Ahhh, the American Dream.
Work hard, get married, move to the suburbs, buy a home with a white picket fence, have 2.5 children and a dog…
But what if the “dream” doesn’t bring you happiness?
Specifically that bit about the burbs?
My good friend Anna, from Rhoads Construction blog experienced just that.
I first met Anna when she was lugging home some monstrosity that could barely pass as furniture to refurbish in to a gem (I knew we were kindred spirits right away).
As neighbors, we both lived in brand new, lovely homes in a planned development in the suburbs of Tucson.
After a while she became disenchanted with suburb living. Living so close to your neighbors (you could almost touch your neighbor’s house through your window), no privacy, no freedom to even plant a tree with out Neighborhood Association approval, it became too much for her. So she and her husband did something radical. They bought a fixer-upper on 7 acres of land. When she posted her new home I literally thought they had bought a storage unit with an attached airplane hanger. I knew she had good taste but not even I could envision what she was going to do to make that place liveable.
View of the front of the house.
I know right? All this to get out of the suburbs?
Anna isn’t afraid of rolling up her sleeves and getting to work. They painted and replaced the flooring…
Gutted the bathroom and put in all new everything…
They completely transformed the kitchen, living and dining area. In total they spent a jaw dropping $4325 for materials and labor. See breakdown here.
Anna found the cabinets on Craigslist for $500. and painted them white! Talk about the deal of the century!
Here are a few more shots of her son’s nursery.
And last but not least the playroom.
I can hardly believe this is the same place!
Anna says she no longer has to worry about her kids getting hit by cars in the street like she had to in the suburbs and loves the privacy and freedom to do whatever she wants design-wise on the property.
Her next project is an outdoor shower and further down the line they plan on building their dream home on their newly acquired 7 acres and keeping the existing home as a guest house.
I love when people think outside the box and do something non-traditional to make life work better for their situation.
To read more about Anna’s adventures check out her blog Rhoads Construction.
Hey there! I’m Michelle; I’m an Passionate DIY’er and in constant pursuit of how to bring beauty to my house full of men (3 boys + 1 hubby). Stick around and see what I’ve got up my hard-working sleaves!
Wow! Never would have seen that coming, girlfriend rocks Total transformation!! She has a good vision for design
Thanks for sharing. Love this!
Isn’t it an awesome transformation?! Thanks for your comment!
Love it! Such a great space, and I’m so impressed with how inexpensive everything was!
Me too! Thanks Shannon!
WOW! What an amazing set of after pictures. Just scrolling through, I wanted to shout, you go girl! She has an awesome eye for design. I’m impressed!
Yay! I did the same thing when I first saw what she was doing! Thanks for you comment!
Wow that was an airplane hanger or at least a construction site warehouse bldg.! Love the transformation! Yeah NA’s are the pits sometimes, but there are some good ones out there! Good for her and her vision! What an awesome redo!
I lived in Tucson a total of 8 years and am dying to know where exactly this is? I’m guessing Northwest or Southeast Tucson but, I seriously thought it was a hangar on Davis Monthan at first! Amazing transfornation!
They are in Oro Valley. 🙂
What an awesome transformation! Love those ledges for books, I have ones like that in my kids’ rooms and I’m always impressed with how they look!
WOW–amazing transformation! I absolutely adore the kitchen!!!
That is amazing!!!
Oh, Wow! Your friend is phenomenal – what a fabulous transformation! This gives me hope that I can someday have an adorable home on a miniscule budget, and I’m relieved to see that I’m not the only mom who is addicted to children’s books! 🙂
I love it- and her idea 🙂
can’t wait to share my home in costa rica in a few years…. im going off the deep end too!
Love it! We are house-hunting right now and completely disillusioned by the prices of houses that are 5 ft from the neighbors with little-to-no yard and have restrictions on everything from the types of plants you can have to the color you paint your house. Boo. I am jealous!
I had the suburb house…after 5 minutes…hated it! We bought land out in the country and built us a nice little home, love it!! I literally feel anxiety when I got through the new housing developments.