Remodeling Pics!

Hidee Ho friends! How is your week going so far? Today, I thought I'd share some wonderful remodeling pics...but they are not mine, they are of my brother-in-law's recent renovation. As some of you know, the hubs & I moved into our first house this past summer & have been diligently, albeit very slowly {due to budgetary reasons}, trying to fix it up to make it more functional. Ours in an old house, with tons of charm, but it just needs some lots of TLC. At the same time, my BIL & his wife decided to do a full renovation on their 1930's home. Even moving temporarily into an apartment for the summer while this major reno was taking place. The pics were so inspirational to me, that I thought I'd share a few of them with you today.

Some background info: When they moved into this Los Angeles home, it was already fully remodeled by the previous owners, so there was not much that needed to be done functionally or even cosmetically to the home. However, my hubby's brother & his wife have specific tastes {don't we all}, so two years after purchasing this home in 2001, they decided to do their own renovating {with the help of pros, as he told us that he "doesn't do DIY"}. But it was only for cosmetic purposes, and it was already perfect back then!

Fast forward 10 years later in 2011 - they really wanted to upgrade their 2 bedroom, 1500 square foot home into a 3 bedroom home {but keep the total square footage}, which happens to lie on a hill {which means a nearly nonexistent front yard and a slanting backyard with a pool}. Therefore they had to do a full on redo which included taking down walls, creating new ones, adding & removing windows, rewiring all the electrical, etc. And being that my bro-in-law isn't the Do It Yourself type at all, they hired major professionals to tackle on this entire project. Let's just say that the cost of this remodel was way into the 6 digit figures - something way beyond our scope! But still inspirational nonetheless.

It doesn't seem that any details were spared for this renovation! And I have to admit, I was a bit envious at first, but after seeing this transformation {wish I currently had the "before" pics to share}, I am in awe of it all, more than anything else. The designers that worked on this home had my taste in mind nearly exact. With the muted grey walls {3 rooms in our own home are painted in different shades of grey}, wainscoting {love, we have that here too}, white kitchen cabinets {to-do list}, a farmhouse sink {to-do list}, subway tiles {to-do list}, and dark rustic hardwood floors throughout {I wish, but that's not in the budget at the moment, so we have tiles + carpet throughout for now}!

Let's start with the kitchen shall we? This here used to be their son's bedroom. Now herein lies the the more spacious and thoroughly updated kitchen, equipped with new appliances, carrara marble countertops, and even a mounted flat screen TV on one side {it's on the wall opposite the fridge}.

Before, there used to be a closet in the kitchen that could only hold a stackable washer & dryer. But now the space has been redone so that a full-sized washer & dryer can be used.

The picture below used to be a "sitting room" with one french door, and includes a shared fireplace with the living room on the other side. Now, this room will be a dining room, as their initial dining room used to be at the front of the house next to where the kitchen used to be. To do this, they removed the center french doors, extended the space forward a bit, and replaced them with the white windows that you see below. Next, they added french doors on both sides of the windows.

Now this space will fit a cozy little dining table {they are a family of 3 with no plans to expand} that will have views to the backyard on one side. On the other side, they will still keep the shared fireplace, they just redid the mantles on both sides. Now if you look ahead in the picture above, you will see a dark door. This leads to the master bedroom.

In the living room, the exposed beams were done by the previous owners. So the changes made to this room included opening up the wall to the left of the fireplace {where there used to be only one entrance to the right side of the fireplace, now there is two}. The floors used to be a lighter color with dark walls. Now they switched it up and painted the walls lighter and added dark wooden floors. They also redid the fireplace & mantles on both sides.

The master bathroom boasts a tub & a shower, complete with double vanities and carrara marble countertops.

The picture below is of their foyer. This too was redone. The window is new and the wall behind the mirror used to be an opening that lead to the initial dining room. Now the dining room is where the 3rd bedroom is {more like a small office - picture not shown}.

These were the only pictures that I was allowed to share. Not shown are the master bedroom, and the hallway which leads to the second bedroom {which is their son's bedroom}, the 2nd bathroom, and the laundry room. I hope you enjoyed the photos of their magazine worthy renovation. I know it surely inspired my hubby & I to get to working on our DIY projects with a new passion. Because after awhile, it's easy to get burnt out trying to juggle fixer upper challenges coupled with the entire family adjusting to the move along with the new commute/schedules. Until next time, I hope everyone has a fantastic rest of the week!


XO's,
Jessie


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