Here it is: what my house looked like when I first moved in. I purchased the house in August 2018. It’s an upper-lower duplex, originally built that way, in 1918. Each unit has two bedrooms and one bathroom. As you can see, a definite fixer upper!
The two units are nearly identical, with a couple small details. The most obvious detail is the beautiful hutch in the dining room of the upper unit. And, the other is that the upper bathroom has some additional, built-in storage. Otherwise, the layout is the same.
On the exterior, the lower unit has a front porch. The upper unit has airing porches in both the front and back.
The shared driveway leads to a two car garage. Both units have entries in the back. It’s pretty narrow in the backyard space, but there’s enough room for a small gardening area.
The photo above shows there is a white house next door; that house is now gone and is used by a neighbor as a garden plot for his fruit trees and other plants. This changeover happened several years prior to my ownership. I would guess this picture is from about 2005, when the house was sold to the prior owner.
The Lower Apartment
I’ll start with the lower unit, which I live in. It’s about 850 square feet.
The Kitchen
The kitchen was in a pretty ugly state when I moved in. Upper cabinets were not real cabinets, they were standard for a “laundry room size” and made of cheap material; and the base cabinet was probably the only one that’s ever existed in the apartment. The countertop was starting to fall apart on the edges, and both the stove and fridge had seen better days.
The fixer upper kitchen floor had huge holes in it. This was not seen by me when I had first looked at the house. My realtor managed to negotiate a few hundred dollars at closing for this surprise.
Off of the kitchen is a 10-foot long pantry, which also came with the holey flooring. The shelves had 1-3 layers of contact paper covering on it, the top-most being a dark green color.
Improvements made to the kitchen: SEE THE UPDATES HERE!
- New flooring
- New cabinets, countertop, and sink
- Brand New stove
- Fresh coat of paint
- New windows
- New light fixtures
- Faux brick feature wall and backsplash
- Dishwasher installed
- Removal of contact paper in pantry
- Installation of rail system to hang pots and pans in pantry
Still to do:
- New fridge
- Clean up the trim
The Bathroom
Also off the kitchen (the other way) is the bathroom. The shower stall was yellowed and starting to crack. Mold filled the space between it and the tub. Both the shower head and curtain rod were rusty. The toilet rocked when sat upon, and the sink and vanity were in need of an upgrade. The floor was disgusting. It looked even older than the holey floor in the kitchen.
Improvements made to the bathroom: SEE UPDATES HERE!
- New flooring
- New tub, surround, drain and shower parts
- Brand New toilet
- New vanity, sink and faucet
- Addition of hooks, updated towel bar and toilet paper holder
- New light fixture
- Ceiling fan/light installed
- New shower curtain rod
- Fresh coat of white paint
Still to do:
- Clean up the trim
- Replace old window
The Living and Dining Room
This space in my fixer upper didn’t look too bad. The wall color looked a little dingy, and the original fir floors could use some help. But nothing major!
Looking at the floor, I can tell that the opening between the two spaces used to be smaller. I’m wondering if there may have been a set of double doors that opened between them. I can also tell that the original stove must have been on the inner wall. There’s a “paper plate”-like cover on the wall in one spot, and I can see a similar-sized circle leaving the dining room towards the center of the house (where presumably the chimney was/is).
All of the original wood trim has remained untouched, with the exception of a few small spots, one of them being around the original front door and the door itself.
Improvements made to this space:
Still to do:
- Clean up the trim
- Eventually get new flooring (like the kitchen)
The Bedrooms
Both bedrooms are off of the living room. Neither are incredibly huge, but they each have a decent amount of storage space.
The front bedroom is the smallest. The closet is not original to the house, but it’s a good size without compromising the space of the room.
Bedroom two is slightly larger, and has a walk in closet.
Improvements made to the bedrooms:
- Removal of carpet
- Fresh coat of white paint
- New windows
Still to do:
- Clean up the trim
- Eventually get new flooring (like kitchen)
Back Entry Way
From the back entry way, you can get to the kitchen or go down to the basement. The carpet reeked of pet odor. Spider webs abounded in the top corners and crevices of the space.
Improvements made to the entry way:
- Removed carpet
- Painted floor, trim and railings (dark brown)
- Fresh coat of white on walls
- Drywall repair on ceiling
- Painted basement door (blue)
Still to do:
- Possibly paint the door
- Replace old window
And there you have it!
I had a few people ask for photos of when I moved in on social media, but to be honest…I was a little embarrassed about what people would think about me seeing the fixer upper conditions I had chosen to live in! Of course, I shouldn’t let people make me feel self conscious, but I did. But here they are, and now I’m glad I have some photos to show how everything has been transformed!
I’ll post the upstairs unit befores in a separate post.