*before condition

Did this ever look good?  We have nothing against pink, per se, but what is this??

The upstairs was ‘interesting,’ in a Hansel and Gretel meets the 1960’s sort of way, but we decided that we’d eventually have to do a full gut and rebuild up there.  There were some major issues that would require us to rip down the plaster and open it all up, most significantly the low ceiling height (6′) and very spotty insulation.

The living room, like the dining room and foyer, has the original, stained woodwork. While it’s not in perfect condition, it looks very good and gives a feel of real craftsmanship. Also, we were very excited about having a fireplace again!

Among the many other unusual things about this house was the fact that there were very few openable windows in the downstairs.  Notice how the picture and double hung windows on the left side of the picture are not actually windows.  Someone went to the trouble of removing the original windows and replacing them with sheet glass.  It was like being in an office building, with no fresh air.  We  put opening windows high on our rehab list.

This is how our dining room looked when we bought the house. The intact, unstained woodwork was one of the main factors that drew us to this house. We had looked at so many houses that had painted or, even worse, missing woodwork. We really fell in love with the look of the flat-grained fir wainscotting and box beams. We later replaced the fixture with a more appropriate (Craftsman) one, and we moved this one out onto the back patio.  We were not, however, very fond of the fact that all the windows had been removed from the room, cutting off any potential for airflow.

This is how our backyard looked when we bought the house. The house had been a rental for a long time, so the yard had been severely neglected. While we’re not big fans of large expanses of grass, we did want to create a decent place for our daughter to play. The terraces scattered throughout the yard didn’t make for a very good playground.

Before shots of our foyer.  Another room with unstained woodwork (!)  Nothing too bad in here, but we have hopes one day of recreating the bench that was in front of the paneled wall on the left side of the picture.  Somebody removed it years ago.