This is the original home tour, to show what our house looked like before we moved in. We’ve come a long way since as you will see when you click through to the after posts.
I must admit I was depressed when we moved into our house in March 2014. The size of the house and garden intimidated me, and I was emotional about saying goodbye to our first home. Throw in a 4-month old baby. 2 Weeks of non-stop rain when we moved in, and I’m sure you will understand. Oh, I also returned to work after maternity leave just 2 weeks before we moved in…
Surprises in the new home
The day we received our keys and took the home tour ourselves, we were surprised by a few items. Firstly we noticed that our main bedroom closet did not have any shelving space. The carpets were dirty and some of them mouldy, and trims were being eaten by termites. The walls did indeed need that coat of paint we did not think was necessary at first. Our lovely huge garden was overgrown, the list went on and on. Not the perfect picture of a “new” home. But that is just it – this is an old house, with lots and lots of maintenance that we did not really count on when we bought it. When you view a house with the current owner’s furniture, you don’t look in the closets (Well, I didn’t – but I will if we ever buy a house again). You don’t notice the faded spots on the wall where the paintings are hung and you don’t notice the mouldy carpet smell, but it is there.
There was also a couple of luxuries we had to bid farewell to, like granite kitchen tops, updated bathrooms and kitchens, remote-control garage doors, garden services and a fully furnished house. The first one was much smaller and we now had a couple of empty rooms.
I did not take before photos of the house in its empty state or even when we moved in and started painting. (How did I know I would start a blog 4 years later?). So the before home tour photos will be those that were listed on the estate agent’s website during the sale period, of the previous owner’s furniture and arrangements. The house was built in 1976, most of the original fittings were still in place. Please join me for the original home tour.
Without further delay, here is our Original Home Tour
Master Bedroom and Dressing Room
This is really a lovely room, it is huge, gets tons of natural sunlight with two big windows and it has a dressing room and en-suite bathroom!
Let’s look at the before:
A great space, but outdated finishes.
Projects we’ve tackled in this room so far:
- We removed the mouldy carpet
- We installed vinyl flooring
- Look at our updated lamps
- Cross stitch art above our bed
- I printed some photos from a holiday to use as easy wall art
Master Bathroom
This is just too brown and beige. I’m sure the flower motifs were great in the ’70s or ’80s though. There is not a lot we can do with this space except wait it out until we do a full renovation. We did have a nice pair of saloon doors, I wish I had a picture of them. It was classic, but we took them down pretty fast, I would rather have no door than those.
First Bedroom
This is also a great room. Built-in-closet, good natural light, view of the swimming pool and fairly large. The whole room, door and BIC were painted in a light aqua colour. Normally I love this colour, but not in this quantity.
Projects we’ve tackled in this room so far:
- I gave a toy cupboard a much-needed makeover
- I painted a tree mural
- We transformed the existing wall sconces
- We transformed an old desk into a cool and groovy camouflage desk
- And we installed sheet vinyl flooring
Second Bedroom
This room is a mirror image of the first bedroom, and it was painted entirely with a peachy colour. It gets great sunlight in the morning but gets a bit darker in the afternoon.
Projects we’ve tackled in this room so far:
- I made a cute animal cross stitch gallery wall
- We transformed the existing wall sconces
- And we installed sheet vinyl flooring
Bathroom
Hellooo Sanparks green – these look just like the bathrooms in the Kruger National Park, we’re just missing the Kudu emblem on some of them…. At least the bathtub was white and not green as well.
Initially, we thought of painting the tiles and tiling the floor (yup, there is a carpet in there). But there were so many broken tiles that it did not make sense to replace all of them and then painting, so we saved up to do a complete refurbishment. The bath also had a bad stain and was damaged, the taps in the shower and basin were also broken beyond repair.
See this room’s progress here:
- Before and design plan
- Progress during renovation
- Art and Accessories
- Full Bathroom Reveal
- I also fixed our roll-up bamboo blinds
Family / TV Room
I love this wonderful big space with an anthracite heater and a view of the porch area. We inherited the wooden sofa and chairs on the photos and lived with it for a while until we bought something more in our own style.
Dining Room
This dining room and the lounge gets the most wonderful natural light. I also love the light fittings in this room, the track-lighting and big glass lamp shades give a mid-century modern vibe, which I love!
Living Room
Lovely huge windows and door leading to the garden and once again, I love the light fitting in the corner!
Projects we’ve tackled in this room so far:
- We got a piano and I revamped the piano stool
Foyer
I don’t have any before pictures, but it is a really dark space, so I will have to be creative.
Study
This room is a nice size, but it is a bit cold. We rarely use it so it ends up being the dumping ground. And as it is right next to the front door we just keep the door closed, out of sight, out of mind right? There is too much furniture in this room at the moment, so we have to figure out a better layout.
Toilet / Powder room
No before photo of this one either. The powder room right next to the kitchen was odd at first, but it is pretty convenient. It is a very small room with a dark floor and a small window and a tiny hand washbasin.
Kitchen
Lovely steel cabinets, but the colour!? It’s not a nice yellow either – its butternut or mustard? And what’s up with the orange mosaic tiles on the counter and the grimy grout, I’ve tried everything it does not come clean!
I really wanted to keep the cabinets for a while and see how it would transform with paint. We took on that job in November 2017 and I am so glad we did!
Our Kitchen is getting a makeover:
- Before and design plan
- We painted our kitchen cabinets
- We painted the wall tiles
- And we built our own caged pendant track light
Outside
This is a lovely back porch setup. The tree had glorious shade in summer but made a mess 6 months of the year with leaves and seeds. We had to take it down, but we did plant an indigenous tree instead. We plan on one day adding a pergola or roof and built-in-braai here.
The garden was also very overgrown, so we took down a couple of trees and a lot of shrubs which we are slowly but surely replacing with indigenous, water-wise trees and plants.
Projects We’ve Done Outside:
- I tamed our front door succulent planter
Conclusion of our Original Home Tour
I hope you enjoyed seeing our original home tour before we took over. We’ve come quite far in the 6 years we’ve been in the house, stay tuned for more posts on our progress.
Update: You can view our updated Home Tour here.
Goodbye for now!
