Hi friends and Happy New Year!! I hope you have a great year ahead full of awesome DIY projects. If you’re new here I’ll catch you up to speed and re introduce myself. I’m Stefani, I grew up learning construction and carpentry from my Father. While I was in college I joined the Army National Guard as a carpentry and masonry specialist where I really discovered my passion for construction and woodworking. When I was 22 I tackled my first major project and built a tiny house. I sold it the next year and bought my first real house at 23. I’ve been buying and fixing up houses ever since!
My husband and I are both from Wisconsin. We moved to Florida were he is currently stationed with the Navy. About two years ago we bought this charming 1960’s ranch full of potential projects. I’ve had so much fun these last couple of years fixing up this house and sharing the progress with you guys. I thought this would be a great time to give you a before and after home tour and reflect on some of the big projects we accomplished. Check back soon for the video tour on YouTube!
Living Room
As we enter the house, to the left is the living room. I fell in love with all the windows with a view of the front yard. We decided to keep the old parquet floors because they are in great shape and they add some cool character to the home!
I took out the old front door and replaced it with a beautiful wood door with glass to let in more light. Check out my video tutorial on How to Replace your Front Door.
There used to be a door going into the hallway which made no sense. I took the door off and turned this into a beautiful arched doorway. Here is my tutorial on How to Build an Archway.
Earlier this year I gave our entire living room a makeover. I installed some simple picture frame moulding and painted the room a fresh white color to brighten it up even more! You can find the living room makeover project HERE.
Home Office
This next room is my home office. It’s one of my favorite rooms of the house and I have definitely claimed it as my own, sorry Devin. Like the living room, the office has big windows that line the back wall with a view of the backyard.
In this room I did an accent wall with beadboard and painted it an off white color. I have a tutorial on how to DIY this beadboard wall treatment HERE. In the corner I turned the tiny closet into a file cabinet closet where we can organize files and display books. This closet is way more functional and now we have designated place for keeping our files! If you’re interested in DIYing your own small closet check out this tutorial DIY File Cabinet Closet.
Under the window is my DIY designer desk. I found one similar on Pinterest that cost over $2000 so I decided to make my own for a fraction of the cost. Check out this DIY Designer Desk project. I’ve got some other projects up my sleeve for the office later this year!
Dining Room
We are lacking storage in this house, especially with a small kitchen. We decided to do a wall of built-ins where we can display extra appliances that we don’t use often as well as dish-ware and other serving platers. This also serves as a coffee bar and alcohol bar perfect for entertaining guests. I recorded an entire two part series on this built in project. You can find part 1 HERE and part 2 HERE.
I loved the round table that the previous owner’s had. The darker wood seemed to be a trend with the previous owners and I wanted to keep that same charm. I built our own round dining table out of walnut and created a DIY tutorial for the table HERE.
Kitchen
The kitchen was a complete renovation. We had family in town helping with demo and my dad stayed with us for a few extra weeks to help us with the major items like taking down a wall, installing new cabinetry and tile. I have a whole 9 part series on my YouTube channel on the kitchen renovation. A few projects I enjoyed doing were the custom pantry, installing backsplash tile and building a custom range hood.
For kitchen sources and links check out this post: Kitchen Renovation Q & A
Guest Bedroom
Heading to the other side of the house we have one of two guest bedrooms. We haven’t done anything in this room yet except add new furniture. I’ll be working on some projects in this room in the future!
Guest Bathroom
The guest bathroom was in pretty good shape. We kept all the tile but replaced the vanity, sink, faucet, and toilet. I also replaced the light fixture in here as well as installed a new medicine cabinet and mirror.
Primary Bedroom
Finally we have the primary bedroom. This is kind of a small -awkward space so we had to get a bit creative. We ended up taking the closet out and using it to extend the bathroom. So I made a built-in wardrobe for our closet. I got the cabinets and doors from Ikea.
Besides the wardrobe I installed some more picture moulding, painted the entire room a fresh white and replaced the ceiling fan.
Primary Bathroom
Next we have the primary bathroom. As you can see it used to be extremely small. We took out the wall between the bathroom and closet and extended the bathroom so we could install a shower and bigger vanity. My dad was a huge help with this project as well. I also installed some floating shelves so we could store more toiletry items.
Garage
Last but not least we have the garage. The garage is so tiny – there’s no way we could fit a car in here if we tried. We need all the storage that we can get for laundry, yard equipment and all my tools. I gave the garage a major makeover. I took everything out, removed the old shelving, painted the walls a fresh white, epoxy painted the floors and added a bunch of new storage!
That is it for our fixer upper home tour! We’re not totally finished fixing up this house yet – we haven’t even touched the exterior so there will be lot’s of outdoor projects to look forward to this year. Right away we’re going to be working on the backyard which will include building a floating deck and building a proper workshop for me which I am SO excited about!
Thank you for visiting and for checking out the home tour! Don’t forget to join the newsletter so you don’t miss out on any fun this year!