Welcome!

Welcome to This Ugly Old House! A blog about my ugly old house and how I am trying to make it less ugly and how you can make yours less ugly too. 

My goal with this blog is to share my home improvement journey and inspire you on your own path.  Almost a year ago today my husband and I bought our first house in the south end of Seattle. We have done a few projects to improve the place but there are many more to be done.  And although we were lucky enough to get the house we are by no means rolling in money for home improvements. This means we have to be very budget conscious and decide what gives us the most value and function for our home.

I know a lot of you out there are struggling financially as well and while money is tight all around no one wants to live in a house that makes them feel poor and helpless.  Besides, living in a beautiful space improves your mood and the hard work of home improvement can be great exercise.  If you don't believe me just try ripping out a bed of ivy!  Plus, certain easy improvements can add value to your home which we can all use.  But I will stop yapping now and show some pictures.

This is our Ugly Old House. Ok, it really is not that ugly from the front.  But inside it gets a little funky.  This photo was taken the weekend we moved in. Our dog Haggis who passed away recently was already guarding his new home.  At 990 square feet it fits two adults, a cat and a dog very nicely. 

The living room looks sad and small in this photo. We immediately ripped up that nasty carpet and found beautiful hardwood underneath. However, all the other rooms in the house have disgusting, and probably asbestos laden, brown or pink material of some sort glued to the wood. Therefore, even if we wanted to refinish the living room floor there is no way we could afford to make all the other floors match so we decided to buy some do-it-yourself bamboo flooring and just cover the whole house in it.

The living room looks like this today. We chose Zebrano raw bamboo for the flooring which basically means the bamboo was shredded, some of it was charred (creating the darker spots), and then 'glued' back together to from really strong planks with interlocking grooves.  So far this stuff doesn't have a scratch on it even with a 70lb dog running on it and us constantly moving the furniture. It was a big expense at around $3,000 to do the whole house but it will be well worth it when we actually get it all put in. 

We purchased the flooring from Simple Floors in Tukwila, WA and they were really helpful in telling how to install it ourselves. We 'floated' it so as to not damage the the floor underneath.  This is also an environmentally friendly product which is another reason we chose it as well as the fact that it is harder and more durable than traditional hardwoods. And less expensive. 

You can also see from this photo that I painted the wall to the left bright orange and the bookshelf nook white.  In the afternoon when the light comes through the west facing windows the room is really bright and cheery.  For $20 in paint you can change the whole vibe of a room. 

What have you improved on your house lately?