An 1880 House Tour

Well, if somehow you missed it, I was laid off last August, just 8 months after buying my first home. As much as I could have tried to hold onto it, I knew in my heart I would be unlikely to find a similar level job in the local market at a company I actually liked. The right choice would be to move on and let it go. The house was too old and persnickety to try to rent, and really I needed one less big mental and financial burden to deal with in the midst of the upheaval.

I started my new job when my severance ended, and moved in mid-December after hosting my first and last Thanksgiving in the house. My amazing realtor Brandon had the home staged, and it went on the market the first week of January. In what felt like a complete miracle after the year from hell, I had two offers after the first Open House weekend. The first was from a guy living with his parents in the suburbs to save up for a home. He asked for a 20-day inspection period, amongst other things. Though his offer was higher, it didn’t seem like he knew what he was getting into with a historic home. The inspection would not be perfect, the basement does have water, some of the brick needs repointing, etc.. (These houses always need work, welcome to German Village.)

The other offer was lower but included a 7-day, no remedy inspection—and was from my neighbors! After countering with an amount I could learn to be happy with, they accepted. After a very smooth transition period, I closed in February with a remote notary, who came to my new rental house in North Carolina with all the papers. Yes, I lost quite a bit of money on the whole ordeal, but not nearly as much as I could have in a less competitive market. Do I wish I’d never bought it? Of course. It’s what made losing my job completely terrifying. But I learned a lot, and I’m proud of having been a part of its life regardless. Namaste.

Anyway… Let’s talk aesthetics!

Looking back, even in less than one year, I’m really proud of the work I was able to do. The changes were mostly cosmetic (the exception being a new AC unit because the old one was from 1990 and leaked freon into the yard. Yikes.) I thought I’d go room-by-room to share some of the details, including paint colors and my sneaky curtain resource, and small changes that made a big difference. As a reminder, you can see some of the before in this post. I never had it professionally photographed with my furniture in it, so please enjoy my iPhone photography.

Inspiration

I think any good amateur starts with “inspo” via Instagram saves, Pinterest or your hoarding weapon of choice. Here’s a sampling of what I pulled for this house from my favorite interiors accounts: @heidicaillierdesign, @bryangraybill, @historicalconcepts, @wdesigncollective, @parkandoakdesign, @studiomcgee, @chrislovesjulia, @amberinteriors, and @jyoungdesignhouse.

My budget was tight going in, so the first and most important thing to impact would be wall color. The house was covered in 90s wallpaper and metallic sponge paint. Woof. Rooms that were painted were fleshy peach. By the time I owned the house and hired painters, I had to make decisions quickly to get it all done before move-in, so I used Samplize stickers to pick my colors. The large size and ability to mount the sample makes it so much easier to imagine the final result. I hired Fresh Touch Custom Painting, and in one week, they not only stripped all of the wallpaper, they patched and painted the entire house. They are phenomenal.

Living room

Before:

Afters:

The only paint color “miss” for me was the living room, for which I originally chose a muted sage green when I was in an uncharacteristic English countryside mood. Plus, next to the dark green dining room, it looked like I was trying to do some kind of gradient thing that wasn’t quite working. It had to go. A few weeks after move-in, I spent the weekend watching March Madness and re-painting the room, freshly inspired by the publication of Nancy Meyer’s home tour in Architectural Digest.

Original paint color: Sherwin Williams Oyster Bay
New paint color: Sherwin Williams City Loft

Dining Room

Before:

After:

The most requested paint color name: Sherwin Williams Mount Etna

I was once outside doing yard work and a neighborhood guy walked by, doubles back, and goes, “I know this is going to sound really creepy, but one night you had your windows open and I could see this amazing green color in your house. Can I ask the name!?”

It was an amazing color. So amazing, I spent a long weekend painting my IKEA cabinet and shelves to match and look like built-ins. They stayed with the house, obviously.

Primary Bedroom

Before:

After:

This is an extremely large room with 3 big windows—one over the front door and the others facing the street. While noise was rarely an issue, the house has exterior soffit lights beaming down overhead that stay on until 3am, so I quickly realized I needed blackout curtains to get a good night’s sleep. Uninterested in spending thousands on designer drapes, I found mine on Amazon, which are phenomenal at blocking light and look great. I wish I’d gotten around to hemming them. Oh well!

Paint Color: Sherwin Williams Snowbound

Guest Room

Before:

After:

Paint color: Sherwin Williams Naval

I decided the guest room had to be peaceful. It was dark to begin with considering the small, awning-covered 1960s window. Why fight it? This would be the ultimate sleeping room for my stressed out friends, and a nightmare for my aging parents, who love to read (but in the end, even they liked it!)

Kitchen

Before:

After:

Paint color: Sherwin Williams Light French Gray

The kitchen was a short-term fix to a long-term project. It was a weird layout. It has this strange giant window facing the street (like, at passerby eye-level), which (based on my detective work AKA stalking similar houses down the street) used to be a back porch. The small window near the pantry was probably once a bathroom, and below was the original entrance to the basement. I think this was all closed off in the 1960s, and renovated in the 90s.

Longterm, I planned to save for a renovation. Short term, my whole strategy here was just to take it back to neutral, and in the end the mirrored backsplash really grew on me and help the light situation in that corner. After replacing the white ceramic sink with stainless, the room really bounced back and looked 10x better. I used the former “formal” dining room area as my office nook.

EXTERIOR

The best part of living in German Village is being outside, and I loved this house for its back patio, even if it lacked some privacy. Being that this house is on the same street as the Old Mohawk Restaurant and Schmidt’s Sausage Haus, it was always bustling on the weekends, especially during nice weather. So I hunted around on Etsy to find someone to make custom size privacy panels for the iron fence and gate. That helped a lot, but man do people love to pop up to peek over a fence (insert me staring right back at them).

I also replaced the storm door for one with a retractable screen, and the outdoor lights. Up front, I added more legible house numbers for the many Uber Eats deliveries I enjoyed. Sorry not sorry.

It’s wild looking back on all of this. Not documented, but also part of her makeover: filling in the koi pond, replacing the washer/dryer, replacing the dishwasher, replacing all the glass in the windows where seals had broken, patching and painting all the bathrooms, which I couldn’t afford to fully update, but absolutely transformed them. And that’s all she wrote. She was a great house. And I hope I get to use that Mount Etna paint color somewhere else in my life. Here’s to hoping…

Bye, house!