The Master (mostly) After Pictures

You have to keep in mind that we are still working on stuff as we have time, so most all of the after pictures I've been posting are "mostly" after pictures. The big project lately has been the fence and planting new grass. The fence lacks one front section, but John had to get the grass seed planted before it was too late. So the rest of the fence will come later.

Meanwhile, the inside still hasn't seen many of the finishing touches I'm eagerly awaiting - things like bathroom light fixtures, all the new outlets and light switches, and a light in our shower! I've gotten used to taking dark showers now though.

In case you don't remember how horrendous things looked before, here's the original slide show of pictures.

Here's the master bedroom from the doorway.

The view from the bathroom.

This is my little area where my computer is for now. I had the internet man install wireless internet and my plan was to set up the desktop in John David's room since he has a desk. After going to all the trouble to hook up my computer in his room I realized that there's no wireless card. So now I sit on the floor in the corner of my room.

Here's the bathroom entrance view from our bedroom. We have some really nice slatted doors that still need to go up. Also, can you tell that there's no base trim under the cabinets? And no drawer fronts on two of the drawers? Yeah. I'm patiently waiting. My patience is getting us our mantle for free though and that's worth about $400 so it's okay.

Won't new light fixtures be so pretty? =)

See what I mean about taking dark showers? I guess the people who lived here the last 30 years never wanted to see. Weird.

The cabinets still need the gloss finish, but again, we're waiting for our cabinet man to do some things first.

This is our tub and the new window. I really don't like that picture there because it seems too small for the space, but I had it on hand so for now it works.

Here's the ceiling fan in our room.

John put remote controls with all of the ceiling fans in the house. I love this little luxury!

Living Room and Dining Room

This is the before picture for the living room. Pretty rough. We knew the shelving would all have to go and that the fireplace would need to be redone, but we didn't have a clue how we were going to redo it.

This is the previous breakfast area. The window to the right looks out to a covered patio that separated the breakfast area from the living room.

We took out those walls and enclosed the patio.

The old patio area is now indoor space. This view is from the entry area.

So you have to know that it's still a work in progress. We're having a mantel custom made and it's taking longer than we had hoped. All the cords that are hanging around the fireplace will be hidden by the mantel and behind the wall when we're done. I also made some matching floral arrangements for the top of each tower, but that wasn't done when the pictures were taken.

It's funny when I look at this picture because this room isn't really my style. I don't have the money to create what I want so I have to just do what I can afford - which I like, but it's not really me. Also, I think the towers look much nicer in person than in these pictures. They aren't solid black. They have a distressed finish with a wood color underneath. Not too important, I know.

Here's a picture taken from near the fireplace.

Our table sits where the patio used to be!

Here's that view from the entry area again.

And here's the view from the hallway. I can't believe the original builders made that an outdoor patio - it was such a waste of space! Right in between the two pillars was a big ugly glass sliding door. No thanks!

I would love to have a rug under the dining table, but with my kids I think any rug would be doomed from the start. =)

Some More After Pictures

There's a good possibility that by this point nobody even cares......but for the sake of finishing what I started.....

This is the only before picture I could find of the entry area. To the left is what used to be the dining area (we enclosed it to make a fourth bedroom), the middle is the front door, and the right leads into the front room (which around here is often called "The Miss Goodbee Room" since that's where the girls' Miss Goodbee dollhouse usually resides).

Here's the new entry way:

I'm sorry to say that I have no before picture of the front door, but trust me, it was U-G-L-Y! Here's the new door that I painted green to match the trim which we also did in green.

Here's the view from the entry way when you come into the house. You'll notice that we are still lacking door knobs and many new switches and outlets. These are things that are coming slowly but surely.

Here's a before picture of the front room:

And after:

We took out the lovely paneled wall with the built in desk and added a window. It made a big difference inside and out! We love it!

Here's the view when you're sitting on the love seat in the front room.

Okay, more will come soon. Not everybody was awake when I was taking pictures so I couldn't get all the rooms....

They Have Shadows!

I just went in the kitchen and there are ants all over the cabinets under the sink and near the dishwasher. These things are huge! They have their own shadows!!! Going to the store for ant poison now. Good grief.......

The Kitchen and Part of the Bathroom

The kitchen is my favorite part of our house so far. It still lacks a few touches like new switches and outlet plates, bottles in the wine rack, and plates in the plate rack, but I think you get the idea.

(I love my new camera, but my computer does not. I'm having great trouble transferring pictures. You wouldn't believe the retardedness I just went through to get these up!)

Here's the view from near the table:

(oops! one can light is burned out!)

(do you like how I cropped out the sink? but not because there were dishes in there. no way!)

We had the tile guys lay this strip of stones across the entry to the kitchen to serve as a way to break up the flow of the tile. It allowed us to get the design we wanted. We did the same thing in the hall bath entry way.

And here's one picture of our bathroom. Those white lines are just from the flash bouncing off the mirrors. I'm waiting for John to get home to change out the light fixtures and I couldn't take pictures of the rest of the bathroom just because it's dark right now. The new lights for the shower and bath part aren't in yet so I shower by lamplight for now! Classy, huh? The cabinets are also not totally done since we haven't put the finish on them or any hardware.

If my camera and computer get along better tomorrow, I'll try to post more.....

Thank The Lord for Home Warranties

Upon entering the house this morning, I smelled something burned. I couldn't find the source of the smell at first, but then I saw the hot water heater. It's a wonder our house didn't burn down! The plumber said if the door had been on that closet where the water heat is (we removed it for tiling) it most likely would have set the house on fire. Wouldn't that have been something. All this work and a lot of our stuff freshly moved over and then it burns down. Wow.

Anyway, the plumber is already there doing his thing. They'll put in a brand new one tomorrow and all for just the $60 fee the warranty company charges. Sweet.

Who Knew?

A ventahood (is that how that's spelled???) has to actually vent somewhere. Really? The previous owner's must not have known that since there was no venting route in place. And since there was no venting route in place, we, of course, never even thought about it.

Until yesterday.

Our kitchen is all but complete and we were just in there to talk about installing the appliances. That's when the vent bomb was dropped. Bleh. Now we have to cut through the cabinet over the microwave, cut a hole in the ceiling, and run a venting duct through the attic. We may even have to take down a section of cabinets to do the job and then put them back up. You can insert any exclamatory remark filled with frustration and annoyance HERE.