Exterior views

This is the colorful brick row. Ours is at the end on the right, partially in view. #9 is the black (with a bit of uncovered yellow at top) and then ours is the unpainted brick and is the last. #1 and #10 are unpainted brick, while the interior homes are painted.


There is a large grassy field in front, with garden borders along the sidewalk and path. This will be great for playing, and makes the space feel so much more open in the middle of the city.




I cannot figure out how to turn these photos, but here is the front. The steps will be replaced... we had thought of building a platform and having them come down to the side as the others do,
but the $12K quote had us right back to simply replacing them!









To the left is a shot of the side entry going into the added-on kitchen/mudroom -- we have a bit of a side yard to the right of the front door (shown above) since the back addition is a square that bumps out from the back right corner. It feels a bit wider than it looks here, actually.

We'll make it into a garden with a path to a deck with wide steps across the whole back of the house. It's not that wide, but it will look cleaner and possibly give a place underneath to store scooters and bikes and stuff. Have to come up with a bit of engineering to make a bit of the steps lift on hinges to get underneath...





And here are a few shots of the back. Small but it really feels nice and quiet and green... The brick path leads along all the backyards to a fire ally behind the 3rd or 4th house.

So that's a back door off the kitchen; steps to be replaced also. The yard is empty so we'll be working on a bit of grass here probably... for the kids to play around and for a few seats.

The coolest thing is that #8 owns the lot behind their and a couple more houses and has made it into a beautiful yard, fenced around with a gate to the next street at back as well. We call it the secret garden. The brick path from our steps leads right over to their gate; you can see the yard below. They've already told us we are free to use it whenever we want to! And they have a 9 year old girl... hopefully a good playmate for the boys.

Before -- Third Floor

The third floor was being called 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. Really, the previous owner moved the bathroom wall in (shrinking the bathroom too much) to be able to call the next room a bedroom. We are moving the wall back and calling it a study! This is our space.

Railing around the stairs coming up to the 3rd floor, and then stairs up to another roof access. We will close off this access to remove the stairs and enable light to come down into the room. (The stairs are way out of code anyhow).

This is the view as you go down from the third floor. Lovely, no? We will take out the upper stairs (to the roof) and extend the opening to the wall. I think it will become much lighter in here.

Before -- Second Floor

There are stairs up from the front entrance as well as from the kitchen in back. The second floor features 2 bedrooms, a large bathroom (which we will make accessible from both bedrooms), a family desk alcove (which was slated to become a laundry area right in the hall)and a laundry room (which was to be another bathroom).

Back bedroom corner, and view out from bedroom to hall.

Front bedroom. We won't be keeping the mantles either...

Top of front stairway. We are replacing the railing and spindles since we are going with a modern look (there is not much historical architecture left anyway):

This is the large bathroom that will be shared:

It's bigger than it looks here, and we will be able to integrate a large walk-in closet area on the back side, off the back bedroom as you go through to the bathroom. We'll have a 4' x 6' shower and 2 sinks. What to do for flooring??

There are also stairs from the back landing to the 2nd floor roof -- where we hope to build a deck (and maybe another on the top roof!).

The House, Before

These are some photos of the house the way we purchased it -- warning: you really need some vision here! Today, the first floor.

Front entry and stairs:

Partial view of living room (left)

View from living room through pocket doors into dining room and kitchen beyond:

Kitchen-to-be

with back door to small yard.

Opening off kitchen to what we will make into a mudroom and powder room, a space that is just next to the side entrance.

There is a small yard to the right of the front door (looking at the house from outside), at the back of the yard is the bumped-out 2 story addition, which has an entrance door into the kitchen. This is probably the entrance we'll use most.

Here we go again

We thought we'd last a lot longer in our large 2 bedroom condo, but it has become too tight for all of us and so we're moving again. We found a rare brick rowhouse downtown, an end unit with a large back addition. The catch is that it has been under renovation for a few years and is in a state of dramatic emptiness! At least some plumbing, heating and electric work has been done, as well as the installation of new windows, roof, exterior cladding. So, here we go again, beginning the process of making this wreck a fabulous, spacious new home.

Here's the view from the roof, a definite plus since we can add a roofdeck!