Our Fixer Upper

Durham Fixer Upper

Hi friends!

As many of you know, Zach and I recently purchased a fixer-upper. It was a fun experience to watch it transform and get some much needed TLC. Fortunately, we didn’t run into too many unexpected issues along the way. We had great help from local professionals to make the house look great. We love the transformation and wanted to share it with you here!

Exterior

The fixes on the outside of the house were mainly cosmetic changes. We replaced the roof, ripped out all of the front bushes, and repainted the exterior & front door (which you can’t tell in this photo.) We built this great deck on the back to give us some more living space since the home is small. Cindi’s dad actually built the deck himself.

Paint color: Sherwin Williams Alabaster.

Interior

Living Room Before and After

This space is what you see as soon as you open the front door. We wanted to make it feel larger and open it up to the kitchen. We removed the wall between the kitchen and living room, as well as the wall to the left which used to lead to a den space. We converted it into a dining room to allow us to maximize kitchen space by not having an eat-in kitchen. We removed the wall ourselves to stay on budget and had a professional come in to do the sheetrock and cased opening into the dining space.

living room remodel

living room remodel

Dining Room Before & After

We converted this den into a dining space that was open to the rest of the living space. We wanted it to feel like the room was still a separate space. So instead of removing the entire wall, we added a cased opening to define the two areas. The shelving area next to the closet was sheet rocked in to make a pantry for the kitchen.

Kitchen Before & After

If you can believe it, we actually kept the cabinets to save major money on new cabinetry. These cabinets were made of real wood, so we simply repainted them and had new doors and hardware put on to make it feel more modern. We added in a custom island to give more storage and prep space. We removed some of the cabinet space to have a dishwasher installed. We changed out the light fixtures and added some grey subway tile to pick up on the island color.

Special thanks to these local companies for their help!

Countertops: Quartz countertops installed by NCO Custom Marble & Granite. 

Painting:Mercaldo’s Paint Contractors

Landcaping: Garnett’s Yard Services

Electrical Work: Randy’s Electric

Flooring: Frazee Floors

Cindi Honeycutt

Cindi Honeycutt

Realtor

Cindi is a born and raised Durham native. She is a former elementary school teacher turned realtor, now working at Movil Realty. Cindi is excited to help others find their home here in the triangle.

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