Tobacco and Dusty Rose

Yeah, that's the color scheme of our house the day we took possession. We knew it was going to be a lot work the moment we walked and were assaulted with a roundhouse kick of stale tobacco stank to the face.

Thankfully though, no one else could get past the rank stank and we were able to buy the house quickly and at a pretty darn good price, considering the state of the market when we were looking.

Honestly though, we didn't even look at anything else. It was serendipity that brought us to our forever home. After being burned by a shitty condo conversion and having to foreclose, we rented for a few years licking our wounded credit.

My mother received some money after her mother passes away and was incredibly generous in helping us with the down payment. She called on a Monday. That week I scoured the MLS listings and this one popped up sometime in that week and we arranged to see it Sunday. I knew right away it was the one. He took a little convincing. The tobacco and dusty rose threw him to say the least. The stale tobacco smell was sort of comforting for me actually, it reminded me of my grandparents house. But let me tell you, it was so ugly. I think the real estate agents thought I was totally crazy as I bounded from room to room grinning with excitement. Apparently no one has any imagination these days and couldn't see past the smoke and grime and horrid color scheme. I knew we could make it awesome. Monday we were at the bank doing the paper work and putting the offer in. It was a month later and the dust settled and we got possession. Thankfully, we had a week to clean and paint before we moved it.

Let me show you why!

This is the view of the living room as you walk in the front door.

Before - tobacco dripping from the walls, and ash stained carpet

One of my friends commented "Woah, did they park their car in there or what?" Yeah, you can tell where the couch and coffee table were. And just how often they missed the ashtray....

I'm pretty sure I kicked the railing down seconds after I took this picture...

I can't believe that they didn't have a picture of this shelving in the listing. It was a major surprise and a majorly happy one at that. It is just awesome. It has seen better days of course, and probably won't survive being taking down and put up again. I just love it

Such a sad mess of grime and horrible paint colors and wallpaper selection

YASSSS!!!! Check out that sweet shiny, floral wallpaper, and poofy valance. Mhmmm, I know you're super jealous!

So shiny! And so Pink.

The view down the hall. More dusty rose and some powder blue trim. That light fixture is actually clear glass. I know, hard to believe right!?

There was also some strange textured and PINK wallpaper at the end of the hall there. 

Built in China Cabinet that I mostly like. When we redo the kitchen cabinets eventually, it will go, but for now. I like it.

 I'm 100% certain that nothing had ever been cleaned in the time the last owners lived here. 4 years of heavy smoking and never cleaning. It shows. 

I like the layout of the kitchen, it's small but totally functional. There is a good amount of counter space, enough for me to cook anyway!

Gawd I was happy to see that wallpaper go!

 

The grungiest corner counter thingy ever. Yes the counters are also dusty rose. 

When the counters are really clean, they almost look tan. But are still too pink for my taste

 I can't believe that someone could live here for 4+ years and NOT ONCE wiped down the finger prints from around the knobs, I just don't know how that doesn't drive them crazy!

Grunge and grime everywhere. Lovely blue floral plate covers too. I think every room had a different style of plate covers come to think of it.

Bedroom #1 (Office)  Baby Mickey wallpaper, trim and decals on the fan blades and walls! Pink plate covers... Different shade of pink carpets

It probably was a nice nursery, 20 years ago...

Get ready for this. This is the worst of them all!

The bathroom. These people seriously loved pink and blue. It's everywhere, on everything. Blue fixtures. Pink walls and pink cabinets. I think the floors at one point were cream colored...

I can't even imagine this color combination EVER looking good. 

Yep. Gross

Blue. Note the cigarette butt in the toilet. Thanks guys, because the house didn't already smell bad enough.

Streaks of grossness

Weird medicine cabinet that was barely deep enough to hold an aspirin bottle!

See that shelf to the right of the sink? It was taped into place...

Bedroom #2 ("Master") Not much going on here, more pink. Brown carpets this time. A disgusting, but ssurprisingly good quality ceiling fan.

Bedroom #3 ("My Room") More decals in strange places. More pink.

Mhmm check out that bad ass closet organizer!

Random wall decal... 

And on to the basement.  It's sort of a suite...

This is the "living room"?

"kitchen"

 See that light? There in the closet? Yeah, that's the light for the bedroom!

 ALMOST enough room for a bed

Close up of the "kitchen"

 Plenty of storage....

I never would have thought to put an overjohn in the kitchen for added storage 

The Bathroom. This is the worst of it all I think...

Shower that holds most of a person. The stack in the middle of the room is my favorite feature

It's a toilet!

Hallway, First door on the left is the furnace room, to the right is out of the suite and at the end on the left is the bathroom. The water shut off is behing that door at the end of the hall.

I was super excited to eventually discover that my washer and dryer weren't blue, just hadn't had the plastic peeled off yet!

That's it. Our house in all of it's BEFORE glory! Continue on to see the progress we've made!