We closed on Greenbriar House on November 9, 2012 - just a few months before we got hitched. The home was an abandoned foreclosure in a great neighborhood. A 1979 colonial with 3 ample sized bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms -- a wonderful purchase with many fond memories. We suspected that Greenbriar House would not be our forever home, so we did not pursue any major remodeling, but we did everything else and I do mean everything.
Unfortunately, I don't have any before pictures to share but please enjoy the after shots with some commentary for posterity.
We painted the exterior this bold navy color, removed the old shutters, replaced every custom sized window in the place, and added a new front door. We also planted those darling creeping phlox and removed some craggy overgrown bushes that had been there.
This is just inside the front door, looking left toward the living room. Here, we tore out a never-ending glut of wallpaper. We then painted the ceiling, walls, crown molding, and replaced/ painted all of the base board trim. We also replaced some pretty rough carpeting with laminate flooring. Finally, please do notice that the wood banister was updated by yours truly with some stain and paint. Oh, and we replaced the carpeting on the stairs as well.
Here we are looking at the living room from the front of the house. Notice the nice open flow into the dining area -- this "L" space is where we spent most of our waking indoor hours at Greenbriar House.
If you can believe it, we did take out a weird half wall that had been located just on the side of the chair that is closest to the dining area. Not sure why that would have been there, but it looked much more open once the half wall was removed.
We had a beautiful stone fireplace -- my husband and I speculate that it was added after the house was built at some point, but we don't really know. We painted the mantle and the fireplace doors. We also converted it to gas.
One more living room shot, this one from the back of the house looking forward. Friendly note: I would never go this dark with flooring again, especially if you have pets (as we do).
In the picture below, we are in the living room looking toward the dining/ kitchen area. Again, we painted everything -- including the two tone paint on the kitchen cupboards. We replaced the light fixtures, and kitchen hardware. We also added that cute little granite-topped island, and we re-arranged things to be more modern.
The fridge is located in what had been a pantry. The stove is where the fridge used to be, and we tore out the old island which is where the old stove had been. We lost a tiny bit of walkway as the fridge juts out a bit, but we gained a 36 inch cook's stove and some counter space, so we called it a win.
Finally, we added the stainless steel peel'n'stick backsplash which really was a nice addition, making the space "pop". Oh, and I'd forgotten this but looking at the counter tops made me realize that there is a wood border on the laminate counter tops -- I also painted that. There had also been a ceiling box above the island which my husband graciously removed. Once it was gone the space felt much larger.
Fun fact: The kitchen was the most complimented room in the house during our seven year tenure.
We are now looking right after entering the front door. When the house was built, this was supposed to be the dining room, LOL. The space was way too small for that, but it would have been a nice office space. For us, it went mostly unused.
Here we are looking left from the garage door entrance to the home. Fun fact about this room: We found the drum light at a Re-Store for $15.00 and spray painted it. It turned out pretty good.
The first floor also had a half bathroom, pictured below. We painted in here and replaced the vanity, vanity light, toilet, and mirror. I made the art on the wall. We did not replace the floor in here, it was real ceramic tile and was in good condition.
Alright, the first floor is covered. Let's head upstairs and turn right...
Ahh my glorious master bedroom, so much space! We painted, re-floored, replaced the ceiling fan and windows in here.
Yep, we are those people that can't get to sleep without the T.V. on - judge away.
The door furthest to the right is the walk in closet (le sigh). The middle door goes to the upstairs bathroom which has 2 doors - one leading to the master bedroom and one that opens to the hallway. This means the only full bathroom in the house is shared by all, but especially accessible to the master bedroom. Oh, and I forgot to mention - we replaced all of the interior doors and painted them.
The shared full bathroom is pictured below. We painted, replaced the vanity, vanity light, toilet and floors. We also replaced glass shower doors with a curved rod.
Lets move on to spare bedroom 1 "the gray room". In here, we did wallpaper removal, painting, and reflooring. I also did the paintings above the bed. My mom and I made the herring bone quilt together and it is still one of my favorites of all time.
On to spare bedroom 2 "the smallest room". I just didn't really hit my decorating stride in here. I also didn't spend much time in the room. Even still, if we had stayed at Greenbriar, I would have had some updating to do in here. We just painted, re-floored, and replaced windows in this room.
That's it for the second floor, let's head to the basement which housed our workout area. I know it is cluttered down here, but believe me when I tell you that this is a spacious room.
The smaller basement room was just big enough for our largest piece of equipment. Believe it or not you could use all parts of the machine in that space, but it was tight!
Last but not least, let's take a look at the patio and outbuildings.
When we moved in, there was a falling apart deck back here. A few years back, we DIYed this patio. It was NOT an easy project, but it turned out pretty nice in the end and in the summer we loved eating dinner and grilling out back here.
You can't tell from these photos, but one of the previous owners had planted a lot of perennials back here and it actually looked pretty nice from spring until late summer with the foliage.
Below, you will see a picture of "the building", this detached garage was a big selling point of the property for my hoarder husband and let me tell you, he filled the space!
We re-painted, re-roofed, and replaced all windows and doors on this baby.
We also had a shed, because why not? And my husband filled that too.
All-in-all Greenbriar House was a wonderful place to live. Even now, even after living at the lake for one glorious summer -- I can see that we would have stayed at Greenbriar House forever if it weren't for the siren song of lake life. We made a great many changes and improvements to Greenbriar House, and everything was a labor of love. When you put so much of yourself into something, it does make it hard to leave - no matter what you are leaving for or where you are leaving to.
We also have Greenbriar House to thank for the lion share of the cash reserves we intend to sink into Haven House. So, even today we owe Greenbriar House a debt of gratitude.
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