Our fix-er-upper, Before.

About two and a half years ago, Michael and I were making wedding preparations, and we decided that, once we were married, we would need a place to live. We discussed renting, but we decided we wanted our money to bring us a better return. We chose, instead, to buy an affordable home then fix it up gradually. We found one in a nice little town, equidistant from both sides of our families and from both of our workplaces and close to the family farm--not too close but not excessively far.

Michael was the advocate of this house, while I cautiously calculated the cost of the many renovations it would need to make it livable. I gave in, though, and we went for it. It has been a challenge, but I believe our efforts will be worth it in the end. 

Here are some "before" pictures of our house. These were taken by Michael and emailed to me in order to convince me to buy it...

 The front with its lovely and well-kept greenery and gorgeous paint job. 

My mother in law, Janet, walking up to the house. 

 Side view of topiary. 

The view down the hill from the front porch. This I liked. The yard had been left unkempt for a very long time, though. 

It was like a field! 

Backyard. Very small compared to front. Lots of creepy little yard ornaments. Gave me nightmares. 

Back porch with cover...lovely leafless lattice. 

 

Shop. This was actually in nice condition for the most part. 

Front door/screen...you can see the topiary from here. 

Entrance into the laundry room from the garage. The industrial carpet/ cheap linoleum is a real bonus. 

The laundry room with its oh so subtle color scheme. This is the biggest 

laundry room I've seen in my life, I'm pretty sure. 

My hubby! (Fiance at the time) View into the kitchen from laundry. 

Nice big kitchen. I actually loved the oven. Too bad it shorted out later. :( 

More kitchen. The little fat cooks on the wall were a major selling point. 

Isn't that wallpaper lovely? It's hard to tell, but that doorway is really narrow 

so that they couldn't put a table in the kitchen so they

 ate in the living room. We widened it later.

Giant living room! Droopy fan. We never could figure out 

what happened to the poor old dear.

 Second Bedroom. (Became office).

 Main Bath. I wouldn't have minded the tile if it wasn't falling off of the 

wall in spots. Gotta love that linoleum!

Different view. Looks into office. (Third Bedroom)

 

 Hall.

 

Master Bedroom. You know, the carpet doesn't look too bad in these bedrooms. Unless you know it was originally cream colored and if you lifted up the vents it looked like they heated their house with smoke. (The carpet cleaner didn't get under the vents.)  It was nasty.

 View through the master bath and into the KITCHEN!! Yes, you could walk directly from the master bedroom into the kitchen through the master bath (which consisted of a toilet and a sink).

Third bedroom. Michael artfully avoided the wall completely papered in Mighty Ducks!!