The house comes with this 2500-lb mass of brick and mortar in one corner of the living room. The indoor/outdoor carpeting has been glued directly to the original tile.
The original design includes this ‘hall’ to create an entry closet opposite and to the right of the front door. It also includes two fake beams in the living room, breaking up any flow in the room.
Every cabinet except under the sink had the doors removed. The insides had been painted white with blue/grey outsides. The box above the uppers is just a spacer eating up wall space.
The counter wraps around into the room, separating the living from the kitchen; but it takes up a lot of space. To the right of the fridge is another space-eater – a closet-sized pantry
Starting at the top: covering the stained, dirty acoustic ceiling with drywall.
A great shot of the doorless island cabinet and the brick hearth taking up what feels like the whole living room/kitchen
The ceiling drywall looking the other way. The cabinets and silly box are gone, as are the ugly fake beams in the living room
My only 4 original cabinet doors and single drawer
We moved the bedroom door back four feet to include the ‘hall’ closet in preparation of removing the original bedroom closet. In the foreground you can make out the countertop of the island separating the living room and the kitchen. Getting the bicks out of the living room has already opened up the room a bunch.
Notice how much larger the room looks without the island jutting out into the room.
Priming the new texture. We went with a stomp pattern on the main ceiling and knockdown on all the main walls except our accnt wall – which is a simple hand-trowel application of drywall mud.
COLOR! Looking down the hall into the living room and the accent wall. Now the removal of the bricks, beams and island makes a dramatic change in the room.
A better view of the special texture on the accent wall.
One of several piles of broken tiles we removed from every room in the house – even the carpeted bedrooms. Obvioulsy, when this place was built in the 70’s it didn’t come with carpet in any room.
Floor installation. We went with a premium vinyl tile with an adhesive system. Rather than completely replace the water damaged sub-floor we cut out the bad spots, replaced them, and filled the low spots. The flexible vinyl tile allowed some sagging a harder click-together tile would have struggled with.
halfway across the main room.
The new floor looking from the front door. These new vinyl tiles are SO nice – one guest was shocked to find out it isn’t real wood.
New lower cabinets (with doors and drawers) being installed.
The bedrooms
The master bedroom was ‘blessed’ with a huge end-to-end, three-door closet eating up around 1/4 of the overall space. By moving the entry door we were able to use the hall closet for the bedroom and remove the doors, making the room 13×12.
Textured and primed
Six-panel door installed between the bed and bath. This view also gives you a view of the new closet and entry area.
Notice the color change on the floor… the entire darker area was originally all closet. Moving it to the entryway REALLY opened up the room
6-panel doors and 6-inch baseboards.
The other side of the ‘closet’ area. The closet door was right behind the bathroom door. Had we not moved it there was really no wall to put the bed on, except under a window.
Bedroom #2 is dark blue-/purple-painted paneling with this stick-on black-and-silver flower pattern for an accent
The pop-out nature of the closet creates a natural cubby hole for a dresser or desk.
The closet and door has paneling that has been painted white
Waiting for carpet. The walls are textured, primed and painted; basement is installed and painted.
The ‘stick-on flower’ corner – now accented by a colored wall. The 6-inch baseboards add a nice touch.
When I was shopping for a new home last year and came across this gem , my first thought was, “There’s no way I would live here.” The first thing you see when you enter the place is this huge, ugly 3-sided real-brick hearth supporting a very dated free-standing fireplace. The 4 x 4 footprint it takes up is easily 20% of the living room and it’s doubtful the bricks are anchored to the wall in any way. Then there’s the 7-foot isthmus of a countertop breaking up the other side of the room. The indoor/outdoor carpet, which had been installed right over open air ducts had definitely seen better days and the linoleum in the kitchen (also rolled right over the ducts), coupled with the lack of cabinet doors and water-stained acoustic ceiling gave me an immediate ‘crack house’ vibe. Then there’s the typical ‘trailer house’ amenities – acoustic ceiling, small single-slab doors, and everything is clad in dark wood paneling – most of it (poorly) painted and in odd colors and combinations.
We tore out the brick and the island, drywalled over the paneling and acoustic ceiling throughout the house (110 sheets), replaced everything in both bathrooms, and replaced all the cabinets. We installed six-panel doors and 6-inch baseboards to give it a more ‘house-y’ feeling and used various textures on the walls, including a hand-trowel masterpiece on the chocolate wall in the living room. The project is still in progress; but we thought you’d enjoy a preview.
The HappyPainters did all of the work with the exception of plumbing, electrical, and carpet installation.
