Cast of Characters: The House

There's no other way to say it: this house needs some love. 

When I set out to find my home I knew what I wanted... and I knew I had limitations. Buying a home in Portland is stressful and competitive - houses get sold before they even go on the market! Not to mention I was buying a house on one income, and with substantial student loan debt. My purchase was going to have to be a fixer upper, and I was excited about it - I could make it whatever I wanted! Or, whatever I could manage to make given my limited resources and even more limited know-how. 

What I settled on for criteria as I searched was an older home with good bones and charm. I wanted a big yard. I wanted something that needed a vision, but not too much cash. I wanted to put in the work, and I wanted the work to be work that I could (mostly) do.

What I found was grandma's house. Not MY grandma's house, but certainly someone's grandma. My house has such a neat story - it was built in the 1940's and I'm just it's second owner. A young couple bought the house as newlyweds and raised their family there. Over time the kids moved away, and the husband passed. The wife lived here alone for a time, but recently she and her family had decided it was time for her to move into assisted living. 

Over the years the house has seen hundreds of renditions of itself, but as you'll see now the last major update was in the 1960's or 70's. 

And now, I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves. This is what the RCH looked like the day I got the keys.

dining room from the entry way

dining room

dining and living room

living room

kitchen

amazing stove

hallway

pink bedroom

bathroom

purple bedroom

upstairs bedroom

upstairs bedroom

upstairs bath

upstairs bath

upstairs hallway

stairway

Shag carpet. Wood paneling. Lava rock. Wallpaper (so. much. wallpaper). I had my work cut out for me! And still have. And will have for a very, very long time.

I was super lucky to have a full month between the day I closed and the day I had to be out of my apartment. It was a long, exhausting month but it was so worth it to be able to not move into a complete construction zone. The first (and most FUN!) step was demo, so the day after closing I had a 30 foot dumpster delivered and went to town! I ended up keeping the dumpster for a full week and going almost a ton over the allowed weight - oops!

Up next - the first project!