Living Room Before & After

I've officially given up on my quest to make all of the post titles be song names. Anyway, some more before & afters, this time the living room. Unfortunately we only took 1 before picture from 1 angle, but I think you'll get the idea:



And a few afters:






Its amazing how much the new paint adds to all of the spaces, especially the white that makes it all pop out. We just added some white wood blinds to the window, and have somemore furniture to bring in and arrange to our liking. But that's another room that's done and ready to be lived in. Tomorrow we'll continue working the paint in the few rooms we have left, and get our NEW Washer and Dryer delivered, as well as our NEW Grill. Can't wait, and I'm sure they'll be pictures to come.

After The Rain

I guess I never realized just how difficult it would be to blog when we're devoting every moment to the house. If we aren't at work, we're at the house, or exhausted and in bed. But its all worth it when you see the progress we've made. After a week full of rainy days, hard work, and more help from the family (thanks Mom, Dad, and Brandon!) we finally have a few true Before & Afters to show. There will be more pictures once we get moved in and have all of our furniture in place, but enjoy for now the before and after of the Dining Room.




Clean floors, new paint on the walls and trim, new outlet covers and air duct covers, and finished off with a new and updated Chandelier. We absolutely LOVE it. It really makes all of the hard work worth it to see the pictures next to each other.

Paint It Black

Among other colors. Its been almost a full week since my "before" post, and we now have 3 rooms officially FINISHED. No after pictures quite yet, as I have some setup left to do. We've been working all week, getting tons done, and getting more help from our great families. Its nice to have everyone willing to chip in and help us to really make this house into the home that we want to have. Last weekend when we first took possession of the house, everyone chipped in and helped. My mom Cindi, my sister Katina, my brother-in-law Jody, my niece and nephew Kaja & Kyson, Jamie's parents Jim & Karol, Jamie's brother Brandon, and even his new girlfriend Emily. We had a few good pictures captured from the weekend work:



My mom putting in some work up top in the Family Room.



Jody getting his roll on.



Kaja painting, yet staying so photogenic.



Kyson painting his name....



And then getting some work done...



And then being.........Kyson.

Thanks to all of our family members that helped us get a huge head start in the first week.

Good Riddance

Warning: This post, and many to follow, will be big. Dial-up Beware. And shame on you anyway.

So today is Monday, and I haven't got a chance to blog since Friday when we signed our documents, because we've been busting ass every day since then. Thank god for our families, because we wouldn't even be 1/4 as far along as we are if it wasn't for them, and especially my Mom Cindi who took a break from her busy work life to help us all weekend, even while we were at work on Saturday and Sunday night. Anyway, we'll get to that. Right now, lets take a look at, and say bye-bye to, the OLD house. This will be the one and only time you get to see alot of these, but it'll be fun to do before and afters. So take a tour of the house we bought, and we'll journey together as we transform this bad boy into our home.



I realize we forgot to get a picture of the outside, but its filthy anyway, so we'll get to that. You walk in and see our living room. Not a very good picture, but a quick shot there of the fireplace. You then move through and see the Dining Room, pictured on the bottom.



Next we turn back around through the living room, into the Hallway of Doom. Its a little place, probably a total of 20 square feet, with 5 doorways, and 2 closets. Its awesomely ridiculous. We look into the Spare Bedroom, the only room we aren't painting, and because of that, it quickly became the room for all of our stuff.


From there we peer into what I'm calling the Den. Its gonna have a desk in it, so Den works for now. Door #4 in the Hallway of Doom leads us to the bathroom, pictured here on the bottom. It'll be getting some makeover love as well, although we're undecided exactly what as of now.



Finally we leave the crazy Hallway, and enter the "Long Hallway". We've found alot of confusion distinguishing between the two hallways, so we've got to think of something here. Anyway, you pass through this and check out the kitchen. Do you like Fuscia? Hope not, cause that stuff is history.



As you leave the long hallway, you had into the Family Room. I provided two pictures here. Has a fireplace, no floors (currently), and a sliding glass door that leads to the Patio and big backyard, which are two other things I forgot to take a picture of.



Not a very good picture here of either the master bedroom, and the master bathroom. Its okay, because both will be getting some serious change to them. I also should've snapped a pic of the walk in closet, but forgot in an episode of heat stroke after taking on the next project:



It sort of breaks the tour, as this room is off of the living room, back at the beginning, but I figured I would save the worst for last. The Utility room. It had linoleum tile that I'm guessing was 30 years old, and a decent sized patch in the middle was missing/broken/coming up. I decided it'd be a brilliant idea to scrape the 17 x 10 room and get rid of the tile. I was dying about halfway through AND had to go to the work for the night. Much to my surprise and dismay, I returned from work at Midnight to find the rest of the room completely scraped. I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but I love my brother-in-law Jody. And I owe him 2 cases of beer now.

So thats the tour for now. Not pictured is the exterior of the front and back of the house, the back-deck, the garage, the driveway, and probably a ton of other stuff. This post was plenty long though. Coming up in the next few days: The power of family and their will to paint. The transformation begins!