Introducing the Victorian House

A few weeks ago (when the world seemed relatively normal still), we moved out of the first home we purchased and into our "upgrade home," an 1889 Victorian.

Boxes are still everywhere; we've made some progress in unpacking, with lots of organizing left to do. Some of that won't fully happen until we do our remodel. While we closed back on NYE, we wanted to refinish the floors before moving in and with a vacation in February, it took a while to get in here. Now that we're working from home for the time being, we're so glad to be doing so in a larger space!

Every contractor or inspector who's seen the house so far has commented on how nice it is for the age. All the major things have been well taken care of - electrical was all replaced, major renovations were done by the previous owner, even the basement feels nice for an unfinished space.

Now for a little tour. The below photos are mostly taken from the listing.

New House Tour

Entryway

Absolutely love. There's two doors before you get to the foyer and then you eye this gorgeous staircase and whoa. I also really like having a hallway closet easily accessible for guest coats - definitely needed half the year in MN! We got to keep the little table pictured here. 

Living Room

The listing called this a living room + dining, but we're using it as one large living room. The built-in cabinet in the 2nd photo is coming out and in its place will be a direct-vent gas fireplace. We'll get to that as soon as we get the boxes out of here! We're thinking the front part of the living room will be the TV area and the back will be the more "formal" seating by the fireplace. 

The floors look a lot different now that they've been redone (last photo). We went with 1 coat of oil and 2 coats of water-based finish, no stain and love the light look. 

Dining room

Or parlor, or family room, or office. For us, it's the dining room. This is one of Mike's favorite features. It can easily fit our dining table fully extended to seat 10 people, plus a buffet and more. We like to host holidays so this is perfect. 

First floor bath

A 3/4 bath on the first floor. I'm not sure how often this shower will get used, but it's nice to have for guests. 

Kitchen

Completely redone, including rebuilding the floors, in 2005. Love that the cabinets go all the way to the ceiling, though I have to use a stool for much of it! My favorite features are the drawers rather than cabinets on the bottom, the window over the sink and the double ovens. There is no pantry currently, and we're looking at space to create one in the mud room area, but with so much cabinet space we won't need much. 

Back screened in patio

Really think we're going to like this screened in feature in the spring and summer. It can even be a catio if Kiara warms up to it. She's already gotten used to the cat door that goes down to the basement.

Upstairs hallway

3 bedrooms up here and 1 full bath. Straight ahead is bedroom #1, to the left is #2, then at the end is #3 with the bathroom between #2 and #3. Past #3 is the stairs to the finished attic and back porch. We thought the floors up here could be refinished like downstairs but turns out they'll have to be replaced entirely, which we'll do as part of the remodel. 

Bedroom #1

Currently our closet, pending the remodel when it will revert back to a bedroom eventually. 

Bedroom #2, upstairs family room and laundry

Currently our master bedroom, office and laundry. This entire space will become our master bedroom, with en-suite bath and closet, plus the office, with the renovation. We actually just put the down payment on the design development with the remodeler today! The laundry is going back to the basement, and I don't care how many people insist 2nd floor laundry is great. Convenient transport sure, but this works best for what we want and currently I can only do laundry at certain hours since it's quite loud when we're in the office. Anyways, I'm so excited to get this started and finally have a nice closet and en-suite bath. 

Upstairs bathroom

A full bath. Love everything about this. There is so much storage that some of the drawers are empty! So many towel hanging spaces that some of them are empty! Plus, it's cute and was remodeled in 2012 in a way that really matches the older style of the house. 

Bedroom #3

The only room we'll likely paint at some point. Currently a guest bedroom and my work out space. The closet is pretty funky in this room.

Attic

This space is finished but unconditioned (insulated, no heating or cooling). Long term we may put a mini-split up here. Right now, we're kind of ignoring this space but we can see it being a great rec room in the future and/or guest bedroom. 

Basement

This shot doesn't capture the beautiful stairs and entrance to the basement with the stone part of the foundation exposed. Love. We plan to turn part of the basement into a theater room. While we can't drywall it off completely due to the limestone in the foundation, Mike has some ideas to make it work. Considered adding a bar space down here, but will likely have something upstairs instead. 

The plans

It's already a big upgrade, but there are a few things that'll make it perfect for us. The remodel for the master suite is just starting the design phase, and given the current situation we'll see when we start construction. We've figured out who we're working with for the fireplace and just need to move forward once we can get that cabinet out. From there, we'll get to finishing the basement. Those are the big things! 

We also have a lot of decor and furniture to figure out. Our old house was half this size and almost all our furniture was either from when I moved out after college and/or very mismatched things we got for free or very cheap. We'll slowly start replacing furniture and buying new pieces (like a bar cart!) as we determine how it all fits together.