Before & After | It's Great To Be Home

The Flip: The Exterior, Then & Now

January 31, 2011 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 19 Comments

After I showed you guys all the before and afters of the inside of the flip, I realized that I never gave you a proper before and after of the exterior!

Here’s how it looks now . . .

. . . and here’s how it looked when we bought it at the end of September:

The very first thing we did was have the ginormous dead tree cut down, and we also got new shutters and a fab new oak front door – the swirls and curls on the original door just didn’t fit in with the clean lines we were going for with this house (and I’m very jealous of the new door, since our front door is almost identical to the old door that got the boot).

Along with new hardware and lighting, the old metal post was replaced with a stained wood post, and the front porch (which was kind of an icky aggregate) was tiled with some sleek new slate.

I always kind of lose steam when it comes to the exterior (I’m definitely an interior gal), but I think the little changes made a big difference in the curb appeal of the flip and took this house out of the 70s and into this decade. What do you think?

P.S. This is my 400th post! Yowzers!

P.P.S. You may have noticed that I’m tweaking the look of the blog a bit – I still have a few more tweaks, but what do you think so far?

The Flip: The Master Bathroom, Then & Now

January 20, 2011 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 26 Comments

We’re nearing the end of our tour of the flip! I must admit, I’m a little sad. :)

So far we’ve seen the great room (staging sources here), the dining room (staging sources here), the jack ‘n jill bathroom, the laundry room and the master bedroom (staging sources here) – so of course it’s time for the master bathroom!!

When we bought the house we could tell that the master bathroom had lots of potential since it was pretty large, but the layout was terrible and incredibly choppy. The space was split into 6 rooms!!

You can see the original layout of the master bathroom in the floor plan below – 3 closets, a “wet room” with the shower/tub and toilet, a room with the sinks, and another room with a makeup vanity. Talk about choppy!

To take full advantage of the footprint of the master bathroom, all of the walls had to come out (except the shell of the 2 connected closets, which were combined into 1). The makeup vanity turned into another closet, and the original third closet turned into a huge walk-in shower! (See how we came up with the new layout here).

Take a look for yourself at how it all turned out.

After the great room, I’m most envious of this bathroom (in particular the jetted tub). What are your favorite features?

The Flip: The Master Bedroom, Then & Now

January 17, 2011 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 28 Comments

So far we’ve toured the great room, dining room, laundry room, and the jack ‘n jill bathroom – next up is the master bedroom!

Here’s how it looks now after a few tweaks and some staging:

And here’s how it looked when we bought it at the end of September:

The room is a great size and had a vaulted ceiling, so that was a great starting point. In addition to new paint, crown molding, bamboo floors and a few other upgrades, we also closed off two doorways – the sliding doors leading to the enclosed patio (which has since become part of the great room) and a door to the master closet (there is another entrance through the bathroom so the second door was overkill). Closing off the doorways gave the room a lot more usable wall space, which I always think is a great thing!

Here are a few more shots of the finished master bedroom: