Note: You are reading a series of posts that first appeared on craftster.org. I recently deleted my craftster account (in an attempt to consolidate my internet exposure) and I am therefore posting all of these old projects on bad dirt designs… for posterity.
August 27 2008
My boyfriend and I bought our first house together in March 2007. We’ve spent the last year and a half fixing it up… It’s gone through a lot of stages, and so has our relationship!!! I’ve posted some of the work as it was completed on other threads… But here is the whole thing all together… To note: when we first bought the house, it had been used by 5 college students, so you can imagine the disrepair. They had tried to do a cover up job, but it was pretty lackluster. The walls were covered in the worst paint job ever, the carpets were beyond salvageable, the kitchen was a nightmare and the addition was sinking! Oy!
The Master Bedroom was the first room we tackled. We enlarged the closet door, and added an organizer. We painted the walls, and generally just cleaned it up a little.
I ripped out the carpeting in the second bedroom in a fit… But was able to turn it into my first ever craft room:
The last bedroom is now the computer room. We also put down new carpeting in the whole top floor. We redid the bathroom too. ripped up the linoleum and put in ceramic tiles. (using the tile cutter was one of the more frustrating jobs – mixing the grout was one of the most satisfying!).
Downstairs we updated the house with a uniform coat of paint, cleaned up the dinning room, and totally redid the addition and the kitchen.
See my post on the kitchen reno here.
And the addition (as we call it, the Florida Room!). This room was hella slanted, covered in ugly carpet tiles, and the walls were splattered with paint (Pollock this kid was not!).
My boyfriend used bottle jacks to host up the room (1/4 inch every day for 8 days) and poured concrete footings and made the whole thing super secure and insulated. It was by far the warmest room in the house last winter!
Then I pulled up the carpet tiles, painted the whole thing, we replaced the baseboards, and added the most beautiful pine floor ever. Our friend was opening a pub, and he had this great wide-plank flooring left over. Once we put it down, we loved it so much we couldn’t stain it or cover it with anything, so we just rubbed in three coats of tung oil, and it turned out great. Water resistant but still so natural.
And last but not least, the exterior: We paved the driveway, filled out the bald spots in the yard, cleaned out the garden and painted the railings.
Phew. This weekend we’re going to my parents’ cottage for the first time this summer! We are going to sit on the dock and do ABSOLUTELY nothing for what seems like the first time in our entire lives!!! hahaha.