Short wall before:
Short wall after:
Yessssssss!! OK, it's not primed or painted yet. But still, a vast improvement! Let's keep looking at vast improvements.
The pass-through wall before:
The pass-through wall after:
Can you even believe it's the same wall?? OK, the dramatic lighting doesn't hurt either. But it's SO amazing looking in person I can hardly walk by without doing a jig. (Which makes walking through the house slow and amusing to onlookers.)
We also had the closets re-ceilinged. This is one thing that I don't have before photos of. Because the bare lath peeking up through the attic and rat turds raining down occasionally was too gross to photograph even for me. Here's a midway shot of my closet, post drywall, pre-mudding:
Fred insisted on priming and repainting the closet. Which initially I was resistant to, but just the act of taking photos like this one:
Made me realize how grungy it really was. Ew. A coat of primer and a coat of paint later, I was ready to move back in!
Yay!
When I moved in I needed shelves in my closet and there was no time to wrangle any. So I did what any sane lady would do, I took myself to K-Mart and let Martha provide me with some terribly made cloth shelves. Which have been falling down and generally sucking for a while. So my fantabulous husband-slash-carpenter made me some custom shelves last week! Yay! Of course I lined them in polka-dot paper and got a pink hamper to match...
And we're ready for move-in! Shall we do another before and after?
Before...
And after!
Yay! (Guess who wears a lot of black? Good thing I've got a hot pink accessory on my head all the time!) It's such a huge relief to have this project crossed off the list. It makes everyone in our little family feel better to not have rat turds raining down upon us but the husband is especially excited that our future children won't be cavorting with Hanta virus. It makes me feel good to finally have some organization in my closet. (Hey sweaters! Haven't seen you guys in a while!) This is a million photos for what seems like a small project. But it's an excellent illustration of how even the smallest home project can have a million tiny steps.
There are two more exciting things on our list from this month! The first one was a great example of so little, yet so big. Shall we do a Where's Waldo or Where's the Home Improvement? Before:
And after!
OK, there's a sneaky wall color in there because that first photo is really old. But the real change is the knobs! We finally settled on knobs that we both liked and although they do resemble golf balls, not living with the black plastic speckle knobs anymore is pretty much paradise.
Someday we'll deal with the bisque-colored appliances and the horrible vinyl floor, but for now, check out how shiny our knobs are. Ooooh, shiny.
OK, last improvement of the past couple weeks was out on the front porch. Before:
Our brand! So adorable.
We're not sure we love the swing being hung at an angle to the porch but it provides a better view of the sunset that way. What do you think, charming or weird? I know straight-on or perpendicular porch swings are more common, but this angled version is sort of growing on me. Better yet, it's reminding me that the days of enjoying the sunset with a glass of wine are coming.
