Our new Behemoth

I've been promising this for a while and now I have the pictures, so here we go, our new house.

The story of our house is very long and Jus and I haven't really figured it out but here's how we think the story goes:

The house was built in 1890, it is approximately 3000 square feet. The original owner sold the house in the early 1900s and in approximately 1910 a wealthy family bought the house and totally redid it. That family lived in the house for a while and eventually their two daughters inherited the house. The sisters turned the house into a duplex (we've heard they didn't get along and both refused to move out) they took down the original porch and split the kitchen in two. One of the sisters LOVED pink! The other sister needed a chair lift and removed the original staircase to put a chairlift through the dining room into the master bedroom. The sisters moved out and we think there have been 3 owners since then.

The first of these took the chair lift out and put in a big staircase where the original staircase was. In putting the new staircase in they made a funky master closet and closed a different closet off with drywall. When they drywalled the stairwell they didn't finish the dry wall and, instead just covered it with fabric (they literally pasted hundreds of yards of fabric over all of the walls). They added a bathroom under the stairs and were planning on rebuilding the porch but didn't get the proper permits so in the end they built the end pillars. The next owners didn't do much that we've heard but one of the last owners was in a wheel chair. They took off the stairs to the back yard to put in a chair lift and cut through a second floor wall to put an elevator in the second staircase. We've also been told that originally there was a permanent staircase into the attic and one into the basement (right now the basement is accessible through the mud room) but both of these have been closed for years. When the house was build the first floor was originally brick and the second floor was stucco but somewhere along the way the first floor got stuccoed.

So that's the history, two and a half years ago when Jus & I were looking for our first house this house was on the market. Three weeks before our wedding (as I was getting ready to head to my hair trial) my mom got a call from my grandpa, he's known around town as someone who takes old buildings and restores them, telling her to look at this house. The house was bank owned at this point and the bank had called my grandpa in hopes that he would buy it and restore it, as the bank wanted to find someone who would restore it and then live in it they figured he was their best shot.

My parents, Jus & I went to the house, took a quick tour (we literally spent 30 minutes inside) that night and the next two days Jus & I talked about the house, decided we wanted it, met with the bank, put in an offer and accepted a counter offer. We closed the Monday after the wedding and for the past month we've been working on the house. We're anxious to move but a lot more needs to be done until the house is totally livable.

But before I bore you with more talk and all the projects we need to do here's a tour of the house as it sat the day we closed.

The front door is stained glass but several panes are broken

The entrance way has a gorgeous penny tile floor

The front door opens to an incredibly large foyer with the incredibly awkward staircase. To the left behind the stairs is a bathroom, straight ahead is the living room, and to the right is the living room.

The living room, to the left is the family room

Fireplace, the logs are part of a gas apparatus that was added in the 1910 renovation

Living room to the stairs

Family room from the living room, to the right is the pink half bath, straight ahead is the pink kitchen to the left is the back stairs/elevator

Another view of the family room, living room through the door, pink half bath to the left

(Yes, the elevator works, no, we're not keeping it)

Pink half bath includes the tiniest sink

Pink kitchen from family room

More of the pink kitchen, family room is to the right

View of the red kitchen from the pink kitchen, to the right is the back stairs which leads to the back yard & basement

Breakfast nook, to the right is the back door to the left is the dining room

Red kitchen from the breakfast nook, dining room to the right, back door to the left

Dining room from the red kitchen, from entrance is to the left

Dining room, red kitchen is through that door

Front entrance from the dining room, half bath is to the right, living room is to the left

Half bath under the stairs

Stairwell

Top of the stairs looking down the hallway (the ladder leads to the attic), to the right is the green front bedroom, to the left is the master suite, straight ahead to the right is the front white bedroom and to the left is a bathroom & bedroom

Front green bedroom from the door, the doorway you can see leads out above the porch

Front green bedroom, the middle door is the closet that has been closed off

(Interesting fact, the wallpaper in this room was stapled up)

Front white bedroom from door

Front white bedroom, behind the shelves is a very funky 80s fabric

Hallway from the front white bedroom, to the left is the hall that leads to the front green bedroom & master suite, to the right is the pink full bath, straight ahead is the back bedroom and to the back left is the butchered staircase/elevator shaft

Full pink bathroom

Full pink bath

View of the stairs/elevator from the door of the pink bathroom, they left the top of the stairs (to the right) but tore through the wall to put in the elevator

Top of the stairs

Back bedroom

Back bedroom, this door goes onto the roof of the garage

Master bedroom from hallway, to the left is the funky closet

Funky closet

Master bedroom from door (and no, that's not a shadow, the carpet was that dirty)

Master bedroom (notice the fabric?) the door on the left is the master bath, the door on the right leads to the hallway

Master bath with hexagon tile on the floor & subway tile on the walls

All of this tile makes me drool a little

So there you have it, this is our new house. Obviously it needs a lot of work, in addition to ripping up carpet & painting everything we're planning on fixing the front staircase, taking out the elevator and replacing the stairs, and tearing through the walls of the two kitchens & family room to create a large open kitchen/family room. It's going to be a long process but both Jus & I come from very handy families and are excited about the possibilities. We know it will take a lot of time (and money) but we got it for less than a quarter of what it was listed for two years ago and we can't wait to make it ours!