Hi Friends!

Thank you for stopping by! I’m an interior designer in upstate NY, but our team also does amazing transformations from kitchen cabinet panting to the details in this flip. Like you’ll see in this post, we do much more than just painting. We bought this old trolley station stop at the end of 2022, filled it, and sold it at the end of 2023. We’ve shown most of the interior makeovers on the blog already for this trolley house flip, but I wanted to stop and show you the exterior work as well.

If you have trouble viewing the photos on this post, click here.

Here’s the exterior of the trolley house before any work was done:

The whole front section of the house (the section without the porch) needed to be ripped off and replaced because the supports were completely rotten, and the ceiling height wasn’t even close to code. We fell through the floor walking through it at closing, and a 6 foot door wouldn’t even fit in the ceiling height of the front room. We ripped it off completely, had a frost barrier concrete wall installed for a foundation support, and then had the structure replaced. One last minute decisions that was a complete game changer for this house was the fact that we decided to peek the roof on the front to match the roof line of the rest of the house. It was originally flat. You can see that better here:

The original footprint staid the same, but the height on the front made it feels so much bigger!

The quote for redoing the porch came in so much higher than we anticipated so we were debating on removing both side portions of the porch to make it one straight porch along the back. We went back and forth on this decision quite a bit, but I really didn’t want to lose the original porch size because that’s so much of the house’s history. People would wait on this porch to catch a ride on the electric trolley car.

So we decided to do the porch work ourselves to keep it in budget and save it! John and our team did such a phenomenal job on this! We couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. Here’s what it looked like mid demo!

We also found out that this property needed a brand new septic… to the tune of almost 20k! Ouch! So while they were there doing the septic, we asked them to help us pull out the old shrubs and level the land. It made the yard so much nicer (not that you can tell in this photo).

We wanted to keep some of the windows, but they didn’t meet new code so we installed all new windows, but we were able to find the original door that went to the back porch and reinstalled it! So much better than the door that was on the porch area before!

Are you ready for the afters?

How about some side by side photos for comparison?

Thank you all for following along! If you’d like to get this blog in your email once a week, please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture. 

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please like FunCycled on  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest if you don’t already. Keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We share fun tutorials, great before and after, and new design inspirations. 

We offer interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and custom built tables, barn doors, and repurposed furniture. Thank you, again, for working with us and for taking the time to spread the word about what we do. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

Happy New Year’s Friends!

I really wanted to share all the highlights of the year with you on today’s blog post, but I simply didn’t make the time to get that done last week. After the last couple of months, pushing to finish up our first ever house flip while also keeping the normal work flow up, we are the more exhausted than we’ve ever been! We all needed a week to rest, do house project that have been neglected (who needs to clean out their summer clothes anyway), and pray over/plan out the next year. We are so thankful for the rest, and hope to share some of the highlights of 2023 in the weeks to come!

We closed on the trolley house the week before Christmas, and we are so excited for the new home owner to spend the holidays in this little slice of history that we poured so much of ourselves into!

For this week’s makeover, I thought it would be fun to share the living room makeover!

If you have trouble viewing the photos in this post, click here.

Here’s the living room when we started:

See those tiny steps? Those aren’t up to new building code so we had to work with the building department to let us keep them. When I came to look at the house, those little steps were what my eyes were drawn to on the inside. I loved them! The other thing that wasn’t to new code was the windows. They came too close to the floor so we did have to replace them all. I was sad about that because they were in good shape and beautiful, but the new windows were much more energy efficient so it was an ok trade off!

We were also able to keep the flooring. We refinished it, and it was painted over so that was no easy task. See those bowling pins and that hutch base? We used both to decorate in the house. The hutch is on the main page of our website right now!

I’ll have product lists for what you can order for yourself in this space after the photos below so be sure to scroll down for that!

Ready for the after photos?

Let’s do a side by side comparison as well!

Did something grab your eye that you’d like for your home? Good news! Here are the product links for you to order some of it yourself:

Couch
Throw Pillows
Dining Room Table and Chairs
Coffee Table
Accent Chair
Living Room Chandelier
Dining Room Chandlier
Curtains
Mirror
Rug
Wallpaper

Don’t you just love this room?!? It’s filled with patterns, history, and contrast! 

Would you like help designing a room in your home? Check out our Interior Design Services page or book your consult today! 

Thank you all for following along! If you’d like to get this blog in your email once a week, please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture. 

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please like FunCycled on  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest if you don’t already. Keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We share fun tutorials, great before and after, and new design inspirations. 

We offer interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and custom built tables, barn doors, and repurposed furniture. Thank you, again, for working with us and for taking the time to spread the word about what we do. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

Hi Friends!

How was your week? We had a wonderful week playing catch up on normal life, and also going away for the long weekend to Jean Stoffer’s Open House! It was such a fun experience! I loved seeing her home in real life, and getting to talk with her, her designers, family, and friends!

Here are a couple highlights from the trip:

Sarah Trop and Jean Stoffer

The Madison

John and Sarah Trop at the Madison

For this week’s makeover, I’m thrilled to share one of my favorite room makeovers in our Historic Trolley House Flip. The bathroom was a major project because it needed almost everything replaced. We replaced the subfloor, window, installed all new plumbing and electric, and then all of the finishes of course.

One big mistake was the style shower I chose and the placement. Because I went with a corner unit in this tight space, the only slider door that would work on this shower cost almost $2,000! It’s a thing of beautiful, but not in the budget we had in mind.

Here’s the bathroom before:

Ready for the after photos?

We repurposed this vanity by repainting it, and adding new hardware!

Here’s what the vanity looked like before:

We painted it with Benjamin Moore Black and added a protective clear coat for durability in the bathroom.

Here’s the product list for what we used in the bathroom:
Shower tile
Shower kit
Floor tile
Vanity – repurposed
Shiplap – repurposed from an old 1920’s cabin
Mirrors and Sconces – purchased wholesale at High Point Market Show
Board and Batten ceiling – salvaged from home before demo and repurposed on ceiling
Wallpaper
Shower Fixture
Towel and Toilet Paper Holder
Wall color: Benjamin Moore Simply White

Isn’t it just the sweetest space? Filled with patterns, history, and contrast!

Would you like help designing your bathroom? Check out our Interior Design Services page or book your consult today! 

Thank you all for following along! If you’d like to get this blog in your email once a week, please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture. 

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please like FunCycled on  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest if you don’t already. Keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We share fun tutorials, great before and after, and new design inspirations. 

We offer interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and custom built tables, barn doors, and repurposed furniture. Thank you, again, for working with us and for taking the time to spread the word about what we do. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

Hi Friends!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend! I’m giddy, excited to share with you all about the kitchen makeover in our Trolley House Flip. It might just knock your socks off! As you may know by now, we purchased an old trolley stop in 2022, and completely remodeled it before putting it on the market at the end of October.

If you have trouble viewing the photos on this post, click here.

Here’s what the kitchen part of the trolley house looked like the day we bought it:

This was the most damaged section of the house! John actually fell through the floor after we closed on it. We ended up ripping this whole section off, adding a foundation and all new framing. My favorite part about this design is that we also peaked the ceiling to match the roof line of the rest of the house. The roof before wasn’t even 6′ tall on the door side.

Check out this ceiling!!! We installed shiplap on the ceiling and a large beam to add visual interest.

Next, we worked on the flooring. I knew I wanted rectangular tile that wouldn’t show dirt easily since it’s the main access area to the house. I really wanted to do a herringbone pattern with the tile which is not a great return on investment since a 1-2 day project turned into over a 4 day project. I was so happy with how it came out though!

I went back and forth about the color of the cabinets. I know white sells quickly, but I really wanted to do something with a custom feel. So we asked our FunCycled fan’s on social media and they voted! It was almost a 50/50 vote so I went with my gut and painted them green.

We repurposed most of the kitchen cabinets by buying them on a local online marketplace, then we bought a few extra to make the whole configuration match.

John reminded me that we had strips of copper from a project that we could use in this space if I wanted. I LOVED that idea because I love how copper and dark green go together! We custom built the hood vent; adding the copper strip at the bottom. We also added all copper hardware. This is a good example of how mixed metals work together well in one space. We have gold, black, and copper, and it looks so high end.

The cabinets are painted a Behr color Black Evergreen MQ6-44. I love how in some lighting it looks black, other lighting it’s almost evergreen, and then in others it’s almost teal. This picture is a good example of the way lighting affects this color.

On the right side of the front are, we create a small eat in nook and laundry room!

We purchased a huge, old door for the Historic Albany Foundation, and it completely makes this space.

We also found a hutch in the house when we bought it. We completely redid it and added it to the laundry room. One of my favorite parts about the trolley house when we came to look at it was the stairs. They were so tiny and adorable:

But would you look at them now!!

We also installed beautiful subway tile with dark gray grout, picked Quartz counters, and a black faucet.

I couldn’t love it all more!!

Would you like help designing your kitchen? Check out our Interior Design Services page or book your consult today!

Thank you all for following along! If you’d like to get this blog in your email once a week, please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture. 

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please like FunCycled on  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest if you don’t already. Keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We share fun tutorials, great before and after, and new design inspirations. 

We offer interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and custom built tables, barn doors, and repurposed furniture. Thank you, again, for working with us and for taking the time to spread the word about what we do. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

Hi Friends!!

The historic trolley stop on the Troy and New England Railway that we purchased last year is totally redone and on the market! The trolley ran from Albia in Troy to Averill Park from 1895-1925 to help encourage people to move to Averill Park while still being able to access the modern amenities, shops, and colleges in Troy. When we purchased it, we were told we should just burn it because it was in such disrepair, but we simply wouldn’t. We wanted to bring this piece of Wynantskill’s history back to life!

The house is 957 square feet, but the back porch is 750 square feet! That’s because it needed to be large for people to wait on that porch for trolley. I LOVE the porch on this house! It’s an absolute show stopper. It has one bedroom, a loft/office space, completely remodeled kitchen, laundry room, dining room, living room, and bathroom. We had a brand new septic installed and connected it to town water. All new electrical, plumbing, new roof, and windows. Have a house that feels brand new, but also has historic charm!! It’s a hard combination to find on the market!

In the coming week’s I’ll be going into more details about the flip! For this week’s post I’m sharing the overall before and after photos, and I also wanted to let you know it’s on the market!!! You can view the Zillow listing here. Please let Contact Us to set up a showing if you’re in the market to purchase this home. Bank Pre-approval letter requested to book a showing.

It’s full of rich history, adorable character, on a dead end street, and with the most up to date designs! I loved designing this home! If you would like help with interior design in your home, please reach out!

Ready for some pretty amazing before and after photos?

Please share this post with anyone you think might be looking for something similar!

Thank you all for following along! If you’d like to get this blog in your email once a week, please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture. 

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please like FunCycled on  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest if you don’t already. Keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We share fun tutorials, great before and after, and new design inspirations. 

We offer interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and custom built tables, barn doors, and repurposed furniture. Thank you, again, for working with us and for taking the time to spread the word about what we do. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)