When Jordan and I met three years ago, we each had our own individual dreams of buying a house. Last May I was able to buy a townhouse to celebrate my 32nd birthday (in a truly serendipitous fashion), and this year Jordan closed on a house-house a week before I turned 33. And that was that. After exactly one year in my townhouse and one lovingly painted mountain mural, we packed our stuff and moved into the new place!
I’m so happy with our new home, and all of the work we’ve done to make it our own. Jordan scored this beautiful 2-bedroom, 1 bath, rambler-style 1948 house on 1/8 of an acre, but that’s a story for another time. For now, let me tell you that it only had one previous owner who lived here for nearly seven decades. The house has good bones, a solid roof and foundation, and recently replaced windows. It also has a furnace the size of a Subaru and a “pink” problem.
Believe it or not this was the garage. It’s white and full of our favorite gear now.
The long term plan is to expand the house, but for now we’re focused on making it as comfortable as possible for the two of us. We started by ripping up carpet and linoleum, having the floor refinished, and painting every room in the house (except for the hallway; we’ll get you one day my pretty!). It’s amazing what a few gallons of paint can do!
We started in the living room. Our predecessor had owned a number of cats through the years and we are both highly allergic, so we pulled out all the carpet we could and ripped down drapes. Anything that had cat hair had to GO. Then I set about painting the living room walls and ceiling a nice white to give us a fresh, clean canvas.
Living room, with view of the front door toward the kitchen. I love the way the floors came out.
Living room view, while standing in the kitchen.
We managed to paint the living room and both bedrooms before we moved in, and were able to get the floors refinished too. After moving twice in a year and needing to do a lot of painting both times, I highly recommend this method when you can make it work.
The guest bedroom went from purple to blue. The dark purple baseboards took four coats of paint to cover, and the walls took two coats of primer and two coats of blue. Luckily I only had to paint the ceiling once, and had Theresa’s help. Who knew ski buddies were good for more than skiing?
This is the guest bedroom, repainted a color we affectionately call “schmoo”.
For the master, we opted to get rid of the turquoise (which had been recently painted and wasn’t bad) and go with a more calming, sage color. We both LOVE the way this came out, especially with the white molding. Sadly our beloved bed won’t fit around the corner to make it into either bedroom, so we have to sell it, but we’re becoming quite comfortable with our mattress on the floor solution (if you know anyone who wants an awesome, 4-drawer platform bed, hit me up!).
The master, our sage oasis.
The bathroom was a headache-inducing yellow. It felt like standing inside of a yellow mustard container. Even the ceiling was yellow. To tone down the heat, I walked into the bathroom with some primer and did a quick coat of white. I didn’t tape anything or do it properly, and there are still big chunks of yellow behind the towel racks, etc. But I don’t care. It’s a total blind spot for me now. It’s amazing how quickly you can learn to live with something after a few weeks.
Yellow onslaught before & after. Eventually we plan to swap the tub, add tile, and get a low-profile sink.
The last big thing we tackled was the kitchen. In keeping with the theme of the house it was PINK. And also peach/yellow. Jordan pulled all the cabinets and we got to work painting the insides of the cabinets white. Because of our fears of lingering cat dander, we opted to paint the entire cabinets, inside and out. The first coat, which also required sanding, took us both working for 6 hours. Jordan got stuck doing the second coat, and sanding, painting, and adding the new hardware to all of the cabinet doors, on his own.
I eventually continued the sage we loved from our bedroom into the kitchen. After buying a little mobile dishwasher, the transformation was complete!
Kitchen looking toward the living room before & after.
More green paint.
And finally this week Jordan finished his crowning achievement – a very pacific northwest rock wall out front! We’re excited about how this is coming along, and are grateful to everyone who helped us get to where we are. A housewarming party will be coming soon … or probably in about 6-months if our last house is any indication.
Seattle City Water Bills, and above average heat, are responsible for the color of the “after” grass.
I said before you are a terrific writer. This is another indication. Love what you've done to the house. It has truly undergone a major transformation and I also know (from my own nightmare 42 years ago) how much time and effort this takes. Congratulations. It looks great and I hope you have many happy years there. See you soon.
I said before you are a terrific writer. This is another indication. Love what you've done to the house. It has truly undergone a major transformation and I also know (from my own nightmare 42 years ago) how much time and effort this takes. Congratulations. It looks great and I hope you have many happy years there. See you soon.
Awesome!!! Enjoy the adventure of DIY and loving a house into a home. There is nothing quite like living in a space that you put so much work into.
Nice job, Kristina! Enjoy.