Morganton House Part 1

Michael and I bought a house in Morganton, NC in November 2015. 


This is what we bought.The house is a one-story ranch located below grade.

There is a 1 and ½ car garage to the left. We love the cedar shake roof but it needs repair. There is a copula on top of the garage.

There is a cool rod iron fence all around the driveway and around the house.

The drive way is supported by a retaining wall. The retaining wall was built around a large tree, which we had to cut down.

The retaining wall holding up the drive way creates a slate courtyard by the front door and along the front of the house.

Here is the front door. It is not centered on the outside wall.

Entering into the house you notice a low  8 foot ceiling. There are built-in bookshelves on the facing wall. You are looking into the living room. Notice the lovely orange shag carpet and the support beam in the middle of the living room.

Looking hard left from the foyer, you look into the dinning room and beyond the bi fold doors,  into the kitchen.

Here is the view standing in the kitchen and looking through the den towards the front door.

The kitchen has built-ins
                               

The kitchen has an island and the kitchen sink is located under the kitchen window at the back of this photo.

Here is the view out the kitchen window.There is a brick/slate patio. There was a large holly tree, which we cut down. You can see the stump.

This kitchen has double ovens that still work.

There is a laundry room off the kitchen.

The entrance from the garage is here and a small servants bathroom is here as well as a closet.

This closet had lots of water damage. This whole room is chestnut wood. It was before there was wormy chestnut . 

Back in the kitchen, there is a single door that goes out onto a brick patio and out to a pool.

The kitchen opens up into the living room. The living room has windows across the left side and the back. There is a support beam across the ceiling. The beam was left when an addition was added. There is interesting wood paneling across the ceiling of the foyer and living room.

Walking out the living room door gives this view.

When you look to the right you see the side yard and the back of the house.

Looking out the left side windows of the living room you can see the pool. 

                               

Standing in the living room, looking to right you can see the fire place. You can again see the low support beam.

 

Looking to the right of the foyer you can look down the hall toward the bedrooms. The orange shag carpet covers the foyer, dining room, living room and hall.

There were 3 bedrooms. After the addition, there were 2 bedrooms and a bath, and a master bedroom with its own bathroom.  One of the bedrooms became a walk through to the new master bedroom.

The first bedroom on the left is the largest. It has a nice big window that looks out into back yard toward the mountains.

This is the second bedroom on the left.  This was the original master bedroom with its built-ins, private bathroom and master closet.
                                  

Here is the shared  guest bathroom on the right side of the hall.

A new master bedroom was added. There is a bedroom on the right. This is it but it currently is used as the walk through to the new master bedroom.

This is walking through the third bedroom into the  new added master bedroom. 

This is the very large master bedroom.

It looks out into the back yard. 
                               
If you walk out these doors and turn right you can see the end of the house and the side yard.
                               

If you leave the bedrooms and walk back to the front door and out side, you can walk around the garage to access the pool. There is a green house on the right, located on the back of the garage.

                              

This is the side yard above the pool and behind the garage.

The first order of business was to cut down some trees. We had 2 trees fall down within 2 months of buying the house. We cut down the large Holly to make room for the covered porch.

                               

We hired an architect to help us with a remodel. It took about 2-3 months to come up with a working plan. We put it out for bid, but the bids came in way too high.

April 2016, it was decided that we would have the walls, electrical, pipes and plumbing removed so that maybe the bids would come in lower.

Guest bath wall removal.

Wall between master bed room and bathroom.

Removing laundry room walls

                               

Looking from new master bedroom toward bedroom 2 and 3. You can see where a window was covered up when the new master was added.

There was no insulation in exterior walls.

Removing kitchen walls. 

Opening the space from foyer into kitchen.

Now they pulled up the orange carpet. 

This photo was taken while standing in kitchen and looking toward the living room.

The hall closet in the foyer is being removed.

This is in the living room, workers are trying to expose the beam.

Now we are ready to put it out for bid again. There should be no unknowns now!

Please see Part 2