The New House - BEFORE

We are down to 3 days until settlement ya'll!  The only photos I've been able to get are from the ad for the house.  They are NOT great photos, but it will give you the idea of how much work we are heading into...
Here is the front of the house:

The siding and roof are in OK shape.  Not thrilled with the dark green front door and shutters, but we will not have time or money to update all of it for some time.  The plan is to paint the front door a pale turquoise and put up some window flower boxes in a coral color that will play nicely with the dark green until we get around to the rest.  Since the house has been vacant for about a year, the yard is completely overgrown, there are dead bushes, ivy has taken over, there are 3 trees that HAVE to come down just for safety reasons and it is way too much for us to tackle on our own.  We will be hiring that work out just to get us started.
Here is the back of the house with the screened in porch:

See what I mean?  Crazy bushes everywhere...  And what is with the white railings in the yard to the right?  They are also everywhere.  Lots to tear out and clean up, so happy we are hiring help!
Here is a photo of the living room with the fireplace and built-ins:

We love the built-ins, but that brick is just awful.  It has had holes drilled all over the place and I am over the multi-colored brick look.  It will be painted white along with the shelving.  The back wall of the shelving units will be painted the wall color which will be a very pale blue.  We will be leaving the mantel the original wood since it is in good shape.  Hubby has deemed the space above the mantel to be the TV mounting area which is fine with me since the built-ins give me plenty of space to add some style!  For now, the ugly brass fire screen will be taped off and painted with high-heat black paint...
OK, I hope you are sitting down, cause now I'm gonna show you the horrible kitchen...

Isn't it GLORIOUS??  LOL!  Seriously, it is the original kitchen with a few personal "tweaks" by the previous owners.  Yes, that is a shelf above the cabinets with the ridiculously tiny railing around it.  They even put that railing around the peninsula countertop.  I don't know what these people had about shelving and railings, but they are EVERYWHERE!  I would cry if it wasn't so damn funny!  :-)  The plan is to remove a few upper cabinets above the refrigerator and stove, paint the upper cabinets white and the lower cabinets black, and all new stainless steel appliances.  Think lots of cleaning, filling holes, sanding and painting.  Fun!  But it will be worth it when we install the white subway tile backsplash and the butcher block countertops.  I have the vision in my head and I cannot wait to get it out of there.  It is taking up WAY too much space up there...
The living room, kitchen and dining room are all open to each other.  We knew when we walked into the front door that this was the house.  No walls to move!
Here is the dining room:

We are both so excited to actually have SPACE in a dining room again.  It looks out to the screened in porch and back yard which is at least three times the size of our current yard.
Here is a photo of, what I have to say is my absolute favorite room in this house, the laundry room!!  You already know I'm weird...

This room is a total bonus for me!  An entire room off the kitchen to hold a pantry, storage, laundry AND I get a utility sink too??  Awesome!  The plan for this room is loads of chrome shelving units, white paint and some cool fabric to soften some edges.  There will be a place for Raven's food and water station, a place for Raven's litter box, and a place for the stupid goldfish that REFUSE to die.  (Really, we won them at the carnival over 4 years ago and they are still going.  I guess we take care of them too well!)  ;-)
Oh, and that hideous ceiling light fixture peeking into the frame from above?  Happy to say they are delivering a dumpster the day of closing so it can go straight into it...  Along with the rest of the lighting in this house!
As for the rest of the house, the bathrooms are a mess and the walls are as wavy as the Atlantic Ocean during a Nor'easter...  But we can handle it.  This house is in MUCH better shape than our first house.  Of course, we were also MUCH younger then!  LOL!
Thanks for hanging in there through this post!  I'll have better photos as we move forward after settlement on Friday!  Wish us luck!
Have a great week!
Cheers!
M J