Seattle: Making a House a Home

I had no idea where the name of this blog would take me when I started it 5 years ago but now it's apropos of the next stage in my life. Back in January 2014 we began the process of looking for a home here in Seattle. Having bought homes in two states before, we gave ourselves 3-4 months to find something. How adorable is that?! You see in Seattle, words like “bidding war”, "multiple offers”, "escalation clause” and “pre-inspection” are legitimate real estate terms. What they mean is that you are no more likely to be able to find and purchase a home in 4 months than you are to win the Powerball. After a year of looking and walking through over 150 houses, bidding on and losing on three, we finally purchased a home last month. It would be nice to say it is our dream home in our dream neighborhood, dream dream dream but that’s not how it works here. It's a nice home but not a style we've thought about or know anything about. What it is is a home with good bones, in neighborhood that works. 

What does this have to do with Inside Out? It’s a midcentury style home built in 1958 that has never been updated so almost everything needs to be done. We’ve never done a remodel before so with some gentle pressure from friends addicted to home renovation TV shows (I’m looking at you, Shannon), I’ve decided to document the whole sloppy, aggravating, glorious process. You’re welcome.

Before anyone gets too excited, this is NOT going to include selfies of me in a hard hat gamely swinging a sledgehammer and accidentally hitting Jed in the kneecap. One, because I have yet to figure out how to take selfies and two, anyone who knows Jed at all knows that he is far too responsible to ever let me within 50 feet of a sledgehammer. That aside, there will be lots of photos of all the big and small things that go into trashing one house and (hopefully) turning it into a better home.

This is a traditional, midcentury look. One level, brick front. Landscaping is part 2 of our master plan so while this is definitely not our style it's here to stay for awhile. Maybe I'll have the juniper shrubs sculpted into yard gnomes. 

Back of house, where the less desirable mustard yellow siding is visible. This is definitely a part 1 issue so more to follow with that. And how about that fence? That fence that is almost up against the house despite there being so much more backyard. Needless to say there will be more to follow about the fence.

Thanks for tuning in, I'm so excited to be sharing this with all of you. Please feel free to comment- have you ever remodeled a home? What's the best and worst you've had to deal with?