The Dining/Living Room: Before

The dining and living rooms are off the kitchen. The dining room floor is 3 layers of laminate, the bottom layer glued to what we think is hardwoods (ugh). The living room connects to it and the floor is 70's carpet covering pretty oak hardwoods. The hope is to refinish both of these to make them seemless. Both rooms are getting fresh paint and crown molding.

View from the kitchen.

View from the living room.

 Looking into the kitchen.

I had no idea how hard it was to take pictures with this paneling!

 This is the only piece of furniture staying in the room. It's a couch that my grandmother had re-upholstered several times throughout the years and is in great shape!

 Believe it or not, there is a beautiful lake view somewhere out there.

The Kitchen: Before

The Kitchen is not a huge space, but has great tall cabinets. There was no built-in dishwasher, and the one in the room was being used for pot storage! The floors are laminate sheets and the countertops are faux laminate butcher-block.
This room is getting new porceline floors, a microwave over the stove, a built-in dishwasher, new lighting, a fun custom ceiling, and fresh paint everwhere!

 View from the den.

 View into the dining room.

 The vent-a-hood will soon be a stainless microwave.

 The fan will be coming out. There will be a new pendant light over the sink and a new light fixture in the center of the room. No more flourescent lighting!

 A dishwasher will be installed to the right of the sink.

 The dishwasher, cabinet, and microwave are all going...there will be a more shallow, rolling island in their place.

Looking at the door to the den.

The Den:Before

I don't have before pictures when the house was fully furnished, but the following pictures/posts will show it mid-clean out. The den is a large room that had a weird set-up and very dark paneling. Here it is before any work. I will post updates as work is completed! It's getting a new ceiling, fresh paint, and new hardwoods!

Getting Started

This blog is about the journey of Opa's house. Opa and Oma lived here since the early 90's. Oma passed away in 2003, but Opa continued to live here until he passed away earlier this year. While he kept the house up, it has stayed in it's late 60's/early 70's state since, well, the 60's and 70's. My parents are now planning to move into the house, and lots of "updating" has ensued.
I hope this will be a place to see the progress of these changes that will turn this house into the family home!

Opa in "his chair" in the den with his grandkids on his 96th birthday in 2010.

The grandkids in the living room (they will kill me for this pic) in 2003.