If you’ve been reading for a while, then you know what this photo means to us.
And if you walked by our house, then you probably heard outright screams of pure joy emanating from our walls the other day.
Because building permits, that took 1.3 years to obtain, warrant a selfie. Even if I’m so excited, it shows my permanent retainer.
Quick recap if you’re just tuning in: So once upon a time, we bought a house. A few years before, we’d decided to relocate our home and family to grow our business {and be closer to family}, and it wasn’t an easy process. {After waiting for a year with our home for sale in a dead market, we lost our ever-loving minds, and booked a trip to Disney, just a few days in advance. Whilst there, it was the stuff fairy tales are made of, and our house finally sold.} You can’t make this stuff up.
And then sitting on the Pirates of the Caribbean on our last day before leaving Disney, we realized we were absolutely homeless. So we packed our bags to go home, and then repacked them to go to Nashville to look. On our way there, all of the homes we’d chosen to view went off the market. So I chose another one in the car on our way up. A little split level with two sweet little swings out front. One that I hadn’t really wasn’t even serious about, but just wanted to see.
We just so happened to lose our ever-loving minds again, and fell totally head over heels in love with this house.
Love is funny like that.
May the odds be ever in your favor.
And some other stuff. Because we had no idea what we were really getting into when it came to local codes.
People warned us, but in our little neck of the woods, codes are an absolute nightmare. Septic is a dirty word around these here parts. I’m serious when I say that people do the cross sign and hiss when you say it out loud.
And so we had to wait. A VERY. LONG. TIME.
We finally finished the main living, and upstairs area this past fall.
You’d never know our house was once, well, sad.
You can basically check out the entire series on our personal adventures with rehabbing our house, here.
Again, in the name of visual recaps…
We love it. But in the meantime, we were STILL. WAITING. ON. THE. BASEMENT.
We’ve come a long way, y’all.
But back to the basement.
We were patient. For the most part. I think we had plenty to keep us occupied.
If anyone wanted to know what our house was like before we began, all they had to do was walk downstairs.
It definitely had a triple homicide, clown-in-the-crawlspace kinda vibe.
So back to that 1.3 years part, because our rehab process has taken that long to get started.
When we took possession of the house, it {said basement} looked like this. And still does, for the most part.
Except kind of worse, because the floors became a dumping ground for all things rehab, and all things storage, and a few scary spiders the size of my head.
Let’s just say we have our work cut out for us on this one.
Here’s the layout as the space is now, minus the water heater.
And here it is, presented with our original ideas that we had for sprucing up the space.
We hope to start phase 4 in the future, for an addition. The plan is to have one side of the house for the kids, and an addition for us. Something that teenagers can grow into, we want to have the house the kids hang out at… so we basically know what’s going on. Yes, call us idealists. We thought with a pool, that just may be possible.
The ideas have been refined a bit, and is evolving a little as we go. We’ll share more on that soon.
I think we’re still playing with the specifics, since this space has to work hard for us. It will definitely be a process once it’s finished out, because we plan to add a lot of custom touches so that no space is wasted.
But demo starts this week, and we can’t wait to move forward.
I guess you could say this is phase two?
Phases two and three will begin at the same time…
The outside of our house looks abandoned from the side.
A delivery guy told us the other day that they didn’t know anyone lived here. The space where these garage doors sit now, can use a little charm, to say the least. Charm hasn’t been real high on our priority list until now. You’d never know anything fun was going on a-la the inside.
We’re like a mullet with business in the front, party in the back. Except with a house. Or something.
I’ll stop talking now.
And while the outside is fine, {at least the last owners changed it to white} the gutters are falling off, the posts are rotting out, and the front can definitely use a little {more} charm.
A little help arriving in style, to 2017.
We have more on all this coming up.
Finally.
But can we do a happy dance in the meantime? It’s about time.
May the odds be ever in our favor.
Stay tuned, guys!
Courtney says
It really is Christmas in July! So excited for you guys and I can’t wait to see how you make it beautiful!
ashley @ the handmade home says
YES, yes it is!!!! We are so excited… thank you!!!! – Let the hard work begin {again} :}
[email protected] says
Wow…that is a long time to have to wait. I guess it gave you plenty of time to design the space in your head a million times. 🙂 Looking forward to following your progress. I know it will be an amazing transformation.
Jill Catrinel says
I’m in awe of the transformation you’ve made with the rest of the house. Congratulations on getting the building permit. Can’t wait to see it!
Suzanne Feinstein says
Happy for you all! What a great post. I love every single beautifully updated room, and can’t wait to see how the rest comes together!
Bonnie says
When I saw the subject line “Finally”, I hoped it was that you had finally received permission to begin on your basement. I couldn’t wait to read your blog today to find out. I’m SO happy for you and your family that you get to move forward!
ROSE LEFEBVRE says
I Love the bathroom colors, the barn door and the open beamed ceilings! Such a charming home. Congrats on the permit!
Amy says
So I have an odd question,[and I have been reading your adventure/saga with this darn septic thing from the beginning, but I am lapsing in my memory] do you have a garage that is not this space? I know there is snow to consider, so that’s why I am curious if you have a garage I am just missing in the overall land. I think its weird that they call that the basement, but it looks like it functioned as an attached garage. Ah well. People are funny.
ashley @ the handmade home says
Hey! We have it in the plans to build a small carriage house on our property to house cars. But it’s a little down the line with priorities. ;} I think that because of the way the garage is positioned, and because it is so large, it is a bit of a basement/garage. So they have been using the terms interchangeably. Hope that helps!
Amy says
Yes! Thanks! I think its makes much more sense the way you guys have it planned out anyways, but again people are funny. Best of luck!
Amy says
I’m sorry that reads funny, what I mean is I think your plans look great and make much more sense, and I find it weird how they used it initially previous to you guys owning the house. But needs and necessity make many choices in homes.
Excited for you!