The day we got the keys!
Over the past six months, I have forgone working for other people and have focused solely on a very personal project: a 1400 square foot 1978 ranch-style home in Bend on an acre, complete with a 1,000 square foot shop that my wife and I purchased in August.
It is always a privilege and a challenge to remodel your own home. On one hand, you get to completely customize to your desire and take creative risks that you wouldn’t normally take on a client’s home. On the other hand, you are not getting paid, and do not typically have a deadline set in stone, which can lead to lingering tasks that may not be deemed immediately necessary.
Chopping down nine trees and clearing the backyard.
My wife, Kristin, and I have remodeled two of our other homes, both times living in the space during the renovation. This time around we were fortunate enough to stay living in our previous home while we renovated our new one. This was especially helpful considering we have a two year old son.
Over the course of the last six months, we hit a lot of highs and a lot of lows. A home on which we originally planned to just do a few simple projects in order to make it livable to our standards, ended up being a complete gut job. There is no surface of the home that hasn’t been touched. From scraping the asbestos ceilings ourselves (a first) to having all new HVAC installed, this small project became the kind of remodel you’d see on an HGTV design show.
Gutting the kitchen. It was disgusting!
I hope you enjoy reading about and checking out photos of our renovation. For us, this was the project of a lifetime (so far…there’ll be more…) Although we are now living in the home, we have a huge to-do list of projects that still must be completed (isn’t that always the case?). Follow along for ideas, inspiration, or just plain entertainment, and thanks for stopping by!
Moving slowly into the shop.