We were very lucky when we bought our 1911 Craftsman home in Colorado Springs. The house was a foreclosure so it had some issues. But the people who owned it before us bought it when it really needed a lot of work. They did all the boring, expensive stuff like getting a new roof, furnace, some electrical, refinished the floors, and got the exterior painted. Then I guess both of them lost their jobs, the housing market crashed and they went into foreclosure, leaving us to buy a cheap house that needed pretty much only cosmetic work. We have a lot of mixed feelings about the whole situation, but right here on this post we’re just going to focus on the things we did. I had been following the house for quite awhile, seeing the price keep going down. I knew I’d want to buy it so I didn’t even want to look at it until it was within our price range. Once we did go inside, we were only in there for 5 minutes before we decided to make an offer.

I pretty much knew this was our house when I walked in the front door.

The house had been used as a hair salon for 40 years! According to our neighbor, the people who owned the house before us discovered this intact fireplace and built in bookcases behind a bank of mirrors.

All this room needed was the usual scraping, sanding, patching, priming, and painting. We used Benjamin Moore Ultra White on the walls and Benjamin Moore Cotton Balls on the trim.

These doors had all the original wavy glass.

The living room is huge, just slightly smaller than our entire Chicago apartment.

Mike's favorite Morris chair fit in perfectly with the Craftsman style.

The floors didn’t need anything except a good scrubbing, and then we were done.