Finally Some More Pics

This shot just shows the overall entrance into the ugly Bathroom. This bathroom will be one of our entrances into American Standard's Americas Ugliest Bathroom contest.

This is a good shot of the sink and vanity. The detail is not that good but the fixtures have alot of detail that just doesn't just fit our style.

Here is the hallway to the toilet in this bathroom. I have not measured it but it has to be at least 12' long. Notice the phone right there next to the toilet. Classy...


This is the tub notice the lovely brown tile. The tile is in pretty good shape. We're not too keen on the shower curtain though.

This is the hallway that connects the older part of the house with the new part of the house. There is a set of stairs at the bottom that transitions from the two parts. The second door on the left leads to a closet with a very high ceiling and the first door leads to the bathroom shown in the pics above. The door on the right leads to the living room. Pics to follow very soon.

I HATE MOVING!

Well most of the big move was done this weekend. We have just a few trips with our vehicles and we should be all done. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures to post. I just want to post a big thank you to everyone that helped us move this weekend. Thanks to Kimmi and her husband Wayne who showed up totally unexpectantly (even after they drove all the way out to Stephenson to find our old house) and helped with alot of the bigger stuff. Big thanks to Alicia who helped us pack Friday night and helped us load the truck up Saturday even though her back as bothering her. Thanks to Trisha's friend Julie's Mom, Sandy for stopping by and taking a look at This Ugly House and grabbing some items along the way. And one REALLY big thanks to Matt and Julie Harley. Without Matt and Julie we would still be trying to move that damn treadmill along with several other items. We owe you guys a big one. Thanks again.

And remember "It's not a real move until you break something (or somethings). Who knew those things could fly like that.

Thanks everybody.

More Packing

I told Andy and Kurt that I was going to post some new pics for them so here they go...just for them. Well last night was another night of packing and getting ready for the big move this weekend. So here are some pics of the theater room. And check out that gothic looking chandelier.

As you can see it is a nice size for a room, but just a little bit too small for a theater room. There are some nice alcoves on the left side of the room that will make ideal locations for equipment and media storage. I plan on painting the walls and ceiling a nice dark purple and going with a dark gray for the carpeting. The seats will be home theater seats similar to the ones in this link except probably a microfiber instead of leather. I want to go with a loveseat/chair combination in two rows. That would give us seating for six. The seats would go on the left side of the room with an isle on the right side. As you can see from the photos the room is sunken. The back row of seats will be on the same level as the hallway outside the room and there will be some steps down to the next row. That way there won't be any heads to get in the way of the view. The room is obviously going to need a door of some sort but I just haven't figured out yet what I want. The door way is pretty wide so I could go with french doors but solid french doors would be a bit obtrusive. I like the idea of pocket doors but that seems a bit beyond my very meager carpentry skills. Anyways, any completion of the theater is a ways off.

By the way those of you that think the house doesn't deserve Ugly House moniker...you ain't seen nothing yet. And yes I am aware that that was a double negative. Let me put it this way, American Standard has a "America's Ugliest Bathroom" contest every year. We have three solid entries.

With the green shag carpeting in the front entrance, the green velour upholstrey on the walls, and the vinyl upholestrey on the bedroom walls, we have alot more of This Ugly House to show.

Night Off

Since we stayed home last night and packed (plus there was a new episode of Lost on) I will post a pic of the laundry/utility room. Not much going on there. Trisha wants to make it a little larger and change the yellow to a green. The floor in here will be the same flooring as the kitchen. She also wants to change door to the wall on the left. That way it opens into the kitchen instead of the hallway. Opposite this room is the theater room which I will post a pic for in the future.

The Spanish Lady

If anyone remembers seeing the Spanish Lady painting hanging in the Green Room she is now going to a lovely home. Hopefully one that will appreciate her more than we would. Goodbye Spanish Lady...

Day 2-Painting

These are just some pics of the paining that we got done last night. We spent a little too much time at the supply store and got a late start on the painting. Notice the Paint Stick in the first picture. That is one heck of way to paint a room. It works like one of those pool squirt guns that put in the water and pull apart to suck up the water. Then when you are ready to paint just push the tube upwards and the paint is pushed out the roller. It made painting this are SO much easier and faster. It looks like we are going to need a second coat though. Oh well...the taping is the worst part.

First House Warming Gift

My boss brought this house warming gift with him when he came to see This Ugly House. It's a small 2 1/2 lbs fire extinguisher from the company that I work for. There are several older extinguishers from Ansul around the house. So thanks for the new extinguisher Don.

Colors

This is just to show some of the colors we are thinking of in the dining room and kitchen. At this point we have settled on the terra cota color for the dining room and the blue for the kitchen. This is open to discussion if anyone wants to leave a comment.

More Kitchen Pics

Just some more pics to showcase the kitchen in This Ugly House. You can really see the faux butcher block countertops. The cabinets themselves are in pretty good shape for as old as they are. We are going to take off the doors and repaint them a cream color to match some furniture that we have for the kitchen. Notice the gas cooktop in the island. It doesn't work at the moment but the previous owner stated that it only needs a $50 part to work.

The Kitchen

This is the kitchen. As you can see we call this "The Castle". With the orange tile that runs along the back of the kitchen and that wonderful stick on vinyl flooring this room is need of serious updating. The green appliances are a nice touch...for 1978. This is another example of the potential of This Ugly House. The island is ginormous. There is loads of cabinet space along with a decent amount of countertop space. It's hard to tell from this pic but the countertop is a laminated made to look like butcher block. All of the cabinets have that trim piece glued and nailed to the center of the doors that will be a joy to remove without harming the doors.

For remodel work in the kitchen we are planning on removing the sticky (not really anymore) vinyl squares and replacing it with cork. If you have never seen cork flooring before check out this link. It's some pretty nice stuff and it should offer a nice bonus cushion to the kitchen floor. The top of the island is going to come out to offer a better view into the dining room. The actual island itself will be replaced with a slightly smaller one that is in a "U" type style. If I find a pic I will post it. All of the countertops are going to be replaced with either granite or quartz.

Dining Room Part II

This shows the nice bay window in the dining room. See what I mean about This Ugly House having some nice features and potential. The touch lamp in the window was left by the previous owners...bonus! :)
This is just to show one of the many chandeliers installed throughout This Ugly House. Note the hand made escutcheon attached to the peak of the ceiling. While your looking also note the height of the ceiling. The vaulted ceilings and the space of this room and the kitchen (pics soon) are really what sold this house to us.
This is just another view of the dining room. Note the lovely vinyl squares that are peeling up on the floor in the kitchen. I'm sure the new sledgehammer in the pic will get pleny of use in the coming months.

Dining Room Part I

This is the door way into the dining room that was shown from the back door. This door needs to be installed as it is an opening to the drafty basement. I don't want to have to heat (or cool for that matter) the basement. Note the well worn carpeting. This carpeting will all be replaced with a beautiful bamboo hardwood floor. If you have never seen bamboo flooring check out this link. Bamboo flooring is harder than maple and should offer a truly unique look in the dining room. The color in the link is pretty much the color that we want to go with.

This is the view from the landing to the back door. You can get a better idea of the shotty carpentry work of the back room from here. Ideally all the flooring will be replaced with some slate flooring. At a bare minimum I am going to have to rework the hand rails and support for the landing.

This is the little loft above the back door. The previous owner said that his kids loved it up there. He even had a little dollhouse for them to play with but it seems like he took it with him (thankfully).

This is from the back entrance to This Ugly House. There is some carpentry work that needs to be done in this area. The landing is unstable and the handrails are very scary. The door to the left leads into the dining room. The stairs to the right leads a neat little loft above the doorway. We haven't quite figured out what are going to with this area. Some coat racks here and a bench or two with some storage would be nice.

Yesterday we closed on This Ugly House. Although we were supposed to close on Friday there was a problem with the mortgage company's computers so we had to wait until Monday to close. So after work we invited some folks over to tour This Ugly House. All in all we had about ten people take a walk through and confrim that this was indeed the ugliest house they have seen. I think everyone agreed that the house some fantastic potential but it is going to take alot of time and some money. I think a bit of creativity won't hurt matters either. I will put up some pictures of the house later today and talk about what we have planned for This Ugly House.