The Beginning

Just over two years ago my husband's company relocated us from Salt Lake City to Denver. Eighteen months later, they asked us to transfer back to Salt Lake City. Initially we rented a house about 30 minutes south of the city, but the constant state of transition seemed to be taking a toll on our children. We decided the most logical decision would be to simply move back where we came from. We had loved the school, the neighbors, and the church. Not to mention the close proximity to both our families. While still renting, we began looking for houses in our prior neighborhood. When a house on our old street became available it seemed too good to be true. The house would allow me the chance to feed my design obsession, and allow us the perfect location to raise our family.

The house certainly had potential. Six bedrooms, a huge garage, and a large addition with room enough for an open family room and kitchen. Along with potential, the house also had its fair share of challenges. The first, and biggest challenge, was that the previous owner had been a sweet old lady with a serious hoarding condition. We were not able to take possession of the home for several months after the owner passed away, because it took her children that long to remove all of the woman's belongings. Four large roll-off dumpsters of garbage, numerous trailers given to "Goodwill", yard sales, and furniture removal companies were all employed in the clean-up effort. We basically bought the house sight unseen, since we were not allowed to even see the home before the cleanup was nearly complete. I think that is probably a good thing.

The second big challenge was altering the floor plan. The never-completed 900 square foot addition above the garage had to be retro-fitted to include a state of the art kitchen, mudroom, pantry, and family room. The prior kitchen was converted into a master bathroom, and walk-in closet. The old master bedroom closet was eliminated in order to expand the hall bath. The location of the remaining bedrooms was not altered, but the entire house was gutted down to the framing to include new drywall, paint, windows, doors, lighting, and trim.

With the changes to the floor plan complete, we can now focus on the third challenge, which is giving the house a beautiful finish. This is the fun part. I hope to create a neutral palette with punches of my favorite colors (hot pink & turquoise blue), along with a few sparkly pretty things. I like eclectic and vintage furnishings, but I have to use those things sparingly since my husband does not.

Come along for the ride. I am going to try to document the rest of the process as best I can. It has already been an incredible amount of work, but also rewarding too. I can't wait to see the end result!


The hall bath shortly after demolition began. The previous owner had cut a whole through the sub-floor to act as a makeshift laundry shoot.


This is the former location of the kitchen, now employed as a master bath.


The exterior.