The Ghosts of Projects Past

My very first house was what I'd call a modern traditional home on a corner in Highlands Ranch. It was a fix and flip and empty when I first saw it. It was all fresh, cream paint. The carpet was brand new,the kitchen countertops had been updated to granite tiles (not slab, but for a starter home it worked fine) and the bathrooms had new floor tiles. It was move-in ready and a great place for a single gal to make her own.

Fast forward to 2010 when I got married and Brent moved in. The cute little house became just that...little! In January of 2012 I saw several houses come up for sale in our price range so we quickly met with our fabulous realtor (seriously, she's amazing and I'll gladly share her contact info). We made an offer on our current Littleton house the same day we saw it.

Once we'd made an offer on a new house, we realized we needed to sell the Highlands Ranch house. (Yes we did this a little backwards) So I wanted to share some pictures of the house before we moved--these were taken by a professional photographer for our MLS listing. 

There she is. We'd replaced all the windows in the front, painted the exterior and put a new roof on. Surprisingly one of the complaints we had from potential buyers...the green door! I personally loved it, but I painted it red after one week on the market. Then I had no more complaints.

When you walked in the front door, it was open to the second floor and you could see straight through to the back. You'll begin to see a lot of red from here on. Looking back I think I was too comfortable with that color!

From this shot you can see the terrible florescent light in the kitchen. Of all the things we fixed in this house, we never got to that. (It was the very first thing the new buyers changed--good for them!) I loved the light fixture above the table. It had a wine scene inside the shade. So sad to not be able to use that in our new house!

Here is the living area on the main floor. Brent hated those red couches, so he rarely sat in them. 

This is the only living space in the basement. Ahh--the red again. If you notice the curtain on the right...that was one of those small basement windows. I know some people wonder what to do with those silly things. If you go ahead and hang a normal curtain on it, the eye won't really know its a little window. It balances the room and felt really cozy down there.

This house featured three upstairs bedrooms and two full bathrooms. This is the master bedroom which went through many transformations. It was tan with a brown accent wall, then I got the new black furniture so we painted it gray. I've since fallen in love with that gray (Sherwin Williams Functional Gray).

Here's a glimpse of the master bathroom. We replaced the builder style mirror and light fixture. One of the very first things Mom and Dad helped me with was building those two wall cabinets. They were totally custom and stored so much stuff! 

When all was said and done, we did a ton of updating in that house. Most of the old brass fixtures were replaced with oil-rubbed bronze. The doors were all painted crisp white.

I think what made this house stand out on the market and sell quickly (21 days) was the character we'd given it, the lack of clutter and the staging. Even though it was a cookie-cutter house, it felt different than its neighbors. It had style!

Do you have a story of updates you made to sell a house? What do you feel paid off for you?

~Karli