90's fixer upper reno before and after listing photos!

90's fixer upper reno before and after listing photos!

• 11.07.2017

First, a real estate update. The first offer we accepted fell through, but we had so much interest and offers over asking that we raised the price $5k. That'll give us more room to negotiate on repairs for the next buyer. We did the whole open house/coordinating house showing thing again and accepted another offer on Sunday. Phew. (Read the whole story of why we're selling here.)

It's now been several solid weeks of living in the house in its cleanest, tidiest, most finished state ever!! I posted the after tour here and did an Instagram Live the other day of an even more thorough tour. 

I wanted to go back and compare the listing photos of the Stanley 90's reno when we bought it (yikes) to now, the ones that got it so much attention and kudos from buyers!

The funny thing is the old listing photos were a big improvement from what it had initially in the listing. It had been on the market I think 5 months when we made our offer. They'd had one offer fall through, and the tenants had moved out. To drum up more interest, they took new listing photos. The house was overpriced for the condition and apparently the owners (basically slum lords, own a couple other houses on our street painted the same awful exterior colors) didn't want to do anything to the house to make it sell. So, when we bought it they had already dropped the price $20k and we offered them another $10k under asking! But it was as-is.

As you probably know if you've read much of this blog before... we spent about 9 months working hardcore on house projects--see the "before" video tour here, before photos here, weekly reno updates here, and design and projects here. Blood, sweat, and tears, all that. 

The market has continued to climb up and our home value would have increased even if we'd done nothing, or the bare minimum to make it livable, but with the updates we put in, we're selling for about $90k more than we paid, only a year later (due to unforeseen circumstances). 

I don't think I need to label the "before" and "after," right? ;)

Okay, the exterior painting was not DIY, but literally everything else (except calling a few repairmen) was.

Living room:

Dining room:

 Kitchen (oh, it was so gross!!):

Family room:

Office:
This room had soooo many holes in the walls! All of our walls were bad, but this room in particular.

Upstairs!!

Master bedroom:
Note the bed-shaped non-stained portion of the carpet. I think these renters were here a long time and did not clean.

Also note bigger holes/unfinished drywall patching.

Master bathroom:
(We removed the wall separating the vanity from the toilet room.)

Down the hall, guest bathroom:

Spare room:

And finally, the backyard:
Yes, those are broken screens leaning against the side of the house they didn't bother to hide.

I hope that comparison was... enjoyable???! For me it is a little stressful remembering how much work we did, but SO satisfying now that it's done. I thought this day would never come.

On to the next house!! May it be less of a fixer, even livable from the start. Fingers crossed. Subscribe by email (sidebar on the right below my book image) to get updates as I share them!