Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The 21 Year Evolution of Our Home...

We purchased our home in the summer of 1993. It was built in 1975 and we are the third owners. At the time of the purchase, our daughter Courtney was just 2 years old and Kelsie was a baby at only 8 months. There have been lots of changes in those 21 years, so I thought I would shared some of the pictures with you.

When you buy a home, there are always changes that you want to make and almost all of them are on a priority list with finances being the guiding factor. We looked at so many homes before buying this one. We loved the layout, the floor plan and the neighborhood was perfect, but the cosmetics and color schemes weren't our style. There were baby steps with the changes in carpeting, removing wall paper, painting etc. One big painting job was the exterior.

Here is the exterior of the house from the real estate agent's picture in 1993…

house before and after pictures

If you're on a house hunt, remember to always look past cosmetic things like painting, because that can always be changed.

house before and after pictures

Come on in to see all the transformations over the years…

The exterior layer of the house was stucco and the windows had brown metal frames. Soon after we purchased the house in 1993, we painted the stucco a light gray color and I spray painted the window frames white.

I literally covered the glass part with paper and tape and sprayed the brown metal with white paint. I did it before my husband painted the house, so I didn't have to be careful when spraying. It lasted almost 9 years until we put in new windows.

house before and after pictures

Somewhere between 1998-1999, we painted the house a slate blue gray color. We wanted a darker color from the light gray we originally picked.

house before and afters

A few years later the stucco started to fail on several areas all around the house. You can see a big chunk missing under that left front window.

house before and afters

That lead to a bigger renovation in 2002. We replaced all the doors and all the windows to double hung paned windows. We picked a tan color for the vinyl siding. No more painting for my husband!!!

However, life can throw you a curve ball in a heart beat. My mom's health took a turned for the worse that year. She had suffered from Parkinson's Disease for over 10 years and needed full time care. The decision was to have my parents move in with us.

Construction project here we come...

house before and afters

In October of 2003, the new siding that just went on…just came off. The contractors did save it though and reused it on the back side of the house!! That's Kelsie in that bobcat. She looks so young!

house before and afters

We had long months of living in the construction zone and more curve balls from life along the way, but we made it through. Maybe I'll do a post just on the construction project itself. I know there's a life lesson in that somewhere.

house before and afters

Here we are today!! The construction project was finished in 2004. My mom passed away in 2007. She was only with us a short time, but I wouldn't change a thing and I'd do it all over again for her. My dad is still with us and will be 90 years old next week!

house before and after pictures

Here's a before and after collage, so you can see the original outline of the house.

In the original house, the left side had our 3 bedrooms. The new construction added an in-law apartment on that left side. There was new construction there, plus a remodel of those 3 bedrooms. That's why we had to add the second story on the upper right side to replace our bedrooms.

house before and afters

These next few pictures are before and afters of the driveway side of the house and what we did with a big boulder.

This picture was in the summer of 1995 and the girls were having a lemonade stand. Just out of the picture frame in the beginning part of the gravel driveway was a small rock that stuck up out of the ground.

When we finished the house project, we wanted to pave the driveway, so the "small" rock had to come out.

house before and after pictures

See that "small" rock in that landscaped area? That's what they dug up!! They just kept digging and digging.

house before and after pictures

We weren't sure what we were going to do with it, so I had the bulldozer guy just push it off to the side. It was going to cost a fortune to have that heavy thing hauled away. We placed it here and found the flattest side of the rock. I had a stone cutter come out and he carved our last name and our street address on the face of the rock. It's carved out in a pretty font and the letters were done in black. It looks so nice. Sorry, but I blocked it out for the the picture. It only cost $200…way cheaper than the cost to have the boulder removed.

Great family story and perfect stone for that area. If we ever sell the house, the new owners can just flip the rock over and have it carved again!!

house before and after pictures

I hope you enjoyed the journey we've had with our home. Lots of stories and lots of memories…with many more to come.

house before and afters


Thanks for stopping by,
~Karen~

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26 comments:

  1. Every reconstruction turned out beautiful. You have a wonderful home, isn't home the best thing ever.

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  2. Karen.....it's so lovely to share your house journey with us! We have a similar journey with our home....we bought it when my eldest daughter was 3, she's now nearly 19....in that time there have been SO many changes.....not the least of which was having my elderly parents come live with us 2½+ years ago and the addition of a granny flat for them....life can be challenging caring for elderly parents as you would know BUT I wouldn't change a thing either! My dad is 88 and mum is 83.... Thanks for sharing! :)

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  3. P.S. Your home is really gorgeous and LOVE the rock too! :)

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  4. Your home is beautiful. We bought ours in 1976. Just the other day I was showing my grandson pictures of how our home evolved. Our first addition for the shell only back in 1980 was $25,000. Probably would cost $100,000 today. Amazing how much things have evolved.

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  5. What a great story and transformation !
    Loved the pics. I am sure your home houses many fond memories.
    Rose

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  6. Your home looks beautiful now and I love that you used the boulder instead of having it removed!!!
    Have a great week!!!
    Love
    AMarie xxx

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  7. Your home looks great and what a change from all one level to having upper floors and it looks like it was there all the time. We did the same to our house but internally when we moved in, the builders moved in with us!!!! It took two months to do and the end date was December 20th when the new carpets were being fitted! But they did it and by Christmas it was all done. I think I will have to do a post on ours, especially all the extra jobs we found, once we started the work!!! Thanks for sharing. Susie x

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  8. Amazing transformation! It is lovely. Funny how things work out, and how obstacles challenge us, right down to that boulder. Enjoyed your post. Vickie

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  9. Your home is absolutely beautiful. A lot of love and good memories have gone into making it what it is today. The boulder is the icing on the cake.

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  10. Thanks for sharing all the transformations. It's great that you were able to add on to your home.
    Some won't take the challenge. They just move.

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  11. Haha we bought our home in 1997 and while the outer profile is the same, nothing else but the dining room looks like it did then. The dining room is the last room waiting to lose its wallpaper and get a facelift. And the yard is unrecognizable. We thought for a while that we would need to move to accommodate my MIL with Alzheimer's but once she was staying here we quickly realized that her disease had progressed too far for her to live with us (both working). How wonderful that your dad is still with you! Your house is beautiful. (Your craft room is on my Pinterest board. Oh how I wish!)

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  12. Lovely home and a lovely thing to do for your parents.

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  13. It looks beautiful and the renovation looks seamless like it was always there! Great Job!!

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  14. I love this, such a heart-warming post.

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  15. This post is awesome! As a young couple with 2 very small children, who just closed on our house last Feb...right before we had our 2nd, it's great to see all the changes happened over time. We have all these lofty plans and just hope that we can afford to do them. First up is to replace roof, update kitchen and bathroom and repaint all the interior walls! Then we'll go from there.

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  16. Wow! What a major difference on the outside. It's beautiful. And by the way, I'd kill for rocks like that for our yard!!!

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  17. How fun to see the evolution of your house. I hope we get to see some (more) of your inside transformations, too!

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  18. Awesome! My daughter is a designer/ architect who does commercial projects. But as a young girl would sketch houses we toured and redesign them. We had little money so that was our fun activity for the weekends, checking out houses for sale!

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  19. That was very interesting Karen. Amazing changes you have made. You must be happy there to stay so long. The house is lovely.

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  20. From a home to a mansion! Well done! I bet you have lots of space to sew!

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  21. Lovely story, lovely home. Thanks for sharing.

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  22. Unfortunately, my life journey did not include staying in the same home for years and years, but I did remodel a room in one of them as a bedroom for my dad, who had dementia. It was a small room but I think he was happy there. It was difficult for my family, watching him decline so quickly, but I too would not have missed those months for anything in the world. I wish more people would try to care for their parents this way, rather than "warehousing" them in nursing homes. As a nurse, I know firsthand how abandoned those people feel. Thank you for sharing your story

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  23. I am extremely impressed, you made a simple house a paradise on earth! Congratulations! We built our house in 1991 and did some improvements since then, I should think of posting the pictures too!

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  24. Very nice and what an under taking. All those changes and construction.
    My mother in law lived with us for 7 years before passing. We wanted her to live closer to us after my father in law passed but she couldn't find a house that suited her so I suggested she live with us. And so she did. I miss her every day and Know she would have loved the home we live in now.

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