The transformation... (if you haven't read the first post, start there :) )

Needless to say, there are LOTS of pictures of the in-between process.  I'll do my best to summarize! Later, I'll post more pictures of the kitchen and bathrooms, which had the biggest transformations.

 Tearing out the wall between the kitchen and dining room...

 The kitchen gutted

The initial gutting of the master bath... this is the view looking into the bathroom from the bedroom.  Since then, we closed off the second entryway on the left  to give more wall space in the bedroom.

One of my favorite parts- the archway into the kitchen! :)  The space to the left of the archway was the original entryway into the kitchen (coming from the "dining" area).  The archway was a wall, so when you walked in the front door, all you could see was the living room.  You had to walk into the dining room to get to the kitchen. Now when you walk in the front door, you see straight into the kitchen.

The wood panelling in the master bedroom was replaced with added insulation and drywall.

The master bathroom

Us with the Dons... one of our many post-workday visits :)

Don Goff is our main contractor (the one standing next to me).  He hired the other Don to help with all of the demo work in the beginning.

Building the exterior storage closet off of the master bedroom

Laying hardwoods in the kitchen... we were really excited to find that the entire house had hard woods except for the kitchen and master bedroom.  They were able to match the original hardwoods for this room; for the master, we decided to go with carpet.

Kitchen after knocking out the wall adding drywall

Building the closet for the guest bedroom that was once the dining area 

The floors after being sanded... amazing that these were covered in carpet throughout the entire house! 

The pantry that was added for the kitchen

The master bathroom starting to take shape!

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.

Believe it or not, this is now the master!  No worries, the brick laminate flooring and shelves are gone. :)

 The two pictures above are now the master bathroom.  The closet you see to the left is now a shower.  The traveling potty has also been removed. :)

This was the master bathroom.

 

This has been turned into a bedroom/office...we think.  Definitely a bedroom, not sure about the office part yet since we haven't moved in furniture.