Notes from the Nelsens: Buying and Renovating... a balance of excitement and patience

Matt and I closed on our first house on September 30, 2010. Since then, we have been living with his parents while the house is being renovated. Though the process has taken longer than we originally anticipated, we are getting so excited about the finished product! Also since it's taken longer than expected, we are SO grateful to his parents for inviting us to stay with them! Months of rent+mortgage would not have been fun, and they have really helped to make the transition a smooth one.

So, before I show you some of the current pictures, I thought it would be appropriate to let you see the strong vision :) we had in the beginning. And really, we can't take credit for much more than seeing a subtle potential. Our contractor, Don Goff, who took our "maybe we like this house" and turned it into "this house will be amazing!" gets all of the credit. We brought him by the house two hours after our first walk through. He talked us through the vision for what could be, and since September 30th, has been working hard to make it happen! So here goes with the original pictures... praise God that we went through with this purchase! It's pretty crazy to remember what it first looked like. Oh, and I should say that the lady that originally lived there was moved to an assisted living home and no one in her family came to clean her belongings before or after she passed away. Very sad, but part of why we were able to get such a deal- not many people could envision the potential the way Don did! So here goes!

This was a "dining" area that, in later pictures, you will see as the brown bedroom.

This was a sitting area that we have turned into a dining room. The kitchen is to the right of this room. We took out a wall and added a breakfast bar to make the two rooms flow together.