SEE NEW UPDATES (8/1/25) AT THE END!!😁😁

My husband and I sold our house in May. We then retired at the end of the school year and went on an extended RV trip. While we were gone, we bought a downsized house via our daughter, our agent, and FaceTime.

When we got home and saw it for the first time in person, my husband was very apprehensive about it. It was dark, dreary, and cold feeling. My daughter and I were able to see what it could be, and we are all now so glad we did! We are so happy with the way it turned out, and we saved SO much money buying the house for less than market value.

We didn’t do major renovations. This wasn’t a Joanna Gaines project, but what we were able to do totally changed the feel of the house. We used local people we knew to get great deals on the updates. We had the whole house painted including trim and doors ($3,600), carpeted ($2,700), changed all the light fixtures ($1,000), changed the countertops to granite ($1,300), changed the backsplash to subway tile ($665), cleaned up the landscaping, took off the old screens on the porch, took off an old door, and added a deck in the backyard ($6800). We sold our other house for $410,000. We bought this house for $224,900 with $7,000 back in concessions at closing to put towards renovations bring the “true” price down to $217,900.

The painting and carpeting were a huge decision. Everyone seems to love hardwood floors and advised us to keep them along with all of the wood trim… but…our goal was to change the house from dark and old feeling to warm, bright, and “homey”, so they had to go!😆

I’m SO happy with how it turned out!! The pictures don’t actually look as good as it does in person…🤦‍♀️ The whole feel and “vibe” of the house has completely transformed and has become exactly what we were looking for, even though I couldn’t quite capture it in the pictures.🤪 And…our dog, Zelda, would not stay out of the pictures!🤣

One thing I forgot to get before pictures was the basement. We finished one room down there, the rest is just storage. The room had an orange, gross floor and blue walls. It was SO ugly that it wasn’t even included in the listing photos. Here’s the “after”.

The basement storage area is very big, but not picture worthy…we are still unpacking…

The stairs going down the basement were dark green. Here’s now:

Heres the replaced lighting in the hallway and the 1/2 bath. No before pictures…

Like I said, it’s no Joanna Gaines, but we got a great deal on a house, and made it our HOME!😁

MORE UPDATES!! We painted more of the wood agreeable gray. It really softens things! We also rearranged furniture, and added curtains to the bay window.