Rancher Revitalization: A Series of ‘Before and After’s.

July 6, 2012 by Decorum DIYer

Oh, how far we have come. While I know that my home is far from a show place, I take pride in the amount of work that Chris and I have accomplished since purchasing his grandparents’ house. Now, here we are five years and two children later (we have a total of three) and our house is still in a constant state of flux. Most of our updates are the result of painting and rearranging furniture (most of which has been handed-down, gifted, or thrifted). With not much of a budget or time, we try to make every little thing count. My house doesn’t look the same from month to month, but here are a few snapshots from along the way of the past five years. As we work through our home, I will be updating as we finish each space.

So, this is the house, as it was when we purchased it in 2007. Due to the drainage issues in the basement, we were told to remove the overgrown bushes. Sadly, it left the house looking like this…

Pretty inviting, huh? Well, we started to spruce up the exterior, but just haven’t had the time and funds to landscape, as we really started to concentrate on the interior of the home. So sadly, this is what our exterior looks like today, but it is still an improvement.

(Click image to see the Better After feature via The Drumgoole Family Blog)

This update was even featured on Better After, which you can see here. It strikes me as funny because the exterior update was the least costly and easiest one to accomplish. At the time that we removed the bushes, we were concentrating on mold remediation in the basement, so we only spent one weekend making the changes. Of course, that weekend gave me the worst case of poison oak my doctor had ever seen. It was also shortly thereafter that we realized I was expecting our second child, Clairisse.

The entire finished basement was gutted; leaving us an unfinished, albeit dry and mold-free, basement. We have yet to tackle that project.

Instead, we have focused on the main living areas and bedrooms. You know, the rooms we use everyday. Of course trying to update, remodel a room used every day by an ever-growing family is difficult, but not impossible. Below are a series of befores and afters to just remind us just how far we have come. I will continue to tweak and update in the future.

FRONT DOOR:

LIVING ROOM:

AFTER

KITCHEN:

AFTER:

(click image to see full album on my facebook page)

DINING ROOM:

AFTER:

MAIN BATHROOM (and only full bath, I might add):

AFTER:

MASTER BEDROOM:

AFTER:

(Click image to more of our current master bedroom.)

MASTER BATH (3/4 bath):

AFTER:

(Click here to see the full post!)

SECOND BEDROOM:

AFTER (as you can see, this room has grown with our eldest son from toddler to Kindergartner):

(Click image to see related posts!)

THIRD BEDROOM:

AFTER (when it was used as an office and laundry room)

(Click image to see full post!)

AFTER (once our daughter made the transition into toddlerhood):

(Click image to see full post!)

FOURTH BEDROOM:

(Click image to see full post!)

AFTER:

(Click image to see full post!)

SCREENED PORCH:

AFTER:

And lastly, one of our many attempts to straighten up the basement. This attempt involved moving the laundry back into the basement to make room for Claire’s room and Ascher’s arrival.

BASEMENT:

(Click image to see full post!)

AFTER:

(Click image to see full post!)

I hope you have enjoyed the little tour of ‘before and after’s. The changes aren’t very drastic, but they took a lot of hard work (the kind you don’t notice, just know that things have changed) and sleepless nights. It hasn’t been easy with the addition of two children, constant morning sickness, dance schedules, and Chris’ overtime, but we have made it this far. Stay tuned, as we are gearing up for what we hope will be a dream come true for our family.