I’m sitting here on the floor in our living room typing this up as my husband and I drink champagne to celebrate this new purchase! We bought a house that is so crazy! We are the proud property owners of a 3B/2B home in Southern California (yes crazy housing market expensive California, but yay we did it!). This house is the perfect place to start our family and create memories that will last a lifetime. By no means is the house picture perfect, but it has a nice layout and enough space for our family needs. When we were searching for homes one of my must haves was a place that needed work, something I can update with our taste, and that is exactly what we got. We are the second owners of this beautiful house and I’m pretty sure the original owner didn’t do many updates (minus the double pane windows, yay). So we get to make our mark on this house and dress it up! But before we get to that point we’ve got a few steps to follow.
Pre-Renovation Steps
Before we start doing any upgrades to this house I’m going to do what I always do when I start a client project, start a project folder and do a little documentation and analysis of the space. Then I’ll create some inspiration boards and floor plans. I’ve also got my list (a very very long list) of things we want to update. This renovation process is likely going to take us a few years because there are structural and design elements that need to be completed (that costs quite a lot) before we can even get to furnishing each room.
Asses the site/property
I’m going to get the site plan of our property from our closing documents to analyze our property. I’m just going to note the wind path, sun path, large trees and shrubbery, obstructions and adjacent buildings, permanent structures, and streets and pathways. This is going to help me make decisions on how to design the interior and exterior of our home.
Create a mood board
This is my favorite part of the design process and usually the place I spend too much time in, especially when it comes to designing for myself. There are so many design styles and options that I love. Sometimes I have a hard time committing but I’ve got an idea of what we want this house to really look and feel like, so it should be a fun process.
Create a floor plan
I’m going to take measurements of every single wall, door, window, permanent fixtures and create my floor plan. I’ll make a few floor plan options for the design and layouts while making reference to our very long list of things we want.
Create a site plan
I’m going to use my site plan (yay for not needing to take measurements). I’ll be making a few options for our landscaping and exterior layouts.
House renovation plans
Okay, so when we purchased our home I made a list of all the things that I wanted to update and this is that list. This list is our dream money is no object list, not everything on this list will most likely will get done, depending on the structure of the house and budget. So here’s our very very long list of things we want to update:
- Whole House throughout
- Crown Moulding and Baseboards Throughout
- Replace flooring throughout house LVP and Carpet, level in places where needed
- Move vents throughout
- Recessed lighting throughout
- Move location of outlets and switches throughout house
- Paint the whole house
- Wainscotting in hallway and LR DR
- Living Room
- Built in tv area
- Redesign entrance shelf and cabinet
- Remove balusters/spindles and pony wall
- Extend opening to DR to be flush with other wall
- Kitchen
- Replace bay window with flat window
- Remove uppers on kitchen wall with bay window
- Demo and replace kitchen cabinetry to U-shaped kitchen
- New appliances
- Close up opening in kitchen and extend cabinetry and add fridge along wall
- Gas oven centered along back wall
- Replace flush mount in kitchen
- Dining Room
- Add chandelier in DR
- Built in/china cabinet/sideboard in DR
- Guest Bathroom
- New flooring, bath tile, vanity, mirror, lighting, paint, toilet
- Master Bathroom
- New flooring, shower tile, vanity, mirror, lighting, paint, toilet
- Bedrooms
- Add fans in bedrooms
- Demo and install custom closet systems and bifold doors in all closets
- Doors
- Replace front door
- Replace doors and door frames
- New door hardware
- Exterior and Landscaping
- Paint exterior
- New roof
- Replace broken or rotting eaves and fascia
- Landscaping front yard and backyard
- Level front yard grass
- Replace retaining wall
- Wrap around porch in front yard
- Demo brick at entry and garage replace with new material (modern brick or something else)
- Demo concrete in backyard and replace with large pavers and grass
- Demo and replace aluminum awning in backyard
- Garage
- Add drywall to garage
- Rewire electrical and plumbing to garage
- Create space for fridge, enclosed w&d, and water heater
- Add storage for tools in garage
- Add workout area in garage
Woooo, that was a long one. Wow, there is a lot to do, but we’re really excited to renovate this space and make it ours! So here’s to a long exciting road ahead: full of diys, designs, and demos.
