Monday, October 31, 2011

A little makeup does wonders

Does this house look familiar? The pictures were taken in 2000 and sometime later.
Even the Sergeant didn't recognize the house he lives in now.
I had to cajole the previous homeowners to get these photos, and I wish I had more. Still, it's neat to see even this much.

The house was built in 1894, and it's been through a lot of changes. When the previous owners bought it in 2000, it was covered with aluminum siding and had cheap aluminum windows. Inside, the ceilings had all been dropped to 8 feet.

I wouldn't have guessed what possibilities lay under that, but these folks did. They started redoing the interiors, then took a deep breath and ripped the siding off.
As noted, the house used to have a porch that encompassed only the front door. But plans were already drawn that called for a bigger porch. I'm glad they did.

The owners also found the brick arch over the front window. They built a new window, with stained glass in the arch.

When I moved in, most of the restoration was done. (And the hideous duplex was already built next door.) I added bookcases, security doors, a swamp cooler, a better arch in the living room, and paneled the guest room. Oh yeah, got a new roof, too. And did a lot of gardening.

Now the Sergeant is adding his own sweat equity, with a major revamping of the garage, and lots of gardening, too. He's got even more of a green thumb than I do.

5 comments:

  1. Your house is so beautiful. It must give you a thrill every single time you walk up to it. Hooray for restoring homes rather than bulldozing them down to start from scratch!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your house is just fantastic! Lucky you they fixed it up for you! We've made so many changes on the inside of our house and a few on the outside. I wish I could afford to do a lot more. Someday!

    ReplyDelete
  3. awesome house! If you are ever looking for tips on how to do stuff, or want to help other people working on other homes, the forum at oldhouseweb.com is a great place to chat about older homes.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lucky house to get such care after so many years of mistakes.

    ReplyDelete