AND NOW!!

the family before us had filled the front area with rocks. the dead plants had been there for 20 years or so...

so nigel and i moved the rocks to under the porch, pulled up all the roots, mixed fertilizer into the dirt and built a little hill in the back for some visual interest

and viola!! the japanese maple has grown a new sprout and the other plants are enjoying their new home. i used recycled rubber tires for mulch!!

walking in from the front door you first hit the living room which was separated from the dining room with this arched doorway and a big useless wall.

so down came the wall!

we've provided a bit of visual separation between the rooms with wall color and a little bookshelf

this is taken from that arch in the picture above. this is the dining room. dale is standing in the office behind and the kitchen is to the right through that small doorway.

so down came that wall too! we wanted to open up the flow a bit so the kitchen isn't so walled off from the rest of the house.

the result is an open, flowing space between the dining room and kitchen

the entire house was covered in crappy carpet.

 

right: while stripping and refinishing the downstairs floors, we found more cracks than just those in the floors... hheeyyooo!!

dale kicked ass on the bamboo floors upstairs. the picture below is the before and after shot of the stripped and stained floors downstairs.

the kitchen wallpaper and plastic tile wall were awesome. the picture above shows the only door to the only bathroom in the house. the door to the right goes out to the dining room. the picture below is taken from the other side of the kitchen. the entrance to the dining room is on the left and the back door leading to the garage is in the back of the kitchen.

my big fat pregnant belly didn't slow me down as we started the kitchen demolition! the picture below is of the kitchen wall - dale is standing in what was the doorway to the bathroom

above is the final masterpiece! we kept the original cast iron sink and moved it so it sits under the window. We moved the stove as well to take the space where the bathroom door was. the picture below is a close up of the disco inferno recycled glass tile!

this is the office in the back of the house. the open door leads out into the dining room. the door to the left is a closet.

so down came that wall too! we took out the closet to make room for an open, airy flow between the kitchen, the back door and the office.

this is taken from the kitchen into the office.

nigel's room - the door in the back and right is to a closet that wasn't much of a closet since it was only 4 feet tall and followed the slope of the roof.

i busted down a wall to reveal an empty space! we figured we could use it for a closet. we also raised the ceiling to make the small room seem bigger. that's recycled denim insulation.

this is the bedroom in between Nigel's room at the front of the house and the master bedroom at the back.

(right) we turned it into an upstairs bathroom! that sexy devil in the picture below is showing how we cleaned ourselves during the renovations. we've also been washing our hands and brushing our teeth in the tub since we have no sinks.

more recycled glass tile along with a couple of pebble walls and glass shower door. there's also pebble all around the tub. it makes you feel like you're showering in a cave - so awesome!

this is the master bedroom. the open door the left goes into another 4-foot tall sloping closet. the door next to the window leads you out to the roof above the kitchen.

(right) we busted down walls and raised the ceiling in here too. the picture below shows me kicking more ass on moving day (7 months pregnant!)

we built in a bigger closet and included some washer dryer hook-ups. in the next phase of our construction, we'll make a dormer on the side of the house so we can stack a washer dryer there in its own closet. then we'll expand the bedroom out over the currently empty roof... but for now, we're DONE!!