There's nothing like love at first sight! That's how my husband and I felt when we first saw our (current) house... the Tudor Cottage Revival. At the time we were living in a cookie-cutter tract home that I'm sure was built in 3 months start to finish. We'd dreamed for years of living in a historic home in Salt Lake City, Utah but the market was tight and barely any new homes were being listed. The instant we saw the listing, we knew time was of the essence. It was in a charming historical neighborhood in the heart of Salt Lake City, complete with tree-lined streets and cute little light posts. The best thing about the house was the architecture - it was an old Tudor home built in 1931 and had the most charming steep gabled roof, an arched front door, a red brick and stucco exterior, and beautiful ivy climbing up the front. The listing didn't have any interior photos so we had no idea what to expect!
As we walked through the front door, we stepped into the cutest little entry vestibule that split into two directions. One led to the living room and the other to the breakfast nook (finally have one, yay!). The living room had a dramatic curved vaulted ceiling, original hardwood floors, and a fireplace with a gas insert that looked like it came straight out of the Van Helsing movie...not exactly our style, but a unique feature nonetheless.
As we continued through the house, it became apparent that the kitchen was the one area that diverged significantly from the charm of the exterior. Dated maple cabinets, blue laminate countertops, and a collection of old, slightly yellowed appliances from the '80s painted a picture of a space longing to be woken up and transformed. It was clear from the start that, if we were to make this house our home, the kitchen would need to be our first project.
This isn't our first rodeo by the way, we spent countless hours knocking down walls, coughing up drywall dust, tiling until 2am, and praying to pass inspections on our last renovation in Phoenix (also our first home as a couple). The journey took us two years from start to finish, but this time we're hoping to be quicker so we can enjoy the space for many years to come (which means it will probably take longer, and cost more).
We put in an offer the same day. While we were anxiously awaiting a response on our offer, I copied a photo of the floor plan of the house that was included in the listing and started drawing up my renovation plans in CAD. It pays to have an interior designer in the family! You may think I was getting ahead of myself, but my hastiness paid off. A few days later, we found out that our offer on the house had been accepted and I already had a lot of my renovation drawings done! It was all so serendipitous!
I'll be documenting our renovations in hopes that you can learn from our mistakes and hopefully more so from our successes. Stay tuned for updates on our first project - the kitchen!
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