Before & After – Kick Ass or Die

I’ve spent the last decade and a half (since I was a wee little thing with hardly any power tools) buying houses and making big messes in them. Some times I turn those messes into something awesome, sometimes I spend 5 years without actually putting trim around the bathroom door… Eh, what can I say? I’m not perfect.

Here’s a brief tour of the houses, a lot of the things I’ve started, and a few of the things I finished.

The Liberty House

This 150 year old farm house, stole my heart the first time I saw it, which is why I ended up buying it through an online auction 5 hours later while sitting in a bar without ever having walked through it. Yeah. That happened.

I’m currently working my way through a long list of projects. None of the rooms are “done” but there has certainly been some progress. (You can see a full video tour of the “before” here.)

Front Porch- Before

Front Porch- After

At some point I’ll have to replace this whole thing, but for now a coat of paint brightened things up, as did this little patio table, and the summer of 2013 will be for fully furnishing this space and drinking lots of lemonade (okay, who are we kidding, beer) from a porch swing.

Back- Before

Back- In Progress

Pink Parlor – Before

No-Longer-Pink Parlor – In Progress

And version 2.0 of this room:

Still working on it, but it’s come a long way from the pink-walls-and-lace-curtains days.

Entry- Before

Entry – In Progress

This is the last room of wood flooring that I need to tackle with a sander. I’m not looking forward to it, but that won’t stop me. Still, the paint has made a pretty big difference.

Office/Workshop – Before

Office/Workshop – In Progress

There’s still a lot of “finishing” to do in this room, but it has a workbench, a very long desk, and no more wallpaper (or oak trim) so that’s something.

Upstairs Bath – Before

Upstairs Bath – Mostly Finished:

Kitchen – Before

Kitchen – Which will continue to be in-progress for the next eternity:

Spare Room (aka my Mom’s room before we bought her a Lake House just down the road) – Before:

Spare Room – Mostly Done:

Downstairs bedroom/storage room- Before:

Turned home gym:

There’s still a ton of work to do in this house.

Memorial House

The Memorial House was my first big build “from the ground up” essentially. I mean, there was a house there to begin with, but in the end we basically build a new house all the way around it. The change was pretty remarkable, but I built this baby with my ex-boyfriend (don’t worry, we’re still drinking buddies) and since things didn’t work out, I never got to “finish” the place. Still, the progress pictures are something to see…

Front:

South Side:

Full Bath

Yes, it is the same room. You can see more about the bathroom here.

Living Room

That picture was taken from almost the exact same angle. It’s amazing what knocking out some walls and ceilings will do. Still on the list for this room is a wood ceiling, painted walls, cultured stone around the fireplace and something besides subfloor to walk on.

Kitchen

Approximately 8 feet were added on to the kitchen (you can see where the original subfloor ends and the addition begins.) One day there may actually be counters and appliances in here.

Master Bedroom

It’s not really a before and after so much as a “built from scratch”, and of course it’s still in progress, but all of the basics like flooring and finished walls are there, which is more than can be said for the rest of the house.

Prior to the partially-finished-but-livable state of the house as it is now, I spent a year living in this finished room in the old gas station (aka “garage”) on the Memorial property.

Station Interior:

That is lawn furniture you see, and no trim around the doors. Such is the life of a DIYer. You can see the entire 400 square I spent a year living in here.

The Station will eventually be a man-cave, so the bathroom transformation had to be masculine.

Before

(Shudder.)