We purchased a very cool (to us) house. It was built in 1979 as a "modern" structure. It is a stacked living space on a hill. You enter into the living area, and the bedrooms and master bath are on the lower level.

We fell in love with the location, 15 acres overlooking a valley of farms, and the bones of the house.

The house itself had some issues. All the lighting is controlled via low voltage switches, every single surface was wood. Every wall, ceiling and floor. Except where the floor was brick. Of course the Kitchen and bath were pretty horrible, with the bath having a jacuzzi the size of a small swimming pool, in a lovely poop brown. All the walls were paneling on stud, but at least there was insulation behind the paneling.

We are doing a close to gut reno. Kitchen and bath are being completely demo'd and updated. We are removing some walls to open the floorplan up, expanding the kitchen from 11x11 to 11x15 and doing a showpiece bathroom.

The walls are being redone with an R5 hard foam and then sheetrock.

The kitchen walls got new insulation, plywood, R5 hard foam and sheetrock.

All the low voltage wiring is being replace with high voltage, so we can go full automation in the future.

We are about 2 weeks into the project and hope to be done within the next 3-4. We have the distinct advantage of having a very close friend who is a GC, and he is anal retentive, detail oriented, efficient and inexpensive.