When we started house hunting I was
always drawn to the fixer uppers. The ones that once upon a time had their
glory days. The ones that have squeaky floors. The ones that despite the awful
shape they are in they still stand a chance. The ones with character.
Ah,
character. The one thing that I don’t notice when I see newly built houses. Now
don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate new houses. They are perfect in every way.
Every wall color, trim design, and flooring selection match perfectly. They’re
beautiful. But they lack character. Now don’t be upset if you live in a new
house. There is just something about the design of older homes that doesn’t
exist today.
I wanted a fixer upper. The hubba hubba wanted something
with minimal to no fixes. Let me just explain the issue I have with this. My
husband is a carpenter. He can fix pretty much anything and he does an
excellent job at it. So why not want to come home after a long day at work and
work some more to make our fixer upper livable? Yea, I wasn’t going to win on
this one. So we decided to change our search for something that was older but
was livable and we were able to add our own character to.
The house
hunting wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be. It was heartbreaking. We were
in negotiations for the house that I thought I couldn’t live without when
someone else placed a bid during our negotiations and the seller took their
offer. I was devastated. I didn’t think I could find another house as perfect
as this one, yet I was wrong. We had been looking at houses online when we
found one that the hubba hubba could not wait to see. He was so impatient and
excited about this one that he couldn’t wait for me to get off work. He drove
by it that night and called me to say, “it’s the one.” The next day we had our
realtor meet us at the house and I was just as excited. The hubba hubba was
right it was the one. After a month, we closed on our first home together.
Instead of
moving in right away, we started working on the house. Chris spent the first
month installing new hardwood flooring (one my of must-haves) and painting the
entire upstairs. Side note: the hubba hubba did a vast majority of this by
himself, he’s a keeper! Once the floors and walls were done, we were able to
start moving in. I had been collecting several furniture pieces and accessories
waiting to buy my first house. I even kept them all in boxes so it would be
like Christmas when we moved. If you are able to do this, I highly recommend
it! Once we placed what he did have we started working on one room at a time.
With the exception of the living room, the office was the first to be
completed.
I started
collecting items that matched my style and designing in my head how they would
all go together.
The desk
was made from an old door and metal found while junkin’. The colors on the door
and metal worked perfectly together (see original post here).
I had a
harder time deciding which chair would be perfect in this room. Fortunately, I
was able to get both chairs I had narrowed down for this space.
I always
wanted a mantel (see post about my mantel here) and was able to grab this
beauty up at First Fridays in the West Bottoms.
Another
great find was this rusty filing cabinet. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to
have it. I have had several people ask if it is functional, and it is! The rust
is contained to the outside so the drawers work perfectly!
My gallery
wall (see original post here) is made up of a majority of items I found while junkin’. With the
exception of our gorgeous wedding photos (Thank you Aftyn Marie Photograph!).
Below is the before (with the previous owners belongings) and the after! It is amazing to me the huge difference!
Whew! That
was a lengthy post just to get to our office make over. Let me know what ya'll think!
Rather be junkin'!
Heather
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