Blanche is a Civil-war era beauty that had been vacant for over a decade when we got her. This was a project I did with my stepson, Rodney with some help from my son Logan.
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I got replacement windows, rebuilt some rotting windowsills, tore off & rebuilt the front porch. Rodney tuckpointed. I think this house had a much larger front porch at one time. I left the brick pillars in place and put a garden fence between them so they don’t look out of place, in case someone ever wants to rebuild that.
This was the absolute worst. So much scraping, in full lead paint gear. Rebuilt some of the woodwork. I left the hinges for whatever cool doors were originally hung on the outside frame — I hope someday someone finds replacements for those!
These stairs were an absolute nightmare under that carpet. Paint and a runner turned out to be the best solution.
You can’t see all the cracks in the before pic, but a LOT of plaster work went into this area.
A lot of work went into this. Repainted the tub (Rustoleum kit) and added the beadboard trim to the tub. Went with a very upscale mirror and faucet because they’re visible from the front entryway and we wanted it to look above builder-grade.
Wish I had pics from the same angle, but I love this room. It really just needed paint, and the floor only needed a thorough cleaning.
Oh, and we replaced those poor sad fan blades!
So much work happened here, that you can’t really see. Those walls were crumbling to dust at the slightest touch. Had to bust out all the loose brick and build it back up.
The kitchen is huge, but someone squeezed these cabinets into the corner and made it feel tiny. We picked up some lightly-used cabinets in great shape and went with open shelving to showcase more of the brick (which we lightened with a German schmear finish). The concrete-look vinyl tile was a great find, but we had to do a bunch of floor leveling and a lot of other repair in here.
These were some of the most damaged walls in the house. That’s where most of the time went in this room.
The flooring here is actually pine subfloor, which had been painted at one time. We decided to stain & poly it and really liked the rough-hewn look in the end.
Rodney really wanted to leave the exposed brick, so he worked on creating more artful shapes and we added a light German schmear to it.
Someone took a sledgehammer to the wall in this room, but Rodney was able to rebuild it.
This was a nightmare. We thought the floor was damaged from an old ice chest or something, but it turned out moisture was coming in the wall. Most of the floor, including the support beams, had rotted. We completely rebuilt that, and tuckpointed the outside to stop the moisture.
Fresh paint. New cellar door. Lots of tuckpointing. Some brickwork. This covered area is a really nice feature that can be used as either a carport or patio.