I have had the very unique opportunity to live in the same house I grew up in. My parents bought a new house in 1996, after living in this one for 34 years. They preferred to keep it in the family and since I had just gotten married the year before and living in a rental, they offered to sell it to us. We purchased it from them and made it our home for nearly 12 years. I have some great memories of this old house. I was 10 when my parents bought it, so I have memories of adolescent and teenage years there. My (first) wedding was held in the back yard. Memories of my children when there were small coming to visit grandparents, and then the 12 years of life spent there with my current husband. Three phases of my life in this house.
It's a nice home, bigger than it looks from the front. It has 1860 sq ft of living space. 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, a large family room, a formal dining room and a large laundry room. During the last 3-4 years in the house we spent many hours (and $$) fixing it up.
The Living Room. When we bought it it had white walls and pink carpet. We put in a neutral beige carpet and painted the walls a pretty sage green. We place ceramic tile down in front of the front door. We left the paneling up because we thought it looked good and it's a high quality wood panel. You can't see much of it, but the dining room is next to the living room and in there we took out the pink carpet and put laminate wood flooring.
The kitchen looking at two different views. The one below shows the laundry/utility room. The other picture shows two doors, one going into the dining room and the other into the family room. The built-in bookshelf use to be a window on the carport. My dad built the family room in 1978 and kept the window, putting a counter/bar on the family room side. We redid the walls in the family room and covered it, but kept it open for shelves in the kitchen. It was one of my favorite parts of the room. The kitchen has pretty oak cabinets, but when I was growing up it had metal cabinets. To try and dress them up, my parents covered them with wood-looking contact paper. Mom and Dad did a kitchen make-over a few years before we bought it, which I'm sure glad they did! The floor had green linoleum, which we covered with ceramic tiles.
The family room. My dad, who is not a 'construction-type' man, built this himself. I am very proud of his work, it's really a great room! My favorite room in the house. This picture does not do it justice. When we bought the house this room had dark wood paneling on all 4 walls, and pea-green shag carpet. I was very excited when we took the paneling off, redid all the walls (I did a faux-finish on one wall) and put laminate wood flooring down!
My favorite part of the family room. This is a wood-burning fire place that puts out some great heat in the winter. Here in So. Nevada you cannot put in a wood burning fireplace, all new homes have only gas. There is nothing like a wood-smelling, crackling fire on a cold night!
This is the backyard. It's not big, but very cozy. There was a 'shed' in the corner which was a playhouse for me and my sisters. Dad converted it into a shed after we grew up. It became old and in poor condition so we tore it down. We also took out 2 old huge trees. It feels almost criminal to destroy trees that provide shade here in the desert, but these were diseased, and the branches were always getting in the electrical wires. Everytime we had a strong wind storm one or more of the branches would break off, and not to mention all the lovely 'tokens' left on our patio by the multitude of birds in the trees. I was glad to see them gone! The good did not outweigh the bad!
Here is a picture of Gary tearing down the old shed. We made a few hundred spiders homeless that day!
We sold this home last December. The buyer was from California and wanted to buy a home in the Las Vegas area. The realtor told me that the buyer (who paid cash for the house) had spent months searching all over Vegas for an older home that 'felt cozy and homey'. She said that when she walked into our house she said "this is it". She bought a good one!
