The New Casa Manos

I was going to do this post over the weekend but then SNOWMAGEDDON 2013!  It was bad y'all.  We had about three feet of snow, couldn't open any of our doors, my dogs had to pee in the garage and my dear friend got stuck here for an extra two days.  Behold!

Friday morning, and I'm thinking "ugh, I can't believe these New Englanders are so panicky about snow!"

Aaaaaaand Saturday morning:

I guess they weren't overreacting.  This time.

Anyhoo, in the midst of SNOWMAGEDDON 2013, we closed on our new house!  Because things were getting a little slow there for a while, so we needed to add a big move to our lives.  I present the new Casa Manos:

True to form, the house isn't exactly turn-key.  I mean, it's 200 years old with a run down barn that has only three walls and it's friggin' PINK for the love of paint.  What can I say, I like projects.  I think it's from all those years of watching It's a Wonderful Life at Christmas and desperately wanting to fix up an old house a la Mary Bailey.   So I'll need to document all the Before pictures.  Join me for a tour, won't you?

Let's start in the kitchen, which is also the way you enter the house.  Not much work to be done here immediately, except I truly hate the green cabinet knobs.

Don't you love this kitchen fireplace/bread oven?  I need a huge black cauldron to hang over the fire.  Anyone know of any discount witch stores?

Off the kitchen there's a full bathroom/laundry room which is truly abysmal...we need to lose the shower and just make this a real laundry room.  With actual full-sized machines.

Next up we have the dining room...that's a real wood-burning stove along that one wall.  Just a little freshening up and we're good to go in here.

Okay, so far not too bad right?  So here come the rooms that need real work.  Let's start with the living room:

That wallpaper!  That carpet!  And oh my god I hate ceiling fans (which are EVERYWHERE, btw).  There's potential in here and I'm excited to transform it.  Moving on to the library...

That's an amazing fireplace, right?  And how about all those shelves?  I have Ideas for this room.  I think it's going to be magnificent once I eradicate all that nasty greenness.  Yes, that is a hot tub outside the French door. No, I have no idea what condition it's in.  It could actually be home to a family of rabid possums (opossums?  what's up with that word?) at this point.  Moving on...

This probably going to be my little workout room.  Or maybe the dog's playroom.  Either way, the carpet's gotta go, the ceiling fan's gotta go, and it needs some fresh paint.

Here's where it starts to get really bad....Here is a room painted green, with purple curtains and trim.  And a stupid ugly ceiling fan that I've hit my head on like three times.

And here is the room across from it, purple with green curtains and trim.  Yikes.

Here is the front hallway/stairway.  I'm still waiting for inspiration to strike here but I think it could be really elegant.  And I don't totally hate the light fixture in here.

See the tiny little bell above the door on the right?  That's the doorbell.  The wire connected to it shakes when you push the front doorbell, ringing the bell.  Man, I love the things you find in old houses.

Let's head upstairs, shall we?

We can start in the master suite.  Here's the bedroom.  Paint, carpet, done.

This is the sitting room off the master suite.  The wallpaper and carpet are hideous, obvs.  And of course it has another gross ceiling fan.  But that closet is huge and there's a window seat!  My favorite thing ever.  I think we'll put another wood stove in here too and get rid of the fake fireplace.

Okay, it's about to get weird.  Because the master bathroom is majestic but unfinished.  And in no way does it match the style of the rest of the house.  I don't know what happened here, but I'll take that bathtub!

I'm not even sure what I would call this style.  I am confused but delighted.

To all my prospective visitors, pay special attention to this next area.  It's the guest suite.  This is the sitting room area...

...which walks out to a good sized porch.

This will be the guest bedroom.  That carpet is so painfully gross, but at least the room is a good size.

And at least the guest bathroom is large and luxurious!

Next up:  Waylon's room.  I think he might not love the color scheme and he definitely has the ugliest ceiling fan known to man, but I see potential here.

Other than that, there are two other bedrooms that need some updating/freshening up.

Yikes, that's a lot of pictures!  Going through them makes me realize just how much work we have ahead of us.  But I think it will be fun to see the transformation and I'm really excited to start checking things off the list and shopping for furniture.  I'll let you see After pictures as they come!