Welcome to our first house, a 1970’s brick ranch right outside of Richmond, Virginia. And yes, which happens to be the seventh house on the left. We don’t have “official after photos” quite yet. But here’s a collection of photos to show you what we’ve done so far. To better understand the lay of the land, check out the floor plan here.

Here’s what the house looks like on closing day:

After a few coats of paint, removing a small tree, and giving the house a good pressure-wash, here’s phase one of our curb appeal makeover:

Now moving indoors, let’s start right inside the front door, in the foyer. Here’s the foyer while we were in the process of widening the closet door (in our excitement, we failed to get a before photo!).

After removing the chair rail, painting the walls, and refinishing the floors, here’s what the foyer is looking like today:

Still not much of a grandiose entrance, but we’re a little bit closer to the warm and welcoming atmosphere we hope for.

Right off the foyer is a good-sized (though awkwardly shaped) living room.

We decided to take the awkward shaped living room and make it a living room/dining room. Though it’s a work in progress, here’s what the living room looks like today:

Open to the living room and dining area is the kitchen. It’s the biggest renovation on our plate. Here’s what we started with:

Since so much work was needed, it actually looks better in the photos than it really did in person, we decided to go ahead and gut the entire kitchen, continue the hardwood floors from the living room, and start all over. We’re in the midst of putting on the finishing touches, but here’s what the kitchen is looking like now.

Since we decided to turn the awkward living room into a living/dining room, we decided to make the previous dining room Ashley’s office.

Since we’ve moved in, this space hasn’t been dealt with at all yet has undergone quite a few furniture configurations. Even though we have yet to hang anything on the walls, we plan on making it cozy enough to flow seamlessly from the living and dining areas but functional enough to get work done. Here’s what the office is looking like today:

Back through the kitchen, living room/dinging room, and foyer, we have a long hallway (20 feet to be exact) leading to the bedrooms and a full guest bathroom. Here’s the hallway, looking down to the foyer:

With new paint and refinishing the floors, the hallway now seems even longer…

Down the hallway, the first room we come to is the guest bedroom. Here’s what we started out with:

We ripped up the carpet, installed hardwood floors, and freshened it up even more with a few coasts of paint. This room, like off the rooms in the house, is a work in progress. Here’s what it’s looking like today:

Next door to the guest room is a full bathroom. As you can see from the photos, this bathroom was in store for a major overhaul. Here’s how it looked the day we got the keys:

And here’s the after…

Greg needed a place for all of his guitars and geeky stuff (massive amount of computer parts, books, etc.). So we decided to make the smallest bedroom in the house Greg’s office. Let’s just say that room came with a “theme”. Football anyone?

After weighing all of our options, we finally decided to gut the bathroom, install a shower, add a wall to enclose the vanity, move the closet door, and install hardwood floors in the bedroom and closet. Here’s what the room looked like after those changes:

A few weeks down the road, the bathroom was tiled and the floors were refinished:

The bathroom is not 100% functional but just as with the hall bathroom, we are getting close.

Now that our furniture is in the room, we’re excited to start on some “real” decorating.

As for the master closet, it’s a far cry from being finished but it’s serving us well for now.

Now back down to the other end of the house to the laundry room. In this area, we have a large closet (which currently houses the hot water heater) and a half bathroom. Here’s what the area looked like when we moved in:

To date, this room is the area with the least amount of renovations. The half bathroom remains untouched but we did manage to paint and install new light fixtures and new door hardware.  We also brought in a bookshelf that we used in our old apartment to house cleaning supplies, shoes, etc until we are ready to tackle this renovation.

Out the back door, we have an attached carport. The door on the far right is to a small storage shed where we stash our tools and miscellaneous maintenance stuff. The middle door leads to the laundry room and the door on the left goes directly in the living room. Our long-term plan includes closing this in and making it an additional living space.

As for the rest of the area, we inherited a small aggregate patio and a good amount of grass area. Photos of that coming soon.

And there you have it. Like our house, the house tour is ever-changing. So be sure to check back soon to watch the renovations unfold. To read posts room-by-room, visit the Archives page.