The progression of 506 through sales

I am not sure if everyone knows but we now live right next door to our old house. I'll back up a bit.
While in Texas we got orders to NC. My hubby was in Korea so it was up to me to find a home. Having just had a baby and having a kindergartner and 4th grader I could not travel cross country to look for one - so enter the lovely world of Internet. Yes I searched in a small county I had never been to north of the base for a historical home. I found one- a 1928 French Eclectic. Now, realize I had no idea if it was in a good part of town or the hood. I based everything on the information that my realtor shared with me. I think he made sure it was a good and safe neighborhood as he felt a bit sorry that I had to do this on my own from thousands of miles away. I put in a contract online and we went into contract. The inspection was done without us being there and we were a bit nervous to say the least. Buying a house sight un-seen? Everyone thought we were crazy. But I just sort of had a feeling it was going to be alright. We were going to get there a bit early- like 3 weeks till closing and the nice family that owned it let us rent it in that time period. Hubby arrived in enough time to help with the movers and then we were on the road.
We got a great deal as it was on the market for almost a year. We got this gem for $153, 000 yes all 2640 sq. feet of her. All 75 years of her. All of her yellow brick that was brought in from Indiana to build her.
This is the William L. Jewell house and she was a jewel. We lived in her from 2003 -2007 before buying the house next door. The new family in there moved in 2007 and now have her up for sale. So, I thought it would be fun to see how she has progressed in 3 sales in about 6.5 years. Here goes:
This is the jewel when we moved in. Don't you love the classy blue? That had to go in our eyes. Also those poor pitiful oak trees that someone had trimmed to look like q-tips. But most importantly the interior french doors that were hidden behind storm"window"s on the front. What the heck was someone thinking?
Here she is when we sold her..All cleaned up and beautiful. I painted the trim black and I think it stands out so much better. We ordered new exterior french doors and painted them black. We worked on the flower bed and planted some shrubs along the drive. 

Here she is for sale again. Nothing has changed really. 

Here is the sight that beheld us when we entered the front door. Yikes besides the horrendous curtains it really needed help. It was advertised as being rosewood paneling but it was plywood stained rosewood. And it was just too dark for a room with no light. And don't get me started on the commercial grade checked floor..yikes. If you notice and look closely that floral that is above the dark paneling-that is printed paneling. Yep - ugly.

But she sure did clean up well. We tore the floor up to find hardwood and tore down all that ugly paneling and put up drywall then painted the railing to add a bit more drama. We did have all the floors in the house refinished - yeah we put everything in a pod about a year after we moved in and camped in our trailer to have it done- but that is another post. :) It sure was brighter then. I also painted the interior of the door red so I could smile every time I saw it. I loved that door. 

And here she is up for sale now- not much changed again. Same paint and all. Guess we did it right. 

Okay now brace yourself for the living room. It scared us and I don't scare easily. This is how it looked when we looked at the pictures online and from the realtor. Oh my gosh a person with too much cotton candy and pepto bismol vomited all over this room. I mean look at that room it is rugby striped with pink and darker pink all the way up the wall to the ceiling. 

This is how it looked when we got done with her. So much airier and brighter. Now this room was staged for sale so no toys are present but usually it had a big ottoman with toys everywhere. Just to keep it real.

This is how it is now. I am not sure of the color choice. I personally would not have put pea green up when I was trying to sell but that is me. I also would not have adopted the pea green up on the tray ceiling as it adds the rugby shirt factor back again. It stripes the wall and not sure that the curtains go with it all.
Now if this was done to live there than so be it but for sales purposes I think it would have been better to keep it a bit more neutral. 

This is the office that is off of the living room. It is called that or a sun room as it has windows all around. It was a difficult room to use as much as it was only 8 feet by 12 feet. With windows and a set of french doors on 3 walls. When we bought it it also had an opening to the dining room on the 4th wall. So, no wall space at all. It had some decorating nightmares going on also.. it had southwest textured wall paper on the ceiling and a border on the wall. And then textured wallpaper on the walls. It was a mess.

After we got done with her it was much better. Now when we lived here it was my craft room but you can imagine how that would not show well so we turned it into the office to sell better. I did the walls in a red color- same as the front door and the ceilings in a color called flax. I loved the room. It got so much light that you could do dark colors and we loved all the windows and views outside. The hutch is where the opening to the dining room used to be. 

This is how she is now- green again. And all the windows are covered in mismatched window treatments so no light comes in. I think it distracts from the selling points and then putting the huge amoire in front of windows is a major no-no. 

Next is the dining room. Again it was stated that it was rosewood paneling but we know it wasn't. It also was so dark- too dark. I hated the textured ceiling and that gaudy chandelier had to go. 

We tore down the paneling and drywalled and painted it a cheery golden yellow. We also replaced the chandelier with a nice simple one.

Here she is today - again no change-same color, same chandelier. 

Next is the heart of the home - the kitchen. It really was pretty cosmetic at first. I hated the burgandy counter tops and then the mismatched wall paper everywhere drove me crazy. We lived with it for a long time as we were working on bathrooms. 

Since we could not do new counter tops and a big overhaul we decided to paint the walls and paint the cabinets and neutralize it more. We added a much smaller island that allowed traffic to flow around the small room.

Here she is now. She has changed - the cabinets have been repainted in a distressed black. The walls are still a tan neutral and there is a thin granite counter top. The sink was refinished and an island was built back in blocking the traffic flow. It is a small kitchen and the island really made it hard for us when we lived there.

Here is the master bedroom when we got photos from the realtor. It basically stayed the same. Notice the cool fireplace and door to the balcony? 

Here she is when we had her. We painted a neutral tan and then used white and brown. Pretty simple.

Here she is now - sporting a lighter paint. I like it.

Okay and here is the balcony. When we moved in it was one scary place and we wouldn't go out there. Someone added a metal awning roof on top and they never leveled out the ceiling from below so there was a dip of about 10 inches from the door to the rails. And it was so dark..but

we got angry one weekend and just cut that dang metal roof right off. It brought in so much light and then my hubby built a deck floor so we could actually use the space. It was a favorite place of the kids and myself on fall evenings as we'd sit out and watch the bats swoop and catch bugs. Ahh the stars were so lovely out there. I do miss that balcony so much.

Now it is the same thing different chairs. And I can honestly say I have never seen them enjoy it on a nice evening at all- what a shame.

Here is the our Jack's room when we got it..wow that is some blue and busy.

Here it is when we had baby Jack in it..he was a cowboy born in Texas so he needed his leather walls and boy stuff. 
Here it is now - a nice little girls room. Not sure about the burgundy curtains color or length though..but I do like a pink girls bedroom. 

Here is the big boys bedroom when we bought it. Okay it was his office and it had this wall of terrible built ins - someone really should have not been allowed near the power tools.

Here it is when we got done with it. The boys wanted gray walls and DUKE blue accents. They loved Duke basketball then.
Here it is now. A boys room in green. Very bright and colorful. 

Here is the room affectionately called the tree house room. It had windows on two walls that overlooked trees. So you felt you were in the trees. I loved this room so much. Well except the color and all the overdone stuff in it.

It became the little baby princess room. We had painted it a neutral as it was a guest bedroom but when she came we just left it neutral and used baby pink in other ways. 

This is the room now. She uses it as her craft room. Nothing has changed - the same color. But she does keep all the windows closed which defeats the purpose of the view and the light.

This is the only before photo we have of the hall bath as basically it was horrendous and I was not going to let my kids use it. Gross is what it was.

Look at all that cement we had to get out of there..boy was that a mess and a heavy mess too.

But hubby came to the rescue and redid the whole thing. He did the tile walls, the tile floor, all the plumbing, the electric, the installation. It had a seperate shower but we moved the stackable washer and dryer to it. What a Godsend with 4 kids and two being toddlers. I still love this bathroom.

That also hasn't changed..I mean who would? It was perfect :)
In North Carolina you have to have a screen room. I don't have pics of it before but essentially it is still the same - all we changed were the actual screens and the floor- it was indoor/outdoor green carpet- gross.

And here it is now- the exact same but with different furniture. She also has the shades pulled all the way down- don't ask me why they like it dark. Don't know.

Here is the back of the house when we moved in. It had no fence and also had a brick wall around a broken crumbling stone patio.

It came with a garage/workshop. Basically a workshop as the porte-cochere was enclosed to make the screen porch so you could not access the garage with a car. Also notice the non-existant patio inside the brick wall?
We added the kids play place right away so they would stay out of our hair :)

Here she is when we sold her. We added a picket fence around the whole backyard- we wanted to keep the kids and dog in the yard and keep them safe. We also cleaned up a bit. We tore down the brick wall and then added a brick patio out back.

Here it is now - the same - absolutely nothing changed except two killed gardenia bushes by the brick patio :)


So to recap. We bought in 2003 for $153K. Did about $40K worth of work. Listed it for $210K in summer of 2007. Had a contract in 2 weeks for full asking price.
They bought it in summer of 2007 for $210K did about $4K in the kitchen and have it listed for $234500 and it has not one contract on it in 109 days.
Guess we are in a housing recession aren't we? Maybe we should buy it back and move again. Naahhh
So, if you know of anyone that wants to move here with kids- that is a requirement of my children then come on a buy this up.
Thanks to all the ladies that said it was fine to do the housing stuff in the same blog that I do all the other stuff. I guess I was trying to make it flow better and be more smooth and less random. But I am random. I have 4 kids to things hit me whenever and I guess this blog will remain like me - random but controlled chaos.
All photos above that are before we bought it and when we sold it are my personal photos. The photos of the house for sale now are from the listing on realtor.com.

17 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, that pink living room. I almost forgot how bad it was!! And to think you all lived with it that color for awhile.

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  2. I know we're friends, but I'm telling you the truth when I say that YOU did it better. What is with all the darkness?? Oh and I am having seizures over that sink. I couldn't have left that one thing LOL

    Great post!

    rue

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  3. What a neat post. Seriously- Your's was way lighter, brighter... more welcoming.

    It's like you got to do your own version of the show, "Moving Up".

    Good luck with getting fabulous new neighbors!
    ~Amy

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  4. Tammy..
    Perfect!!
    no rambling..even with the four kids..it flows perfectly!!
    Loved the comparisons..
    Liked your styles much better for the light and brightness..
    ever so much more welcoming..
    just homey..
    hugs!!
    Loui♥

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  5. You did an amazing job on that home. Especially the living room looked way better the lighter color, the green is a little too much!

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  6. What a fun post! I definitely prefer your style to the current style, and that's prolly why it hasn't sold yet.

    What a gem that house was, and what a brave one you were to buy it sight-unseen!

    I want a old house!!!

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  7. Tammy, if I had a doubt that we were kindred spirits with our "love of old homes and all they entail", it flew right out the window with this post!! You did a magnificent job on that old beauty!! I simply love it. I love your vision for seeing the possibilities and then making them happen! My hat is off to you!

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  8. What a wonderful house. You did amazing things to update and bring it back to life. I admire such vision. It is gorgeous. Hugs, Marty

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  9. Tammy: I LOVED this post! The house is gorgeous, but I have to say, I liked it better when you had it! OPEN THE DANG WINDOWS!!

    Who does that??

    Beautiful job!!

    Lou Cinda

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  10. What an amazing house. We have nothing like it in Cali. Such character and great bones. What you did to it was amazing. Lulu

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  11. I can't imagine selling that beautiful home after all your hard work! So wonderful. Thanks for sharing.
    And thanks for stopping by the other day!

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  12. I loved the tour! You did an amazing job on that house. I'm curious what made you decide to sell it and move next door?

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  13. Absolutely awesome house! We are definitely in a housing recession. It seems totally worth the asking price with all the work you did. The current owners could take a few history lessons from your decorating style. Enjoyed the tour! Thanks for sharing.

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  14. Wow! What an amazing transformation. Just beautiful.

    - The Tablescaper

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  15. What a gorgeous home. Thank goodness you have the "vision"-you know-you see something and in your mind's eye you see the finished product. That is truly a gift. Not everyone can visualize!

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  16. wow, I just found this post... it's incredible!!! I love your old house...and you guys did a fantastic job!!!

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  17. I'm curious too why you sold it. A gorgeous house of that size here in the Chicago area would be so very expensive. I'll take it!

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