Monday, March 10, 2014

Exterior Progress!

When we first laid our eyes on this house was pretty much love at first sight. If you could get past the paint color, shaggy dirty carpet, horrible wall paper, general state of disrepair, basically the whole thing needed a remodel, etc.  What we fell in love with was the idea of what this house could become.  A modern farmhouse with a spectacular yard for our children to enjoy for many years and an incredible view! 

What is so amazing..is that this house sat on the market for over a year.  The view was not marketed and even more sadly the tenants lived like pigs.  When we looked at the home, the teenagers underwear was laying on the floor among other things and the house reeked of pot.  Nice parenting going on here!  Fortunately, we were able to look past all of this.  Most people would probably have run out the door!

I know I am supposed to be talking about the exterior/yard in this post... but this gives you an idea of what we were dealing with everywhere. Below is a picture of the teenager's room that I mentioned above...this could quite possibly go in the "worse MLS Photo" category.  Actually, this particular day it was pretty tidy but you probably get the picture I am trying to paint.The underwear incident happened to be when our kiddos were with us...thank goodness they did not pick it up!


So, back to the exterior. It was painted a pretty boring beige.  I do not dislike beige.  The interior of our home is painted a beigy/gray. It was just not the right pop that it needed.  I think white houses with shutters are just so charming!  So, this is a before...

 
during...
 
 
 
a different/side view...we are still waiting on our front door to arrive..so I can't show that quite yet.
 
 
We also replaced the badly damaged asphalt with pavers.  It is so peaceful here.  Just an occasional visit from the neighborhood bobcat and coyotes.
 
 
 
Now..to the backyard. A hot tub with a view...this view is what sold us on the house. 
 
 
Here is the back before...
 
 
Besides having a vision for this house and hoping we could make it our own... we loved the ranch style floor plan.  Single level, everything is efficient, and it wraps around the backyard and the pool.  This is so ideal for sunny southern California where we are outside all of the time!
 
 
We are so fortunate that the previous owners had redone the pool and hot tub in pebble tec and the yard in a flagstone that we love. And here it is now! 
 
 
We expanded and connected the patio
 
 
Added a concrete fire pit
 
 
 
And added a Kolbe pocket door system, as well as several new sliders throughout. Our contractor built a pocket within our interior wall. The pocket doors open up the entire width of the doors.  While the doors were very expensive, I think it was a good investment and something we will really enjoy!
 
 
Hope you liked the exterior of the house.  We are now getting into the landscaping and hopefully we will be ready to entertain by early summer!
 
xo,
Paige