This is our quaint little 1960s house. Our first house. Our dated and boring, but well-maintained house. We have a lot of work to do on it, and I’d like to invite you along for the ride.
One of my main goals with this blog is to chronicle the SLOW and sporadic (let’s be honest) progress of our fixer-upper renovations. We bought our first house, a 1960 cape cod, in August of 2015, with the ambitious plan to explore its potential and bring its dated aspects into the twenty-teens.
We picked this house out of the many dozens that we looked at because it seemed like the safest and most appropriate inaugural property for know-nothing fixer-uppers like ourselves. It was in good, clean, structurally sound condition; it wasn’t so aged that we’d be dealing with money-guzzling electrical hazards, foundation issues, toxic building materials, etc.; and it was in a great location, which assured us that our investments could add value to the home in a financially meaningful way. But, it was still dated and uninteresting enough that we could do a lot to update, customize, and enhance the aesthetics of the property while fulfilling my pent up desire to finally unleash my creative energies onto a home. Three years in, and I’m still glad we picked this quirky little place.
So far the extent of our “improvements” have involved tearing things apart without putting them back. As such, our family (me, husband, and our two toddlers) and have been living among demolished dry wall and exposed wires pretty much since we moved into the place. This has been a complete joy ride for my naturally impatient and perfectionist nature.
Our biggest projects consist of the total renovations of:
- the living room (complete gut job – new everything)
- the stairwell (dated wood paneling and cavernous layout)
- the dining room (formerly the formal living room, as this house had no designated eating area)
- the kitchen (insane layout with retro General Electric metal cabinets and laminate flooring)
- the upstairs bathroom (1960s powder pink as far as the eye can see)
- the deck (which had been improperly installed and created water damage along the sill plate of our living room foundation)
- carpet removal and hardwood installation on entire second level
- sanding and refinishing the original hardwood floors of first level
We also have a lot of small, DIY, budget-friendly projects that I have in mind to simply add more visual interest and charm to the house. When I say our house is “boring,” what I mean is that its your typical 1960s straight-edge, minimalist, plain-jane type house. Flat hollow core doors, basic trim, hardware, and fixtures, and every square inch of it primed white. Alternatively, my favorite kind of houses are old and have those unique historic details in all of the tiniest clever places. Our house is entirely lacking in those, so my secondary goal with our 1960s house is to add some of those thoughtful visual details in. That way I can have the security of a not-so old house, as well as some of the aesthetic charm of the older homes that I love.
We tore some of the major areas listed above down to the studs back in 2015 (living room, stairwell, dining room, deck) and have yet to put them back to rights. When we eventually make some inroads on that widespread mess there will be many long-awaited progress reports and celebratory Instagram posts! Please stick around so you can watch our progress, share ideas, or commiserate with me when, in true fixer-upper fashion, these things take way more time, money, and effort to complete than you anticipated. I’ll be glad to have the company.
Definitely to be continued…
