1970 home renovation Archives | Page 14 of 17

1970 home renovation

We purchased a 1970 brick ranch house in Washington County, Maryland in September of 2022. This wasn’t the home I envisioned us purchasing, but we thought it was a little gem that needed the kind of updating we were eager to do. We have had the privilege of meeting some of the children of the original homeowners, who built this Better Homes & Garden floor plan as their dream home. Follow along as we make updates to the home, big and small, while retaining the original charm and best features of the home.

1970 home renovation

1970 kitchen renovation | demo day one

The kitchen renovation began yesterday and I am so excited. Yes, it’s loud, messy, and very inconvenient, but I am keeping my eye on the finished kitchen, knowing it will all be worth it and all of this is very temporary. Even Marshall, my 16-year-old, said he was really looking forward to having a new kitchen and he doesn’t normally care too much about home-related things. The truth is that this kitchen has never really felt like ours. I said several times to Jeff that it feels like an Airbnb kitchen or a beach house kitchen and it just happens to have my stuff in it. But, that was one of the things on my wish list – a kitchen that could be entirely gutted and redone just how I want it and now that wish is a reality. Before I get into the happenings of yesterday, let me show

April 12, 2023 42 Comments

1970 home renovation

unlacquered brass faucet & cabinet hardware

The kitchen renovation was supposed to start today, but it was pushed back just one more day, and that actually suited us well. It was a welcome delay since it gave us one more day to empty the kitchen, and Jeff and the boys had the day off from work/school. It meant the day would be a bit more low-key for their long weekend and there wouldn’t be so many people coming and going in the kitchen while work was happening. The kitchen renovation is going to happen in two phases. Phase one will consist of demoing the upper cabinets, soffits, and mudroom walls, and moving the staircase. Some of the electrical work will also happen during that phase, and the new (larger) kitchen window will be installed when it arrives. The lower cabinets, sink, and appliances will get to stay put during that first phase so we’ll have a

April 10, 2023 15 Comments

1970 home renovation

how we’re paying for our renovations

Every once in a while, I get the question, “How are you paying for your home renovations?” I appreciate the honesty and openness of a question like that and I’ve often wondered that myself when I see people sharing one major home renovation after the other online. I grew up learning that you don’t talk about money and you certainly don’t ask people about it, but I think there is a benefit from sharing with discretion. While I’m not going to get into all of the cost breakdowns and how much we’re spending on each project or overall, I will share a peek behind the scenes. As with all things I share, I hope this will encourage and inspire you. How we’re paying for our renovations is a three-part answer… We read and went through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University years ago. We followed the steps, got out of debt,

March 30, 2023 44 Comments

1970 home renovation

1970 kitchen renovation | faucet, sink & counters

Yesterday, I ordered the kitchen cabinets! Whew, that was a big check and a big thing checked off the kitchen to-do list. Jeff hadn’t seen the cabinets I selected in person and, to his credit, he trusted me completely and didn’t even ask to see them, but I asked if he would meet me at the showroom just so he could put his hands on them and confirm that he liked them. I trust him completely to buy our vehicles and he trusts me completely to buy our cabinets, but we both like a little reassurance on purchases that are big-ticket items. He gave his approval, so I placed the order. If you missed the cabinets I selected, you can see them HERE. With the cabinets set, I can now focus on some of the other elements of the kitchen. Those have, of course, been in the periphery of my

March 29, 2023 80 Comments

1970 home renovation

kitchen renovation cabinet plans

I am so excited to share that the kitchen renovation is falling into place. The new larger window was ordered a few weeks ago and I am ordering the cabinets early next week now that the design is nailed down. When we were house shopping, finding a kitchen that needed renovation was at the top of my list. I know that sounds a little odd, but our past two homes had very nice kitchens, and redoing them just to suit personal preferences would’ve been a waste of resources. In both cases, we made cosmetic changes to the kitchens and I ended up really loving both of them. But, with the next house, I was excited at the thought of gutting a kitchen, starting it from scratch, and making it completely my own. As a reminder, here is how the kitchen looks currently… I started drawing up ideas for this kitchen

March 22, 2023 49 Comments

1970 home renovation

yard clean-up begins

One of the things I love about this house and this neighborhood is the mature landscaping. There are no scrawny saplings or yards covered only by a patchwork of newly-laid sod. Everything is established and adds to the charm and beauty of this neighborhood. For that reason, I was hesitant to start cutting down trees and ripping out bushes, but after being in the house for a few months, I needed to acknowledge that much of the landscaping would need to be removed or heavily cut back. Bushes had grown together and several were way too close to the house. The maple trees were in desperate need of thinning and a few of the small dogwoods were struggling in their shadow. One dogwood had been completely choked out by a thick hedge of overgrown, woody bushes, leaving a tangled mess around a dead tree. You could see that it was

March 20, 2023 31 Comments

1970 home renovation

french doors for the studio

I have been looking forward to having doors on my studio since I was able to move in and use the room once the hardwood floors were finished. This room is fairly isolated from the rest of the house, but it’s still nice to have a door to close out sound, keep the critters out when needed, and give a cue when I need to be left alone. They are see-through and not sound-proof, so it’s not so much about privacy as it is about letting my two-and-four-legged housemates know that mom is working. The two-legged folks are more respectful than the four-legged variety, who step in my paint, roll around in my still-life vignettes, and walk across my keyboard. As I’ve shared before, the studio is intended to be a formal living room. There are times when I imagine how fun this room would be to decorate as a

March 14, 2023 24 Comments

1970 home renovation

new exterior lights | 1970 home renovation

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Lamps Plus. As always, all words and opinions expressed in this post are honest and my own. If you missed the post a couple of weeks ago, I shared the new lights from Lamps Plus we installed in our hallway. You can find that post HERE. As a recap, we swapped dated, single-bulb lights for THESE beautiful star-shaped lights with six bulbs each! The difference was amazing. You can never underestimate what good lighting can do for a space. With that success under our belt, I was eager to change out the exterior light fixtures of our 1970s ranch house. I know “original lighting” sounds charming, but these were builder-grade, cheap light fixtures that had lived a good, long life. They no longer added to the beauty or charm appeal of the house but detracted from it. There were six of them to change,

March 7, 2023 34 Comments

I’m Marian, a painter, writer, and lover of all things creative. From art and antiques to home projects and everyday life, I share my journey in hopes of inspiring you to embrace your own creativity and make beauty in the spaces you live.

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