The Plan

In my opinion, we have a major advantage in this renovation.

All of the major items have been replaced in the past 5-10 years. The roof is only 9 years old, the windows and exterior doors/screens were replaced gradually over the past 7-8 years, and the mechanics (hot water heater, furnace) are ________. And there is vinyl siding.

The bulk of our work will be installing new (or refinishing) floors, fresh paint (on every surface), and other cosmetic upgrades.

I don't expect it to be an easy fix though. We have set a six month timeline to complete the job (since my husband and I are doing it around our regular lives with two young kids). But our hope is to finish sometime early summer to get it on the market when people are shopping the most.

Here is a rough floor plan of the house (not to scale or even close to exact - but I did my best) just to give you and idea.

Part 1: Flooring

The living room, dining room, half of the kitchen, back hallway, and master bedroom are currently carpeted. We know there are hardwood floors under the master and the back hallway.

The kitchen and bath are both linoleum right now and the rest are hardwoods (red oak).

• All carpet and linoleum will come up.
• The living room is the only room that will be re-carpeted. We may do the basement stairs and the one finished room down there - but it's not priority. 
• My husband will stain & refinish the hardwoods in the three bedrooms/closets, main hallway, back hallway, and hallway closets (it's actually what he does for a living)
• The kitchen and dining room will either have new linoleum, vinyl, or cork floors (my vote!) As much as my husband would love to install hardwoods in there, our after repair value for the house doesn't really justify the expense (it will be priced for a younger, starter family type house - so not over-improving while still using quality materials it is important to us)
• The bathroom will likely be new vinyl or linoleum as well. Again, I would love to do an inexpensive tile, and it may be possible. But it will depend on the final cost. 

Related to the flooring, we are also replacing all of the base trim and shoe throughout the entire house. We are not replacing the trim around the windows & doors - but the floor trim was all cheap-foam-type-faux-wood. It must have been replaced are some point because the rest of the trim is (painted) wood. 

Part 2: Walls, Doors, Ceilings, Hardware & Light fixtures

This is kind of a weird category but I basically was thinking of all surfaces and what they touch.

There are eight interior wood doors (not painted) with the original gold hardware (some hinges are painted, some are not). Everything in "uni-colored" (walls, trim, & ceilings are all the same). The bedrooms have old, dusty ceiling fans. And their are only four other light fixtures in the house (the bathroom, the dining room, the main main hallway, and the kitchen.)

• All the doors will be taken down and painted white (although they are all wood - they are all different styles/grains/textures. Since all the trim is painted anyways, it will look much cleaner/cohesive to have them all match)
• Old hardware (knobs & hinges) will be removed and replaced with a simple oil-rubbed-bronze set. Many of the knobs are rusted and the hinges are half painted. I stripped and refinished the old hardware at my own (historic) house but the little extra it will cost to buy new hardware is worth it considering how much time it takes to re-finish (and we are already short on time). 
• The ceilings, insides of closets, and trim will also be painted white (as will be the new base trim/shoe we install)
• The walls will be painted neutral colors. The bedrooms and hallways a light gray or tan. Bathroom and kitchen a slighter dark shade of the same color. And the living room a slighter darker shade than that. That way they all match but it doesn't seem like every room is the same.
• The bedrooms and main hallway will have a new "half circle" light fixture (with the same oil rubbed bronze trim) The other three fixtures will be replaced as well with updated versions of the similar style currently installed.
• All light switches, outlets, and their plates will be replaced with new white ones. I think I've counted over 14 different colors/styles/themes of outlet/switch covers in my initial look. Changing them all will make everything match and look clean. (Many of the current ones are shades of cream which isn't a color in the "new color scheme")
• Prior to painting, we will patch the cracks/holes in the walls. There are two or three minor cracks in them (from the house settling) and about five dozen nail holes from the impressive amount of things my grandparents had hung up.
• One room has wallpaper and one room has panelling which will be removed.

Part 3: Outside

This will obviously be one of the last things we do since it will be another 2-4 months before the snow is gone. The house has tan vinyl siding that probably hasn't been cleaned in 10 years and a deck that scares me to walk on. There are a few window "overhangs/awnings", a front garden bed, and walkout basement patio that's actually a pile of broken up concrete.

• The back deck will be completely torn down and a new one built. It won't be as big as the current one (which is the entire length of the house). But since the basement is a walk out, the deck sits about 10 feet off the ground so we have to have something to get from the back door the the driveway (where it currently connects). 
• The awnings will be taken down. Yes.
• The siding will get power washed.
• The broken concrete under the deck/outside of the basement door will be torn up and replaced with a gravel patio with stepping stones 
• The old rusty mailbox will be replaced.
• Shutters (black?) will be added on the front of the house to break up the plainness of the complete-flat-front.
• The front door will be painted. It's currently white. I'm not sure if we'll do something colorful like red or just something more bold like black.

Part 4: The Kitchen

Part 5: The Bathroom

Part 6: The Basement

The House

57 years ago there was a young couple.

They had just welcomed their first child into the world. And they built a little house on the northeast side of a town in West Michigan.

[picture of family when dad was born]

It was your basic home for that time.

A 1200 sq ft ranch. Three bedrooms. One bathroom. A walkout basement. A half acre lot with the view of a beautiful apple orchard behind it.

It was simple. It was built by them. It was their new home.

That young couple was my grandparents. 

And although my grandpa has been in heaven for over a decade, my grandma still lived in that same house until she wasn't able to take care of herself anymore a few months ago.

Which means it is time to let the house go.

The Three Mile house has been through a lot of changes in the past six decades. 

This house has seen five kids raised (two of which were born in the home!). It has had a bedroom and bathroom added and then removed. It has experienced the neighborhood expanding. It has enjoying having a large garden in the back yard. 

It has seen the same kitchen cabinets in three different colors and hours of crafting. And it has seen that young couple grow old and welcomed grandchildren into the world.

But there is a lot about The Three Mile house that hasn't changed. 

The hardwood floors haven't ever been refinished. The kitchen and bathroom are original. The current carpet is marbled brown shag and bright blue. And the wallpaper is faded and peeling.

Our hope is to fix that. 

We want to make this house new again so that when the next family moves in, they share the same excitement and energy as my grandparents did for their house. And who knows, maybe they'll live there for 60 years too.

[picture of the backyard view]

Beth