This has been a very long time coming, and we couldn’t be more excited: our beach house finally has walls again. When we first saw the house the original plaster was crumbling and riddled with mold and termite damage, so it took more than eight months to rebuild this little place from the studs up. That process included installing new electrical and plumbing, updating the HVAC, and even tearing off and reconstructing one side of the house. It may seem like a small milestone to some, but to us the drywall stage feels enormous—our home is starting to look and feel like a real house again.
To refresh your memory, here are a few before photos. You can see the full “before” condition of the house and the dramatic demo stage in the earlier posts, but the image below captures how torn apart the place once was. Those early photos remind us why this renovation has been necessary—and why every step forward feels so rewarding.
We still don’t have a fully working water and sewer connection yet. Resolving that has been a major ordeal involving city officials, metal detectors, and a lot of excavation in the front yard. We did find an old hookup and are working to get it running again, but it has been an unexpected and frustrating detour. Despite the bumps, we love this little old house and today we’re celebrating the glorious return of walls.
I shot a video tour last week to show the new drywall and explain how the updated layout will function. The tour outlines what’s going where, which rooms we’re most excited about finishing, and how the floorplan will work for both our family and future renters. If you missed it, you may need to click through from a feed reader to view the video.
Looking back at the before-and-after images highlights how far we’ve come. The back of the first floor—once full of crumbling plaster, missing flooring, and severe termite and mold damage—now has fresh drywall and primer, and a slightly tweaked layout. For example, what used to be a window into an enclosed porch is now a door leading to a new mudroom. The video tour gives a clearer sense of the new flow between rooms.
We were lucky to keep the original back stairs—one of the few houses on our block that preserved them. Since there are four almost-identical houses in a row, two neighbors told us their back stairs were removed before they bought their homes. Our preserved staircase adds a lot of original charm and character to this 100-year-old house, even though having two staircases in a small home made the floor planning more challenging. They’re one of our favorite original details that we couldn’t bear to lose.
Another view that has changed dramatically is the foyer seen from the front door. New walls and primer have refreshed the space and helped the stained-glass windows on the stairway become focal points again. Those windows are currently protected with plastic during construction, but we’ve already picked our paint colors: a soft, light neutral for walls with crisp white trim to let the windows and the restored newel post and railings be the stars of the room. Imagine this space with refinished heart pine floors, polished moldings, and a pretty light fixture overhead—it’s getting there.
One of the most satisfying transformations is a room that used to be an enclosed side porch. That side of the house had been rotted and had sunk several inches due to a lack of foundation. After rebuilding the structure and leveling the space, it’s now shaping up to be a small but mighty mudroom—our main post-beach entrance. We’ll add hooks, baskets, and a washer and dryer for towels, plus easy access to a full bathroom and the outdoor shower. The bright orange you see now is just waterproof underlayment for tiling, not a final color choice.
Upstairs we addressed one of the most precarious areas in the house. That room sat on the sinking side and at one point the contractor hurried us out because the floor sagged under our weight. Thankfully the floor structure is now rebuilt and stable, so we no longer worry about supporting a heavy cast-iron tub. We plan to refinish and reinstall the tub opposite a shower so this larger bathroom will have both options for bathing—an important comfort upgrade for a beach house rental and family use.
We’re thrilled, grateful, and relieved to have reached this stage. Over the next few weeks we’ll focus on paint, continued tiling, installing original doors and trim we saved, hanging light fixtures and fans, fitting kitchen cabinets, installing bathroom fixtures, refinishing floors, and bringing in appliances. There are countless small decisions and finishing touches ahead, but the drywall stage makes it feel real—and very close to being livable.
Then comes my favorite part: furnishing the house, styling it so it feels like a cozy beach retreat, and finally taking a long nap—ideally on the sand just steps away.