Trash to Treasure Remodel

This is the third and final post on the complete renovation of our first home.

Lots of Drama...

If you missed the first post, the interior remodel, you can find it HERE.

The second installment, the addition, can be found HERE.


This place was a total gut, if it hadn't been built out of concrete block and poured concrete, it would have been easier to tear it down and start over.

We purchased this house for $82K (900sqft) in 2003 and sold it for $242K (~1500sqft) in 2010!

I know, home and land prices in CO are ridiculously expensive.

(That explains some of the already outdated decor)

The best part was it wasn't even listed for sale when a realtor contacted us and told us he had someone interested in purchasing our home! In the midst of a HUGE bubble burst. 
What could we say but, come on in!

The fence is also concrete formed and poured with embedded t-posts and wire fencing. 
Super reinforced = Seemingly impossible to remove.

Below I am painting any chipped paint since it's pre- 1978 (lead paint) so it will pass the inspection.

Before we closed ( before we owned it ) we painted, replaced broken windows and hammer drilled crawl space vents through the concrete. 

We sure worked our butts off for this dump ;-)



Never thought we'd see the day... Saying goodbye to the fence!

Thanks to the son of the neighbor across the street, he was excavating an old building foundation behind his father's house, and took care of the fence for a tidy fee. He even hauled the debris away for clean fill to be used on his property. It doesn't get much better than that!!!

Ahhhh, so much better.

The city kindly allowed us to form and pour and pay for our sidewalk!
We left our mark  ;-)
This local newspaper clipping shows the house (on the left) possibly during the late 50's, early 60's.
It doesn't look so bad. What ever happened??? The house next door still looks exactly the same.




Hubby re-framed the entire existing roof, lifted the porch roof, and added a gable over the garage to stop snow from sliding and piling up in front of the garage door. A thorough pressure wash, new windows, garage door, paint and stain. 


The corugated metal on the foundation isn't rusted yet, rusted metal is very 'in' in Colorado.

I'll share my secret to almost instant rusty goodness later...


Well that concludes the long journey from trash to treasure of our first home.
It makes my kind of sad and we miss it a bit.

These are a couple before and afters from the first post on the interior, found HERE

It was quite an adventure and we have now moved on to the second phase of our 3-step-debt-free-home-ownership plan!

I can't wait to start sharing what we are doing with our *new* home.

Thanks for joining me. 




10 comments:

  1. All I can say is WOW on a lot of points with your story!! First, this 1500 sq ft home is worth almost as much as my 3400 sq ft.home in Indiana. You're not kidding when you say Colorado home prices are crazy! 2nd, you did an amazing job on this house and should be very proud of yourselves. A true labor of love!

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    1. Thank you Beth, we are very pleased with how it all turned out. It is boggling the differences in real estate across the county! Considering this is in a remote location and very limited services, even more so.

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    2. Remote, as I 50 miles to Home Depot and 90 to Lowe's :(

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  2. Wow amazing! Your home looks gorgeous- all your hard work really shows. If you have some time I'd love it if you'd stop by my blog to check out the giveaway I'm having for a Ramsign Home Sign!

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  3. You've done a remarkable job on your house. Well done.

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  4. Cristy, thank you so much for sharing this in the DIY Project Parade. Amazing! I'm going to include a link back in this week's highlights. :)

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    1. Roeshel,
      Wow, you never can tell. What a surprise to be highlighted on your beautiful and inspiring blog.
      Thank you so very much.

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