Our first house was a 1980s bungalow in Williamsburg ON. It was owned by the bank and we bought it without having a showing first. It needed a fair bit of work, but the structure was sound and we knew we could flip the house within a couple years. We bought this house in November 2007, moved into it together in May 2008 after we got married, and spent the next two and a half years renovating it.
The main things we did were to fix up the exterior, renovate the kitchen, replace flooring, move a wall in the basement, lots of drywall, and paint everything. We had our first child while we were living at this house in the summer of 2010. In August 2011 we sold the house and moved a little closer to Ottawa to decrease our commute time.
Here are some pictures of the major renovations we completed. Each link contains more pictures and greater explanations of the work we completed.
Before Pictures
Kitchen Renovation
Basement
After living in a fixer-upper for two and a half years, we moved to a brand new raised bungalow on a two acre lot in Winchester, Ontario. You can check out the house tour of our second home here.