The Revival House | A New Southern Revivals Blog Series

Southern Revivals | The Revival House Blog Series - How we're turning a foreclosure into our dream home.

I have a confession. I have been the most unmotivated blob of a person for the last week and it is driving me insane! I will blame it on the full moon and move on.

I have tried writing this particular post for a week now. I don’t know why. Is it because I feel lazy and unmotivated? Is it because it is {hopefully} the first time I am going to show you hideous pictures without gorgeous afters and that sort of makes me feel pressured to write something worth reading to make up for it? Is it because there is something to this whole full moon business? I wish I knew.

What I do know is, despite what might be a rocky and pitiful start, I am really excited about this new blog series. And life isn’t all gorgeous afters anyway, is it?

We bought our current home back in 2007. It was our 2nd home and our first foreclosure buying experience and it was at a time when the market was in total collapse.

It is almost twice as big as our last home but it had been vacant for quite a while. However, I am pretty certain people found a way in during that time. The yard was littered with beer bottles, and caps that I still sometimes find myself picking up as they surface in the yard, not to mention the urine stained bathrooms. I’m assuming all those beer bottles are an explanation for the poor aim.

The color choices of the previous owners were what you might call questionable. I didn’t see the blinding yellow though, I saw light and potential. I have always been a sucker for the underdog.

It didn’t take long for the yellow in our master bedroom to wear on me and we quickly painted it a neutral until we decided what we wanted to do in there. We added carpet over the VCT tiles which had been put over linoleum. Your guess is as good as mine.

Seven years later, that’s where we stand.

Our master bath still looks like this. Something akin to a circus tent with really bad flooring. Though it is much cleaner than it was when I first found it.

And this tub that makes me want to cry every time I look it. It has so much potential. If only someone would just get started already. I’ve considered doing away the garden tub entirely and searching for an old stand alone instead to re-love.

emily jenkins followill

But then I see boxed in ones like this and think maybe it isn’t such a bad way to go after all. I wish this were like I Dream of Jeanie and I could just twitch my nose. I’d be soaking in this very bath right now if I could.

No. That is not filth in the bathroom floor, though I am very aware that that’s exactly what it looks like. What it really is, is when the layer of that VCT over linoleum project decided maybe it wasn’t such a great idea after all and stopped. I wish they had figured it out sooner.

Perhaps the crown jewel of the Revival House is this kitchen because it wasn’t so bad from the start. But speaking of jewels, I couldn’t deal with Ruby Red for very long and painted it yellow with $5 mistint I found at a local paint store.

bhg.com

It does need more storage for someone like me who apparently has more kitchen things than clothes, shoes, and jewelry put together. I hope to extend the existing cabinets to the ceiling, put in new countertops and do something like the above in the breakfast area. A beverage station and place to hide put all of the stuff I have to store in the attic now.

When I first laid eyes on this place I didn’t see Granny Smith green walls or wonky flooring that doesn’t match, runs in different directions and dips oddly in places so that if ever there were a flood you could perhaps stand along the edges of the wall and still not drown.

What I saw were archways, bright sunny light and more room than any house I had ever lived in. I used to dream I was roaming the house and discovered hidden rooms.

I didn’t see thresholds that I would trip over or the fact that not only did the flooring sometimes run this way and other times that but that it didn’t even match.

I saw a giant Christmas tree in December and iced tea on the lanai in the Summers. We do not actually have a lanai. Yet.

The carpet was removed from this room and there used to be a padlock on the door. I do not want to know why.

This space will soon be my studio and office space where I’ll be filming my How-To videos. We start on it this weekend.

Our playroom. It looks pretty much same today as it did here. We did gut the entire house of its carpet and we installed some built-in style shelving for the boys’ toys but there is still so much to do, like this…

Traditional Kids by Raleigh Interior Designers & Decorators Driggs Designs

I love the idea of an extra guest bed for sleepovers that doubles as a couch or daybed. Those built-in shelves, cabinets, and drawers are also nice for storage.

What my husband saw was another story entirely. He saw his very own pond for fishing. And that was it. That’s all he needed and he was sold.

Join me this year for 12 projects in 12 months as we renovate this foreclosure and turn it into The Revival House. The Revival House series will begin this month with a big boy room reveal, a bathroom renovation in February and a home office in March. Celebrate with us once we actually get to our own bedroom and I finally have a space as relaxing as my husband finds our pond.

In the meantime, check out the house projects we’ve completed so far on The Revival House:

Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram, too so you don’t miss out on any of the fun, behind the scenes progress pictures. I also love to ask for you help in picking stuff out, so don’t be shy!

Will you be following along on The Revival House series?

Jamie Lott

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[…] you’ve been following our journey of fixing up our former foreclosure home through the The Reival House Series, then you know we’ve already done a lot of work. It’s tempting to only want to do (and […]

The Revival House | A New Southern Revivals Blog Series

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