i should be mopping the floor: Our 1972 Fixer Upper Home Tour
Homepage Projects and Crafts Free Fonts Free Printables and SVG Files Printables Journals and Planners Facebook Covers and Device Wallpapers Spring Projects and Printables


Our 1972 Fixer Upper Home Tour

We purchased our 1972 fixer upper somewhat unexpectedly...but we knew God had a plan for us with this home. We've been here almost a year now (we purchased in February of 2016 and moved in about six weeks later...after some remodeling and loads of painting). The home had been vacant for four years prior to our purchase of it...so it had a few issues. It also hadn't been updated in quite a few years (decades)...but we welcomed that with open arms. It has character, love, and charm. We're still not anywhere near done...but be sure to tour the progress thus far, below.

But first, check out ALLLLL of the before photos in this post HERE (and the complete story on why we bought it).

We honestly haven't done just a ton outside....paint and tree removal, but that's about it. We do have big plans to remove all of the overgrown shrubbery and redo it a bit in the future. We had to do things like put in a new fence and redo some of the lawn from a plumbing issues, so it will be nice to start doing "fun" stuff on the exterior soon.

The main room of the home is our living area. I fell in love with the fireplace the moment I walked into this space. That was about the only thing I truly loved in here, though (except the built-ins...I actually adore those!). It had a tragic wet bar in one corner...filled with mold and plumbing issues (it was literally the first thing to get a sledge hammer taken to it when we started doing our remodeling). Click here to see all of the before photos and a lot more after photos of this entire living area space.



We have another room in the front of the house that is supposed to be more of a formal living area...but we basically just keep our piano in here for the kids. However, at this time, we are entering into a redo phase of this space. While this is great for the piano, the only people whoever go in here are my kids when they practice. We're going to relocate the piano to the main living area (in the corner where my husband's desk is). We're moving my husband's home office area to the larger desk area that currently serves as my office (in our "lauffice", or laundry room/office). It has a lot more shelving and storage for him. 

UPDATE...this room has now been my studio for a while! We moved the piano into the living area and the fireplace into the tv room.

On the far wall, I have my desk and sewing spaces. And I'm well aware of the glaring grammar issue on the sign. It's meant to be folksy, y'all. Everyone gives me so much grief about it. Lawsy. You can see this space in more detail here.

I also added a craft table into the middle of the room. It was a 1990s table that I scored at a garage sale. I gave it a fun pickle wash finish here

Our formal dining area is across from my studio.
I loved the wainscoting in here the moment we first looked at the house.
In here, we have painted, change the flooring, and replaced the chandy.

On the corner wall in here, I have my vintage church plate collection.

I've also added some fun drapes to the window wall.
For now, I've got some of my vintage globe collection tucked on top of the hutches.

Above is how it looked last Christmas.


Behind the dining room is the kitchen...this is probably the space that got the biggest makeover. We completed this room before moving in. We did most of it ourselves...I did have a friend paint cabinets with me. And our contractor removed the upper cabinets above the large islandish peninsula. But everything us in here was serious elbow grease and sweat.



The above photo is now a bit out of date.
I loved those drapes, but everything stuck to them...especially dog hair (yuck!).
I also redid the table and changed out the chairs (below).

The new pom pom trimmed drapes are my favorite. 

I made them from tablecloths from the Walmarts, y'all.

This is actually the original table I had in here. But, I added some lower profile chairs that weren't so overwhelming to the space. I painted them all with a chalk-style paint finish and white wax. See their entire makeover here.  





We actually have a back room behind the kitchen that we currently use as a tv room. We *think* it was one time used for a bedroom, but it doesn't have a closet, nor do we have a use for a fifth bedroom. We redid the floors and painted in here. 



There's a small hallway between the tv room, the breakfast room, the laundry room, and the garage. We've kind of made it into a mudroom or landing area for our kids and alllll their school stuff. Really loving how well it's working for us. The sign I made in here was from a song in the play Mary Poppins. My youngest son played Michael Banks in the play in our town last summer...this was one of our favorite songs he sang.

Our laundry room is off of this hall...we often call it the "lauffice" since it has an office space too. We ripped out the cabinets in here and added shelves. We also removed the 1980s wallpaper border in here and painted from top to bottom.


This is the office area in here. In the above photo, it was my office space at the time. It is currently my husband's space and the shelves are packed with books and vinyl!

Back on the other side of the house, our master bedroom is one of my favorite spots.

Our older son's room just recently got a makeover.


His little reading corner is my favorite. See how I made this light fixture here. We hung the draperies on plumbing pipe...I have the complete tutorial for it here.

My younger son's room has a bit of a vintage eclectic look to it.





I scored the yellow waterfall dresser in here for $25 at Goodwill.

So far, we've made over the half bathroom and the guest bathroom.

This is our guest bathroom above.

This is the other side of the guest bathroom.

The sunroom is still very much a work in progress, but I did share our Indoor Herb Garden here.

So, far, this is where we're at. We still have plans on redoing our kids' shared bathroom, our bedroom and bathroom, and our sunroom, too. We still have hallways that need paint...and a whole lot of cottage cheese on ceilings that needs scraping. But, honestly, we're already loving every inch of this house...it's definitely home.






2 comments:

  1. Inspirational. We just bought and moved into a home built around 1880. Needless to say it's gonna require inspiring in every single room. A couple walls removed, bathroom moved (and 1 added), well, everything. A bit overwhelming, but exciting as well. I found your site seeking ideas.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a wonderful update! Your home looks lovely. Question for you: which vinyl plank flooring did you use? I love the color!
    Thank for showing us your make over, it all looks inviting!
    Blessings!
    Karla Salsbury

    ReplyDelete