First Steps.

We knew when we bought the flying nun house that we would need new furnishings.  But as the months went by, we started thinking that the old girl could use a little face lift first.  We decided the outside was great but just needed a few repairs and maintenance on what we had.  That included fixing some leaky spots on the roof and repairing the sprinkler systems and all the landscape lighting.  

The inside was another story.  After months of evaluation and contacting an interior designer (Sonja Knutsen), we decided to replace floors, paint everything, refinish wood floors, replace old lighting fixtures, rework some of the electrical, gut and remodel the powder room,  move the master bedroom door, and replace some shaky windows and the large sliding doors to the back patios.  Maybe the furnishings will happen next year!

And here we have a few "before" photos.

The living room looking out the front doors to the front courtyard.  

The main living room looking out into the back yard.

The kitchen as seen from the breakfast room.  Appliances have been moved to the back patio so the floors can be demolished.