Our extreme home make-over (a.k.a. architectural botox)
11.16.2007
The other day I was looking through all of the messy renovation photos from our first home. There's such a strong story that emanates from them. I really wanted to find a special way to put them all together in a special place for us to look back on them as we grow older. So I was excited to rediscover the link on making linen bound books, sitting right there in front of me on Iphoto the other evening. That ping of inspiration hit me. Since then I've been forging my way through all of the hundreds of photographs I've taken over the past few years putting together this book to give to Shawn this Christmas. (Shh-- it's a secret.)
The previous owner was using the home as a domestic agency, and hadn't given the house any love since the 1970's. It had all of the ugly details that would scare off prospective buyers in a trendy historic neighborhood. Dark faux paneling throughout the living room, old brown industrial carpeting, wooden shingles and mirrors on the bedroom wall (yes, that's true!), and a front yard that was 3 inches deep of rocks with overgrown yuccas and sego palms.
Her own decor was really interesting too, as the house was chock full of religious icons, faux flower arrangements, & old autographed celebrity photographs... for goodness sake, there was even a large poster of a holographic Pope on the kitchen wall! That and well, nothing was functional. But it had cute lines, and was in a really good neighborhood at a decent price, so we couldn't help but see it as anything less then a gem in the rough. A lot of people thought we were crazy, and told us so repeatedly. Yet something about it still felt right about it to us, and all of the doors opened up one after another to make this crazy feat possible.
We affectionately called the blue painted front of the house, the "hollywood effect". As the rest of the house (the sides that weren't visible to the street traffic) were still covered with old white crumbly paint for the first few months.
I loved our kitchen. It was huge! You can catch a glimpse of how it originally looked in the upper right hand corner. Our first mission in the house was to clean up everything, so a coat of white paint and sticky tiles were our quick fix until the floors were later striped down to the fir wood floor underneath. We also added wainscoting and subway tiles. (We couldn't part with our vintage stove, it later moved up here with us to Oregon!)
Most of the "before" photos are too scary to show here in public (at least for my taste), my favorite pages are the "after". I still like to look at them with a deep knowing that anything is possible. Even with our tight budget.
It helped to build an Oasis around the chaos of the mess of renovation and the noises of saws and hammers. 4 years later when we decided it was time for us to move on the buyer told me that it was our little "paradise on Glassell". Hmm, now wouldn't that be a great title for the book!? (I really need a good title though, any brilliant ideas?!)
Back in March I had posted about brightening up our dark paneled kitchen. Yep, I'm the slowest contractor ever... I'm still working on it! This past week I've been wallpapering above the paneling with cherry blossom paper I ordered from Tapettitalo. I still have a lot of work to do on this room, but I'm definitely making great waves of progress.
P.S. As I write this Shawn is trying to figure out the best way to park the vintage airstream that came home today. Oh my!
Starting over again with another old house that's a fixer, has left me wondering "why? why? why?!" Especially when dealing with bad DIY from the 70's. Certain thoughts have kept me going though. I know all too well that rennovation takes a lot of time, hard work, and patience. But somedays I'm left with the feeling that maybe what I really need is the will & strength of 10 Greek gods to get me through it!
Lately I've been painting out the dingy dark paneling in our kitchen. As I've been getting lost in the flow of it, the ideas have been coming to me of what should come next.
I painted the interior of the cabinet in the same aqua as my studio. I'll be adding small halogen lights inside, and new glass gumdrop knobs.
I love the way light reflects off white walls. It's such a simple fix for a clean and fresh makeover. It's definitely working in helping me hang on until we're able to build our dream kitchen someday.
See that? Even the butterflies look happy.
The before picture is from the last owner, if only you could glimpse the odd things she was displaying in that cabinet!
