Our New Beach House: Before Photos

Hi everyone! I know it's been a hot minute since I've been on here and I'm really hoping this summer I will get my act together and get back to blogging but we shall see.   I wanted to finally share some photos of our new beach house.  If you've been a reader for a longtime you know that we love a project... most of the time I think we're crazy but getting to fix something up to exactly they way you like it also has its perks ;)

Kyle and I have always talked about purchasing a beach house but had planned to wait until we were in our 40s and the kids were a little older.  On a whim last fall we started to do some searches here and there in Bethany Beach to see if there was anything we could buy in a few years or start to get ideas for what we would need to spend.  Well as we spent months searching we couldn't get our minds off this one house.  It was definitely not the prettiest or biggest one we had seen. It needed some work but the location and neighborhood was amazing for the price point.  After putting in an offer and then dealing with some seller issues the house officially became ours in April 2019!

Below are the before photos. There are a lot of photos to share so I'm just starting with the first floor living areas and kitchen.  The house has 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths, so I'm going to break up showing the before photos into a few posts. Some are from the real estate listing and some are ones we took.  
The couple that owned the home had both passed away (they were in their late 90s) and their children had inherited it.  They were eager to sell it and had done some updates to it but most of the furniture and decor was original from the 1980s when it was built.


Here is the front of the house when you pull up. We have a huge driveway so we can fit plenty of cars when friends or family visit.  We eventually plan to add a garage for more storage.

Here is the main living area of the house.  It's not an ideal set up they way they have it and we plan to paint/whitewash the fireplace and move the tv over it.   The fireplace also needs to be completely rebuilt on the inside that's another project to tackle over time.  We also plan to pain the stair rails white.  This is looking at the living area from the dining room. 

Here is another main living area view coming from the front door.  We've already gotten rid of all the furniture and old blue carpet.   Do you see that glass closet at the top of the stairs??  It's a doll closet that housed those creepy porcelain dolls!!!  There were actually two in the house and we had them removed before we moved it.

Another living room view from the top of the stairs.

Here is the dining area.  The house has a very open concept for being over 30 years old which is really nice.  They did add an addition at some point which really helped open it up.   We ended up keeping this table so we won't stress about the kids beating it up over the years but got new chairs.   

Another dining area view.

The kitchen is actually updated! The top cabinets are a creamy white and the bottom cabinets are a gray/green color.  While it's not exactly what I would pick out it works out perfectly for now.  For a quick fix I want to paint, add a backsplash and a custom drapery to the window.  In the long run I would love to add new countertops, a new sink and get an induction range.  I would probably go with quartz in here since we want something durable.  

There is a ton of cabinet space which has been so nice!  It ended up being a lot more than I expected it to be.

Down this small hallway is a pantry and our washer and dryer.   This little bar area is kind of useless... we may end up adding some cabinetry and a wine fridge here but we'll see.

 Around the corner coming out of the kitchen is the powder room and another living area in the back of the house.

Here is another view heading back into the back living area. Again we got rid of all this furniture.

Here is the back living area.  We've deemed this area the kid's area and decided to keep that sectional couch because it isn't too old and is in good condition.  We figure this way we won't flip out if the kids spill anything on it ;)  Otherwise all the other furniture is gone

Here is a view from the back living area heading into the kitchen.

If you made it all the way to the end- thanks!! I promise I will share more photos every week there are just so many I didn't want to overload this post!  Stay tuned because we have so many fun updates coming on this house!