The other day I posted some BEFORE pictures of my last house. If you didn’t see those, never fear, because I’m about to post them again.Because you REALLY can’t appreciate the ‘AFTER’ until you’ve seen the ‘BEFORE.’Keep in mind, though, that because I’m a serial repainter, some of these rooms were repainted AGAIN, much to the chagrin of anyone who lived with me, so these aren’t really ‘after’ pictures; more…
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Big Blue House
A Tour of The Old Blue House, Before.
Back in 2006 I started this blog with the purpose of showing before and after pictures of this little renovation project we were working on… an old blue house built in 1928 (or 9? I can’t remember now). It was a total mess. Mess being the understatement of the century. A few days ago, the new owner of the house found me on Facebook via this blog, and it’s been…
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This Ain’t My First {Remodeling} Rodeo.
My in-laws came by to see Susie and me today, and asked me, “Are you still liking your house?” I had to think before I answered that. I’m grateful for this house, really I am. But I’ll be honest… it’s overwhelming living in a house where every single inch of it needs work. And sometimes, just flat depressing, because you can see the potential of all this house could be……
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All I Want For Christmas Is…
Not much, really. Just this. It’s been a long, long time since I breathed the sweet, musty aroma of old house.…Pulled down wallpaper from the ceiling as rodent droppings rained down into my hair. …Lived for two years without a kitchen, cooking everything in the crock pot on top of the dryer, and boiling baby bottles on a dorm-style hot plate. …Painted, then repainted, then repainted all the rooms again,…
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Twenty Great Things About This Week.
1. Annie’s 42 pieces of flair. She CANNOT get herself dressed without layering on the accessories. And I love it. 2. Christmas shopping with my girls. 5. Picking out a real live Christmas tree with my girls. 8. Earl, the new Elf that Santa sent down the chimney. 9. Taking the Elves to church, because if ANYONE needs a Holy Spirit experience, its these two. They need…
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I Love the Azalea District.
This is a repost from the early days of my blog! With the house now on the market, I’ve been faced with the decision of where to go next. In my mind, there’s no question: the girls and I will buy another house within these few blocks bordered by Broadway, Lake, Beckham, and Fifth. I love my neighborhood. I love my neighbors, who have totally taken us under their wings…
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More Decorating Progress: Take Two.
OK, I don’t know what happened with that last post, except that 1) I’m crazy, and/or 2) I’m crazy. That pretty much sums it up. If you ever want to know why in the heck I did something, there’s your answer. So… now for the decorating progress. So far I have the room mostly painted; two coats above the chair rail, and two coats below the chair rail. Actually, in…
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Before, During, and… During.
I mentioned a couple of months ago that now that my two girls are sharing a bedroom, I wanted to redecorate their room to have actual matching beds that actually matched the walls and window treatments. Silly, foolish, frivolous = I know. Trust me, I’m married to a man who sees no point in cute, especially if cute involves spending any money. So to keep BF happy, I’ve been trying to…
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The High Cost of a Cheap Mortgage.
Since we’re about to begin the remodeling of the garage, I thought I’d show you some ‘before’ pictures. Our garage was converted to an apartment 50+ years ago, and rented out to college students. This neighborhood is only blocks from the Junior College, so lots of my neighbors still rent out their garage apartments. Though hopefully theirs are in better shape than ours. 😉 We plan to turn ours back…
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The Final Frontier.
We’ve spent the past four years slowly going broke and shaving years off of our lives remodeling this 80-year-old house. And somehow, our marriage has survived. Barely. And we haven’t declared bankruptcy. Yet. The house is 98% completed; we still lack a few doorknobs and touch up paint here and there. And hubs doesn’t know it yet, but the dining room is going to get repainted. I hate the chocolate…
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Before and After: My Vintage Kitchen!
If you haven’t seen the ‘before’ pictures showing the loveliness of our kitchen before we remodeled it, I’ll give you a moment to click that link and check it out. Go ahead… You can’t fully appreciate the ‘after’ until you’ve seen the ‘before.’ Actually, those pictures were from before we even bought the house…..lest you think all the *stuff* in these pictures belongs to me, well, it doesn’t…..that was all…
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Pondering the Big Blue House.
I was just thinking about how this blog was supposed to be about the house. Because once a day someone asks me how the remodeling project is going. OK, maybe not once a day. I’m not that popular, that somebody daily wants to ask something like that. Not remotely. But often, ok? Like, once a year or so. So I started this blog just so I could say, “Take a…
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