And now for some "during"

Later in the week I plan on sitting down and talking about how this whole thing happened.  It has been a dream for many, many years.  Each time I go out there (we are currently living in a trailer on the property of some very generous friends) I am overwhelmed with the beauty of our little piece of Texas.  Some of that feeling comes from knowing it is a dream being fulfilled.  Some of it is because the place is just so darn amazing!  Of course, I am a bit biased.

So, here are some pictures of the process of remodeling.  Beginning with demo....which took So much longer than I thought it would.  How can it take weeks to tear walls?  Haha, little did I know~

This picture and the next are taken from basically the same view point, just turned a bit to the left in the second. 

Goodbye original wall between bedroom and living room.  That space to the right where you see the two smaller windows was part of the closet and all those windows had sheetrock over them.

 

Our back porch is the current trash bin.

Family room with all the "popcorn ceiling" torn down.  That double door directly in front is now a wall and to the right of it an alcove.  We bumped out that wall and have created a large closet.

Kitchen, no ceiling....obv

Windows were taken out to center them differently on the walls.  The small windows to the left were also covered by sheet rock.  That is now one of the large windows and is part of our bedroom.

The "Blue room" as we call it.  Hopefully it won't be blue much long.  This will be Samuel's room/guest room. All the windows that opened were replaced, including the ones on the right of this picture.

This was our demo guy, Rick  Great guy who actually helped us come up with some great ideas for storage, etc.  Thanks Rick!

Last shot of the stained glass windows.  That all got moved to the right and is now a type of glass that allows light but is more private than clear.

Windows from the outside while they were in the process of re-framing them.

Keeping it classy with a toilet on the back porch.

This is the formal living/dining area as you look toward the kitchen on the left.  We are probably going to use this as an office/dining room

another view of where the master bedroom walls once were.

Former entry/closet/hot water heater area which is now a large laundry/mud room.

Another view of the kitchen from the current formal living area.  We are putting open shelving in where the former cabinets were previously.

This was the laundry room, we are converting it into a small powder room.

 

I found a few more befores...on my phone. Living out of boxes makes it hard to find things sometimes!

Family to living room entry,

Blue room built ins

Blue room bathroom.  Samuel actually likes this shower so we are leaving it.  Yay for a small area that needs no remodeling - well almost.

entry to the master bedroom.  To the left is the W/C.  Toilet and sink in a tiny space

Master bath (ish)

Yes, that is a shower in the middle of a room.  To the left is where he had a king sized bed.  Around that corner is where the toilet and sink were. This is the room that is getting the biggest overhaul. 

This was the only real closet in the house.  Those boards covering the walls also covered windows which we have uncovered.  When they put the walls up, they left the mini blinds which had been on the windows..  The side wall faces west and had gotten so hot that the mini blinds had marks where they had smoked!

Formal dining looking into the blue room and the family room

Before Pictures

I'm going to start by posting some of the pictures we took when we first looked at the house.  The remodel had barely been dreamed of at the time, and the house was still occupied by the former owner.  I have no real idea why I fell in love with this house, the truth is...it's a WEIRD house.  I mean, the master bedroom had a shower in the middle of it and there was no real master bath.  But, as I walked around that first time, something inside me knew this was "it".  At some point I will write about the experience of actually having our offer accepted, etc.  But for now, here are some of the first views I had of our future home

The kitchen, it will remain largely the same, just get a facelift

The formal living room, I had the wrong lens on my camera when I took some of these.  I'm looking for the other ones which will show this better.

Hallway into the family room from the formal living.

Kitchen nook

I thought this was pretty with the trees changing color.  Now it looks sad with no leaves on any of the trees.  Come on Spring!

Side view of the cottage which will be my parent's home after we remodel it.  Our realtor had come straight from hunting when he showed us the house!

The garden.  It is approx. 125x65ft .  Future home of yummy fruits and vegs, a cutting garden and a hen house.

The cottage from the front view

This was the front entry/former porch which we are converting into a laundry room/mud room

Family room.  Curtains are down now and the room is a bit smaller as we converted part of this space into a large closet/storage area.  This house had NO storage.  We have lots o stuff!

The blue room (the other was pink walls with blue mini blinds)  hello 1980.  we pulled out all those built ins and closed in the double doors that were leading to the family room .  Hopefully I can find a better picture of that to post later.

I do love this fireplace.  The entire house is that Saltillo tile.  Not what I would pick but I think the budget is going to require us to keep it for now.  So, I will be learning to L-O-V-E Saltillo tile.