Mod Tree House (Before)
It surprises everyone that I have a deep appreciation for modern architecture when the homes I've designed have been very traditional. I believe you have to work with what the house is and not try to make it be something it's not, and so I've been patiently waiting for a house that would let me bring out its inner modern.
It had been months of me casually looking for a mid-century modern house for our next project and as soon as I reached out to our realtor the universe DELIVERED. Within 24 hours I saw this house online and said, "We need to see this one."
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I have a history of making gut decisions quickly because I'm one of those people that just knows when I see a good thing. Funny because we actually got the address wrong for this house and our first visit landed us in a terrible area and a house that did not match what I saw online. I really thought it was all too good to be true until we called our realtor and quickly realized she was at the actual house. The house we were at had a similar address, but was a good 20 min away from the actual house.
Phew!
When we arrived I knew. Before even walking inside, this house had charm and peace written all over it. You need to know that in my top five Strengths Finders traits I rank highest for Futuristic and I can look past A LOT to see what something can become. And I could see it all. I could see someone raising a family out here, or writing a book off of the primary bedroom porch, or hosting gatherings with bistro lights on the back deck if we just gave this house a little love.
It was the absolute perfect flip. Good bones. A lot of the demo already done. Amazing layout and use of square footage. And location, location, location. It's such a quiet neighborhood with rolling fields of cattle as you get close to the neighborhood, but you're a straight 10 min drive to the west end of Greenville (our personal favorite spot) close to the Greenville Drive baseball stadium, the Anchorage, Bar Margaret, Basta Vegan Bakery, Rise Bakery, and The Village Grind.
Have I sold you yet?! Because we went back and forth with whether we would move into it or not. That's how much we love it! In the end we didn't want to have to switch schools for the kids, so we decided we would fix it up in 6 weeks and list it in October. Before we show you any of the amazing progress, we gotta do a tour of the "before".
So, let's get to it!
The seller's agent asked if we were keeping the front door and we were like, "Ummmm...yes!" It is such a statement and when we get the exterior lights up it is going to SHINE. I've already removed the floral stickers on the glass, which swings us around to what you see as you walk in...
You see immediately out onto the deck through those original black sliding doors in great condition. We modernized the deck with horizontal railings and I removed that wallpaper border so that when you walk in you are going to be immediately drawn to the view outside, which is partly what makes mid-century modern so appealing: that indoor outdoor flow. Here's the view out the back of those sliding doors...
Ok, going back inside to the foyer. When you look to your right you'll see the hallway closets that lead back to the 3 bedrooms. I love a one level and always appreciated not having to go up and down stairs when the kids were little...
When you swing to the left you see the living room, which opens up to the dining room and the kitchen...
The dining room also opens up to the back deck, which makes hosting so easy. We also opened this area up to the kitchen so the space is much more open now!
The kitchen needed a lot of love but I like to work with symmetry and kept the window in it's original spot and moved appliances around and added an island. I canNOT wait to show you the lighting and everything when it comes together!
Off of the kitchen is the laundry room and we discovered some hidden square footage behind it that we're now turning into a cute little office space that opens up to the prettiest tree outside.
This is the primary bedroom (the wallpaper in here took me hours to remove!)
And the primary bathroom...this space needed to be opened up and I'm so glad we removed that little closet and made the space function so much better!
Bedroom #2 with 2 big closets...
I can't find a photo of Bedroom #3 but it is also a really good size with a nice closet.
A few extras just for fun! The deck off of the primary bedroom...
The huge garage!
And one of our hardest working subcontractors...
