Buck’s house is slowly moving along. He’s to the point that progress is seen but…of course, with any remodeling, the progress is never fast enough.
If you are joining Buck’s new to him house adventure, you might want to read the first post about it HERE. That post shows some pictures from the original posting from the realtor.
I thought I’d do a little walk-through with you. Here we are at the front door.
This is the kitchen to the right upon entering. The kitchen is small but much bigger than it originally was.
Buck and Karl worked on Saturday to get the flooring in the kitchen and the dining room.
The dining room is to the left when coming in the front door. The new flooring is down under all of the cardboard.
Here is a look at the flooring.
Off the dining room is the… toy room. If you didn’t have kids, this would probably be an office.
The boys started putting the same flooring in the bathroom. This room is off the toy room.
If you look at the first picture coming into the house, you can see a door straight ahead. That room will be the girls’ room.
They have huge closets.
In that first picture, you can see a door to the left, that’s the stair door to go upstairs. Buck is putting a sliding barn style door here.
Just past the kitchen is the living room. Walls were blown out to make this happen. The kitchen cabinets are here and will be installed this week. This room will have carpeting.
If you look at the picture above, you see a door on the far left. That’s Buck’s bedroom. This room has a door to the outside. Buck doesn’t love that but the door was already there so he decided to keep it.
He framed in this nice closet for his room.
My job was to paint these window frames. The board in the foreground will be the color of all of the trim and doors in his house.
This is the plant room off of the living room. He called me yesterday and said he got the flooring done in this room too.
In this picture, I am standing back by Buck’s bedroom door and looking toward the dining room. Everything is white now so it’s hard to see how roomy the house is.
The upstairs is all in rough shape yet. The drywall guy isn’t finished here.
This is a big closet at the top of the stairs.
There are two small bedrooms upstairs.
The first room at the top of the stairs originally had a door in it leading to the next room.
He closed that up. He framed in a small closet too.
Down the hall is a second bedroom. That room also got a small closet. They aren’t big but are in compliance so in the real estate world these rooms will classify as bedrooms and raise the value of the house.
The first room can really only comfortably hold a single bed, night stand and dresser. The second room is plenty big for a queen-sized bed.
For a bit, Buck thought to not redo the upstairs as his budget was tight. I told him to just do it now. We ended up compromising and these old wood floors won’t get carpet and will just get paint.
So that’s the update at Buck’s house. I know many of you have been curious about how it’s going.
Next up is cabinet installation, carpet, toilet and then trim. It’s so hard to believe it’s looking so good. I’ll grab some pictures the next time ago so you all can see the next bit of progress.
Smart thinking to do as much as possible while the house is empty, Jo! It’s all too easy to have life get in the way of a renovation otherwise. Thanks for sharing the progress at Buck’s place! I find home renovation fascinating. I don’t have the fortitude for it and DH doesn’t have the vision. Once we are in a home, it tends to stay the way we found it… until it’s time to sell. Right before that is when we FINALLY decide to make it “ours”!
That’s the way it works with us, too. We live with things, make do, and then when we move, we fix it up for the next folks. (Or pay someone to do it. If we were handier it might be a different story.) It is fun to watch other people get right down to work!
Your son has skills! That’s an impressive remodel/update! I’ll be looking forward to the final reveal! He and Lora made a wise choice to give their kids two happy homes. Good for them for being loving their children first and foremost. Working together will offer their children the best possible outcome in life. And kudos to you for seeing the wisdom in it and loving Lora through it all too. ❤️
Thank you for the update. I have been wondering how the remodel is coming along. I live in a 75 year old house that has had some updating but needs more, specifically flooring. What kind of flooring is Buck using? I love what he has done so far. He is very talented and I know you are very proud of him.
That’s a lot of progress! Can’t wait to see the next update. Keep up the good work Buck.
It’s going to be a really cute house!! Hugs,
HI JO! Thanks for sharing Buck and kid’s new home! The remodel is moving right along, and so professional looking! A family of four, we moved into an 1,100 sq. ft. farm house on 10 acres, in 1976, and spent the next 20 yrs. remodeling it, ourselves, while we lived there! It was rough! The place had good bones, but wasn’t in good shape. (Laws prevented us from enlarging, since our plumbing included of a sink hole, which was being out-lawed.) So, we spent years, adding a bulge outside each bedroom to create a closet. (The house had one bathroom, no closets, including coat, linen, utility, or bedroom closets, when purchased. ) We refigured the interior, creating a cozy, clean, pretty, 3 bdrm. interior. Every room was small, but usable. We used our creative ideas to make the place livable and comfortable. It is amazing what paint, new flooring, and a little decorating can do in an old (1919) house! Eventually, every surface in the house had been replaced, except the antique ceiling tiles, and the bedroom doors, which we liked. We lived there for twenty years. Our girls had horses, and about every animal alive! They grew up. We sold when the youngest was 21, and she was heart broken. We all missed our little house, even tho’ we have a beautiful, BIG, house on 40 acres now! Memories! : )
It certainly is taking good shape. It is fun to see any updates. I really like what you and your family do – take an old house and make it beautiful! You are all hard, diligent workers and it pays off. Some day maybe we will see a picture of the girls’ room with their quilts on the beds. So fun1
Looking good!! So nice he’s so handy!
The house looks so much better now from where he started. It will be amazing when it’s done!
Oh, my! This brings back memories of the house where we raised our children, restoring it one project at a time. Congrats on coming together to make the remodeling happen. I’m sure it will become a happy home. Thanks for sharing the adventures of the Kramer family!
I just love seeing old houses being remodeled! He’s doing a great job! I wish my husband was that handy.
Wow what a great job he’s doing with his house. Everything looks beautiful! He’ll be glad later that he finished the upstairs. It’s so hard to get in the mood to renovate when your house is full of furniture, decorated and lived in. Good job!
There has been lots of progress at Bucks new place, wow. I really like his choice of flooring and it’s nice to have carpet in some area when you live where its cold. His living room is spacious looking, perfect for hosting Kramer gatherings. So nice that family can pitch in and give him a hand with it all, makes it seem not so much like hard work. Thanks, you for sharing his home with us all.
In February, my hubby (who’s 81) and I (76) moved from AZ back to PA. PA feels more like home to us and we lived and worked there for many years so we knew what the area would be like, so when our house in AZ sold within 24 hours in December, we were caught off guard because there were no houses for sale in our target area in PA. llllooonnnggg story short, we bought a fixer-upper. We wanted a Ranch style because we’re older and stairs are not our friend. We bought a tri-level. The realtor was no help whatsoever and argued with us every step of the way. He’d say, “Why do you need to know that?” “I can’t tell you because there’s snow on the ground and I can’t go to the house.” On and on it went. When he said he didn’t know how to do the Earnest money transfer online, I knew we were in for a long process. We should have fired him at the beginning, but we’re too “nice”. We were trying to move over 2000 miles and he was NO help whatsoever.
So, we closed in February and hadn’t even seen the house. When we walked in, I just about cried. Buck’s kitchen before he ripped it out was beautiful compared to what ours was. It was horrible. The family room still had orange shag carpet and paneled walls. It was dark and dingy in every room. The bathroom upstairs had a red sink and cracked faucets and a plastic vanity. The list goes on. We found a remodeler through friends of ours and he started renovations in May.
We had the kitchen gutted and the family room and the upstairs bathroom and redone. We needed a new front door and storm door and new windows. We had new flooring put in and we’re still not done. We had an electrician here 3 times because the wiring was all messed up, which was strange because the homeowner was a “master electrician”! We’ve also had all new landscaping done.
We’ve touched almost every surface of this house to make it our own and we still have projects to do. I’m sure Buck’s house will look lovely and be very homey because you’ll help him with that. You all are very fortunate to have each other. We have no one so we have to hire people to do our work.
Wonderful job! I love the new flooring downstairs. I don’t care for the trim color but I like things nice and light and airy looking :)
He’s going to have a nice house when completed. It does look roomy even now!
That is a LOT of work, and looking great!