Tudor Ranch and Trim

Yesterday I showed a picture of the house to a friend who said, "Oh it's a Tudor, no it's a ranch. It's a Tudor ranch!" Finally I know what my house is. It's a Tudor- Ranch! Luke got his castle and I got my mid-century ranch. Now how am I supposed to decorate it? There has to be a cross between a suit of armor and an Eames chair. This is going to be a challenge.

I started re staining the trim this weekend. I didn't want to go to all of the trouble of stripping and sanding so I have been using Minwax polyshades. Seen here:
http://www.minwax.com/products/onestep/polyshades.cfm
Of course the darkest color that Lowes carries is the Antique Walnut. Over the old stain it looks a little darker than the sample seen on the website. I see that they have a color called tudor which would have been awesome! Since I haven't done the second coat, perhaps I can go with that color over the walnut. But, I don't know if I feel like driving all over town looking for it.
I really want to get it over with. I can't paint the walls without finishing the trim, and I can't refinish the floors without painting the walls, so I'm really settling for whatever is the easiest.
Originally I was going to paint all of the trim white. It would have been just as labor intensive, but can I really bring myself to paint over wood trim? I decided to compromise and paint the upstairs trim white and just re stain the downstairs trim. Pictures to come soon!

The Upstairs

The upstairs is a former mother-in-law apartment. We thought it was a converted attic, but I found out from a neighbor that it is original to the home. I'm not sure if it always had it's own kitchen. I'm guessing that the kitchen cabinets were salvaged from the downstairs when it was updated. Luckily the plumbing has already been run up here because this is our future master suite!

At the top of the stairs are two doors. The one on the left leads to a small bathroom. The right door goes to the laundry and kitchen. We plan to turn the bathroom into the main laundry room and the kitchen into the master bathroom.

As you can see, the washer and dryer do not fit here. But they are new. The washer actually has a Handwash cycle. Yeah! We have measured, and they fit perfectly in the bathroom. Having the laundry off of the master bath will truly be a luxury. I'm not sure having the laundry upstairs would be as valuable to a large family considering the other bedrooms are downstairs. Since it's just us...I don't care!
The old laundry room will now hold the toilet. Plenty of room for a magazine rack in here! It's actually the easiest and most economical place for the toilet since a 4 inch pipe runs through the the left wall.

Here is the rest of our new bathroom. A tub and shower will replace the cabinets. I've always wanted a walk-in shower and separate tub. After days of drawing up designs, Luke and I finally came to an agreement on the layout. Luke and his brother completely gutted this room and now it's on its way. I lost the USB cable for my camera in the frantic move so I don't have any new pictures up.
We have seen so many home improvement shows where the renovators happily break things with hammers. It's not that fun. there were two layers of wood paneling and three layers of flooring. Luke needed a saws-all to remove almost everything. I wanted him to save the cabinets for the basement or laundry room but they were all nailed together. I was only able to salvage one small drawer unit and a piece of wood counter top. Hopefully it will fit in the new laundry room.

This room will make a nice bonus room. I'm going to paint the trim and ceiling white. The ceiling fan must die!

This is the view from our master bedroom. It's so private up here. Unfortunately this is the only room in the house with wood paneling. It's real sturdy though, so we shouldn't have a problem drywalling over it. I can't wait to sit out on that deck and enjoy the spring. It's so cold right now...

Tackling the Interior

Finally! Here are some pics of the inside (pre-boxes)


The living room is great except for the fireplace. The brick isn't real or original. It's actually only 1/4 inch thick and cemented to the drywall. The piano is beautiful but it dosen't work. Keys are missing and every C is broken. Luckily our movers took it off our hands for free! My cousin is planning on giving me a working piano that belonged to my Grandmother. I haven't played in a long time. Hopefully it will all come back to me.



I love the stairscase! We plan on refinishing all of the floors. Of course I want the stairs to match, but we have heard that refinishing them will be very labor intensive. Maybe it's something we can tackle on our own. If we mess up we can just throw down a runner!


I don't love this kitchen but remodeling it is the last thing on our list. I really am getting used to working in it. It is extremely functional - especially when it's only a quick turn around from the stove to the sink. The gas stove is awesome! All of the lower cabinets have pull outs which is great. Perhaps I will paint them white, but for now I will just replace the light fixtures and hardware. The gold really bothers me.

The Bathroom was updated before we moved in. I don't plan on changing anything but the paint. This color beige is awful with the white bead board.

Getting rid of the trees

I'm a little embarrased to say that I am addicted to "Flipping" shows. Flip That House, Flip this House, Propery Ladder, Flip it Back, The Real Estate Pros...you name it I've seen it. One of the first things all of the professionals do is remove the landscaping that hides the house. So, that's what we did. I love the large Oaks in the backyard, and I would never think about touching them. But the Bradford Pears in front of the garage had to go! Removing them revealed the two story garage, and a window that needs a fresh coat of paint.

Other home

The home we originally wanted (see entry below) just hit the market. It's the same price as it was unfinished! WTF! I'm trying not to have any regrets, but it's hard. I just have to keep reminding myself that we paid way less for way more square footage, and we have a porte cache. Oh well. Now you can see the influence for our current home!

Here is a picture of the front of the house (pre-new roof) The house is long and narrow. We aren't sure what to do about the metal awnings. They do kind of serve a purpose on the covered patio. New trim color is definitely in order!
The stone on the exterior is very unique, and we recently found out that it is called Crab Orchard Stone. The only place in the world to get the stone is Crossville Tennessee. The stone was a favorite of Frank Lloyd Wright, and he used it on many of his later designs.

Crab Orchard Home

In our quest for larger place close to work we came across a historic stone home on a highway north of town. The home was mid-way through it's renovation and still needed air conditioning, plumbing, etc. Our realtor (The Great Jon Brown) said it was way overpriced and showed us some comps in the area. The first MLS sheet he showed us caught our eye. "Why does that house have a hole in the middle?" "What is behind those trees?" My husband did a drive by the next day and took me by the house that evening. As soon as we started driving through the neighborhood I became excited. 60's ranches, Tudors, cottages, and even new construction lined the streets. It was exactly what I had been looking for. We pulled up to the house and I immediately recognized it. We had seen it online before, but weren't wowed. It just goes to show that pictures can be deceiving, especially pictures taken by a tired old realtor. The house spoke to me. That hole, Described by the MLS sheet as a carport, was actually a porte cache! The garage attached was two story but not visible in the pictures because of the large Bradford Pears littering the yard.

The next day we walked through the house and immediately made an offer. The home was being sold "As is" so we knew we were in for a little bit of work. We were surprised when our offer was immediately accepted. Now...the inspection.
Everything was going fine until we saw the crack. Okay, its more of a fault line running through the stone. Luke and I made lists, fought, cried. Finally we negotiated the price a little more and signed the papers.
Now here we are 5 months later and what was move-in ready is now a disaster zone.

First Blog

Hello. I'm at a loss for names of this blog so "Luke and Abby's Home Re-do" it is. I really wanted to start posting pictures and stories of our home renovation somewhere other than Myspace. Mostly because I don't want creeps from high school judging my handiwork. I will post my first pictures either tonight or tomorrow. Enjoy!