You can't find a rental this good!

After finally removing my inherited nightmare tenants in October, we began the long process of completely overhauling this apartment in an old home built in 1920. The house was originally built as a single-family house, and made into a duplex sometime in the 70s or 80s, as far as I can tell. This is the bottom floor apartment. One thing that is great about the bottom floor apartment, versus the top floor, is that much of the old original trim and baseboards were still present. I try to never throw away historical architectural elements, and so instead, restored them and made this apartment into a completely updated, but still "historical" dwelling.

First things first, we hired a giant dumpster and tore everything out. The first layer on the walls was a sticky amber glaze from the constant cigarette smoke and kerosene heaters being used by the prior tenants. The next layer is badly textured drywall compound, then wood paneling, interesting old wallpaper, then crumbling plaster. The ceiling was a hanging drop-down style with fluorescent lights, also brown, and with water stains from upstairs leaking plumbing.  The floors: old carpet, not matched, patched together, covered in dirt, stains, and dog urine, then with carpet padding underneath. I wish I could describe to you the smell, because the picture is not complete without it. You could not breath in this place. During the first several weeks of working there, we got throat infections, coughs, and all kinds of respiratory trouble.

So we started over. We hired a giant dumpster, tore all the carpet, walls, windows, ceilings, doors, everything out. The wood floors were saved. The large beveled-glass french doors were saved. All of the original trim work and baseboards were removed, stripped, sanded, and repainted.

The 5-panel doors are the style of the period, but bought new, special order, from Lowe's.

We decided to do tile work on the bathroom and kitchen floors, the bath/shower surround, and the kitchen backsplash. I am thrilled with the results.

The old wood floors in the bedrooms and living room were sanded down and refinished in a dark stain that accentuates their character but looks sleek and clean.

All of the old vent registers were cleaned and painted.

I don't quite know where to start, so I'll start by going room by room and then maybe talking about some smaller specific projects.

Let's start with the kitchen.

We ended up changing the layout around a little bit. Where the old stove was, we opened up the wall for a doorway (which was already framed in behind some terrible paneling!) to the bathroom, so that it could be accessed through a common area, rather than only through the back bedroom. We moved the fridge to a more accessible spot, deepened that area, and turned it into a pantry. On the wall that was empty, we put the stove, and some countertop/bar seating.  Check it out:

I don't know if you can tell, but the cabinets are the same! I repaired them and built all new supports and frame on the bottom, cleaned them, sanded them, painted them, and put all new hardware. Then, with the brand new countertops and subway-tile backsplash, plus new sink and faucet, they almost look really good!

The back door was a find at the Habitat ReStore for $23 with amazing old intricate hardware. I refinished it and installed a full-light storm door for security and weatherproofing.

Here's the door we found in the wall, right where we wanted it! (to the bathroom)

More coming...