Friday, November 19, 2010

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!

11 comments:

Scientific Housewife said...

You gotta keep the elevator! How many people can say they have that in their house? :) What a house it is, I love old houses like that and you will make it your own :)

MandeeFoFandee said...

wow, that house is amazing, and I'm not even being sarcastic! I love old homes with lots of history... it looks like your new place has plenty! the work will be hard and you'll get sick of it, but you will be SO happy when it's all done!

dessielee said...

I know this is going to be creepy but...I read your blog and I almost said something when I first saw the picture of your new house but I decided to wait for the inside pictures to confirm. I'm 99% positive that when I was little (like pre-school to first grade little) my friend lived in your house. I remember his birthday party being there and I remember playing there several times.
It's a gorgeous house and I guess a small world, congratulations!
-Dessie

Ashley said...

Wow! It's beautiful! I can't wait to see the pictures of what you guys do to it. It's nice to have handy-men in your family to make your house your home. :) Buying a home is very exciting! When do you guys think you might have it done? BTW, when my boyfriend bought his house, the walls were pink. But we did not have a pink bathroom. You can check out our befores and afters here: http://lovelylittleadventure.blogspot.com/

<3 Ash

REGALROSE said...

What an amazing pad! How exciting!! Good luck with it all!! Love it! x

www.behindthescenesatregalrose.blogspot.com

rachelinaustin said...

Jealous! What an amazing home. I can't wait to see what you all do with it. Keep the pictures coming!!!

Ali @ His Birdie's Nest said...

That house is amazing! I am in love with all your tile.
I'm so excited to read about your renovations! You are going to blog about it, right?

la glick said...

I can't wait to see what you guys do with this place! It makes me jealous-I've always wanted to undertake a giant renovation. You should send all your before/after photos to design*sponge-they'd be all over this!

Erin Cox said...

When you titled this post "behemoth" you weren't kidding! Sounds like a lot of work, but when you're all done you'll be so so so happy! And you'll have one heck of a story to tell when you talk about all the work you guys put in.

What a gorgeous house with so much potential. I just love old homes with history.. and now you get to make your own. : )

Congratulations on the new project and a beautiful new home!

Lauren @The Little Things We Do.... said...

oh my goodness! your house is my dream house! so much potential. craig would be green with envy if i showed him these photos. good luck with all the remodels. i can't wait to see the "after" shots!

Kelly @ turned UP to ELEVEN! said...

WOW!!! That is a huge home, and a ton of work but man is it going to be amazing when you are done! You are so lucky to come from such a handy family - I would love to purchase a fixer upper half this size if I knew I had people to help I'd do it in a heartbeat! Congrats on your home!!!