and chairs came from a garage sale (for a steal!) and the work table was traded from a friend for sewing lesson (hey, Lauren ... we need to do those!). Love this space so much! 

There are lots more "after" pictures over on Flickr. Hopefully this will spur me on to getting the place decorated and more put together, but for now it's suiting us just fine. We love it here. The house has been amazing, the neighborhood is awesome, and we're still happy (even happier?) that we got this place.

Making Progress

The quite around here means things have been busy. And boy have they. Even though we are using a contractor, managing this huge renovation has proved to be a wee bit overwhelming. Add to that some new responsibilities at work and helping kids adjust to life in a new town, there hasn't been much time for blogging. My bad!

Fortunately, I have been taking lots of pictures, and that's the fun stuff, right? I'll have to do all the wrap up, detail kind of posting later, because quite frankly ... my brain is fried. But for now, enjoy these progress pictures. The changes are overwhelming and exciting. It's fun to see things moving along, but it's also terrifying to see a place you love so much getting torn apart. When I look back at our original pictures of the house, I think, "awww, but it's so beautiful! What have we done!?" Demo was crazy. Seeing things ripped down to studs freaked me out a bit. Now, though, the progress is getting to the exciting part. We should be (knock on wood) just a few weeks away from wrapping this huge project up.

Kitchen, side one


Kitchen, side 2





Living Room windows

(these just went in today! There will be another window on the right side of the fireplace tomorrow!)

Master bedroom/bathroom




There is much much more where this all came from. Think tip 'o the iceberg here. But hopefully it's enough to see what's been happening, and why I've been so absent lately. More pictures later!

Awesome finds at the Dream House

We're in a bit of a holding pattern over here for getting going on the renovations. Of course, that leaves me in a bit of a panic, because time is money and we're tight on both. To help ease my nerves a little, I revisited some of the awesome things I've found at the Dream Home, and wanted to share them and the story of the family who lived in this house with you.

Rarely in real estate do you make such an emotional and personal connection with a house. Too often, it's all business, money, negotiating, frustration and any number of crazy-making details. When I walked into the house and knew it was The One, I didn't know that we were about to connect with a wonderful family, and the memory of an amazing artist and mother.


You can see a few of her portraits here.

When we submitted our offer on the house, I included a letter that expressed our love of the home, and my intense connection with the art studio and intention to keep it and use it "as is." I'll spare you all the corny details, but let's just say there were way too many coincidences/signs/connections/kismet-kind of things going on with us and this house and this family. It was one of the nicest and most joyous real estate transactions I've ever experienced or heard of.



One afternoon, after we moved into our rent house, but before we closed on the new house, I took the kids by to drive past the house and visit the neighborhood (we didn't have a key to the house yet, and the kids had only seen pictures of the inside). We happened to pull up as Rosanne's son was loading some items in to his car. Without really thinking, I rolled down my window, called his name and quickly introduced myself and the kids (he and I had exchanged a couple of emails via our real estate agent). What happened next is a real estate rarity: he invited the kids and me in to meet his wife and father and to show the kids the house. We ended up spending almost an hour with them, hearing stories about the house and their family. They'd lived in the house for more than 42 years. Their son (the one who was there that day) was the same age our daughter is right now when they moved in. They bought the house, sight-unseen, from an acquaintance who drove all the way to Peoria, Illnois, to tell them about the place over the dinner table.

I ate these stories up.



Because we were able to get the flat file cabinets included in the sale of the house (I'm still swooning over them) the family decided to leave any in-good-condition supplies inside for me to use. WOW. There is every kind of paper imaginable, from vellum to mat board and more, as well as tons of vintage wrapping paper, cards and other supplies. It's dreamy. They also had several of her painted portraits that they left for me. I plan on hanging one in every room in the house if I can.



Probably my most treasured gift from them, though, was the collection of blueprints, flooplans and design research Rosanne created and gathered when she designed and built the studio addition to the house in 1977-78. Her floorplan drawings are amazingly detailed and so much fun to look at. As her husband of 52 years, Bill, said, "She really could have been an architect." Indeed.

I also came across a file folder case that was filled with file folders in which she collected magazine and newspaper clippings, brochures and booklets, notes and receipts for the addition of the studio. These items are priceless to me. On one level, I just love them for their vintage design and fabulous pictures. More than that, though, I love thinking of her going through the same kind of process I'm doing right now with the house. I'm collecting clippings, making notes, sketching cabinet designs, and it's almost eerie how similar our tastes seem to be.



I find myself simultaneously crushed that I was never able to know Rosanne, but also feeling overwhelmed with gratitude at the opportunity to get to know her through her art and this small collection of notes about the house. I also found many other treasures in the studio that I'll share here (with permission from her family) and as I've spent more time in the space and gone through these items time and time again, I almost feel like she's right here with me, guiding me in some way.

Why, yes, I have gone off the deep end! Thanks for asking!



But, really. Aren't these kinds of connections what life is all about? It is for me. I find great comfort and strength in getting to know this woman who shared so many of my life attributes (busy mom, husband going up into the big city every day for work, keeping art an important part of my life no matter what, creating a home that's comfortable for my family and inspiring to me...). This move was incredibly difficult for me ... until I "met" Rosanne. Thanks, Rosanne. I needed that.

I've posted some of the pics of the flooplans and brochures here. If you'd like to see more, hop on over to my Flickr set. :)

And now to introduce you to the new house

Also known as "why I've disappeared for the last 6 weeks or so" and "what I'll be up to my eyeballs in for the next few months."



As I mentioned in my last post so long ago, we've been in the process of moving. We had a very crazy eight weeks - all right during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays - of getting our house ready to sell, finding a place in Houston and moving. Things rolled out muuuuuuuch faster than we had planned on, but it was good, because everything fell right in to place so seamlessly I can't imagine having done it any other way.



I'll try to sum it up quickly: husband got a job offer in Houston he couldn't refuse, I freak out at the thought of leaving Austin, my family, close friends and great neighborhood/school, we decide we'll try to live close to downtown Houston since that's where his office is, I scope out neighborhoods with Claire, but can't find anything that fits our safe/affordable/good neighborhood schools trifecta, we decide to pursue suburbs, I realize the only suburb I'd want to live in is the one where I can see rockets on the way to the grocery store, we focus our search on the Clear Lake area, we get our house all spiffed up and on the market and head to Clear Lake to scope out the area, our house ends up selling the first weekend it's on the market, we find a Dream Home in Seabrook, everything falls into place with coincidences and "signs" that are enough to make your head spin, we find a rent house one mile from our new house where we can live for a few months during renovations, we move down on New Year's Eve, kids love the new school, we love the new neighborhood, it's all good.

Whew.

If you'd told me three months ago that I'd be living in a new city, getting ready to start renovations on an awesome old house, I'd have laughed hysterically in your face. Oh, life, you're so funny with your curve balls!



And so here we are, in Seabrook, Texas. I'm in Space Geek Nirvana, the kids' school is amazing, we've already made some really lovely friends, and the house we bought is not only totally rad and a "dream house," but we also made a really wonderful connection with the sellers. More on that in another post (or three).



When we started looking down here, we found some great, cozy neighborhoods with fun older homes. One MLS listing had me intrigued. The pictures weren't great, but it was a 1961 ranch with a pool and - most intriguing of all - an art studio and darkroom. I've always wanted to live in a mid-century ranch, so I kept going back to that listing. When I first met with our Realtor, we previewed loads of homes before heading out with my husband the next day. After going through house after house after house, we headed over to this one. Just pulling in to the neighborhood was completely dreamy. Idyllic is an understatement.



When we walked into the house, it was ON. I liken it to looking for your wedding dress: you try on a bunch of dresses, and then the second you put on THE ONE, you know it is THE ONE. This house was THE ONE. It needed some updating, but the bones were incredible, and it had a great spirit about it. And then I walked into the studio. The glorious, amazing, jaw-dropping, can't-believe-it's-real art studio. My creative juices started boiling. I'm planning several posts on the studio alone, and the woman who designed it and worked in it for the last 30 years. Let's just say that I've never experienced kismet as strongly as I have with this home.



So today, I introduce you to THE ONE. We're planning some pretty big renovations over the next two months, so I'll be updating on that as well. We've never done a renovation before, so I'm a little nervous (ok, A LOT nervous) but I'm excited, too. We're taking a place we love and are just making it even more lovable. I'll share as many of the resources as I can, and welcome any tips/advice on renovating a mid-century home. We're working to keep it pretty true to its time period.

I've given you a sneak peek with some pictures here, but I put together a complete slide show over on Flickr. It's easiest to zip through the pictures that way, and I ordered them such that they take you on a full tour of the place. If you are interested in the notes I've made on the pics, you can view them in the set. I'll be keeping it updated as the renovation beings.