Before & After: This Kitchen’s Remodel Is Simple, Chic, and So Good

Betsy and Manny live in this older Savannah house with their 2-year-old twins, Jordi and Axel, and their pup, Riley. They bought it a year and a half ago, but when they purchased it, it had been a rental house for some number of years, with a previous owner who lived out of state.

“The roof was shot and there were buckets in the living room to catch the rain,” describes Betsy in her house tour. “Plaster walls were damaged. Squirrels were nesting in the eaves. We didn’t have a working fridge.”

“The previous owners live out-of-state and hadn’t laid eyes on the house in years. They had no idea what state it was in—or if they knew, they didn’t care. We really believed it could be a family home again, though,” Betsy writes. The couple didn’t have a ton of money to complete the renovation, so they tackled many of the projects themselves.

“To stay on budget, we refinished hardwood floors, painted, and assembled and hung new chandeliers,” writes Betsy. “We also tiled the bathrooms ourselves, and Manny installed the butcher-block counters in the kitchen with my stepdad.”

“It hasn’t been an easy road; our twins weren’t even a year old when we moved in. But we’re happy that our house is starting to get back some of its former glory.”

Thanks, Betsy and Manny! See all of their home’s finished renovation in their house tour.

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