We bought a fixer upper home in Wilson, WY – Let the remodel begin!

My husband Chris and I recently purchased a fixer upper home in Wilson, WY! We used to live off the Village Road when we were first dating and have always wanted to move back there. After the successful remodel of our townhome in Rafter J, located south of Jackson, we jumped at an opportunity to try our hands at much larger project. The older home (built in 1972) is roughly 2,700 square feet and sits on a 0.6 acre corner lot in a great local neighborhood in Wilson. While we know it will be a big project (probably taking a few years) we are excited to get started! Please check back (and scroll down) to follow our progress. 

BEFORE PHOTOS: Here’s a look at the house the day we moved in – lots to do! 

We are going to remove the wall at the top of the stairs separating the kitchen and living room to open up the whole upper floor. We are also going to remove the wall (with the window opening) separating the current living room from the stairs and replace it with a railing. You should be able to walk in the front door of the split level house and look up and see all the way to the back deck! After giving it much thought, we have decided to move the kitchen to where the living room currently is located. While this creates much more work for Chris (moving plumbing and electrical), it gives us space for a larger kitchen with a big island (where we spend most of our time anyways!). We’ll have a small sitting area and dining table in place of the current kitchen. 

An addition was built onto the east end of the house above the garage sometime in the early 80s. The previous owner used it as her art studio. It’s a great room with large windows looking at the mountains to the south and large windows looking over the backyard to the north (with filtered views of the Grand). We are not quite sure how to configure this part of the house. We are contemplating making the art studio the master bedroom and building a larger master bath (with views to the south). Another idea is to enlarge one of the other two smaller bedrooms, also included in the addition above the garage, for the master bedroom and turn the large former art studio into a rec room / play room / TV room. We don’t yet have a clear vision for that end of the house – stay tuned! 

There is one large bedroom at the west end of the house, that used to be two bedrooms. Our tentative plan is to split it back into two rooms – perhaps a guest room and study/TV room. Not sure yet; this project will be down the road after the kitchen and master bath/bedroom remodel. There is a guest bathroom at this end of the house as well, that also needs to be remodeled.

Piper’s favorite part of the house is the HUGE backyard. She has lots of room to run and play. The yard is fully fenced, so it keeps her contained. It’s hard to imagine what we will do with all this space. There is definitely room to build a guest house or shop space down the road. We hope to build a garden and add some additional landscaping next spring. Any ideas out there?