House in Progress Diary

Before & After Archive

The Backyard

Horay, a well-trimmed and prepped backyard!

BEFORE:

AFTER PREP:

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First Floor Bathroom - Before & After

It's hard to believe but, as of today, our first floor bathroom is officially done!!!! After previously stating on this site that we'd be done with it as of last August. It's been quite the adventure...

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Brick-Laid Front Steps - Before & After

In spite of J's lack of confidence as a project manager, we do actually have a really beautiful front stoop now.

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Refinished Floors

OK, now we're talking! I can say that refinished floors are definitely right up there with painted walls in the satisfaction department.

The before and after payoff is just so gratifying....

What a difference a day (or four) makes!

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How Easy It Is to Forget...

A. worked like a MAN POSSESSED all weekend. Arms and legs FLYING! So, I'm a-crawlin' out of my blogging slump to write something.

Specifically, a big thank you to my best friend and helpmate who is SO talented and dedicated. Because, a little over two years ago, we bought this...

(That is our pal, Dave, and his lovely daughter...)

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Quick-Fix Kitchen Makeover, Completed

A bit of luck today--Jeannie checked the Ikea website (you can now check what is in stock ONLINE before you make the trip! Thanks IKEA!) and the cabinet set we wanted came in early. So, I took a drive by their store after work tonight and after a few hours of labor, and a little fudging on how it was designed, we have a new cabinet that triples our counter space AND hides the radiator underneath.

With that, our temporary kitchen makeover is done...just in time for Thanksgiving!

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Christmas Tree Before & After

After our little mishap the other night, we decided that the tree really is a metaphor for our experience with the house.  And so, we present our 2005 Christmas tree...before & after!

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Three Years (and 11 Days) of Progress

Believe it  or not, it's now been three years since we closed on the house.  In fact, it's eleven days past the exact anniversary--whoops!  I guess time flies when you're having fun so much going on.

No, actually it really has been fun this past year.   In fact, it's been the most rewarding year by far given how much of a turning point it was.

Anyway, to continue a tradition we've done for the past two years, here's our mini-capsule of everything we've done in the last twelve months and a little about what we hope to accomplish in the next year... 

Once again, the changes inside were far more substantial than the ones outside.

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First Floor Bedrooms and Hallway -- Floors are done!

First, a trip back in the old time machine to see how these rooms looked when we first took possession of the house...

The downstairs hallway (with Coco, we miss her so): 

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The Renovated Maple Kitchen Floor

As a reminder, here was the kitchen floor we lived with for three years.

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Temporary Kitchen Before & After

We spent Labor Day Weekend (other than the block party) attempting to squeeze the over-sized fridge back into the kitchen.  No longer would it be sitting in the front sunroom, announcing to the world what a poor diet of frozen foods and leftovers we subsist on.

To get the fridge to fit, we had to take the doors off, put it on a dolly, and roll it in there.  It was a tight squeeze, coming and going. 

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The Master Bath (Almost) After Photos

These are NOT quite after, because there are some details still missing. But it came to my attention that I had not posted any photos of the master bathroom since we've moved upstairs. Probably because Miss Grace showed up early and I never got around to it. And then, I forgot. Please forgive me.

If you don't remember what the master bath looked like BEFORE we worked on it, here is something to jog your memory.

Here are the rest of the BEFORE photos. Click on the pictures in this old entry to make them larger.

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Forgotten Film and Photos of "Before"...the Master Bath

I forget what I was searching for when I stumbled upon these old movie clips that we took of the HouseinProgress right before we closed on it. I think we took these during the day of the inspection while an architect friend of ours was giving us his opinion on the house.

Since I posted the After shots of this bathroom here and here recently, I had forgotten just how bad it was when we first saw it. What potential did we ever see in this place? Really? Because looking at this video, my first impulse is to run screaming in horror.

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More Forgotten Film: First Floor Bath

I'm obviously having too much fun with iMovie since my parents are in town and playing with Miss Grace. I'm taking a break from the much talked about, hardly blogged about windows project. I promise I'll write that up soon.

In the meantime, here are the before and after videos of the first floor bathroom. This is the first room we ever finished in the house. I used to go in here and close the door when the rest of the house became SO overwhelming. Just to remind myself that the rest of the house would be nice. Eventually. Maybe. If not, at least I had a nice bathroom.

Video after the jump

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The Forgotten Film of the Upstairs Bedrooms

Yep. Still more forgotten film. This time of the upstairs bedrooms and hallway. Unfortunately (or fortunately), YouTube does not allow you to smell the "before" version. Or taste the dust on your front teeth. Or hear the pitter patter of little raccoon feet in the attic above.

But you sort of get the idea.

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