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Our House

When Mark and I bought the house, there was a lot of work that we knew needed to be done to the place.
Some big stuff, some little stuff. Little did we know that we bought a house with:

OK, so it isn't THAT bad (it's not the Money Pit or anything), but it is certainly challenging our remodeling
sensibilities. It's got awesome hardwood floors! Another plus is that although it is a small house
(1100+ square feet), there is a pretty good deal of storage space in the house (and in the attic).
Plus, it's got lots of charm and best of all - ITS ALL OURS TO DO WITH WHATEVER WE WISH!
Bottom line: we absolutely felt 'at home' when we walked in, and that's all we needed (especially
after some of the doozies we encountered along the way).

To make things a little interesting, I thought I would put together a page with before and after
photos of our place.

Outside Front Yard

When we moved in, there was a massive (albeit beautiful) rose bush in the front yard that the previous
owner had won at the local nursery the first week they moved in (over 12 years ago). Basically the thing is
huge and it was overtaking the house. So we tried to curtail it a bit (and failed miserably). Our neighbors
probably hate us (those new fangled kids ruining the neighborhood by cutting down the historic bush).
Now before you get all uppity, please realize that the thing was about to pull part of the roof down with
it's crushing weight. Even our gardener though it should come down. So there. Oh well, see for yourself.

Before... And After...

And Here's a Bigger Shot of the Front Yard

Before... And After...(only now there is a plum tree in the front right corner)

Living/Dining

These rooms look basically the same, although our furniture is now in them.

Before... And After...

Before...(That's me talking to the agent, kissing her ass so the owners would accept our bid - one of TWELVE they received for the house - it worked!) And After...

Kitchen

This is the next room we are going to remodel. It's all pretty original - stove is pretty ancient but it works.
And as long as it keeps working until we remodel, then that's even better. The huge bummer about this
kitchen is that they is no dishwasher (and no hopes of putting one in - counters are too shallow) and no
disposal (remember the problems with the electrical?). Anyhoo - to make the current state a little more
palatable, I put up a new valance in the window and mark laid new floor tile and new base boards. Even
though I complain, it's actually a great space. Nice and big (we even have room for a center island if we
want one) with a skylight and the window looks out onto the garden (that we don't take very good care
of at this point - see below).

Before...(with the owners crap in it) And After...(this was right when we moved in. Mark put in this new linoleum floor. I am not a huge fan of linoleum, but it is a good temporary fix until we redo the kitchen next year. Oh and he put in nice baseboards too! The crappy brown shades are still up - for now.)

Bedroom

Our room used to be the previous owners son's room. I think he was about 12, but he still had cows
on the walls - uh ok. So we tore everything down and painted it blue. Yes, blue. And no, you probably
don't need to adjust the color on your monitor. We actually chose that color. We like it, so we don't want
to hear about it , ok?

Before...(this photo was one of the 360º images - I cropped it) And After...(Yes, it's bright, but it looks great with our furniture - so there.)

Bathroom

What can I say about this room, except for 'ack'! Basically, behind the door on the right was a shower
stall. This bathroom remodel was a result of two inspectors telling us that there was dry rot underneath
the shower. Turns out there wasn't (those b@$!%s!) but regardless, it was a good incentive to remodel
before we moved in. So what we ended up doing is converting the bath to a shower/bath combo and the
old shower stall into a closet area (which we still need to finish out).  There is still a bit of painting and
touch ups to do, but we LOVE the bathroom. We gained about 4 inches in front of the loo and the new tile
and fixtures really make what was once a dark and dingy bathroom into a light and inviting place. And it
actually wasn't THAT expensive to do.

Before... And After...

Office

We didn't do much to this room except paint and put up white blinds (who chooses brown
blinds ON PURPOSE)? We love the resulting lemony lime, celery-esque color.

Before... And After...(We now have white blinds up - snazzy!)

Backyard

This backyard goes on forever (or so it seems). We have a huge oak up the back (an arborist told the
previous owners that we have two or three HUNDRED years left in the thing, so it's here to stay. It's got a
mini tree house in it which is pretty cool (if only Gab could haul her ass up in the thing).  We also have a nice
mature pear tree and wisteria vine. We just need to learn to take care of the place. Our gardener came in a
few weeks ago and kicked serious ass (note after photo). It looks so much better! Sod will be going in soon
and hopefully we'll get the patio area sorted out before next spring. Wish us luck (we'll need it).

Before... And After...

Garage

What do you say about a one car garage? Not much I guess. Mark painted the floor a brick red color
(which looks great), and it has the weirdest pulley mechanism thing for the garage door. It's so old and
out of date that it's now cool again. So we'll keep it until it breaks. Unfortunately, the mechanism has a
HUGE cement counterweight. If that thing falls, I hope I am nowhere near it.

Well, that's our place. I hope this gave you a good feel for it. I'll try to post new photos as more progress is made.