My Diamond in the Rough

I found a cute quaint little house with a fantastic view.. when everyone told me not to... I did...

I bought this 1950's house because I just loved the view. However, it needed a LOT of work... but I saw my vision in my head. Everyone told me I was crazy. The house had been inhabited by the "proverbial" little old lady with 100 cats!! But in my heart I saw a gem hidden in there...so I started. I call it the "HOUSE THAT CRAIGSLIST BUILT"

This wall came down to open up the kitchen, this wall divided the kitchen from the dining room. I thought just have it all open and not really have a dining room. We are in our 50's and really don't have a "family" dinner so this works well for us..I needed the interior demo'd so I put a posting in Craigslist that anyone who wanted some free cabinets could come remove them...

another way to help with costs is I sold everything from the house I didn't want on Craigslist.. For example I got $50 for the chandelier... probably worth more ...but hey I was going to toss it out..$50.00 paid for my kitchen pulls ...

It was quite a mess, had my fitbit on the day we started tearing into the house got 30,000 steps...in a day!!!

I scoured CRAIGSLIST everdayto find items that I needed that is how I found the peice of marble I used on the islandIt was process I found the cutting board countertops at Floor and Decor for a fraction of what people were quoting me..I also found my cabinets for $1000.00 on Craigslist. That saved me THOUSANDS of dollars...it was when we laid out what I bought and realized didn't have quite enough I decided to have the open shelving...

The white marble I got as a remnant from a marble guy, then I found a fabricator to put it in.. Carrera marble at half the price! The island I bought off craigslist from a couple redoing their kitchen, for $200.00. My husband finished out the other side of the island. Pulls I bought at Home Depot on sale. The entire 4' 8' island cost me $1000.00

The finished product!!! When you have a vision and heart you can create a lot of beautiful things, even when everyone thinks you can't!

the floor is a engineered floor bought a building supply house on sale for 1.50 a sq.ft. they were also running a special on the padding underneath. The chairs we found at AT HOME store...again...they were on sale!!

Here are the countertops we put in butch block at a fraction of the price, also found LED lighting store got under cabinet light strings for $25.00 a set...

More butcher block...

A better picture of the view !!

AHHHHH!!!!

The reason I bought the house... what a view!!! If you like I can put the rest of the house before & after's up and explain what I did and how I found the great material to use, if anyone would like to see it just let me know!

Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/13815796/my-diamond-in-the-rough site