House Tour - Migonis Home

I was in love with this house the second we drove by, it was in the perfect little neighborhood for raising a family and it seemed like a feasible project. In fact, nearly every day after we found the house I drove by it on my way home… I was smitten, large bushes and peeling paint did nothing to deter me.

But we couldn’t afford it (don’t you hate it when that happens?). My mom told me about friends who had written a note to the seller and ended up getting a great deal on their home. So I wrote one to give to the seller with the offer (I took out her name in certain places):

We have been looking at your house on the real estate website nearly every day since it was put on the market. We couldn’t afford your asking price so we never scheduled a showing… although we haven’t been able get your house out of our mind. The reason we came to look at the house, and have proceeded to make an offer is because it is exactly the type of house and neighborhood in which we want to raise a family. We got married about four months ago and work in the community. AJ is a seventh grade history teacher and cross-country coach at Manchester-Essex Middle School and Jen works at Gordon College as the event planner for the Development and Alumni office. We would like to start a family within the next year and a half and see ourselves staying in this house and community for a long time.

We sincerely hope we didn’t offend you with this offer, and if we did we are so sorry, we just can’t afford more than the current offer. Thank you for considering and we wish you well no matter what you decide.

AJ and Jen Migonis

Our offer was accepted the next day with the only contingency being that she wouldn’t lower the price if things were found in the home inspection. This is what we had prayed would happen…we saw it as a miracle because we offered $45k less than the asking price!Here is what the outside of the house looks like now after installing replacement windows and one new construction in the center of the house with Coastal Windows & Exteriors, putting on a front porch and giving our door a makeover.

The photo above was taken from my Summer Home Tour from 2015.

A Tour

We added pea gravel over our existing very beat up driveway pavement for a more coastal and charming feel and then dug up some awful grass in the backyard to create a patio.

AJ is the gardener in the family and planted all these gorgeous flowers here… my job is to weed, mow the lawn and trim the bushes. 🙂

Here is the view from our driveway leading into our back patio:

We scheduled our House Warming Party three weeks after we moved in to make ourselves get a few projects done quickly. Here are some before and in-progress photos:

BACK ENTRYWAY

This was taken last spring. I don’t always have a bunny wreath up. 🙂

We made a coat rack out of a piece of driftwood AJ and I found during a date on Plum Island and I turned some spring photos into watercolors to hang above it.

BATHROOM BEFORE

BATHROOM IN PROGRESS

We wanted a simple and classic bathroom so we chose this pedestal sink from Home Depot.

BATHROOM SOURCE LIST:

KITCHEN BEFORE

KITCHEN IN PROGRESS

The kitchen is nearly complete. We need to finish up some molding, make the island feel more substantial, add curtains and a chandelier (and probably replace the pendent lights) but we have made great progress in here…

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This is the view looking into the front entryway. When opened up the wall where the stairway is to make the downstairs feel more airy.

KITCHEN SOURCE LIST

Cabinets: Home Depot, Thomasville line | Countertops: Bianca Cararra but we picked it out through Doyans Appliance in Gloucester. I went to a marble / granite warehouse in Woburn to pick it out.

LIVING ROOM BEFORE

while previous owner lived here

LIVING ROOM IN PROGRESS

One of the biggest and most useful changes to the room we made, shortly after moving in was to put a door at the far end of the room, sort of where you see the framed painting on the paneling toward the middle of the photo above. It made the entire downstairs flow so much better. Just recently (April 2015) we replaced all the drywall in the room. We added a chair rail to the almost mid-point and a new baseboard to the bottom. It’s amazing what a new color scheme and our own furniture have done to make the space feel more beachy. In June 2014 we replaced three of the windows in this room with Coastal Windows & Exteriors which made the room feel a lot more polished (and warmer this winter! :)).

This photo shows my frugal-ness to the max. 🙂 The chair was one our neighbor was giving away, it’s the most comfortable thing ever. (I’m sitting in it now as I type. :)) The white console was part of a hutch I got for $20 at my favorite thrift store. I painted it and popped some new pulls on it. The branches are some I pruned off our crazy looking lilac because I love giant statement making arrangements when you need to give some definition and height to a room.

The coffee table was also a side of the road find I made over (HERE) and the console was a giant 1970s piece that I redid (and then redid again because the middle doors felt too busy from it’s first makeover that I featured HERE).

This sea fan art is one of my simplest projects and one of my favorite knock-offs. Do you Neiman Marcus was trying to sell a similar set for about $700?

AJ and I had a little staycation while my parents watched Drew and Elle during April break 2015 and we picked up this great little lamp at a vintage store while out running in Rocky Neck, Gloucester.

LR 1

DREW’S ROOM BEFORE

With the 1800s wallpaper:

DREW’S ROOM: IN PROGRESS

Our next project is to redrywall and paint Drew’s room; we just painted over the wallpaper and flooring you see above. We are hoping to make some real progress in here this summer.

NURSERY BEFORE

The “before” was taken from the listing website before we purchased the house.

ELLE’S NURSERY: IN PROGRESS

We’ve currently switched some things around in here… the dresser is now in Drew’s room and the green chair is now in the basement to give Elle more space. More photos at the beginning of May coming.

The room is lavender, white and gray… with a big pop of color from the pillow you see below. Above the crib I framed portions of my favorite children’s story, Miss Rumphius. I have plans to reupholster the chair at some point… once I figure out the right color.

MASTER BEDROOM BEFORE

Picture a linoleum floor in yellow. Yellow walls. Yellow trim. And then picture all of it incredibly dirty. This photo sort of does it justice.

MASTER BEDROOM IN PROGRESS

We still need to finish boxing in the beams on the ceiling, add built-ins to the closet and design nightstands but the room now is a far cry from what it used to be thanks to completely new drywall, paint, decor, windows and hardwood flooring… not to mention utilizing the under the eves area and making them into two closets that are incredibly useful now!

Thanks for joining me on a tour of our home! I’m so glad you have stopped by!

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