The Historic District

Hey all. I thought I'd start a before/ after thread, to keep us all from lamenting that we'll never be done. These are from our first house, the frame four-square. First is the house itself-- And a few of the rooms in that house. The house had been boarded up for thirty years, and the man we bought it from had taken out all the plaster, antique lighting and banister. Can't seem to add more here, I'll try in a reply. --Mal

Here are a few more. That house was the one that gave us the bug; we could never buy new after that. I stenciled the floor several times. Hubby never knew what the house would look like when he came home each day, ha ha.

My exterior reno, which is still a work in progress, but the front of the main house is done. Progress since these pictures is more of the sashes have been restored and painted in the red

Here's my before and after: (still a work in progress - gable was originally sided also but I had removed that first)

These are all extremely inspiring before and afters! You guys all have done stunning work...it motivates me to continue.

Vala, you have a lovely and very complicated home! And Mick, you make me cry thinking about my NS house. Lovely paint scheme. PMuffin, I've seen your progress too, such a gem. Oaktree, can't wait for more pix! Our current house is small compared to most, and it's a challenge trying to hang art when we now have so little wall space, lol. I have so much stuff in boxes that will never likely see daylight here.

Loving all the befores and afters... so important to record progress, you can forget how much work you have actually done over the years.

Some progress at the Wackyshack. On the WG forum I could never get the photo link to behave for me.

The front of the house 2006-2016
It entailed ripping the siding off the house, all the claps off the upper story and additon on the right side. filling in holes left when the siding company tore out bed molding and roof returns. It was a mess.


The back of the house. Done in 2009



Replaced the Home Depot colonial style door which the house flipper made the doorway samller to fit and never insulated around the door jam. With a restored door, custom stained glass and custom door jam.


The front doors. Doors gifted from Old House Webber Lavender Bush.


The bathroom was a mess. Not vented right. Planned on doing a total rennovation and left it for 6 years as this ugly, but functioning mess. Finally did the rest of the cosmetic work on the room. Bath is 5ft6" wide and 8 ft deep.


Finally figured how to fix the "Betty Crocker Frosted" walls in the parlor. Lining paper. Worked like a charm. Such a difference color makes, couldn't stand the Insane Asylum white the flipper did the whole house in so people devoid of imagination could deal with house hunting.


Another view of the parlor. In inherited a working pump organ from a friend.


Another view of the room you can see the paperboard ceiling tiles that covered up cracked plaster. One third of the plaster let go in 2013 so I had to demo the ceiling, put up sheet rock and have a faux tin ceiling put in. The light has not been installed yet.

Here is as I got mine,



and here is last summer. Slow progress!

Wackyshack, that peach paint in the bathroom looks really good!

Thanks Oaktree. I was being teased that by making the cabinets over in black and the peachy wall color the room was going to look like Halloween...(which is my favorite holiday). But with all the dead white in the house from the previous owner there was no warmth in that house.