Before: A Tour of the LittleHouse "As Is"

This is what the house looks like now.  I wasn't planning on putting these up so soon.  I thought I could wait until things were official, maybe even until we had made some progress and could post these alongside some Afters.  As it so happens, I don't have that kind of patience.  I just hope I do have the kind of patience to painstakingly restore windows.  For now, here is an overview of what the house looks like:
1) The Exterior (front):  Here it is, collapsing porch and all.  We think it's really something special, and look forward to restoring it.

 2) The Exterior (back):  We have some pretty big plans for this little porch, plans that include windows, doors and the washing machine/dryer currently hulking in the middle of the kitchen.  Then there's the back and side yards of dreams.  We want a little garden, maybe a couple of chickens and definitely a patio of sorts.

3) The Itsy Front Room, looking into the dining room (featuring me):  At the moment, the whole house has a little bit of a '70s theme, especially the carpeting and wall colors.  Also observe the towering space heater.  Through the second doorway is the kitchen.  Right now, the washer dryer are blocking off a fair bit of it.  



4) The Front Room (cont.):  From here, you can see the front door, a door leading into what we have decided will be an office/sitting room and the fireplace.  Notice how the mantel wraps around the corner.  Jack HATES it.  It will not be functioning (and is only deep enough to burn coal).  I'm still undecided, and probably will be until a few coats of white paint.

 5) The Dining Room (featuring our realtor):  Here the kitchen is behind you and a bank of three windows is on the left.  To the right you can see the door way to a little hallway that connects to the office/sitting room, bathroom and bedroom.







 6)  The Kitchen:  Here is a huge dilemma in my scheming.  The kitchen sink is one big, metal unit including the cabinet below.  It's probably original.  I want to love it.  I really do.  In reality I find it a little icky.  We will probably try to salvage some of the cabinetry, but that remains to be seen.





7)  The Kitchen (cont.)  Here is a hint of the back door and some appliance footage.  The appliances are ok.  Actually, the inside of the refrigerator isn't really.  The scale of them, furthermore, is completely uncalled for.  We'll try to scale down, budget permitting.  Also, the wallpaper on the side wall appears to be contact paper.  We wonder what's underneath.




8)  The Bathroom:  Is very pink and has the original tub, sink and toilet!  I am ecstatic about this, especially because they seem to be in excellent shape.  We'll definitely fit the tub with a shower.  On the floor is vinyl patterned to look like carpet!  Where will the carpet mania end?!  I'm also thinking of setting up some kind of vanity area on the left.

 9)  The Bedroom:  There's an intrusive, sheetrock closet featuring an unreal amount of nails haphazardly angled in the frame.  In fact the whole house is covered in nails.  What can this mean?  The door to the left of the doorway actually leads to the boiler and the ladder to the attic is above.  We might rethink all this.

10)  The office/sitting room:  Last, but not least here's the room I think is a real diamond in the rough.  It gets ridiculous light and just has a really good feel to it.  It's also sad because of some water damage and violent, red carpeting.  We want to make it happy again.

So there it is.  We love it and it needs all the love we can give it.  Many dramatic improvements are in the works.