The house

One of my bigger regrets, if you can even call it that, in not starting some kind of blog/documentation has to do with the house. I am a sucker for "before and after" photos of ANY kind- weight loss, makeover, home decor, you name it- I love to see a good "transformation." and as it happens, M and I bought a house in May of 2011 in a first ring suburb of the metro where we live.

I'll post some TRUE "before and after" photos later,-- unfortunately I don't have many photos of "progress" along the way, but that will have to do. But first, the story:

When we first moved in, the only room we really had issue with was the kitchen. We knew we wanted to do SOMETHING with it, but the "what" was undetermined at that time. We started with a fresh coat of paint to get rid of the burnt orange color they had and replaced it with a sage green- same color as my dad's kitchen from when I surprised him and redid it while he was on vacation (best daughter evvaaa, holla). We were actually pretty satisfied with all the rest of the paint colors in the other rooms. And then this strange thing happened.

First it was the basement. It was a pale yellow. Totally cool with me! Then M went and bought a dark blue and black couch. "well that doesn't match now" I tell him. SO we pick out a pale blue and paint the whole room. From there it was just downhill ...Ya know that book, "If you give a moose a muffin?".... well, you're looking at the moose. We started a mini reno of the kitchen that involved walling up the door to the basement on the kitchen side, and opening up a doorway on the living room. Easy peasy, right? wrong. Sheetrock people deserve EVERY PENNY they are paid. Shizz is hard. Anyway, we had sheetrock exposed and needed to paint. "my my!" I thought, "this is the perfect chance to really customize the living room!" So instead of just painting the sheetrock the same brown as the existing color (previous owners had left us with a paintstore worth of paint in the basement for every room in the house), and waayyyy too many hours on Pinterest, I decided I must have my "grey and white" room I've so badly wanted.

Then, one day (and more time on Pinterest) the "office" wasn't feeling to "office-like".. while the bright yellow may have worked as a nursery, it just wasn't cutting it any longer. SO, while M was in NYC with his mom and sisters, I took on a reno of the office. (notice a pattern here? I love "before and after" SO MUCH, I'd rather take on a whole project alone for the sheer gratification that comes from someone not seeing any progress along the way, and just the "BAM-AFTER!" moment..)

Guest room has stayed pretty much the same, and for some reason they had no photos of that on the website. Upstairs we've added some art and have our own bed, obvs, but there's more to be done up there. aaannnddd lastly, the 4th bedroom downstairs is empty. As in, not a single piece of furniture. That needs to change, soon. SO without further adieu, here are some pictures I pulled off the MLS listing (yay for internet caches!) so I can have SOME semblance of a "before and after" of our house:

(above) this is now our office

(above) living room)

(above) kitchen, and the room M will be most proud of when all is said and done!

(above) The downstairs bedroom that is empty.

(above) anddd lastly, the basement. or as M affectionately calls it, "ma Man Cave."

So that's it! For now at least. I'd like to do a detailed "room by room" look at it as we finish up. Lastly, here's a photo of us on closing day!