You've come a long way baby....

Installment one of an ongoing series!

We moved into Casa De Ranchero 6  1/2 years ago. It was a rundown, ramshackle rancher on an odd piece of property overlooking a swamp. It was in our price range, in an area we wanted and close to my parents and due to my cancer and the impending birth of the little farmer that was something we wanted. 

Inside you can tell no one had lived in it for over 3 years- or cared about it for over 15. The tri color shag carpet in the dining room was sticky, there was no furnace (and it gets mighty cold up here in the woods!) , no landscaping, plastic trim and fake wood doors and no light fixtures. It did have a finished (1970's) basement and three bedrooms, and the teeny tiniest kitchen I had ever seen. If we knew what we were up against, I doubt we would have done this again, but that boat has passed now and we are knee deep in this project.

First, we had to paint the house. The siding was in bad shape and needed to be worked on. I chose a dark green for the house to make it blend more into the environment and stand out amongst the white houses in the area.  I like the size of the weed in this photo a lot!

Then I painted all the horrid dark brown cabinets in the kitchen white. Sorry I have no brown cabinet photos- 6 years ago I didn't have a digital camera(!)-We removed the carpet from the kitchen floor and the upper solid cabinet doors and we made this-

We added another cabinet on the side of the stove, beadboard, butcher block counter tops on the one side, I got a new white fridge, dishwasher and stove. We also put in a new vinyl floor. I took down the country not so cute wallpaper and painted.

This ends installment one of the ongoing reno saga of case de ranchero....

series 2- outside!