First Step: Buy the House and see that you must Renovate EVERY square inch

THE HOUSE
We are, by no means, wealthy. But we've tackled renovation before, so we know a little bit about what to expect. This is a picture of the home when we first bought it in April, 2009. Not bad, from a distance.
But it needs a lot of work. A LOT OF WORK.

Our previously owned home was built in the 1950's, so we renovated most of that house. However, we were working with a very minimal budget. We are now doing a little better financially, but our intent is to renovate on a small budget and do it with as many sustainable materials as we can, while making as many energy efficient changes as possible.

But even amidst the hard economic times that the US is dealing with right now, buying a home in Oklahoma is not an extremely difficult thing to do. In our experience, we had to strategically hit many difficult benchmarks to get what we wanted. But in the end we landed a home in the neighborhood of our choice and we are very happy with it.

Now to the point

The house was built in 1973 and it looks like it hasn't changed since. Yellow laminate throughout the kitchen. Pea Green/Yellow Shower. Linoleum floors. Wood paneling. Archaic ceramic tile. Leaking shower pans. Termites... You name it, we have it. We need to repair and renovate every square inch of this home.

But to give you an idea of what we're dealing with, I'll post as many pics as I can to show you how the home looked when we first purchased. It's not a pretty site, but it's no disaster area either.

Kitchen
It's probably the most important area of the house if you're a family that loves to cook like we do. It has problems. We found dilapidated particle board for shelves and a general "Yellow" feeling that we get from the fact that everything is......um.....Yellow. It looks like a faded photograph.

Living Room

This thing is covered in wood paneling.
That will be a tough job.
I've read that getting the panel off with a usable dry-wall is near impossible.

Entry Hall
Once again, more wood paneling.
Not to mention the fact that there is ceramic that must be removed. It's likely adhered directly to the concrete slab, which could take 2 days to remove.

Hall Bath

I think the picture speaks for itself.
What you can't see: The toilet and Bath/Shower are Pea Green/Yellow.

Master Bath
To emphasize what I meant about the hallway
bathroom, the Master Bathroom is equally as bad. Blue toilet? Yowza! That's hardcore style. Yeah. Style that has to go! Do I need to mention the Shell sink?

Master Bedroom

Granted, it doesn't look that bad in this picture, but I can assure you that it is righteously DRAB. It smells stale and it looks the same. There are 2 other bedrooms with the same symptoms.

As of this posting, we've already begun renovating this house. I will continue to post pics and a thorough explanation of the prcess and progress. Like I mentioned before, we are redoing EVERYTHING and we are trying to do it on a modest budget.
If you are trying to renovate with very little money, and attempting to be as Green as possible, pay attention to this blog and we'll show you what it will cost and what problems you might encounter. Hopefully it can help you make efficient decisions on your journey to "correct" your own home.