We already knew from pictures what the rooms looked like and
had pieced together a floor plan from a video (as my engineering brother pointed out--it is not to scale).
Like I said in the first post, the house
looked a little worse for the wear when we saw it for the first time in the
dark. The next day revealed a house that needs a little TLC but in much better
condition than we thought. It has its quirks being 86 years old, but it has a
ton of fun characteristics like crystal door knobs, original wood floors, fully
screened in porch, and cute front. We already knew from the pictures that the
rooms were interesting colors, so we planned to paint as much as possible in
the 2 days before our furniture arrived. We spent day one discussing with the
maintenance guy all of the repairs we wanted done (there were quite a few
ranging from adding lights to 2 of the bedrooms to repairing door knobs that
didn’t work), testing paint colors, and waiting for the property management guy
to drop off our lease. We were leery to start anything without seeing the
lease. In Houston, we would have paid a deposit & application fee, filled
out an application, had a background check, and signed a lease before being
handed a key. Not in sweet, small Spartanburg. We did none of the above except
pay a deposit (all refundable—awesome, right?). They left the back door
unlocked and a key on the kitchen counter, so we could let ourselves in the
first night. Chris and I are in culture shock. When the property management guy
did arrive with the lease, he told us to treat the house as our own home and do
whatever except burn the place down (he really did specify that), so we went to
work. Here is a walk-through of the house before any of our changes:
The front of the house:
We think it is very cute, and love that it looks small from
the front. It is 1550 sq ft.
The front door opens into the living room:
If you enter the front door and turn to your right, you find
the dining room (aka my parent's room before our stuff arrived):
If you enter the dining room and turn left through the
swinging door you find the butler’s pantry/breakfast room, which will be my
office/craft room. It is small with cute built-ins.
From there you continue into the kitchen, which is sadly the
most awkward room. It did not convert smoothly into the 21st
century. It does have a walk-in pantry and a mud room, which opens onto the
driveway.
If you follow Chris through the doorway, you have the
master bedroom on your right. Yes it is green.
Here is a picture of the hallway from the master bedroom,
which is large and baby poo green.
Next door to the master is bedroom #2—it is very purple-y.
If you come out of the bedroom, the bathroom is on your
right. It is small, but I have a few ideas to make it work, and there is a huge
linen closet right outside.
Heading down the hallway to the living room, bedroom #3 is
on the right. It is burnt orange (Sssssss!), but it has a fireplace, which is
fun. This will be Chris’ office. (Chris wanted me to be sure to point out that one of the first things we did was paint the office.)
I will post after pics once we are a little more moved in.
We have painted every room in the house, except the dining room, which is too
full of boxes. The house is so much brighter with our lighter colors. We are
really enjoying the house, especially the backyard. The dogs are adapting. Most mornings, you can find Amber laying in the sun in the yard with a huge smile on her face. The house is definitely coming together. Have a blessed day!
