Our 1920 Sears Kit House Before & After Tour // Part 1

If you follow me over on the gram, then you know that our house was just featured on Domino Magazine. That was such a fun experience and a total dream to have something we have worked so hard on recognized on a larger platform.

We bought this sears kit house back last summer (July 2016) and spent the next 4-5 months deep in construction dust and developing cramps in our check-writing hand. Of course many smaller projects were completed in the following months. And in these old houses, the projects will never end.

I am just now getting around to blogging an "after" house tour mainly because I wanted to wait until the magazine feature dropped and also because getting the house ready for a photo shoot is a ton of work. I also had a baby somewhere in there too.

You can see the full "before" house tour HERE with a lot more of the raw and in-progress pictures.


This tour is going to be a bit of mini series. Melissa of Melissa Click Photography did an amazing job photographing the house, and she sent over SO many pictures. I want to share them all with you. So, I'm going to do an overview tour in this post to kind of give you a feel for the flow of the place. And then I'm going to share some of the rooms individually in future posts. That way I can give more details on paint colors, product sources, etc without it being a mile-long post.

For the magazine shoot, Ashley Snyder came over and helped me out tremendously with her styling skills.

|| SOURCES || OUTFIT: PEPPER PLACE DESIGN | RUG: HOUSE OF BELONGING | WREATH: THRIFTED

Exterior before. 

The picture above was from the MLS listing. I almost didn't look any further because...well, that awning nearly smacks ya in the face through the screen. It looked like a four-eyed cat with buck teeth. 

Exterior after.

We removed the awning and the screens and even just that made a huge difference in the curb appeal. I loved the idea of a screened in front porch, but it made the house look much too boxy and unwelcoming. 

Many repairs went into the exterior siding and roof. The original windows were restored and insulated, and the entire porch floor (including the joists underneath) was rebuilt. We poured a new sidewalk and driveway as well as did some masonry repairs to the sides of the house. 

We painted the exterior and did some landscaping. I'll share more details in my post specifically about the exterior. 

Entryway before.

Entryway after.

Just Thinking about the hours and hours we spent pulling up carpet and staples and painting and refinishing all of the woodwork (while in my late second and third trimesters) just makes my back ache a little.

Every night, we would put Theo to bed and change into our grungy painting clothes. And every night we would fall into bed so exhausted but knowing that we were making it happen and that it would be so worth it.

SOURCES || FLOORS: ORIGINAL WOOD WITH JUST A TOP COAT OF MATTE POLY | WALL PAINT: SNOWBOUND by SHERWIN WILLIAMS  | RUG: VINTAGE, EBAY | LIGHT FIXTURE: HOME DEPOT (they don't carry it anymore from what I could see) | EVERYTHING ELSE: THRIFTED FINDS

Formal living room before. 

Formal living room after.

This room mostly just needed some plaster patching, the trim refinished, walls painted, and the floors done. 

SOURCES || SOFA and CHAIRS: FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE | WALL PAINT: SNOWBOUND by SHERWIN WILLIAMS | RUG: WEST ELM | FLOOR TASK LAMP: ARTICLE | 

Informal living room before (sort of...we had already taken up the yellow carpet). This view is looking into what we would make the dining room. Notice the curved ceilings in here! 

As a side note, all of the electrical in the house had to be completely updated. 

Informal living room after.

This space has gone through a couple of tranformations over the last few months as I figured out what I wanted to do with the space. Our television is on the other side of the room and the kitchen is adjacent, so this is one of the spaces where we spend the most time. 

SOURCES || SOFA: ARTICLE | COFFEE TABLE: TULSA FLEA MARKET | VINTAGE RUG: FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE | CHANDELIER: WEST ELM | FLOOR LAMP: TARGET | INDIGO PILLOWS: JENKINS & CO | MIRROR: THRIFTED | CURTAIN RODS: DIY | CURTAINS: IKEA

Here is another before picture taken while standing in the dining room, looking back through the informal living room into the formal living.  Originally, the informal living room was the dining room and the room we made into the dining room was actually designed to be a maid's quarters back in 1920. After looking at the blueprints for the Arlington kit houses, the odd layout made a whole lot more sense. I don't know what the previous owners used that room for, but the main level flowed much better when we opened up the room into the kitchen and made it into the dining room.

This is the view looking into the dining room.

Dining room after.We removed the two windows and replaced them with a set of french doors. We did the same in the kitchen. Both sets of french doors open up onto the large deck that we had built.|| SOURCES || LIGHT: IKEA | EVERYTHING ELSE: THRIFTED |

Kitchen before. 

The washing machine was hooked up just on the other side of the stove and the dryer was out on the closed in porch along with the fridge. 

We removed that wall with the door and window in it, and opened up the porch to increase the size of the kitchen. The back door was removed and those windows replaced with those second set of french doors. The sink location was changed to right in front of the large windows to the right and the wall where the sink was, was removed to open up to the dining room. 

We completely gutted the kitchen down to the studs as all of the plumbing had to be replaced in the entire house as well. 

The wood floors in here were in pretty rough shape, but we managed to salvage most of it and patch the rest.

Kitchen after. 

I will talk more about our kitchen renovation later, but oh my gosh! This was my baby, and I absolutely love how it turned out. 

Alright, let go upstairs!

This is our master bedroom before.

And after. 

The window seat in the master before.

And after. 

Our room and the kitchen are my two favorite places. All of my plants have been thriving in this corner and it makes me very happy. 

And here is the upstairs bathroom before. 

After we closed on this house, we literally ran up here first thing and tore out that plaster around the tub to find out if it was an original claw foot tub. And it was!!

We completely rearranged this room, and cut into the space a little to make room for a laundry room next door. I have absolutely loved having an upstairs laundry room. Since all of the bedrooms are upstairs, it just makes sense!

And here is the after.

Don't worry. I have lots more images of this whole space to share with you in another post.

For some reason, I don't have very many "before" pictures of the boys' room, but here is one.

I just can't get over all of the beautiful little details like the glass knobs and window seats.

And here is the after.

And there you have it! The guest bedroom, laundry room, downstairs bathroom, and basement weren't included in this post, but they have undergone some serious work too.


*******

See part 2 of the series by clicking on the link below:
Our 1920 Sears Kit House Tour: Exterior, Entry, & Formal Living // Part 2