Do you love a good make-over like I do?? I love all kinds, but especially home transformations. I plan to use my love of all things makeover to inspire myself to show some love mostly to the interior of my home this year, since I haven’t done so in a minute (that means YEARS!!).

I’m starting this month, since I’ve used January to try to pick myself up and dust myself off from 2020, as well as to PLAN! So let’s think of this as the Extreme Home Makeover: Low Budget Edition. Imagine if Ty Pennington were working alone and only with the money in his pocket… one room at a time, and he didn’t have any serious carpentry skills…

I want to primarily focus on ways to improve the function and beauty of each room without breaking the bank and/or causing major upheaval in the flow of our busy home. And the “extreme” part (other than the low, low budget) is that I’m putting it out there, so now I HAVE to do it. Nothing like a little public accountability to light a fire under you…

About “Kelly Cottage”

As you may know, my sometimes-tranquil domicile is a 1920 single story brown brick house in a historic district. It is actually listed on the historic overlay paperwork as a craftsman bungalow. But since it lacks features that I would consider trademark “bungalow,” like deep overhangs and wide porches—or any porches for that matter, I refer to it as a cottage with Tudor revival elements. It has an arched door and eyebrow (eyelid?) windows, as well as stuccoed gables with decorative “half-timbering.” I have only Google searches to back this up, so I welcome your expert input. Or even just your two-cents worth.

We’re just passin’ through

Living in a historic home has made me more cognizant that we are more like temporary stewards of the home than like “permanent” owners.

We have traced the history of our current house and found ourselves to be in a long line of owners since 1920. People who have lived here sometimes incorporated boarders, raised their children, celebrated birthdays and holidays, and passed on.

Not to be morbid, but the older I get, the more attuned I become to the temporary nature of this life, and the fact that we are merely short-term caretakers of anything we think we own. And that’s as it should be.

Psalm 103:15-16 says that our days are “like grass,” and “the wind passes over it” and it is no more. That’s pretty short. So I try to remember to hold loosely to the things of this world and not to take material things too seriously.

With that said, however, I want to leave things at this and every place I live a little better than I found them, whether we end up moving somewhere else, or if it’s till death do us part. Additionally, while we’re here, I want to make it functional and pleasant for my family.

Our twelve-year tenure here

The history of our time here has been a bit of a roller-coaster.

While still owning our previous home, Kelly Ranch, we bought Kelly Cottage and moved at the very brink of the economic downturn in 2008 (because how long could it possibly take to sell the previous home, right?).

In what is now a historic real estate crash, we were unable to sell Kelly Ranch for the first FIVE years we owned Kelly Cottage. (Having an unwanted second home is not a recipe for tranquil domesticity if you’re wondering…) We did not have it on the market that whole time, and we were able to rent it for probably at least a third of that time period. But simply put, we maintained mortgages on two full-sized houses with little offset for five years’ running. ([high pitched] hahahaha! I’m not bitter…)

During that time, we spent lots of weekends on home improvement at Kelly Ranch, trying to increase its appeal in a flat market. Thankfully, the couple from whom we purchased Kelly Cottage (they didn’t call it that…) had done a major remodel, and there was little that needed doing upon our moving in or within the few years thereafter.

In the years between then and now, however, we’ve stayed busy with work, homeschooling, finally selling Kelly Ranch, and busier and busier teen schedules. So the needed updates are mounting up.

What HAVE we done?

Some of the larger, more pressing needs we’ve tackled over the years have included excavating and filling in a large hole in the yard that had been a very old swimming pool. We also completed fencing around our entire back yard and gated our driveway for privacy and security. Additionally, we had the house trim repainted a couple of times (more on that later).

Inside, we added shoe cabinets at the back door and in the hall right after moving, since closets are near non-existent. I’ve done a few minor things here and there–mostly painting my girls’ bedrooms as they’ve grown older and repainting my kitchen and master bath lighter colors so I could actually function in them. Most of the rest of the house is in dark, craftsman-era appropriate colors–kudos to the previous owners. Period-appropriate as they may be, however, they don’t mesh well with aging eyesight, and there are rooms that I’ve been meaning to lighten up for near a decade now!

Today

We’ve now been in the house for twelve and a half years. Among the current issues are carpet, paint, window repairs, bathroom renovation, kitchen renovation, and more. Unfortunately, we also have need to re-address a high radon reading. We have a ventilation system, but further remediation needs to happen in our basement.

This past year might have been prime time to begin catching up on some deferred projects, but some unforeseen circumstances took precedence—and I’m thankful to have had the time and space the pandemic afforded us to take care of them. But as those chapters have closed, I am turning my attention to our home, which has suffered a good deal of neglect over the past twelve months.

The Budget

So… much of the money that we might would spend on improvement will go to a more extensive radon remediation system (whoopeee!), so I need to put on my DIY hat and dive in to doing what I can (mostly cosmetic) on a shoestring budget, at least until we can catch a financial break (lottery?) or get past tutorial, dance, and college tuition, and perhaps a couple of weddings down the road a bit…? Or this blog gets a million readers (yassss!!).

So we’re really hoping to win the lottery. In the meantime, I’m rolling up my sleeves…

The really exciting part: a challenge!

I will take on one room/area at a time, and begin by decluttering/organizing, and finish with any cosmetic/furnishing upgrades that I can manage for $100 per room. Yeah, you read that right. I’m turning it into a bit of a challenge/game. If I can economize on smaller rooms, I’ll divert what’s left over to the larger rooms which may require a few more costly expenditures.

For your pleasure/entertainment/instruction, I’ll chronicle my progress on a monthly blog post. I welcome your input/encouragement. 

Some progress from the last few months

So for this month, since I have nothing to show yet, I’ll share one exterior project we did complete (since we hired it out) in the last few months. 

Even though we lived in this town before moving away for a few years, I have no recollection what Kelly Cottage looked like before the previous owners did a major remodel on it. Apparently prior to their buying the house in order to redo it, nothing major in the way of renovation had been done for many years. They replaced original plumbing and electrical work including all fixtures, and refinished hardwoods and paint and trim throughout. On the exterior, they had tuckpointing (re-mortaring between bricks) done, and they painted all stucco and woodwork.

Around five or six years ago, we had to replace the roof, due to hail damage. And we had to have the exterior trim repainted due to peeling paint. At the time, I had little energy to focus on selecting new paint and shingles. So we stuck with the colors (or close to them) that were already there, i.e., the ones the previous owners had painstakingly selected.

Southern Exposure

The front of Kelly Cottage faces south, so plants LOVE it. We can grow rosemary by the bushel! However, the trim on the front of our house faded and peeled rather quickly–for a second time in twelve years. Especially on the western end that catches the blazing afternoon sun! So I began to rethink the dark color. I had seen one picture of our cottage from a very old newspaper clipping with what appeared to be white trim. The house had been dark brown the whole time we owned it, and since the previous owners painted it. The picture barely looked like the Kelly cottage we knew, but it was! I knew I didn’t want pure white, but lightening up intrigued me.

So this past spring, when we felt we could no longer put off repainting, I started looking to change up the palette a bit. 

The majority of our windows are on the front of the house and had peeled to the point that the glazing was also coming off in large chunks. The previous paint job had been a bit of a band-aid where the glazing was concerned. So we decided to go with some lighter colors for the trim and the stucco gables, and hopefully reduce some of the damage done by the heat of the afternoon sun. We also hired out the re-glazing of the windows that needed it.

Et voilà!

I guess only time will tell if the strategy works–the lighter color lasting longer, that is. In the meantime, I think new color-combo freshened up (and really changed!) the looks of the place. We’ve received lots of compliments on the new look. I will, however, probably look at a different color shingle next time around with the roof. It doesn’t seem quite as harmonious with the brick (to me) after the introduction of the lighter colors.

But isn’t it amazing the difference a coat of paint makes? I originally intended to also change the color of the front door and its trim. But through some miscommunication, it was instead repainted in the same color. Since then, I’ve been undecided on whether or not I’d still like to change it up.

What do you think?? Lighter door trim or no?

And the door color itself was a project I was saving for myself, since it won’t necessarily match the other exterior colors. I am inclined to go lighter and perhaps brighter…? Then again, maybe not if I lighten the trim…? I don’t think the “cave” look is very inviting. But I’m not so sure it wouldn’t still look dark anyway, since it’s recessed into the small foyer/stoop. What do you think??

Now on to the interior…

If I haven’t made it clear before now, I’m not a designer or decorator–unless thousands of hours of design TV qualifies you…

I’ll be consulting with my daughter who is in interior design school (and was very opinionated even before she started). And I’d love to get some of your input as well. I’ll ultimately make decisions based on what I think I can live with and afford–and is within my skillset. But I LOVE seeing how other people, who are often more creative than me, go about solving decorating/design dilemmas.

I hope to inspire and encourage you to not feel stuck with problematic areas in your home, even if your budget is low (or nonexistent), and your qualifications are less than pro-level. I’ll also try to share tips and tricks I’ve picked up over the years or may learn along the way.

I’m starting with our back entryway, pictured above, just to get my feet wet. Be on the lookout for a before/after post coming your way in a few weeks!

Blessings,