Where it all began...

We bought our current house in May 2009. The previous owners had their son and four of his college buddies living here. Needless to say, it was a house that you had to see WAY beyond the current condition to see any potential. We had looked at so many houses that we were pretty certain what we wanted. As soon as I walked in to this place I knew... This is IT!

The biggest change had to come in the kitchen. We didn't have the money to gut the whole place so we did the following changes. After it was all said and done you may have thought we gutted the place. But we are penny pinchers and stretched our dollar as far as we could.
{removed the L-shaped counter}
{removed the soffit above all cabinets}
{replaced the countertop}
we went with laminate over granite saving over $2000
{replaced the flooring}
we installed laminate wood (and have since ripped it out for tile)
{replaced the faucet and sink}
husband found deals on that by buying directly from a plumbing supplier instead of a Home Depot or Lowe's
{replaced all appliances}
under $1700 for dishwasher, double oven, microwave and cooktop. we have found that if the $200 job will cook/clean just as well as the $800 job we'll keep the $600 in savings for other things.
{new doors and hardware for cabinets}
{new 12' section of upper and lower cabinets from the dishwasher on}
{installed ceiling fans}
the galley style kitchen was a really hot place with no circulation. while i dreaded putting up the fans, i'm really happy with them now.
{replaced back door and pantry door}
again buying through a supplier we replaced both doors for under $70
{installed beadboard backsplash}
eventually we may do tile..but money ran out and i had seen this option. it's worked well for our family and was probably under $100
{new coat of paint on everything}

The bulk of the work was done by my husband and some of our church friends and family. We hired out the cabinets, flooring and countertops. Once these changes were made it felt like "home" and just the way we'd imagined.

Before (with the guy's stuff!)