House Pictures Before and After: the Extension

When I bought this house in 2002, I remember my mother shaking her head.

I started dating Max shortly after the purchase (or right around the time I purchased it) and I remember him shaking his head and thinking I was crazy.

I kinda thought so too.

I can't tell you enough of the horror stories on how this house looked when I bought it, but here are a few highlights:

-linoleum in the kitchen that was worn so thin you could see the subfloor through it

- so many mouse turds in the kitchen cabinets that it looked like someone had spilled a bag of thistle seed

- dark brown paint EVERYWHERE -- and occasional spots of primer randomly rolled over it

- carpet that was really off-white, but looked brown

The list could go on and on.  But, we all know that a picture is worth a thousand words, so let me introduce you to the "Extension" in 2002:

Lovely z-brick walls.  That is a shelf for a wood burning stove back there (they took the stove with them).  No heat.  A brick "mantle" covering only half of the floor.  Paneling...oodles of panelling...painted white.  Pretty, no?

But, I was living there alone (I did finally get a roommate), living on a very VERY small (non-profit) salary, and only having limited time and funds to work on fixing the house.  Priorities were there.  Did I mention there was no heat in this room?  And that the windows were basically so crappy that you could feel air coming through them?  My first year there, I nailed an old comforter up to the door frame to keep the drafts from coming out into the main house.  Seriously. 

When Max moved to WI, he helped tackle this room.  We gutted the walls to the studs and replaced the panelling with drywall.  We insulated the HECK out of the room...surprisingly they hadn't done this!  Crazy.  So, here it is looking a little better...the floors were in pretty bad condition, and we knew we needed to get those refinished -- and we needed to replace the windows. 

It is a really LONG room, and therefore difficult to place furniture in.  As you can see from this lovely photo, I used it mainly as a workout room and catch all for lots of junk...

But, hard work paid off!  We got the floors refinished, the windows replaced and furniture arranged.  Thanks to my awesome realtor, I also got a hold of the photos they will be using for our listing (which goes up tomorrow...yikes!), so enjoy the professional shots of the room today.  Not bad, eh?



We really enjoy this room now!  Almost makes it hard to leave....