dream a little dream....

When we went to see this house for the first time, Kellie went with Warren and I.

As we walked throughout the house Kellie and I would glance back and forth at each other
with a look that said, "possibilities"!

Warren told us later that he was thinking "Sheri will never go for this house"!

He was right with his reasonings.  

It was all the things I don't usually like about some houses:

Tri-level.  Long, narrow living room with a fireplace weirdly positioned.  

Pink brick.  Foggy windows.

Closed in rooms.  Small kitchen.  

The list continued....

And he was right - it had quite a list of things I hated.

BUT this is what I saw...

the reality:

And this was my dream:

We took out the closets in the hallway at the top of the stairs to make a more open feel.

We took out the staircase and put in a new, wider one with no risers so that we could see

into the dining room below (also adding a window under the stairs for the see through effect)

This created less of a feeling of going to the dungeon

when we went to the dining room below.

I primed and painted the fireplace

(a very time consuming project but so worth it!)

And Warren re-tiled the hearth.

We found an old mantel from the late 1800's

that we feel in love with....

We replaced the front, commercial style, fogged up windows 

with french doors that were cut down and trimmed out to fit the space.

A real money saver!

Each pane of glass is beveled and sparkles in the sun.

We think it added a little appeal to the otherwise boring 

front exterior....

we painted, and painted and painted!

We chose natural SEA GRASS for the floor covering in this room.

The product is grown in water and has a natural repellant to dirt and liquids.

We have tested it out too!

Puppy accidents, a whole jar of salsa spilled on it 

along with multiple drink spills have proven what they say:

Unless they are left on there for a long time,

most things will wipe right up leaving no sign that it was even there!

We changed out the light fixture in the entry way

and added wood floors in that area.

It's one of my favorite places in the house

but maybe because it was so terrible to begin with.

My husband has the ability to turn dreams into reality

even when he doesn't get the dream in the first place!

The old and the new....

I guess it's only fitting that I begin a new blog with the completion of a house!  We have lived in Cleveland, Tennessee for the last 3 1/2 years.  We bought this house in January of 2010 almost without realizing what we had done!
The previous year we had sold our little acreage in Oregon with the plan to move to Brazil.  We did go to Brazil but our plan was not God's plan and we ended up over the next 4 years going back and forth between Tennessee and numerous places in Brazil.
We found this place while on a walk one morning.  It was a mile or so from where Jason and Kellie were living at the time.  We were specifically praying at that moment about what we should do with some of the money we had from selling our place in Oregon.  We didn't know what our plans were for Brazil at that time other than it didn't look as though we would be buying anything there.
We saw this abandoned looking, unkept house in a really great neighborhood with a tiny little for sale by owner sign in the yard.  In less than a month we were moving what little we had left in storage from Oregon to Tennessee!  Many times we said, "are we really doing this?"

It has been great, though, and we have enjoyed our time in Tennessee.  

In this house.

Our home.

Doing one project after another.

This is the house as we saw it  on our walk 3 1/2 years ago.

The house was actually bigger than it looked from the outside but it didn't disappoint us in the fact that it needed ever bit as much "help" as we had thought it would on the inside!

Poor little house!!!

AND NOW -

The house as it looks today:

We stained the brick dk gray,

 pulled out overgrown plantings and landscaped the front flower beds, 

Changed the living room windows, added shutters, painted trim,

put a new metal roof on, had a tree removed  (because it fell on the house during tornado season!)

AND painted the door a color that would get some attention!

The side entrance to the house and the door we (and our "friend" guests) use the most.

It had an oversized 1-car carport, green house, overgrown flower beds

and fogged up windows.  

Rather sad looking and non-inviting.

We enclosed the carport and made it into a garage (Warren's workshop),

Painted the frame of the greenhouse and replaced glass panels,

stained the brick dark gray, put up board and batten siding, painted

replaced the windows,  and landscaped the yard and flowerbeds (became our raised garden beds),

added some welcoming elements and called it good!

The back of the house.

We had ALOT  of ivy to remove.  Believe me that was a huge job!

The big windows are into the dining room and they were fogged up 

meaning we were barely able to see through them.

The back door was off the kitchen.

There were flower beds and holly trees everywhere.  Seriously.

I believe we have cut down more than 15 of them.  

And there are still more....

The after!

We, again, stained the brick.  added a back covered porch,

changed the windows to french doors,

added a pantry where the back door had once been,

made a raised pea gravel patio with a barn beam pergola,

pulled out plants and added new landscaping.

LOVE our new back yard!