Before on today's installment I thought I would let you in on the background of how we came to own this particular old house.
Some couple's travel, or golf, or go to museums. Some enjoy cooking together or going to movies...my darling hubby and I buy old houses and work together to bring them back to life. We love old houses, the amazing workmanship, the old doors, the old moldings, the charm, the smell...well usually! Pretty much everything about them gets our hearts pumping!
Our real estate agent knows to look for houses that have 'good bones' but need more work than most are willing to put in. She gives us a call...we visit...get excited about another project. We then put pencil to paper and try to decide if it is doable. After the purchase we make our plan of attack, make a budget (that we usually exceed by 25%) and get to work. After the remodel we talk about reselling the house...but pretty much all the time (ok, always) we have become way to attached to the house to sell and decide to keep it and use it to rent out.
So yes, we just put crown molding and granite in a rental. Yes we also just refinished hardwood floors and hung beautiful light fixtures. Some say we are crazy to put things like this into a house we are not living in. I say that old houses deserve the respect of quality and appropriate materials...
Now where were we? Oh yeah I was going to hang cabinet doors...
All the hinges were copper plated...all the tiny screw that had to be put in by hand, no drill here!
There were 12 screws per door...it took forever!
Next all the doors pulls had to be cleaned...years of grease and grime takes some work to get off. The one on the right is what they started out looking like.
They are white clad over copper clad over brass...very heavy.
First door hung!
After many doors with hinges and knobs I was finally done...
But first a reminder of the 'before'...
And new!
Yes it is still small...but it is very bright and classic. It is functional and pretty and I love how it turned out!
Now how did we do with the $750 budget?
Dishwasher...$379 on ebay, new, free shipping
Granite Tiles...$115 at Lowes
White tiles...$45 at Home Depot
(we already had some from another project)
Sink...$110 at Lowes
Faucet...Free
(we had it as a free replacement for a faucet with a lifetime warranty that failed and that hubby ended up fixing)
Light Fixture... $35 Lowes
Window...$75 Local Lumber Store
Paint and Primer...$50 Home Depot
Bead Board...$24 Home Depot
Shelf Paper...$8
Misc...$35
Microwave...free from a neighbor who was remodeling
Stove...came with house
Frig...free from our cabin
Grand Total: $876.00...ok so we went over a little, but for well less than a thousand dollars the kitchen looks like new. Just don't try to get something out of the stove while you load the dishwasher, lol!
Tomorrow I will let you see some of what we did to the rest of the place...including refinished hardwood floors, built in arches, and new crown molding!
