Our home is officially for sale.

We put the signs in the yard today. We realize in today’s market it could be some time before we receive an acceptable offer on the house, but it definitely feels like the end of an era for us is near. After all, this is our first home as a married couple and last year we welcomed our first child into the world. Since our son’s arrival we have spent many sleepless nights wandering this house trying to either sooth or entertain him.

Our asking price is $399,000 and includes a home warranty. If you are interested in our home and are working with a buyer’s agent, please let them know that agents are welcome and that we are offering 3% in buyer’s agent consideration.

Please peruse our blog and check out all the details of our renovation story. We’ve broken down the renovation plans and progress into a number of categories so you can check out how each aspect of the home was upgraded.

If you are interested in seeing the home, please email pjmullen@ymail.com to schedule an appointment to see the property. Showings are by appointment only, please.

Thank you very much for your time and interest.

The kitchen is the biggest change we have made to the house.  We really opened up the floor plan by demoing some walls and added some support beams.  We added a ton of semi-custom maple cabinets, installed an island with a five burner gas cooktop, added an in the wall oven and microwave and really beefed up counter space and storage all around.  This open floorplan carried over into the dining area and even to a degree into the living room.

Kitchen and Island

Dining Area

Our approach to designing the living room was to take a very awkward space and turn it into something more cohesive.  We don’t know when this actually happened, but the front porch of the house was framed in and added to the living room area.  While creating a larger space, it also created a very awkward space.  So, we used built-ins in three spots to help shape the space, create storage and give the house some character.  

We created a floor to ceiling built in bookshelf on one wall where furniture would have created obstacles.  After crafting a new fireplace mantle out of cedar beams and travertine tile, we designed a two tiered built-in to house home theater components and to provide more storage.  Finally, we installed a bookshelf knee wall to create some separation from the entry way without completely blocking it out, as well as to define the space to allow for better placement of furniture.

Another big aspect of the living room plan was the installation of in the ceiling speakers for the surround sound/whole home audio system.  Behind the TV and on the bottom half of the two tiered built-in are hard wired connections for the surround sound/whole home audio system controls.

Lastly, the separation provided by the bookshelf knee wall allowed us to better define the entryway while allowing us to have a reading nook.  In this space we added a coat closet that was not there previously, as well as a built in bench and coat rack to give some functionality to otherwise dead space.  This area is really highlighted by the extensive use of moulding and features a Southern Yellow Pine tongue and groove ceiling.

Living Room

In the Ceiling Surround Sound/Whole Home Audio

Entryway/Reading Nook

Before the renovation there really wasn’t a master bedroom and bath.  There was only one full bathroom in the house, which we closed off to the main hallway, added a linen closet to and ultimately converted into the master bathroom.

As far as the master bedroom is concerned, there were three different ways to get to the sleeping area before we gutted the joint.  Through the bathroom, through the “third bedroom”/den type area and through what was the closet.  We tore out that closet and the interior door and created an archway that became the entrance to the master bedroom.  We also took about a third of what was the “third bedroom” and converted it into a walk in closet, giving us more than double the closet space that was previously available.  Now there is just one way in or out, unless you count the windows, and it feels more like a true master suite.

One of the big problems we had when we were first evaluting the house plans was what to do with all of the wasted space between where the prior kitchen ended and where the washer and dryer connections were located.  Since the goal was to double the size of the kitchen, we figured the best thing to do was create a defined room for the laundry area and some pantry space.  And thus the mudroom was born.  We left the hookups where they were, reworked all of the plumbing in the room, added a sink and installed extensive cabinets with a tile counterop to finish it all off.

During the renovation this was one of the trickier parts.  The house, as it was marketed, had three bedrooms, but the middle bedroom had no closet and was the only way to get into what is now the master bedroom without going through a closet or the only full bathroom the house had at the time.  In what should have been that middle bedroom’s closet was a water closet, if you will.  There was a single toilet and a pedastal sink, right behind a set of bi-fold doors.  One of the weirdest things we’d ever seen.

As a result, what is now the second bedroom lost a good chunk of real estate to accomodate the aforementioned water closet.  Combined with a cedar closet that was built out of the opposite corner of the room and a closet bar stuck between the two this room was extremely tiny.

During the design stage we ultimately sacrificed this oddly placed “middle bedroom” and carved it up into a good sized closet for the second bedroom, a walk in closet for the master bedroom and a second full bathroom that the house did not previously have.  It made the flow of the house floorplan a lot more logical.  From an appraisal standpoint this was never a three bedroom house because quantifying a room as a bedroom requires that it has a closet.  Since that “middle bedroom” had a toilet and sink in what was supposed to be its closet it was really just dead space, well, maybe just a glorified den.

Regardless, we reclaimed that wasted space and squared the room off, gave it a functional closet and, ultimately, close access to the second full bathroom in the house.

This blog post is surely a few months overdue, after all we’ve been living in the house close to two years are this point.

Whether you’ve been to this blog before or are reading up about our renovation for the first time, you’re probably wondering how we went from tiling to where we are today. Well, as luck would have it digital cameras and construction sites do not mix. As a result I lost step with keeping the photojournal on the home renovation and never posted a final summary of what we were able to accomplish.

So, without further adieu, here is a detailed overview of what we managed to do to the house during our ten month renovation:

Electrical

• Completely new wiring, receptacles and switching throughout
• Brand new panel and breakers
• Automatic timer switches on bathroom fans and exterior door lighting
• All new lighting fixtures, including three ceiling fans (master, guest and living room)
• Extensive recessed lighting in kitchen and living room
• New higher powered exhaust fans in bathrooms and 300 CFM fan in kitchen
• A structured wiring panel for the low voltage stuff (cable tv, telephone jacks)
• Pre-wiring for whole home audio (kitchen/dining, master bedroom, mudroom, living room)
• Wiring for surround sound in living room
• Installation of in the ceiling speakers for both surround sound and whole home audio

Plumbing

• Substantially new plumbing throughout the entire house (approximately 80-90%)
• Transformed former single bath into a master bath with dual sinks and granite counters
• Added a full second bathroom with granite counters
• Added a mudroom sink and all new laundry connections
• Noritz tankless gas powered hot water heater
• Cast iron Kohler tubs in master and guest bathrooms
• Kohler toilets and sinks in master bathroom
• Moen fixtures in master and guest bathrooms

Interior

• All new drywall, paint and poplar trim and casing throughout the house
• Added a walk in closet in master bedroom
• Doubled the size of the kitchen and added an island for five burner gas cooktop
• Semi custom solid maple cabinetry with dovetailed drawers featuring anti-slam mechanisms
• Added a mudroom with full array of cabinetry and tile countertop
• Reclaimed improperly used space in guest bedroom, increased closet space
• New ¾” solid white oak hardwood flooring in master and guest bedrooms, common areas
• Cork floor tiles in mudroom
• Porcelain and ceramic tile in master and guest bathrooms
• Travertine tile in entry way/reading nook
• Solid poplar interior doors stained cherry
• All new kitchen cabinetry
• Granite countertops and tumbled marble tile backsplash in kitchen
• African mahogany bar top on island

Exterior

• All new paint on exterior surfaces
• All new shutters around windows
• Replaced rear entry door and sliding glass door with French doors
• Increased width of front entry door to 36” and installed solid wood craftsman style door
• Platform style deck spanning the rear of the house

I’m sure there are a number of things I may be missing, but these are the biggest things we managed to accomplish during the renovation. The only things that weren’t affected by the renovation were the exterior walls, windows and roof. Other than that this place was gutted down to the studs and rebuilt.

Over the next few days I’ll be posting pictures of each room with a quick highlight of what we did in each room, maybe even a “before and after” if I can get the right pictures taken as compared with what the house looked like before we did anything.

I’m not sure if I feel like Fred the baker making the donuts since we’ve been tiling for more than a week already or if I feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day since every morning my day starts with firing up the tile saw.  Either way the house is really starting to take shape with the tile coming together.  Both bathrooms are 90% complete and the kitchen backsplash and entryway are the two largest places left to tile.  Without further adieu, here’s today’s progress:

Guest bathroom tub surround:    

Guest bathroom floor:  

TV picture frame:

Mudroom countertop and backsplash:   

Kitchen backsplash (the start of, anyway):   

Master bathroom floor:  

Guest bathroom walls: