The 11,000 dollar house.

I am not a writer. I let my actions speak for themselves. So here are some pictures of our sad 1800's built house, that fell into the hands of some drug addicts. Here's a picture of when Jenn found it. She fell in love with it instantly. It is almost hard to recognize from where it started. 

Doesn't look too scary yet, does it? Other than the tarp on the far roof.

Here are some pictures from what it looked like on our original walk. 

"Living Room"

"Dining Room"

What you cannot see are the awesome drop ceilings.

Flooring coming up all over.

Landing at the top of the stairs.

More of the landing at the top of the stairs. That plywood covers 

a hole to the downstairs bathroom.

Are you loving the colors as much as we did?

All in all the upstairs just need minor work.

Another view of the walkway from front door to kitchen.

Downstairs bathroom.

Back view of house.

North side of house.

This home is on a great corner lot. We were told that it was one of the original homes built in the neighborhood. It was used as a model home for incoming families. More recently it housed a woman who had children and unfortunately abused drugs. Needless to say this home was very broken down when we found it. 

Little man helping with kitchen demo.

Demo seems to be most people's favorite part. Make sure you're safe about it, a lot of accidents can happen. The kitchen seems to always been the biggest project in any home. With this kitchen we completely gutted it and rearranged. Including tearing that far wall down to connect what used to be the "laundry room" and making it part of the kitchen. Big kitchens are our favorite. What about you?

And just like that the rooms are connected.

New plumbing and electrical ran. Floors sanded and stained. Here is the "after" picture.

We originally had planned on leaving the kitchen as it was. Unfortunately as we tore into the kitchens walls, we saw a lot of mold from the leaking roof and chimney. 

Here is the after. New drywall and insulation. Some custom built pieces makes this kitchen very welcoming.

Moving on the the living room area. This room was originally 2 rooms. What we believe was a dining room and a living room. We made the decision to eliminate the dividing wall and connect them. 

You can see in the first picture the space where the original dividing wall was. This room needed a lot of drywall and mud. After that, we painted the walls. Sanded and stained the floors to leave this room a great space to relax with family. 

As we moved upstairs this home just needed some drywall mud and some paint. We did decide to move the laundry room upstairs. The picture above is of that space. With new plumbing, electrical and an exhaust vent installed. We put new drywall up on the ceilings and repaired the walls. After that we patched a few pieces of missing flooring. Painted the floor and then installed a new custom built banister. 

We added a half bath upstairs too. I do not seem to have pictures of it. 

Here's a bedroom upstairs. A lot of patch work and paint. A new ceiling fan too. One of Jenn's favorite ways to save some money is to visit Menard's paint return section and she makes her own colors. 

A little paint can go a long way. This is the back porch off the kitchen.

That concludes the picture I have of the inside of the house. Not shown are:

The updated downstairs bathroom. A lot of drywall, new floor, updated sink, cabinets as well as new tile. 

The rest of the bedrooms received the same treatment. 

This picture mainly focuses on the new fence. What you cannot see is the new siding on the kitchen addition, as well as the new steel roof. With freshly painted windows and shutters, it makes this house seem more welcoming. Remember all of those trees in front of the house? We said "Goodbye!". Tore out all of the old shrubs and laid a new border and fresh mulch.

Thanks for stopping in!
 If you are in the Nothern Illinois area and want a quote on any of your home improvement needs. 

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