A 1927 Craftsman Renovation - pt. 3

The house was listed.

We definitely left it in worse condition than we bought it. But when people were coming through, some would RUN out, and others would stay, and stay, and dream, and see the potential, the vision- MY vision.

No, this story was not over. Yes we had a set-back but it was NOT over. We couldn’t go down like this.

We still had no tools and no experience. But we could learn and figure stuff out.

And I could paint.

Randomly, we met a guy who does drywall (from his son at a high school reunion, thanks Riley, your dad is awesome) and he had a framer friend.

So with our new team in tow and a productive summer in real estate, we had money- not loans.

And then at a Christmas work party, Wyatt won a chop saw. The first of our tools!

And it actually wasn't hard to use, at all. It was actually kind of.... fun.

Immediately, things were moving along.

And occasionally, Wyatt would come to the house and I would say, "Look at this room, it has flooring now!!" or "Can you believe this took 67 coats of primer & paint to cover this wood!?" or "what do you think of the tile??"

And my love for DIYing my dream designs BEGAN.

Our motivation to keep going was to go look at land, our favorite lots we stumbled upon that year were in a cute, little, pond centered community. It was then that I knew we were going to be home people, hopefully home builders but at least renovators.

We had to move stairs, hide stair headway in the kitchen cabinets, add a laundry room, rearrange another laundry room so it would stop leaking, excavate the dirt room where somebody had dug under the foundation, engineer a new window and foundation, replace the rotted kitchen cabinets, reconfigure & add better cabinets to the basement kitchen, move plumbing around the entire basement including rearranging a drain line (!!!). We painted all the wood. I learned how to cut and lay tile. Added a new wall-mounted faucet in the kitchen (because I had to, right?). We painted bricks, re-sealed the darling windows and painted the huge front patio, installed all new flooring, added & painted soffit and fascia, added an entire new bedroom increasing the home’s square footage, new bathroom sinks, rearranged closets, updated some wall textures, all new lights and full landscaping, fix and add baseboards, we even found a spot that just had no subfloor, just a big open hole in the kitchen/dining room (how did we never fall in!?) & fixed that!

Do you see why we wanted to hire that out?? 🥲

Within just four months the house was livable.

Our original plan of selling it as soon as we were done was a good idea, but me, Wyatt, toddler, new baby, and our dog were all living in one room at my grandparents so we moved back into our house while we reconfigured our plans.

6 months later, we found that someone was building on our dream lots… all of them. While we really wanted a house on the pond, one across the street was calling to me- we went under contract the very next day and sold our house about 6 more months later.

How did we do?? Oh you guys, I miss this house so terribly.

Here we are, three and a half years later. We quickly finished our new house, customized it all and sold it so quickly to buy land.

While we build the current new house to sell, our Birch Lane Build, we are also on the hunt for another cute little dilapidated (or maybe just outdated 🥲) house to bring back to life! If I knew then what I know now, I would have done a hundred things different!

This was all a learning experience and this next house I'm hoping to take it next level of charming perfection!

I can't wait to find that perfect house, and take you through the entire process!! We don't have a house currently but if you know of one be sure to let me know about it!

Be sure to follow along!

Xx,

Mercedes