Complete Home Remodel before and after

My hubby and I have built 5 houses together and, after this one, remodeled two.  This house has been the project of a life time.  I hope you will read a few posts back about our acquisition of this home, it really was miraculous for us.  For years we have wanted a camp on a lake, to get out of debt, and to move to Baton Rouge since our kids are in school here.  This house has fulfilled every desire we had, I am beyond thankful!  

If you live in our area please come have a cup of coffee on the porch with me.  I completely feel like God blessed us with this house to bless others so you are welcome to our Casa any time!

Kitchen before

Kitchen after demo 

Kitchen after

Kitchen after.  This was probably the biggest transformation.  Ceilings are low so it was very important to me to have a bright airy space.  

Kitchen after.  We added some old wood left from our last house to the walls around the window and painted white.  I do not like sheetrock anywhere near sinks or stoves, this did the trick and I love the warmth it adds.

Kitchen after.  This wall caused more nights of lost sleep than anything else.  So happy with the butcher block up the wall, possibly my favorite detail in the house.

Breakfast area before

Breakfast area after.  The paintings above the butcher block are done by none other than my 10 year old, which were done in the art class of the artist who painted the one on the other side of the window.  

Little writing corner in the breakfast area.  Painting by Marita Gentry.

Breakfast table.  After seeing a few zinc tables in catalogs I knew it was a must but the $800 price tag was a mustn't.  My solution....called local sheet metal shop and asked for a zinc table top with a 2 inch lip.  When I picked it up I was a bit disappointed because it looked like galvanized metal without the patina I had seen in catalogs.  Solution was....acid, honestly I can't remember if it was muratic or sulfuric.  My friend Seth and I spent the day getting it just right.  We have the brilliant idea to one day produce furniture like this and name the biz "Hobo Mansion".  Seth, feel free to comment if you remember which acid we used.

Entrance by kitchen door.  I love pineapples at entryways, especially in the kitchen.  They represent hospitality.  Marita taught me to paint pineapples years ago and it is still one of my favorite things to paint.  

Area off the kitchen.  The plan for this was to be my dogs little home.  Didn't work, she hated it so now it has fabric behind the wire and I use it for storage.  The chalkboard was a leftover cabinet panel that we didn't use in my bathroom.  Amazing what can be done using what you have!

Wet bar before

Wet bar after.  This is the only cabinet in the house that I kept.  I had cabinet guy make doors.  The insides were too cool to lose.  

Wet bar after

Wet bar after

Half bath before

Half bath after.  Only area we left wallpaper.  It was a really cool grass cloth with lots of texture so we just painted over.  Sink is amazing, literally a big rock carved out.  Counter top is a piece of old wood that came off a barge.  Hard to find a plank of wood that wide but if you keep your eyes peeled and meet the right people anything can be found, well almost anything.

Living room before.  This room is what sold me that this house was worth the trouble.  High vaulted ceilings, amazing 1.5 inch thick wood running on the diagonal, lots of natural light.  

Living room during.  Luckily demo was during a time that weather was pretty good and it's in a pretty secure neighborhood because it was wide open for a while.

Living room after

Living room after.  A word about the floors....I would never have had the nerve to run these amazing wood planks diagonally, or hubster would not have let me.  Thankful the original builder was brave enough to do it.  These floors required hours of pulling old filler out of cracks with a putty knife and without making you totally sick the filler was full of not so nice stuff.  Keep in mind previous owners REALLY loved their animals.  Gag!!!!  After cleaning they were sanded down and refinished and turned out to be truly amazing.

Living room after.

Entertainment wall before.  I actually tried to figure out a way to utilize these crazy built ins but in the end I was glad they were gone.

Entertainment wall after demo.

Entertainment wall after.  I need a painting over record player and haven't yet decided what I want it to be, after that it will be complete.  A word about the coffee table.  This was my previous dining table made from very old cypress given to us by a dear friend who has since passed away.  I knew I never wanted to part with that table top but wanted something smaller for my breakfast room.  The solution was to take the top and place it atop what was the mantle in the below picture.  We cut it in half and used it as runners under the table top.  It is too heavy to remotely budge without two strong men and it is big enough for both couches to use to prop feet up.  Love that it is empty and always available for eating, propping, grand babies to climb on or crawl under ( there is a tunnel of sorts underneath).  Seth helped with this table too. 

Fireplace wall before.

Fireplace wall after.  Yes that is a fire in March because it is stinking freezing outside.  South Louisiana has the craziest weather ever!

Sun room before

Sun room after.  

Sun room after.  Also my art space.  I love it for the light but look forward to having a room specified for painting so I can make a mess and leave it that way.

Dining room before.

Dining room after.  This room is huge for a dining room so I knew I needed a big table.  Also my children begged me for years for a ping pong table.  Solution, I had a cypress table built the same size as a ping pong table.  We have a net that clips on and voila.  I ran across a man that builds cypress tables at an estate sale and asked if he would build it for me.  He agreed and I sent him the specs.  Although a bit put off by the size he agreed to do it for $900, yes I'm serious.  The other price I was quoted was $5,000!!!!  Only problem was when I went to pick it up it took 4 people to inch onto a trailer and he said "NEVER AGAIN".  I tipped him don't worry.

There are still a few spaces that are not totally done.  I'm waiting on a piece of artwork that a friend is doing for my foyer and we have not decorated the apartment above the garage.  Maybe this blog will help me get it finished.  Now that my house is close to complete I can get back to blogging the important stuff like food;).  Corbin, my 10 year old, and I are planning to do a cooking (V)log this summer so stay tuned.