NewlyWoodwards

an unconventional home

Rental reno – living and dining rooms

by

 

Now it’s time to move into the living and dining rooms at the little house. (Wanna see more? Check out the kitchen and outside updates.)

It’s really quite charming. Original woodwork, lovely hardwood floors. Although at the beginning, it looked like this:



 

Because I’m a mind-reader, I know what you are thinking – “I hope you saved that carpet.”

I’m so sorry, friends… it may break your heart, but the carpet had to go. The wallpaper border met the same fate. (Who puts wallpaper border at the bottom of the wall?) And, don’t even get me started with the mint green.

However, we worked a little magic, if you know what I mean. Along with help from our trusty sidekicks, we took these rooms for dirty and drab to purrrty and fab.

Can I please draw your attention to the built-in cabinets? I’m dying over these. I want some so very badly in our home. Cleaning them off and seeing their deep woodtones made me swoon. Seriously.

What we did:

  • Pulled out the nastastic flooring, shown above. I’ve never seen as many stains as were on that carpet. Definitely didn’t pass the bare foot test – I wore biohazard gear for the first few months.
  • Refinished the existing hardwood floors. Budget: Doin’ this yourself can be a lot of work, but saves a TON of dollahs.
  • Installed ceiling fans. Budget: These ceiling fans were nice Hunter Douglas fans given to us by Ryan’s parents. They will help keep the house cool in the summer, keeping electricity costs lower. Always take items that people are willing to give. Trust us, we’re experts.
  • Patched walls and ceiling, then painted a nice, fresh coat of neutral paint. Budget: We purchased large amounts of this neutral light tan paint for most of the rooms at a lower price/gallon. The other rooms were painted with leftover colors from our house.
  • Build a window seat. This covered an area of flooring that was really ugly and would have taken a lot of time to replace to blend with the hardwood floors. And, it looks pretty nice, too.
  • Become one with cleaning supplies. My mom and I spent a whole day cleaning this house from top to bottom. At least two years of dirt and grime were on those windows. (I suspect more.) I swear the house got brighter after cleaning the windows.

    • Next week, I’ll show you the kitchen and bathroom and bedrooms.

    What do you think? What do you like? What would you have done differently?

    Comments

    2. Jenny – We would probably steer clear of having tenants paint for risk of messing up the floors and woodwork. I’m not 100% against it, though. We’ll cross the bridge if the time comes.

    8. OMG, just looked closer and I spy freshly painted white kitchen cabinets. My blood pressure just spiked. Please do that room next, I can barely contain myself right now.

    10. Well, since you asked, I definitely would have kept the carpet =). Kidding! Those floors look fantabulous. Looooove it.