Love the Hubby hate his house!

When I met my now husband he owned his home. I had just sold my third property and was renting a great apartment 1 block from work. I loved everything about renting, dislike the neighbors move instead of renew. Something breaks call the landlord. Cable was included in the rent, as was water. I was living in a great community and had made tons of friends.

It was a nice year long vacation. When my renewal came up they raised my rent by $150 a month stating I had moved in during a special what? Crazy. I had a few options...move into another nearby apartment with a one year lease, move in with my fun but, silly and often crazy friend who owned her townhome (which was always falling apart). I even considered moving in with my parents ewe, but I knew that was just a fleeting thought as we had not lived together since I was in high school and we still didn't get along well. 

My cute amazing boyfriend (now hubby) said you can move in with me. It seemed like a winner. It was an hour commute to work but, I was looking for another job  near his home. We would both save money and be able to save or at least that was the dream.

This was what it looked like when I moved in. 

Moving into his house was fun, he let me paint the room, put up curtains, and paintings. He wouldn't get rid of anything in the kitchen even though my stuff was much nicer just in case. I believe we were already and expecting our daughter before he budged. 

I always figured we would sell his house or fix it up and boy was it ever a fixer-upper. As you can see this is what it looked like when I met the husband. I had really not thought I would move in and marry him so quickly and I guess I didn't explain I hate fixing things up...OOPS! The punch list is still being tackled 5 years later not to mention accidents pop up that require attention. We were able to get a new roof, siding and build our deck. The ER repairs were pretty standard all the appliances, floor in one bedroom due to icky carpet when we were expecting as it became the nursery. Purchase of a few pieces of furniture and just when we were almost ready to get new laminate throughout we found that the chimney was leaking under the stone and rotted the flooring under the house. It needed to be remedied asap.

Picture on the Real Property page of how it looked before the current renovation.

We found a contractor and started the process. I would have never in a million thought we would remove our fireplace inside and out. 

The Chimney Up Close and Personal our Azaleas are pretty at this angle. 

Our chimney is attached front and center with two ridiculously small windows that I believe are meant to be door adjacent. No window coverings ever worked so I spray frosted them. The contractor said they had to go as they were single pane and we were losing energy. He recommended putting in double pane windows across the front. I found a picture of what I envisioned and he was like awesome we can do it! 

Pintrest inspiration

I loved the triple window look with framing architectural elements and he was already going to add a peak so that the roof would have more curb appeal and also so you wouldn't immediately see the difference in wear of our 3 year old shingles and the new. It was a whirl wind. The inside looks like a cave. 

It was outdated but, I kind of liked the stone. It does need to go for sure with the rot issues. Plus our preschool daughter likes to try and climb in the fireplace by the way we never ever use. Hence the carpet board in front of the fireplace. 

Here is the start of the demo Monday day on the outside only.

Stay tuned for updates it should take 4 days with the crew and then hubby and I will paint and I am thinking of removing our textured ceilings before we install laminate. What a one room project.