New Member and 10 Years Into Our Remodel

Hi everyone. My wife, Libi, and I bought a small Craftsman bungalow in Batavia, IL 10 years ago and have worked hard, doing almost all of the work ourselves, to bring the house into decent shape and into, as much as possible, the “authentic” Craftsman bungalow style. The home is small – 1250 sq. ft. – and was built in 1920. The home is all brick and so far we have torn most of the rooms back to the studs including combining two small bedrooms into one larger one. Some of the pictures show what’s been done and how it looks now and, hopefully, it will give you an idea of how much has been done. The kitchen was the largest project – nothing was kept. Several layers of vinyl and linoleum flooring were removed to find solid maple underneath. (Why would anyone cover a beautiful hardwood floor?) All of the wood trim and doors in the house were painted and Libi stripped the paint off everything, sanded back to bare wood and stained all of it. A huge job, but it allowed us to keep all of the beautiful original lumber. At this point, it’s mainly trim carpentry left. Something I love to do and, since I’ve retired, now have time. Thankfully, we have no plans to leave, since we will never get back all of the money we’ve put into the place. We love to talk about our house and to see what others have done to theirs.

-- Details Matter - Check the Small Stuff