With the five-year mark just passing, taking a look back was satisfying.

But, seeing progress in the warehouse, I mean pool house, is equally fulfilling.  Unlike the rest of the house, this room has, without a doubt, only gotten worse as we’ve lived here.  After closing, the pool house looked like this:

Certainly not the worst starting point, but still far from our ideal.  Indoor carpet, stained lap siding on the walls, water stained beams, and a fiberglass ceiling had all seen better days.

To revamp the space, the first order of business is always demolition.  First the ceiling, followed up with the floors.  Oh boy, this was a treat.  And by treat I mean hours of Ben chiseling and chipping and me with heavy buckets to haul and oodles of vacuuming.  Let the good times roll.

About halfway through the tile removal, we took a break and knocked out the half bath for fun.

The in swinging door at the center of the room made it awkward to actually get in the room and close the door.  Instead, we want to add a pocket door, keeping the room open and accessible.

To start, we tore down the previous wall and planned out the new door placement.  Then we built a new header, as well as a full new wall.  Just to the right, we built up the wall to accommodate a wider door leading into the kitchen.  To do so, we had to transfer the load of the overhead beam by adding a massive header.  Finally the fun part, opening up the wall for the new door.

Ta da!  Time for a wider door.

Install went smoothly and we’re loving the flood of light coming in the office.  The wider door also makes the pool house feel more intentional, like a part of the house and less like the addition it is.

Framing the larger door adds balance to the large wall, unlike the second photo above.

With that wall built, we got back to chipping up tile and mastic.  Fingers tightly crossed, we’re past the worst part of the demo work.  Three more walls to build, electrical to run, and we’ll be able to start laying tile and getting to the pretty parts.

Soon all of the plans swirling around in my head will start to take shape, which is a thrilling concept.

As a wrap up of the five-year before and after extravaganza, we’re getting our shoes on, heading out the front door, and taking a peek around the exterior.  Before, the exterior wasn’t the best selling feature.  What, with the dated windows, two-tone unfinished siding, and completely overgrown landscape.

We’ve since replaced every.single.window, wrapped the house in extra insulation, followed up by a combo of dark lap siding and rusting CorTen steel.

Landscaping has been a long road, starting with a water and energy-saving rock base.  To soften all the rock, water wise plants dot the property and are filling in nicely.

Along the front of the pool house, a large but falling apart deck awaited a refresh.  With the rotting supports and splintered wood, the deck was beyond repair.

A complete rebuild took many weekends over the course of a summer, but we now have an outdoor oasis.  Covering the southern exposure was crucial in making the space usable, avoiding roasting.

From the road, the pool house was quite an eyesore.  Missing pieces of siding and topped with a leaking roof due to the old solar panels.

Now, it’s sleek, streamlined, and more private thanks to a horizontal railing.

At the far end, we carved out room for a grill station with plenty of room for a relaxing seating area.

At the back of the house, there was a very overgrown flagstone paver patio with an ostentatious lion head fountain in the center.

When the patio was created, the landscapers brought in fill dirt.  But, that dirt was higher than the concrete foundation, which could cause wood rotting and possibly basement flooding.  Before we could do too much inside, we had to fix this situation and the landscaping followed.  By removing the top foot of dirt, we fixed that problem.  To make the space more usable, we built a big deck out of chunky reclaimed beams.

While digging down, we decided to add a water feature in the form of a waterfall.

It gives a similar sound effect as the fountain, but is set back, allowing more usable space with a gas fire pit in front.

Lowering the back landscaping also gave us the opportunity to drop the back pool door down.  Previously, there were four steps to get up to a small landing, which cut off both the interior and exterior spaces.

This back deck sees a lot of use.  It’s a space for the boys to play, an outdoor dining room, and a private hang out space.

Pool house progress coming up next!

Following up on part one, this part of the tour will cover the bedrooms, bathrooms, and basement progress.  Before, the main bathroom was the most recently updated room, but didn’t function well for our family as it lacked a shower.

Adding a full wall between near the toilet allowed us to create a tub/shower, but also gives privacy to the commode.  An open vanity allows breathing room, with storage for towels, toilet paper, and bath toys.

Across the hall is the smallest bedroom, with a wall of bookshelves.

By notching out the bookshelves, we gained an extra foot of floor space, as well as a headboard nook.  White shelves brighten the formerly dark room, and a padded linen headboard is a cozy reading spot.

The boys’ room was a black space, with beige walls and a popcorn ceiling.

Removing the popcorn, adding new trim, and painting the walls a vibrant color cheer up the once drab space.

There were some questionable wall colors in this house, but the electric blue was the most retina searing.

Keeping a neutral color palette is calming, with reclaimed wood plank accent wall.  Nearly black walls are bold, but not obnoxiously so.

Completing the master suite is a bathroom, previously seen with red walls and yellow tile.

Maroon Master Bathroom Before

After a full gut remodel, the bathroom is sleek and updated, making it one of my favorite rooms in the house.  White tongue and groove lower walls balance the dark upper, and the walnut vanity adds much-needed warmth.

Going to the basement, the garage entrance was dark and plain, with an awkwardly swinging door to under stair storage.

For better function and flow, we carved out a bit of space to create a mud nook.  It’s the ideal drop spot for backpacks, jackets, and shoes, while keeping it out of the walkway.

Beyond the angled door was a large open room.

For our purposes, we decided to split the space in two, giving us a bedroom and theater space.  I haven’t found the perfect night stands or art.  It’s functional, but not finished.

Our laundry room is one storage packed power house, but wasn’t always that way.

Now it feels as clean as the clothes coming out of those machines.

Just down the hall was an equally dated/ugly/dirty feeling bathroom.

Tearing it down to the studs gave us a clean slate, allowing us to widen the shower.

At the very end of the hall, that painted door hid a small closet.

Tearing out the closet became the theater room entrance.  Painting the walls a deep green makes it so cozy to lounge and watch movies.  When reconfiguring the floor plan, we set this area up to double as a bedroom, if necessary down the road.

Part three, the exterior is coming up next.

Did you know that five years ago April 13th fell on a Friday?  I remember very well because that was the day we closed on this house.  If we were superstitious, not just a little stitious, as Michael Scott would say, we probably would have thought it to be a bad day to close on a house.  However, we were thrilled to start on our new, big, exciting project.  Even now, as we slog through some of the less fun, back-breaking work in the pool house, we’re just as excited today as we were five years ago.  So many things have changed between now and then, and I love taking a yearly look back at the beginnings and where we are today.  There wasn’t much about the original entry that we liked, other than the tall ceiling.

Over the years, we replaced the front door and window, added a planked accent wall, new lighting, railing, and floor tile.  

At the front of the house, directly off of the entry is the living room with the dining room.  I can get on board with traditional elements and styling, but it wasn’t the right fit for this house and felt very forced.

We took out the ornately detailed lights, windows, and trim work, replacing with straight, clean lines.

Even five years into this project, I mean house, some things still aren’t finished.  That entertainment center being one.  And that’s okay.  As our kids have grown, our needs have evolved, too.  I’m itching to do something different here once the big projects have wrapped up.

I know it can be really hard to get flow of a house based on pictures, but the living/dining rooms are to the left of the entry and stairs.  On the other side of the wall, directly ahead of the stairs is the family room that flows back into the kitchen.

Looking toward the stairs from the dining room, things sure have changed.

For starters, we pulled out the dividing arch over the railing, straightened out the arched door, installed all new trim, painted every surface other than the floor.

Originally, the dining room had a bay window along the front with a tall door leading out the to the deck.

For better flow inside and out, we decided to swap the door placement and love the little walkway of the deck extension.

One of the most bang for our buck projects was removing the wall dividing the dining room from the kitchen.  Before, a four-foot wide arch was the only connection of the two spaces.

As part of the kitchen renovation, we widened that opening an additional 8 feet for that connected feeling we love.

The kitchen before certainly wasn’t the most horrible room ever, but always felt dark and cornered off.

Going with a lot of white brightened everything up, but that glorious southern exposure from opening up that wall made a night and day difference.

I know tearing out a large bank of pantry cabinets isn’t something most people do, but the traffic flow was so forced it often felt cramped if someone sat at the island.

It might not be for everyone, but we’ve never regretted removing that wall or the cabinets.

Another unfinished area is my little office nook.  Just off the kitchen was a corner office, which is nicely located for interacting.

Soon, hopefully within the week, we’ll have that door replaced, trimmed out, painted and those useless electrical boxes out of there.

In the last living space on this level, the family room featured a large moss rock fireplace, and big windows.

Some homes can rock the moss fireplace, but this one always looked dirty and out-of-place.  Refacing it with a sleek slate modernized it without demanding all the attention.

Another arch dividing the family room from the kitchen, more overly traditional stuffy lighting.

To keep a bit of separation between the rooms, we kept the dividing doorway, but squared it off.  New trim, lighting, and paint went a long way in modernizing the room.

As we’ve gotten more established in this house, my style has evolved, becoming more neutral and textural.

To see the evolution, check out last year’s look back and the tour from two years ago.  Bedrooms, bathrooms, basement, and outdoors are next, so stay tuned!