The House Before I Bought It

This is a picture from the original sale in January of 2004, just 5 months before I bought it.

It's obvious why the neighbors are so happy!

This is the house after the investor had it for 5 months.  All the landscaping is new, with freshly planted ground cover, flowers and sod.  The pine tree is huge!  That little tree-thing on the front slope is going to have to go.

And early-morning shot.  The garage door and opener are new, as well as the driveway itself.

It actually has a real mailbox, mounted on the front of the house.  No more community mail boxes!  Yahoo!

The sprinklers are on during this shot, making the slope look dark.  It's newly-planted with ground cover.  The chain link fence at the bottom of the slope will be one of my first projects.  Check out all the huge trees in the neighborhood!

The house is off to the left of this photo.  I've walked the dogs down these Edison lines for many, many years.  Up over the hill to the right is a park.

Double doors at the main entrance--I love these (but the need some weather stripping).

Dishwasher is not installed yet (but it is included).  Upper cabinets are too high, we are working on getting the seller to move them.  If not, I'll move them.  Appliances are bisque in color (off white).  Cabinets are Home Depot's budget line.  They need some adjustments.

This room is off the kitchen (kitchen is on the left).  This will be my office/computer area.  There is a door going into the kitchen that I want to close off, making the room open to the living room only.  The door on the back wall goes to the garage and the door on the right goes to the side yard.  This used to be a laundry room area.  I want to put double French doors in the opening to the living room so it can be closed off if necessary. 

This room is 24 feet long.  The far end that you see here is the living room area and the nearer space is the dining room area.  The sliding glass door that you can see on the right is ten feet long and makes a great view into the back yard and the open space beyond.  I'm not fond of the red painted brick fireplace.  I'll be repainting it in lighter colors.

Hallway to bedrooms.  Notice that this hallway has a door at the beginning--something I've never seen in a house before.  It's a great idea because you can completely close off that end of the house.  The two smaller bedrooms are to the left, the main bath is straight ahead, and the master bedroom and bath are on the right.

This is the main bathroom.  The cabinet and sink will be replaced by me fairly soon.  The tile, toilet and jacuzzi tub are all new.  I plan on expanding the half wall you can see in the first picture to close the bathtub in on three sides.  Then I can add shower doors or a curtain to make a shower here.  A shower head will need to be installed, but that's not too tough because the wall on the back of the tub fixture is in the bedroom behind the door.

Master bedroom closet.  It's an L shape with a regular door accessing the short end and two sliding mirrored doors accessing the longer end.  Strange, but it works.  The master bath is off to the left of the closet.  I didn't get a picture of the rest of the room.

Master bath sink and cabinet are new, as is the tile and toilet.  The shower stall, however, is not good at all and will be replaced ASAP.  The realtor is negotiating for a credit on this.

One of the two smaller bedrooms.

The backyard drops down a slope just after the grass ends.  It's about twenty feet above the field below.  There is a chain-link fence at the bottom of the slope that needs to be replaced.  Another top priority.

Back of the house.  The patio cover posts need to be replaced, but the cover itself is in good shape--and huge!  All the windows and doors are new.

Side yards on left and right.  The fences are all wood, which I don't like because the dogs might try to dig under them.  The one on the right needs painted immediately.  The concrete on the right is new.

Closer picture of the front.  I can't wait to do some landscaping!