YOUR FREUND EMILY

Buying a house isn’t easy. Location, price, counter space, and size of yard all have to be taken into consideration. You can spend weeks, months, even years searching for the perfect place to lay your head. Wouldn’t it be nice if could snap our fingers and the perfect house just appeared?

My husband and I knew with our first-time home buyer’s budget, we weren’t going to find our dream house on the market. But we also knew that with a little creativity and elbow grease, we could turn something in our budget into a dream first home.

Enter our 100-year-old bungalow, tucked away in the Riverside neighborhood of Wichita, KS. Situated on a quiet street, steps away from the Arkansas river, it only took one walk-through to know this was our project. The seller was motivated, so after a few short weeks of legalities, we got the keys!

The wheels started turning in my head and I “pinned” like a mad-woman. As every avid HGTV watcher has heard before, the bones of the house were good. Besides reworking the plumbing of an early 20th century home, the bulk of our investment was in paint, spackle, lighting, carpet, refinishing the wood floors, and décor (my personal fave).

From start to finish, we took 5 weeks from closing-day to move-in day to renovate the entire home. We ran into surprises (hello gas lighting in the dining room), had our share of frustrations and tears (is it even a reno if you don't cry?), but came out on the other side proud of the results.

This project turned into much more than we ever imagined. This house turned into our home.

Have fun renovation stories? I'd love to hear them in the comments below!