FOR SALE!!

Wow! Ryan has worked so hard and has finished this restoration in record time! The house is now officially on the market and Ryan is listing it himself since he has joined Crye-Leike.

We are really pleased with how the outside turned out. Picking out exterior colors is something we spend a lot of time on, so it is always satisfying when it turns out the way you imagined!

The kitchen is amazing! Everytime I see this kitchen I get a little kitchen envy! Everything from the custom cabinets and stainless appliances, tothe carrera marble counters makes this a dream kitchen!

I am in love with the vanity in the bathroom!! It is the perfect shade of green, which compliments the black granite countertop.

Although it was completely gutted, we hope the bathroom feels like it could be original to the house.

We are really pleased with how well the hardwood floors turned out, as you can see in the picture. This is the master bedroom which has two nice windows and two nice closets.

The Living Room turned out great. It is amazing how the new windows have really changed the feel of the entire house.We also installed recessed lighting and new moulding.

The dining room is a great space. We opened it up to the kitchen and took down the half wall that divided it from the living room. This really helped the flow of the living spaces.

The study is a major bonus to this house. It really provides an additional living space for the house.



This deck is such a great feature that helps extend the living space to the outdoors.


This is a great house and I know that whoever buys it will be extremely pleased. Lots of memories can be made in a great home like this!!

St. Andrews Interior

I want everybody to see pictures of St. Andrews in all its glory before any of the demo starts.  Built in 1945, we bought this house from the estate of the original owners. When I say that this house is in its original state... I mean NOTHING has been updated. It is completely original!! 

You can see that the only thing that has changed in the kitchen is the addition of the dishwasher.  Also, at some point the original stove broke and they replaced it with this tiny one.

This is the sunroom. It was originally a porch that they had enclosed at some point. They left these sweet planters, so if anybody wants some aloe plants you're welcome to them.

This is the current dining room. We are going to be combining the kitchen, sunroom, and dining room into one big kitchen/great room!! 

The living room is a really nice sized room. The whole first floor has tall ceilings and big windows. All of the hardwood had carpet over it except for two of the three downstairs bedrooms. In all of these pictures the floors look pretty good but there are a few spots that are going to need some patching. We commonly have to do this and we have wonderful floor guys so you can't even tell the difference when they are done.

This bathroom is in good shape but will be updated with new wall tile and fixtures. The floor tile is in excellent condition and can be salvaged. It is shared by two of the downstairs bedrooms.

This is the current master bath, there is a shower to the right of the sink. 


After renovations this bathroom won't even exist. We are actually turning part of it into a closet. 


We are adding a master suite wing on the southeast corner of the house, which will obviously be a step up from the current master.

This is one of the three downstairs bedrooms. It has two closets and is good sized.

This is the current master which will just be a regular guest bedroom when we are done. It currently has two closets and one bath. When we are done it will have two closets and share the hall bathroom with the above bedroom.

This is the current third bedroom downstairs. It will be the new dining room. We are completely reconfiguring it and changing the doorways. Right now it opens off of the bedroom hallway. When we are done it will have an opening on the wall by this window that will open it to the foyer. It will also have an opening to the great room. 








I didn't even take any pictures of the upstairs or the garage that has been converted to a den, which by the way we will be converting it back to garage.  I've gone a bit long already, so I'll share more on a later post.

Some people might say I am a dog lover!

Saturday morning Ryan called and told me there was a dog that had been hanging around the Montclair house for a few days and had been playing with the workers all morning. He was running around chasing sticks, just sitting on the porch watching them work, and of course trying to get inside. Ryan had already called our vet, Walnut Grove Animal Clinic, and thought we should take him up there. 


Just a little shout out to Walnut Grove, if you live in our area I would highly recommend them. They are amazing!!!


Anyways, I got Stella's kennel, her leash, and a bag of dog food for the trip. He was more then happy to hang around us and do what we wanted him to do.

That is asphalt on Ryan's pants not drool/dirt from the dog.

We had him checked out and he was perfectly healthy. We were going to pay to board him until Monday and hopefully find someone that would take him by that time.

We left the dog at the vet and when we got back to the Montclair house, one of the workers said a guy had been walking around looking for a dog and left his name and number. Ryan called the guy and he said that he rescues dogs and has 19 at his house! This is one of his rescues that had gotten out of his yard that was nearly five blocks away.

The guy said he had actually just had someone contact him about adopting this dog, so i was glad to hear that b/c I was really falling for the dog. If you have been thinking about getting a dog I can give you the name of the guy who runs the rescue.  

Renovating these houses is always interesting, and you never know where they might lead.

Montclair Interior Update

Things have been moving very quickly in the interior. 

All the tile has been laid in the bathroom. We put our favorite black and white basket weave tile on the floors and the white subway tile in the shower. We went with dark grout this time; its called silver from Mapei. We also added traditional bead board around all the walls. 


The vanity was installed yesterday and I think it looks great. I love the color of it and we are going to do a dark granite countertop.

The cabinets have been installed in the kitchen and look wonderful! The whole house has its first coat of paint up and it really pulls it all together. It is amazing how quickly a house can be transformed. 

The exterior has been painted. I wanted to get a good picture of the whole house but each time I have been over there so many workers and trucks are there its hard to get a good shot.


The house will be put on the market in about two weeks, so keep an eye out for more posts as the final finishes take place. 

Scared???.... Ryan's not

Well, we bought the house that as kids you would have avoided when trick or treating. The house that if your ball went in its yard you were too afraid to go get it. 

I have driven down this street many times over the years and never even noticed this house. Which as you can see by the landscaping is not hard to do.

Here is a better picture so you can see that it really does have potential. The first thing everyone comments on are the lovely awnings.

This converted carport/garage was listed as a den. A separate den with a window unit and a sweet awning that attaches it to the house... We are going to be converting it back to a garage.

This is the back of the house complete with more awnings and more overgrown landscaping. The left side of this picture is going to have a large master suite addition.


This is the biggest project that we have taken on so far. It is going to take more work and more creativity then ever before. Ryan was ready from the get go; I on the other hand had to be convinced, but now I am excited.


We took possession of it today and are diving right in. 

Exterior Update

The exterior has had a huge face lift!

• A new roof with architectural shingles has been put on.
• New Jeld Wen windows replaced the old ugly ones. This helps the curb appeal and also the lighting in the interior.
• All the landscaping has been ripped out
• The iron work has been replaced with nice wood columns and a new railing.
• We have a sample paint color up that is most likely the color we are going to use. 

We think the house looks so much better but still has a long way to go. The shutters are being built, the landscaping is in the works, and of course painting.


I will do an update on the interior soon.

Moving right along

The Montclair house is seriously moving right along. A lot of progress has been made in a very short time. The first step was demo, where they ripped up the carpet and cleared out the kitchen and bathroom. 

Look what was underneath that ugly carpet!!! It amazes me when people put carpet over hardwood.

The kitchen looks so much more open with this wall knocked out looking into the dining room.


The new roof is already on, the old landscaping has all been ripped up, and the new windows came in today. They should be installed by the end of the week if the weather cooperates. 


I will post a picture soon of the exterior and all its changes.