Two weeks ago Saturday marked the fourth month of renovation on our little country cottage, and it also happens to be the day we finished our major indoor projects.
Several of you asked to see our before and after pics. So I thought I’d use today’s post to share those with you.
But first let me say how much Hubby and I consider our new home to be a special gift from God. Quite honestly, we had considerable doubts about this house and even came close to walking away from our offer and losing the escrow money we had put down.
As we’ve made the needed improvements, we are glimpsing God’s goodness on a regular basis. In many ways, it’s as if this house is the perfect conglomerate of every home we’ve ever lived in! Just to share one such example, I had a plethora of blue morning glories at a home we had in East Texas. And guess what? The blue morning glories in the opening photo popped up at our new home without me having to plant them! A miracle and blessing from God to be sure! And a vivid reminder that He is indeed a Good, Good Father.
Let me also say how much we truly appreciate all the prayers offered up for us as we sold our home in New Mexico, moved across four states, bought, renovated and moved into this house. You’ve been such a blessing, and we’ve felt your prayers through the highs and lows associated with a move.
Our new home is a country cottage built in 1946. I should probably go ahead and give a disclaimer here. Many of you saw the before and after pics of our New Mexico mountain home and mini cabin. For the renovation of our new home we had a much tighter budget, mainly because we had to have all the electrical and plumbing re-done on this house, along with major foundation work and replacing the HVAC system. So our after pics probably won’t seem as dramatic as they were on the mountain home. That being said, this home perfectly suits our laid-back style, and we love its peaceful simplicity and location.
Our New Home – The Front Room/Entryway
This pic of the front door shows some of the dark colors we were confronted with. The door opened up into the dining room and kitchen. That seemed like an odd layout to us, so we opted to change this area into a multi-tasking room: an entryway/piano room/office, as well as a pantry and second bathroom.
The old kitchen (photo on right) smelled as bad as it looked. After yanking out those old cabinets we found out why. I won’t gross you out with the details, but let it be said that this place was beyond unsanitary. In addition, it was not at all functional since putting in a refrigerator closed off a big chunk of the cabinets and made them unusable.
Here are some photos taken during the renovation:
The wallboard is up and taped and bedded in this pic. Hubby and I did this sort of work ourselves in order to save money. The work we hired out included electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and house leveling.
Here’s the new entryway/office. We used blue-gray paint to cover up the dark paneling. This space also serves as a piano room.
We also used the same blue-gray color in the new bathroom. Because it is small in space we put in a pedestal sink, a small shower, and toilet. What the room lacks in size, it makes up for in charm! We love the crisp white juxtaposed against the dark walls.
We still have a few minor things in this area that we’d like to do at some point. We want to add a faux beam to the ceiling to match the one in the kitchen. I also want to frost the front door window with a sign that gives it a cottage-y name and “Est. 1946.” One wall is in pretty rough shape, so I’m considering adding fake ship-lap to cover it up. Thank you, Joanna Gaines from HGTV’s Fixer Upper for introducing me to ship-lap! :) And the new walls are waaaay too smooth to match the old walls. At some point, we’ll add texture to them.
Our New Home – Relocating the Kitchen
We’re guessing that this space was the original living area, just one room off of the front door (which opened into the dining room/kitchen).
I don’t know if you can tell by the photo or not, but the paneling was pieced together on one wall, and the lines didn’t match up at all. This area was really dark, and there were places where the paneling appeared faded. We tore out the paneling and the sheet rock on the back wall so we could have plumbing, electrical, and propane lines installed for the new kitchen location.
To match the cottage-y look and feel of the house with the budget in mind, we decided to keep it simple. We used stock unfinished cabinets from Surplus Warehouse and “doctored” them by adding paintable bead-board wallpaper (yes, there is such a thing) and faux “legs.” I really wanted the cabinets to look more like furniture than kitchen cabinets. We intentionally didn’t use upper cabinets in the traditional sense, opting to showcase the large window and outside view instead.
In the places where we used upper cabinets, we used them in non-traditional ways to create more furniture pieces and a stacked pantry. Here are a few pics of the kitchen in progress:
Our kitchen island is three 24-inch base cabinets placed side by side. But since cabinets don’t have a finished back we had to find an economical way to cover them that tied in with the country cottage look we were going for. I stained cedar fence pickets with a gray stain to give it the look of weathered barn wood. We cut these in half, and finished the back side of the island for about $20.
We laid a piece of plywood across the island for a temporary work surface during the renovation. And in case you’re wondering…yes, we lived in the house during this mess!
Here we’re carving out a doorway for the pantry addition (part of the old kitchen space).
And here are the after photos:
A view of the kitchen from the front door.
This is one of the furniture pieces we built from an unfinished cabinet. We added feet, a wooden counter, and the upper shelves to create a rustic coffee bar.
Right beside the coffee bar we added dish shelves. Believe it or not, I actually enjoy the convenience of having the dishes out on open shelves.
This photo shows a close-up of the island on the right and the cabinets on the back wall to the left. The back cabinets and stacked pantry cabinets (shown later in a different photo) are painted white, while the island and “furniture” pieces are painted blue-gray. The cabinet hardware was salvaged from the old kitchen cabinets. If you look closely, you can also see the bead-board wallpaper which we applied to the door panels. You can also see the faux “feet” we added to the cabinets to make them more countrified and furniture-like. We saved a bunch of money by using wooden shelving material for the countertops.
This pic shows the cedar boards and stools. I purchased the three stools at Walmart for under $100. The seats were really reddish in color, so I sanded them down and stained them the same color as the countertops. It made them look several years old, which is exactly the look I hoped to achieve.
Our second piece of cabinet/furniture holds our pots and pans, but above it I framed out a section and painted it with chalkboard paint. I’ve absolutely LOVED having this place to be creative. I’m currently using it to write out memory verses. It has really helped us be more consistent about memorizing scripture.
We stacked three wall cabinets on top of each other to create a cabinet especially for food. The barn door to the left of the pantry has been a long-time dream of mine and was fairly easy to build. While a bit more expensive than a regular door, it wasn’t that much more. I used the same gray stain that I used on the back of the island to make the wood look like it came from an old barn. The door slides open for more pantry space.
Here’s an inside shot of one end of the pantry. At the time this pic was taken, we were actually letting the paint dry before moving stuff onto the shelves.
As a self-confessed word nerd, I am spelling out words throughout the house. The word for the kitchen is “HOME.” This kitchen is the heart of our new home in every sense of the word, but it also reminds me that my true home awaits! I used an old branch for my curtain rod and cut apart a grapevine wreath to allow the vine to wrap around the rod for more of that country cottage feel.
Our New Home – Living & Dining Area
Believe it or not, this orange-y wood room is what sold me on this house. I could see its potential. Hubby wasn’t so convinced.
This space originally served as a carport for the house, but the minute I saw it I thought “family room.” It’s right next to the new kitchen, and both Hubby and I now consider this area our favorite space in the house.
By the way, that’s a big honkin’ entertainment center you see at the far end. We ripped that out to accommodate a china hutch and farmhouse table. We used the salvaged materials from the demo to build our chicken coop (pictures later).
Here’s another pic of the same space. As you can tell, the room has oodles of windows. Love, love, LOVE the natural light in this room. Below you’ll find the after photos.
Here’s the area we created out of the space that once held the big honkin’ built-in entertainment center. I repainted the legs to the farmhouse table (Hubby built it with a friend’s help) to return them to their original white. We’d still like to find some white ladderback chairs to replace these folding chairs. As you can tell, my word for this room is “Gather.” The story behind the china hutch? My paternal grandmother found this lying in an alley behind a barbershop, drug it home, and cleaned it up. It’s a very unique piece once used to house barber supplies. The blue-and-white Currier & Ives dishes are special too. Both of my grandmothers had these dishes as I was growing up.
Here’s a photo from the other end of the room. We laid the new laminate floor we found at a great price at Sam’s Club over the existing tile (which had some places we couldn’t patch). The little butler’s table at the back left of the picture is a table my daddy built for me out of some wood from a shed we tore down at the very first home we owned. I painted a checkerboard on the top and set it up with checkers. Already my oldest grandson and I have enjoyed many games of checkers. The little chairs by the table are from my maternal grandparents’ home, where I spent many happy years as a child. Some things I’d still like to do in this area? Add some white to the curtains, reupholster the living room furniture, paint the ceiling white, and add some faux trusses/beams to make it look more like a barn. #I’mSoCountry
I know this photo might make you question why I included it, but it comes with such a good story I just have to share it. This was actually the first item we bought for the house. I was perusing the Lowe’s website one day and stumbled across this stove for $35. At first I thought there had to be some mistake. I changed store locations and found the same stove nearby for over $1000. Hubby and I decided to buy the $35 version online just to see what would happen. We shortly received an email to let us know the stove was ready to pick up. We went reluctantly, certain they would see their mistake and send us back home empty-handed. But to our surprise, the guys wheeled it to the counter for us and said it had been sitting in the back of their warehouse for some time and they were cleaning house. So this is our $1000 stove that only cost us $35! #AnotherGodGift
This shot is taken from the dining area. My word for this space is “family,” and I even had help from our oldest grandson in painting the letters above the doorway. The coffee table was originally a wooden box that housed a wood stove we bought in New Mexico for that house. Though I still need to paint it, I love that it’s on casters and has a lid so we can store toys inside.
Our New Home – Sleeping Quarters
All three bedrooms needed LOTS of work, even though you might not be able to tell it from the photos. They were painted a pastel shade of green and all the rooms had missing trim. In addition, all the closets needed major work.
The middle bedroom has awkward storage above the closets and the doors to that were painted purple. All the windows in the house were dark brown and foreboding. One of my first chores was spray painting all the interior window trim white.
The good thing about all three bedrooms is that they have built-in dressers. I’ve since learned that this was common in this area in the 1960s, so I’m guessing that’s when those were added. Even though the bedrooms are on the tiny side, having the built-ins makes them feel less cramped.
Below are the after pics. Every room received a fresh coat of white paint, new trim, and work on the closets. I normally like a little color on the walls, but I opted to go all white in the bedrooms. I just gotta say that I’m loving it!
Since this bedroom with the trundle bed will be for when the grandkids sleep over, I’m doing it in blues and pinks. The current bedding is only temporary. I have a quilt top (in blues and pinks) that my grandmother hand-stitched with her grandmother. I’m going to quilt it for this bed. Though you can’t tell by looking, the artwork in the photo is an old barn with quilts hanging on the fence. One of those quilts is blue and pink! And my word for this room is “Dream.” This room will pull double duty as my craft and sewing room.
Our New Home – Outside
This is what the house looked like when we purchased it. The photo may be too small to tell, but there’s a big gaping hole in the faschia that we have since repaired. We’ve also added guttering, rain barrels, a garden, taken down the green shutters (still need to repaint and rehang), painted the front door and trim white, and sealed up the brick work and repainted it.
Though we still have oodles of work to do outside, you can catch a few after photos below.
I used the shelves from the big honkin’ entertainment center to create an outdoor porch chalkboard that I can change with the seasons or as needed.
Growing flowers in New Mexico was somewhat difficult because of poor soil, a short growing season, and the altitude. I was itching to plant flowers when we moved back!
My Pawpaw was a farmer, and this horseshoe belonged to him. We’ve carried it with us from home to home, and we’re hoping this is its final resting place! :)
Besides planting flowers, I’ve also been itching to get back to tending chickens. (Okay, I’ll ‘fess up. It’s really the fresh eggs I miss.) Anyway, we used part of the big honkin’ entertainment center for the siding, old kitchen cabinet doors for the chicken entrance and the entrance to the nesting boxes, and for the roof a piece of siding that was removed when the house levelers basically rebuilt the underneath side of our home. Our baby chicks arrived over a week ago, so Hubby and I spent recent time finishing up the coop and building a fence around it. All that’s left now is painting.
Wrap-Up
That’s all I have to show you at this point, but I hope you’ve enjoyed the photos. Let me say thanks again for all the prayers and encouraging words during this crazy and chaotic time in our life. And I’m especially grateful to the Lord for His Presence with us every step of the way!
COMMENT CHIT-CHAT: What projects do you currently have going on or in the planning stages?