#century home

[minak0s]

Pantry Kitchen in St Louis Inspiration for a small Victorian pantry remodel with a medium tone wood floor, flat-panel cabinets, green cabinets, and marble countertops.

[mandsleanan]

*Looking at latest invoice for home renovation*

I should have bought the avocado toast.

[benonirosehouse]

I don't really go for "beginner friendly" options. When I got my first dog, I drove two and a half hours to pick up the only free option on Craigslist, an unruly hound/pit mix with emotional baggage. It took him five years to learn recall. When I wanted a reliable car to daily drive and work on by myself? I bought a 20 year old European station wagon.

My fiancee loves a project too. And we're both hopeless romantics. So when we were ready to buy a house, the Zillow filters were brutal. Built before 1900? Not interested. Grey floored flips need not apply. Open floor plans? No thank you, I have art to hang and that requires walls. Give me rooms!

We went to an open house for an 1850s colonial Greek Revival in the northern part of the state. It was gorgeous, and had so much potential, but the commute was a drag and it needed... more than we were capable of. After months (years, really who am I kidding) of daydreaming, we looked at that house and realized there are DIY's that we aren't ready for.

We kept scanning MLS listings, and got a little nervous about whether we'd find something in our budget that fit our criteria. We met our mortgage broker-recommended realtor for the first time to see a 1920s Cape in the southern part of the state. (1920's, I know. We were really nervous for a second an threw our criteria out the window.) The location was amazing but the yard was tiny, and we would have needed a rehab loan. We realized this realtor wasn't terribly invested in our search. We didn't make an offer. We decided to recommit to waiting around for the house at our price point.

A good friend connected me with his best friend and realtor, Ron. We talked on the phone and Ron got it. He was unfazed by the fact that we didn't care which town we found a house in. It made perfect sense to him that we cared more about the property and the architecture. We talked about the difference between tacky brick Greek Revivals with huge pillars (not an option) and gorgeous wood Greek revivals with beautifully intricate details (totally an option). He got that we didn't care if it was a 1700s farmhouse or an 1870s gingerbread Victorian. Ron's brother is a contractor. His mother lovingly restores historic homes. We were on the same page. Ron was looking out for an old house that was a great example of whatever it was built to be. We had found our guy.

We didn't even get to go looking for houses with him. The day after our call, we saw a listing for an open house for an 1882 vernacular Victorian in an area we spend a lot of time in. We went to see it that Sunday while Ron was with other clients. We were immediately in love. There were so many couples coming in and out, and honestly we were certain we'd be outbid. It's hard to have hope when you park your legal-to-drink station wagon in a lot surrounded by late model year BMWs. The house was on the National Register. The house had a snippet on Wikipedia(!).

We left the open house and called Ron from a parking lot down the street. "We want this one!" Ron and I planned to go back together the next day, and after he saw it too, he gave his blessing for us to put in an offer.

In the year of our lord 2023, you probably think you know where this story is about to go. A bidding war, tears, anxiety!

Nope. Ron helped us craft our best possible offer, advising on non-monetary bonuses that could set us apart. We were going to need to find a subletter regardless, so could give the seller plenty of time until closing. We were unafraid of old plaster, lead, and asbestos, so we promised not to nitpick after inspection (well, we have a healthy respect for lead and asbestos, but it's not keeping us out of our dream home). Ron built a rapport with the sellers agents who were also incredibly easy to work with. And the BMW driving hordes of open house people? While we were looking at our dream home, they must have been looking at tiny bedrooms, a wildly dated kitchen, and some choice wallpaper decisions. Ours was the first offer, and it was accepted right away.

There's a lot of work to do! But I like things that need work.

[louciferish]

We went out to clear a brush pile the previous owners kindly left behind for us and uncovered this area beneath it. Wood and stone frame, filled in with bricks? The brick has been there so long it was covered in 2+ inches of dirt and weeds at places and it seems this big tree grew up through the laid bricks.

[dirt-mccracken]

As much as I want to be a wholly joyous about the fact that Henry Kissinger is finally fucking dead, as he deserves... There's a lot of me that can't help being upset with. With the fact that he lived to 100 years old. He got better medical care, better housing, and a better, more stable life for those 100 years than billions on this planet ever going to see and he did it specifically through exploitation, state sanctioned murder, and lies. He lived to 100 years comfortably on a legacy of violence that rarely threatened his personal comfort. I want to be joyous that he's finally dead, because the world IS better with him dead, but the reality is he won a long time ago.

[bloumiddel]

Toronto Porch Inspiration for a large timeless front porch remodel

[thedailymobile]

“Convergence”

© EricBrazier.com

[swanatlast]

Library - Transitional Living Room

Living room library - mid-sized transitional enclosed medium tone wood floor and brown floor living room library idea with gray walls, a standard fireplace, a stone fireplace and no tv

[vintagehomecollection]

Beyond The Kitchen: A Dreamer’s Guide, 1985

[saeori]

Transitional Porch Toronto Inspiration for a large transitional stamped concrete back porch remodel with a roof extension

[napleonsolo]

Transitional Living Room - Living Room Living room library idea: mid-sized transitional enclosed room with medium-tone wood flooring and brown walls. It has a standard fireplace, a stone fireplace, and no television.

[valkyrierps]

Toronto Porch

[benonirosehouse]

Kitchen Closet Part Two: Big Plans for a Little Space

(If you haven't read Part One, start here) Remember how terrifying the under-the-stairs-closet aka Kitchen Cave was looking in our last installment? It's looking much less horrifying. But it's not ready yet, because just when I am about to kinda half-ass something, J abandons her sensible nature and decides we need a beautiful closet, not just a functional one.

It's also not ready yet because we both work full time and have lives. Our mistake!

But in between working and living and beginning to totally restore the upstairs bathroom, we have had time to get somewhere with the closet. The exposed stairs had been half painted white and were stained, grimy, and very gross. We've primed them with Kilz and caulked them, and also primed the plywood floor as well. (You may be wondering why the floor is plywood. I looked in the cellar to see if the original floor was there, and it's not. It looks like there was a staircase down to the cellar at one point that was removed. That also seems to have something to do with the "temporary" support columns down there. We'll add it to the "ask a structural engineer" list.) Enjoy a little Before & After of our progress!

The door frame was (is) in horrible shape, and had been painted white over cream around the fridge, so some of it was... still cream. Thankfully, I have some white trim paint hanging around just because. I never thought I'd be so excited to hit something in my own home with the landlord special, but that's what the door frame got! The impact that white paint has had cannot possibly be overstated. Someday we'll actually fix the door frame, but that day is not today.

There was a shelf above the fridge when it was in the closet, and that shelf is made of the same plywood the floor is. There's a bit of space at the back of the closet that needs covering to even it all out for some laminate, and thankfully we have a free plywood scrap that fits the bill! Yeah, I said laminate. It's awful, I know. But it's a closet! And it's plywood! And we have so many visible parts of the house to spend money on beautifying. It just didn't seem worth even another dollar per square foot to use bamboo. I hopped on FB marketplace and found someone's insanely cheap (and low quality, but whatever) leftover stick-on vinyl planks in a decent color, and we're going to slap that straight on the plywood. J grimaced about it but agreed. There's a lot of shit to fix in this house, we may as well save where we can. Of course the plaster is cracked and in some places crumbling. I ordered a "homeowners" Plaster Magic kit and that's the next step in this journey. These walls were only ever hit with one light lime wash, so no paint stripping required to fix and then lime paint the walls. I thought we were going to paint the walls some version of white, put a cheap light in there, and call it a closet. However, after what felt like an hour of deliberation in the lighting section at Home Depot, we decided to go online instead and buy an attractive light fixture instead of a more utilitarian option. J, it turns out, wants a pretty closet, given that we'll be looking inside it every day. I was surprised, but happy to oblige. While we were shopping on the internet, we ordered rod brackets so we can hang our coats, and a tension rod. Someday we'll have closet door to match the other (seven!) doors in the space, but in the meantime, a curtain's going to have to serve.

Since we decided to make the space a bit nicer, we picked a cute blush color for the walls, Native from Color Atelier.

Looking forward to learning about plaster repair! Will post about it next time :)

[paininthejas]

Old houses have character— for example we must bludgeon our water heater with the butt of an axe once weekly to get it to keep doing its job.

[scaredeverything]

Living Room - Library

[ahomeformyself]

Rooting for this 💜