insanity beach house

 

And, no, we don’t mean the workout. (Although, I’d kind of like to try it… Any thoughts?) We finally, after months of searching, bought a house in Beaufort, NC! Yay! Here’s the insane part: It’s a MAJOR fixer upper. The front part was built in 1813, the rest in 1907, and we’d say it hasn’t been updated in a good forty years. Add to that that it has been empty for five, and you can imagine what we have ahead of us.
It was one of those places that we walked in, chuckled and murmured under our breaths: “Who would buy this place?” But there was something about it that just wouldn’t let us go. 
Brace yourself for these before photos. You have to see the before to really be able to appreciate the after, right? We’re just going to give you a glimpse into the downstairs today. This is the entrance. Good news: fireplace. Bad news: Faux brick mantle. 
The bones and charming details are there, but these photos actually do the condition of the place justice. Even the ceilings have to be completely redone. Well, I mean, they don’t have to be, but ceiling tiles covering peeling plaster weren’t what we had in mind for our dream coastal vacation spot.

 

Bright side: The hardwoods under this carpet are in fixable shape!
It has a great, big dining room for holding lots of fun summer parties! (You’re all invited any time, of course.)
insanity kitchen beach house
Ta da! We are actually beyond thrilled with this kitchen. There is really nothing salvageable in the entire thing, which is great. It reduces that “Well, maybe we should save the cabinets and redo them later” thinking. The true tabula rasa.
kitchen insanity beach house
We can gut it, add French doors and windows… a few hardwood floors… a little marble… a giant island… some glass cabinets… snazzy appliances… and — voila! — we’ll have the kitchen of our dreams!
Beach house laundry room
This is going to be a darling mudroom when it grows up!
beach house bedroom
This is the downstairs master. As Will said, you can tell there was a well-worn foot traffic pattern going on here. Bad news: The floors under here are not salvageable.
Good news: The toilet seat cover came with the house. I bet this was one sassy bath in its day!
Oh, wait. What’s that you say? There’s another bathroom on the other side of the downstairs master! Until you walk in it… Or, rather, crawl on your hands and knees. The ceiling is, no exaggeration, four feet tall. It is one of the great unanswered questions about this house. When we find out why one would have a bathroom with a four-foot tall ceiling — in the downstairs master — we’ll let you know!
Although, truth be told, the view sort of makes up for any of the home’s shortcomings… Pun intended 🙂 We can’t wait to show you rest of it and keep you updated as we begin this fun renovation! I’m sure we’ll need lots of advice, and we’re lucky to have all you chic readers to help us out! Stay tuned…
Happy Monday, everyone! 

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