Robert and I were married 1 year ago last month. When we got married, my brother and sister-in-law were living in Germany and needed someone to take care of their house while they were gone. Perfect for Robert and I since we had no house! We decided that we'd like an inexpensive home that we could fix up. We also wanted some land to go with the house since Robert enjoys hobby farming. After looking at many foreclosed homes, we were ready to give up on the house hunting. All the houses we looked at and made offers on fell through. While we had nearly given up on ever finding a house, Robert's mom had not.
Norma heard about a house in Saranac (a village east of Lowell which has a population of nearly 1500!) that would be up for sale soon. Robert contacted the owner's brother (who would be inheriting the house once the owner passed away), and arranged a time for us to look at it.
Here's a little history about the house. It was built in the late 1800's, sometime around the Civil War. We have a picture of it from after the Civil War when the owner's great-great-grandfather (not really sure how many greats) returned from the war. It is absolutely beautiful! We'd love to make the house look similar to the picture we have! The house was passed down from one generation to another; we are the first owners out of the family. The man who most recently owned it (Wayne) used to own the movie theater in Saranac. When he closed the theater, he moved a screen and theater chairs into his house where he hosted movie nights for friends around town. He'd pop popcorn for the guests and show old films. Unfortunately, by the time I got to see the house, the theater equipment was removed, and all that was left was a boarded up window where the screen was and carpet on the walls (I assume for sound purposes).
What a shock it was when we were able to walk through it! The house had not been updated since the 60's or 70's. The entire living room was green...green walls, green carpet! There was a "theater room" and a "projection room", not something I'd ever thought I'd have in my house. Although the house wasn't the farm house on 5 acres that we dreamed of, we loved the house! It is a 1,200 square foot 1 1/2 story house on a 1/2 acre lot in town. Robert's friends like to tease him because he's "town folk" now, and he was the last person anyone expected to move in to town. :)
I could go on and on telling about the house, but I'll just make this short. We thought we were going to throw up a fresh coat of paint and remove the 40- or 50-year-old carpet before we moved in. However, that is not what happened. We closed on the house on December 17th, the same day Aaron and Jessica returned from Germany. We ended up living with them for 2 months while we gutted the main floor of our "new" house.
Although we have already come a long way on the house, we still have a long way to go. I hope that you enjoy watching our (slow) progress as we transform our house! And be warned, it may be another month or 2 before you hear from me again!
These are pictures of our kitchen when we first looked at the house. It is quite small, and extremely cramped with the table in it. So far we have removed the stove (and we have yet to replace it), replaced the sink with a brand new $10 sink from Lowes (it has a couple minor dents in it), replaced the faucet with an old faucet from Norma, removed the hideous hardware from the cabinets, and painted the walls white. Oh! And we've removed the lovely green carpet. Lots to do to the kitchen still, but it is already greatly improved! I thought I had a current picture of the kitchen to put up, but apparently I don't. I'll have to add that later...
Our bedroom was the main priority when we bought the house. We decided that all we needed was a bedroom; we could live with the rest of the house the way it was. We'd just be living in a dusty mess for a while.
The picture on the left is the theater room. The black area is where a window was removed and a theater screen was put in. On the right is what our bedroom looks like now. We removed the green carpet, tore down the walls and ceiling, and had the room down to studs. The ceiling is sloped, so Robert had to do some of his handy work to make the ceiling more supported. After a little insulation, dry wall, carpet, and paint, our once theater room was a perfect bedroom for us! Our brass bed is from my great-grandpa (Huisman), and I love it! The side table is from Robert's grandpa, and it was the perfect fit for the small area next to the bed.
Ok, that is all for my first night blogging! I'll be putting up more pics of what we have done so far!
