Meet Bruce

Gosh, it's been awhile. Sorry about that. Since we are all friends here, I feel I should let you in on a secret that will help explain my often long gaps of time between posts. Here it is..... renovating homes is tough. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love it and feel so blessed to get to do it, but man oh man some days I just want to throw in the towel or at least hide under the covers for a bit.

You know that costly renovation surprise that happens in EVERY episode of EVERY show on HGTV- that's no exaggeration folks. Every day presents unforeseen challenges EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. (Can I get an AMEN from anyone who has ever lived through a home renovation.) Anyways... there comes a point in every project where the challenges pile up quicker than I can find solutions and I go into a deep dark funk. During those times I just can't bring myself to write. Partly because I can't write happy things when I'm feeling so down and I want this blog to be happy (cuz the one story that no one wants to read is a sob story- am I right?!?!) And partly because many times my project blues are due to a subcontractor or company; and while I might really, REALLY, want to get on here and BLAST them and tell you to NEVER EVER do business with this person/company I try to write by the ol' adage "if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all"- thus I stay off the blog. But the main reason I don't write during, or about, the yucky side of this business is that nearly every day I have someone tell me they would love to do what I am doing, so I just think it would be insensitive of me to use this blog space to complain about something that I am daily reminded how fortunate I am to get to do. So for these reasons the blog gets neglected.

Luckily, it is during my dark days that Rory shines. After so many days of listening to me cry he always steps in and slays the construction dragons and rescues me from my pit to get our project back on track- thus freeing me to write again. And now you know. 

But enough about that! The good news is thanks to my extra long writing hiatus you won't have to wait too long between this post, where I introduce our next project in it's "before" state, to the final reveal and it's accompanying story!!! I'm talking less than 4 weeks away people! Oh my! That barely gives you any time to get to know this house.... I better jump right in with the introductions.

Meet 1406 Bruce.

Pre-reno Stats: 

1400ish sq feet

3 bed

1 bath

As you can see, she's somewhat of a Plain Jane. Not too bad.... just not too good either. Just a nice, old, respectable, ordinary house.  This theme continues on the inside:

Living Room

View from the other side of the room:

Kitchen:

Well the orange was special.

Here is the 1 bathroom:

And the 3 bedrooms:

The 3rd bedroom was kinda like a bowling alley. Very long.

Hall

And last, back out the kitchen door to the carport and laundry room.

The property also has a little shed in the backyard. Don't get too excited, not much is going to happen out there.... but still nice to have.  

So there you have it. 

I gotta tell ya, because she was so void of character I had a hard time landing on a story. In fact, I went thru 3 different stories before landing on the final story that is dictating the design. In the end, it was the latch steel windows and the iron columns that set the final story in motion.

You scared?!?!?!