Oh, the story of our little bungalow. It is a crazy one. Matt and I moved in to this little blue bungalow in November of 2010 six months after we met. Our first landlord tried to sell the house while we were still living in it a few years back but we had a lease agreement for another year… We attempted to find a new rental while our house was on the market and found one we really liked but absolutely did not click with the landlord. We decided to stay and see if our little bungalow would sell. Our house was eventually sold to a new landlord whom has been trying to sell us the house since he took ownership. After searching high and low for affordable houses that do not need a lot of work, have a fire place, wood floors, a gas range, etc. we quickly realized there weren't any houses that met our expectations and none were any better than what we were already living in. So we made the decision to go ahead and buy our little blue bungalow.
I know several people who think we are crazy because, "The resale value of a two bedroom isn't very good." Or, "In your neighborhood?" And then they hear what we purchased it for and they somewhat turn around, "Oh that's a good investment." I'm trying to brush everyone's opinions off but sometimes it is just so hard.
I'll start out by sharing some old photos from the blog and computer when we first moved in and had no idea we would be living here for over four years. And to be honest no real established taste. I was only 21!
Technically this is the dining room because it leads into the kitchen but we like the coziness that the back of the house provides. Not much has changed in the living room except for the layout and the couch but boy do we have plans! We did paint the swinging door separating the kitchen from this room white but will eventually remove it all together. We plan to replace the severely outdated window unit. I know, I know, why don't we just get central air. Well, we are poor and plan on renting this house out in the future so something that expensive wouldn't be worth it. I painted this room and the dining room over the past weekend. I will have to share photos when each room is "finished." We will remove the blinds and add floor to ceiling curtains in the near future.
Excuse the mess and my split in half pup! The dining room was once used as my studio. All that junk, those are art supplies. I've recently paired down my supplies and moved my studio to the spare room, I'm not sure why it didn't start off there in the first place! Since this picture was taken I have hung a plug in pendant light above the table and we added a family heirloom china cabinet given to us as a wedding gift by Matt's parents. Over the weekend I painted the room a light blue green as Matt needs some color up in this joint! I would eventually like to replace the dining set with a farm house table and modern white chairs, but that is a ways off if ever.
This room looks TEN TIMES BETTER even now! A while back I removed the hideous blinds and replaced them with bamboo blinds. Then I painted the lower cabinets a very dark grayish blue, but even that wasn't enough to improve this horrid eyesore. I painted the upper cabinets, the ceiling, and all of the trim a clean stark white over the summer and man oh man does it look better. Matt recently replaced the linoleum floor with a darker prettier linoleum floor, but that doesn't seem to be working for us so we will be laying tile with the help of my dad who was once carpenter. Once a carpenter, always a carpenter. He will also be helping us install new white marble formica countertops, a white subway tile backsplash, and a stainless steel sink. We will be getting a new stove too as Matt's a professional cook and insists upon it. Our refrigerator is behind that door as our house was built in 1917. For the longest time my Mom has been insisting that we remove some cabinets and move the refrigerator into the kitchen instead of the back porch but we don't want to do that so we will be removing the door to the back porch and sprucing that area up with some paint on the floor and walls. I think this will be my favorite part of updating our house.
However, we also plan to update our peto bismol pink bathroom. I've read all about saving the pink bathroom but we've lived with it long enough and it's going neutral. What are your thoughts on getting rid of our pink bathroom? Should it stay or should it go? We plan on replacing the tile floor, removing the tile from the walls, replacing the tub, and tile in the shower area. So this might be my favorite part of updating our house.
Here is the back yard. As you can see Matt's an avid farmer. I say farmer rather than gardener because this one is his garden and he also had a farm last summer. We plan on adding some chickens, a patio area, and twinkly lights over a new outdoor dining set. The patio area may never pan out but I can hope!
This is a horrible photo of our front yard! Since we have lived here we have had flowers galore planted to the left of those stairs. Most recently we had hollyhocks which were so beautiful! To the right of where my car sits we will plant a raised bed of hostas since it is shady in that area. I'm not sure what Matt plans to plant to the left of the stairs this year but I think it'll be a perennial since we know we will be here for a while.
Well that's a severely outdated tour for you! I'll post more photos of our renovation journey later.
No comments:
Post a Comment