This is part of our Tiny House, Tiny Bloggers series, in which we turn over Plaster & Disaster to some VERY tiny bloggers to tell their own story of transforming an ugly, old (doll)house into a fresh and modern (doll)home. Follow it from the beginning here.
Disclaimer: Inclusion on this blog is not an endorsement by Plaster & Disaster of the tiny blogger’s methods or design decisions. Plaster & Disaster cannot be held responsible for your terrible decor choices after reading one of their tutorials. All opinions are their own.
Tiny Bloggers here!
When we shared our little house hunting story a few weeks ago we promised to be back soon with all the befores and gory details of our new home. Well, today is the day! We’re excited to show you our big purchase and, frankly, also a little scared of what you’ll think. It is pretty bad! But, without further delay, welcome to our home:
Talk about curb appeal! (Not.) It sort of looks like Rose Quartz and Serenity gone wrong in this photo, but really the paint color is less pink and more a horrible shade of beige. There is virtually no landscaping. No wonder this thing was listed on craigslist for hours before finding a buyer!
Oh, yes, and the obvious problem: we’re missing half our roof. Obviously we’ll need to fix this before moving in. Fortunately, we’re in a very dry climate (Sage’s spare room) and so it hasn’t rained yet and ruined our whole house.
But, please, come in!
Yes, just squeeze on through there. We like to think that we’re pretty trim, small people, but even WE have trouble fitting through the porch posts. I guess it provides good protection from angry mobs or very large cats (the latter of which are a big problem in our region), but it is still pretty inconvenient. I don’t see us getting inside with an arm full of tiny groceries!
Inside, things get a tiny bit better. Overall, we love the layout and space this house provides. We have three whole floors!
There is enough space for Aiden and Madison to each have their own rooms, and we even have a guest room and more on the third floor! In addition, this place has a bathroom. One bathroom for four people may not sound great to you, but given that most of the places we looked at didn’t have any, this feels like a major win.
But WOW, look at all that wallpaper! Seriously, reach room is done in a different paper and there doesn’t seem to be much of a unifying theme or color story in mind. I mean, it’s like the previous owners didn’t even make a house mood board to guide their decorating! Have they never read a blog? If you don’t believe us, just take a look at all the paper together on our handy removable wall:
I foresee a lot of tiny wallpaper removal tutorials ahead of us. We even have one room where there’s wallpaper on top of wallpaper. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like it is attached too securely.
The first floor is the main living area, with a big living room, hallway, dining room, and a minuscule kitchen.
The living room is actually a really nice room – plenty of space with a lot of natural light from all those windows.
I don’t think we’re going to have to do much to this room… except change everything about how it looks.
The hallway is another story. As one commenter astutely pointed out when Naomi & Sage tried to trick you all into thinking this was their house and not ours, those stairs aren’t even attached to the house! Talk about a safety hazard.
And don’t even get us started on the dining room and kitchen. The kitchen is basically the size of a hallway (no, literally, it is the size of the hallway) and doesn’t have a single inch of counter space or any working appliances. Or really anything to make it like a kitchen at all.
Plus that floor is unconscionable, and what is that supposed to be, a cafe curtain? We’ve got a lot to do in here before we can move in. (Like add the ability to store and cook food.)
The dining room is fine, but pretty closed in and claustrophobic. We’re going to have to do something to open this space up.
The original wood floors actually still run throughout the house. This is great, but actually has us pretty conflicted. They’re in bad shape and are a strange orange tone that we’re not sure we’ll be able to get rid of. On the one hand, we’d love to try to refinish them and preserve the original character of the house. On the other hand, we love DIYing stuff that isn’t necessarily better, but is trendy and new. (We are bloggers, after all.) Thoughts and advice?
The second floor has all three bedrooms and the single bathroom.
There is a distinct lack of closets, but overall a lot of space. We’re definitely taking the big master bedroom for ourselves, mustard wallpaper and all.
Man, we’ve got to do something about those light fixtures. Seriously, bare bulb flush mounts throughout the entire house?! Fortunately, we have nice, high ceilings, so we can hopefully find some really cool replacements.
The other two rooms will be perfect for Aiden and Madison. We’re so excited to make Aiden his own “big boy” room, and to decorate a nursery! We’re thinking woodland themed?
Like we said, we are so glad to find a place with a bathroom after so many other tiny houses we looked at didn’t have any! But that doesn’t mean we love the one we have.
The tiling is not well done (clearly a DIY job) and the floor and wallpaper do NOT go. Wallpaper in the bathroom? Plus, the only piece of bathroom equipment that we have installed here is a toilet paper holder. We’re going to need to add a few more things before this is livable for our family!
The third floor is total bonus space for us. Granted, it is a little hard to get up there given the lack of stairs (maybe that’s why the previous owners removed the roof?) but once you’re there, it is great!
We don’t know exactly what we’re going to do up here yet but it is nice to know that we have the space if our tiny family grows (not revealing anything! just dreaming!). For now, we’re thinking we might have a guest room up here in the smaller room.
Well, a guest room once we fix it up. We would be so ashamed to put a guest up here now! Bare bulbs, exposed wiring, paint spills on the floor, peeling wallpaper, and only half a roof… doesn’t exactly say “welcome to our home!”
And we all have big ideas for the rest of the space! Will it be an office, a craft room, a big playroom for Aiden, or just a place where we end up storing our mountains of off-season decor and the broken furniture we collect and swear we’ll fix up some day? How would you use a bonus room?
Well, there you have it. Thanks for checking out our little house! You better believe that we’ve got big dreams for this place and we’re excited to start fixing it up. What do you think – have we taken on more than we can handle? What would you do to make this place a home?
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Tiny Bloggers,
You certainly have your work cut out for you, but I see so much potential in your future home.
I do think however that for pure convenience and resale value that you need a second bathroom. Perhaps you could remove the wall between the kitchen and dining room and make
an L shaped eat in kitchen and carve out a little space for a powder room so at least you will have a toilet downstairs. You’ll thank me later if that family of yours becomes 5 or 6:) Looking forward to your future renovations. Can’t wait to see your ideas for each and every room.
Great idea to remove part of the wall and add a powder room, but better verify first whether it’s load-bearing! You’ll need to find a tiny structural engineer. In fact, this project will probably create welcome demand for lots of small businesses.
Yes, we’ll definitely need an expert to come out and take a look! This sort of thing is way over our heads.
Thanks Debo! You’re so right, one bathroom is tight for 4 let alone more!
Hmmmm .. lots of potential for sure . I would try to preserve the hardwood flooring . Would it be possible to fit a small first floor powder room in the hallway under the stairs ? It would save on plumbing as it is directly under the upstairs bathroom . I am looking forward to the reno .
Great thinking, Lynn!
Shiplap and crown molding for sure! No really, the “joists” that are holding up your floor should be continued around each room (and not wallpapered) to create a crown molding effect.
We couldn’t agree more! With our soaring ceilings we’re a little anxious about the challenges of installing crown molding (neither of us love heights), but maybe we can enlist some really tall friends to help.
What a fixer up-er you have there, great that you have so many curtains left by the previous owners though . At least the neighbours can’t peek in at night. Love the removable wall feature, you must keep that, so handy for parties. Can’t wait to see what you do with the place. Good luck!