I am so excited to share the house that started it all, the 26th and Pine house! When Justin and I stumbled upon this house online, I had a hard time envisioning the full potential it had to offer, and so did almost everyone else. In fact, when Justin asked our realtor to schedule a showing, the realtor’s advice was “trust me, you don’t want that house”. At first, we listened, he was the expert, he knew the market, he said he had some great houses to show us. So, he showed us a bunch of move-in ready, cookie cutter houses, which were fine, but he didn’t understand what we were looking for. We wanted a project; we wanted a house we could fix up and make our own. We kept thinking about 26th and Pine, something just drew us to that house.
The Start of 26th and Pine
So finally, after letting the Realtor show us his recommendations and us rejecting all of them. He reluctantly took us to 26th and Pine, but not before warning us, “that house has a lot of problems”.
I’ll admit, when I was envisioning our first project, I was thinking of a cute house that needed SOME work. Fresh paint, decorative touches, something we could live in and fix up slowly with fun projects on the weekends. As we walked through the 26th and Pine house, it was apparent, this house needed a full renovation. I mean down to the studs, new EVERYTHING, but it had one major thing going for it in my mind, it was the ugliest, cheapest house in a great neighborhood.
It was scary, having never done a renovation before, Justin and I talked about all the things that could go wrong. “We have no idea what problems might come up. Why has is sat on the market so long? Why hasn’t an investor bought it yet?” I think it’s natural for fear to kick in when taking such a big leap, but we also talked about the positives. “I can’t believe we found this house, in this neighborhood. We get to strip this down to the studs and we get a clean slate to create whatever we want”.
The Journey Begins
In the end, we decided to go with our gut, ignore our realtor, and make an offer. Our offer was quickly accepted! alarmingly quick! Those people really wanted to get rid of that house! It was too late to turn back now though, we were doing this whether we were ready or not, and it turned out to be one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be walking you through the journey of the 26th and Pine house. From a neglected eye sore (bright orange), to a light, bright, beautiful house the neighborhood could be proud of.
In each post I’ll be sharing before and after photos and documenting the transformation one room and one project at a time.
Starting with the Guest Bathroom
When I first walked into this bathroom, I could smell the mold, which meant there was a leak somewhere. If you look closely you can see where the previous owners patched the area around the tub overflow, which is where the water was getting in behind the walls.
We tore everything out, stripped the walls down to the studs and slowly began to put everything back together.
I wanted this bathroom to have a high impact (while staying in budget!). I selected a white subway tile for the tub surround and greige penny rounds for the floor. To keep costs low I purchased an off the shelf vanity and replaced the Formica top with a marble remnant.
For the walls I did a combination of painted white wainscoting on the bottom half and a high contrast paint for the upper half. Paint is always a great way to add interest to any room, it is affordable, and can be changed very easily.
The wainscoting is an easy and affordable way to add detail to any room. Check back in next week for the kitchen and living space transformation! If your looking to shop the look for this remodel, click here.
