SoPo Cottage First Peeks Of Finished Cottage

By Tania Melissa

last updated December 23, 2024

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Both of the bathrooms needed serious updates in this house. So we started with the upstairs full bath. It was completely gutted and then new electrical, plumbing and insulation were installed in a different layout, to make the room feel more spacious. After that, the fun started!

Here's the mood board for the bathroom, with lots of classic details.

I installed 'dogbone' Carrera marble floors (it's called dogbone, because instead of a perfect rectangle basketweave, the Carrera pieces have a gentle curve to them).

The bathroom already had a nice built in cabinet, but we discovered a lot of additional open space under the dormer, so Kyle & Rich built a set of shelves to provide extra storage space.

The bathroom had beadboard on the walls when we bought it and I really liked the style, so we added it back to the updated bath. And I love this vanity - the serpentine front drawers and countertop are such a nice detail!

It's still a work in progress, but it's going to be pretty sweet!

The basement bath was truly original! And as I mentioned in this previous post, having the electrical panel above the toilet was an absolute no-no from the City, so all the wiring got rerouted. We can't move the water meter, but we're hoping it will be less conspicuous once the updates are done.

Like the upstairs bath, we redid the electrical and added insulation. We also had to pour lots of leveler on the floor, because it was seriously sloping. That let me install this fabulous tile, that I'm absolutely in love with!

Next week the walls go back up and we can start to install plumbing fixtures. Here's the mood board with all the elements, won't it be fabulous?

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Our goal when we bought this house? Transform a bland, boring 1960's ranch to create a bright, warm home that meets today's lifestyle.

Here's the 'before photo. As one young couple told us when they looked at it 'before' - they knew it had potential, but they didn't have enough love or money to get there. That's where we came in! (want to see all the 'before' photos and the background story?

Click here!

)

What did I learn from this project? Renovating a small house (it's only 750 square feet) is hard. Probably harder than a bigger home, because

every

square inch matters. Storage, living space, amenities...... it all makes a bit difference. I spent lots and lots of time figuring out how to maximize everything!

How did we do it?

Starting with the exterior, we desperately needed to improve curb appeal. This house was a 'drive by' - most buyers wouldn't even want to go inside. To change that, we kept the original siding (but gave it a major beauty treatment -

click here for more info

), added a front porch, new shutters, walkway and window boxes. Now it's a house you'd want to turn into the driveway (oh yes, that's new too!).

Transforming 1960's ranch curb appeal to cottage style

Inside, the biggest change was in the living area. We knocked out the wall between the living room and dining room. We ripped out the old ceiling (a really big job that required a whole new rafter system and ridge beam) to create a big open space, complete with a reclaimed wood beam and skylight.

Living Room - Before

1960 Ranch Living Room - After

New vaulted ceiling required a lot of work!

A highlight of the living area is the board and batten wall, which gives the room some added architectural interest.

And once that was done, we installed a brand new kitchen.

1960 ranch kitchen - Before and After

New cabinets, quartz countertops with an updated subway backsplash and lots of reclaimed wood all tie together to give this kitchen some style.

Kitchen looking towards living room 'Before'

Kitchen looking towards living room 'After'

Living Room looking towards Kitchen 'Before'

Living Room looking towards Kitchen 'After'

Quartz Counters with updated subway tile

Custom Reclaimed Wood Stove Hood

Using this antique window to create a built in, adds so much character to the room.

But we didn't stop there. Here's the before bathroom.

Bathroom - Before

We did a to-the-studs gut of the bathroom. That let us move fixtures, add lighting, Velux Sun Tunnel and more.

Bathroom - After

The bedrooms didn't get major structural work, but new windows, doors, hardware and molding made a big difference (

click here for info and sources

Master Bedroom - Before

Back Bedroom - Before (we replaced that narrow transom window)

This new window made a huge difference in the back bedroom

Installing a basement waterproofing system was critical

Since this isn't a large home, we decided to finish the basement - to create a lot more living space. What started as a dank, dark space filled with cobwebs is now a bright happy space (thanks to a waterproofing system and lots of new finishes - click here for more info).

Yeah.....there were a LOT of cobwebs!!!

We left the majority of the finished basement as an open space - to use however the new owners want. In our case, I staged it as a kid's playroom

and a media room.

We also created a big laundry room, with lots of built in storage.

But my favorite feature? This half bathroom with an antique sink that I spent weeks refurbishing. (What's it take to transform a nasty old basement? A lot!

Click here for details

)

But to really appreciate the Before & After, check out this 3D video tour. It's so cool! It lets you walk through the space and really see the difference!

Can you believe the difference? Is this a Cozy Cottage you'd want to live in? To see even more of the process, scroll back by date on the lefthand margin.

Thanks so much for following along on this adventure. We'll be turning the keys over to the new owners shortly!

Want to see more? We have just started a new small ranch transformation. Click on the SoPo Cottage logo at the top of the page and scroll through for all the info. Or for regular updates, follow us on

Facebook

Instagram

! That way you'll see all the details!

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When we were looking for a new home, we had a set of criteria.And while this home met many of them, there were some things that have evolved as weve gotten to know the house a bit better. So here is our latest list.

~2500 square feet
Maintain 'old house' style and charm
Open-ish floor plan for entertaining
Bunkroom for the grandkids
Future bedroom on the first floor to age in place
Mudroom for all the coats/boots/hats/etc
2nd floor laundry

So lets go through a few of the key goals, starting with the size of the home.We dont want another giant house.Something around 2,500 square feet will be perfect and since this house is 2,480, it seems like just the right fit.

A key to this design - a lot of things stay the same. There isn't any change to the footprint of the house. And we aren't making many changes to the layout of the house. All of the rooms stay in their current configuration. Where we are making changes, it's to correct structural issues that we've found and add a bit of space upstairs for a bunk room and bathroom.

Here's a first look at the exterior. We're working hard to maintain the 'old house' look on the front facade, but will try and align the windows a bit more. (Beforeeveryone comments - yes, it would be nice to have another window next to the front porch for symmetry, but that would put it right in the stairwell. That is a big no-no for building code - and I don't want a fake window that was built behind a wall), To help balance the front elevation, I'm thinking it's a great place to put a trellis with some sort of a climbing vine. I found a nicetrellis behind the garage, it was too rotted to reuse, but I saved the brackets from it to create copies for a new one.

On the garage side, we've kept my favorite exterior view with the little vestibule that steps up to the taller kitchen roof. Seriously, I love this view of the house!

But if you step back from the door and look at the new design, you also get afirst peek of the new shed dormer on the back.

We will tear off the structurally compromised hip dormer that's currently on the back of the house and replace it with a shed dormer - which is a better match to the front facade. The hip dormer just looked odd and didn't match anything else on the house.

Best of all, the new dormer will extend to the back of the foundation so all of the building load will betransferred to the foundation - instead of the middle of the dining room! A win-win from astructural engineering perspective!

Bunkroom at last home

The new shed dormer will give us some additional living area across the back of the 2nd floor. This will give us bedroom space for when the family comes to visit.The bunkroom for the grandkids was a huge plus in our previous home (and we only had 3 grandchildren then with the twins we have 5) That's a lot of bunks! And it works well for grownups in a pinch!

It also give us space for two bathrooms on the 2nd floor - a must have for us!

The right side of the house will have lots of windows like we have today, but they will all match, instead of a mixture of styles that we have today. We will also add a sliding glass door to give us access to the deck that we're planning to build there.We're pretty pleased with this approach. It maintains the original character of the house, while providing a bit more bedroom/bath space on the 2nd floor. And best of all, it fixes a lot of the challenging structural issues that we found when we started opening up a few areas of the house.

Stay tuned, We're still making a couple of tweaks to the floorplan, but I'll share that soon!

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Once we finish a project, its always fun to go back and seehow much it has changed.

And there hasbeen a lot of change at the bungalow!

While the house had been well maintained over the years, itwas time to do some updating.

For 90 years, it was a simple, 2 bedroom, one bath home. It had nice sized rooms, but they were very compartmentalized and it made the rooms seem dark.

Living room - before, dark space with little daylight

Westarted by removing a few walls, to create a more open floor plan. This had the added benefit of flooding thespace with sunshine, thanks to the bank of windows along the front of the house.

Looking towards front of house before

Looking towards front of house after

The dining room also benefited from the wall removal. See how much it's changed?

Dining Room Before

I had a lot of questions about the staircase. Is it new? Was it always like that? Well actually, it started off as what looked like a closet door in the corner of the dining room. Once we opened up the walls, suddenly it became the centerpiece of the plan. Probably not what they were thinking when it was built in 1927!

But we kept one wall of the former sunporch, to create ahome office space. This cozy little roomis the perfect spot to bask in the sunshine on a cold winter day!

One of the biggest changes to the house was thekitchen. It had 3 doorways and lots of wall space, but needed a better flow. That meant we needed to move the refrigerator and the stove (as well as a couple of walls!).

By widening the doorway fromthe dining room and eliminating a redundant doorway to the bedrooms, thekitchen now has lots of storage, thanks to new cabinets and

a large, open pantry.

We were able to maintain the antique charm ofthe room, by refinishing the original 1927 kitchen sink.

And we reused the roof rafters from our demo,on the custom made island counter top and open shelving.

What's my favorite kitchen feature? Well it's hard to say. I love the pantry, with its antique door. But I also love the light fixture over the island.

We kept the two original bedrooms, with only minor updates,including sanding the painted floors and updating the electrical.

I do love the little hallway that leads to the bedrooms and bath!

But the bathroom got a major facelift, after we took out thepink tile and replaced it with glossy white wainscoting and a gleaming cararramarble floor.