Some REAAALLLLY Before and After pics

Posted in House Tour by Christina

Guys.

Sheesh.

I’m fed up with our desktop.

I took some “after” pics of one of the projects I’ve finished lately (About 5 more projects to shoot… Heehee! Not sure why taking “after” pics has been such an issue lately…).

And my desktop wouldn’t load them. Arg! Something’s been up with it for months now and it’s driving me batty. I need to take it somewhere to get it looked at, I’m sure. I just haven’t gotten to it yet.

Anyways, in the meantime, I’ve been trying to do some research on our house to find out what it looked like way back when. Supposedly, our wet-bar actually had a peninsula at one point and I’m positively DYING to see it. Unfortunately, although I’ve turned up several before-our-time “before” pics from old realty listings, that wasn’t one of ’em. (sadface)

But, here’s what I’ve got. Are you ready for this???

I give you our house in 2004:

Whoa!!! Right??? It actually looks cottage-y with that wood shake roof. I always imagined that our house originally had a tile roof. It would’ve definitely explained why they chose to put an orange roof on the house upon replacing it. Turns out, they came up with the orange on their own. It was chosen to go with the gold and green color-scheme. You can kind of see it in this blurry aerial shot…

Our. Poor. Neighbors.

Once the house went into foreclosure for the second time in 2012, the bank had the house sprayed beige, which is how it looked when we purchased it 2 years later…

And the last time I actually took pictures of our house’s front exterior it looked like this…

Now, keep in mind… we’ve since replaced the front door (I still have one more coat of paint to apply before I take pics) and I’ve given that green gate a nice, crisp coat of black paint (one of the projects that I’ve yet to photograph). But, in this pic, we’d painted the exterior, added landscaping and a rock border, and (in this shot) had painted our old front door.

The crazy thing is that in 2012, when the owners before us bought the house, the front courtyard had not one, but TWO metal gates…

Anybody else picturing every haunted house movie ever made??

The owners right before us removed the second gate after they moved in. This is on the day that we closed…

And the courtyard the last time I photographed it with our old door still (new pics coming soon)…

It definitely doesn’t scare the children as much. (Though, we still got no trick-or-treaters to my knowledge)

As a reminder, here’s the new front door (kinda… this shot is from when they’d installed the door with incorrect door-swing and I’d only partially painted it). The correct door has since been installed. It looks the same, just with the door knob on the other side and is currently in the process of being entirely painted that charcoal color…

I can’t wait to show it to y’all now.

In 2012, the backyard had not one, but two chain link fences…

The first, which was next to the patio, had been removed prior to us moving in, but the posts hadn’t. So, Joey had the fun task of extracting those guys. I was also surprised to see in these pictures that there were park benches on top of the nasty railroad ties (which had also been removed by the time we came into the picture). We removed the railroad ties and replaced the retaining wall with stone. And here’s that space today…

This view of the backyard looked pretty much the same as when we bought it. I just forgot to take “before” pics prior to Joey removing the second chain link fence seen to the left of the pic…

And the space now…

Inside, the kitchen looked pretty much the same in 2012 as it does now with the exception of the popcorn on the ceiling and paint color (which the owners before us removed/changed)…

The surprising thing here was that the slate floors were already in. I thought that the owners right before us installed them, but apparently it was the owners prior to them.

Our kitchen now is still kind of a mess. We haven’t gotten there yet, but we anticipate a full reno down the road. Our next big purchase, though, will likely be new appliances since the current stove and dishwasher are constantly on the fritz (and the fridge is a total black hole visually… but at least it’s a black whole that actually works (knockonwood!))…

Remember how I mentioned a while back (in this post) that there was a flood last year that necessitated a full gut of the laundry room by the previous owners? And how I griped about the lack of storage we currently have?? Well, there used to be some…

Too bad they didn’t reinstall those uppers, but they did replace the doors. And I guess we now have a blank slate to work with, which could be good…

Here’s the living room in 2012…

It’s amazing how a view of a chain link fence out the window makes one feel imprisoned. Like Morgan Freeman should be narrating your tale of woe.

The owners before us painted the walls, de-popcorned the ceilings (blessthem), and replaced the slider. We installed the floors and painted the built-ins…

Another view…

The master bathroom had pretty amazing black sinks in 2012, no?

Mighty epic commitment to the black bathroom fixture in this house (you know what I mean if you’ve seen our guest bath).

The paint looks white in the above shot, but it’s hard to tell if that’s correct since if you look in the reflection next to the coffin-shower, the wall does look peachy. In any case, someone painted the room peach. ON PURPOSE. I mean, I know peach was really popular in the 80’s, but it was never really my thing. Especially when paired with navy/purple/mauve swirled marble. As a reminder of how it looked when we took possession (after the previous owners changed out the sinks and faucets)…

PEACH.

I couldn’t take it, so in a burst of unconstrained rage, I painted the room white…

A full gut will happen in this space if it’s the last thing I do!

(And yes, I’m constantly crossing my fingers that Bath Crashers magically appears at our doorstep)

The remaining rooms were basically the same in terms of upgrades. Prior to our buying of the house, the owners before us de-popcorned the ceilings, painted the main living spaces, changed out the doors, as well as a few lighting fixtures. The rest, we did. Now, I know I’ve been emphasizing this throughout this post, but just keep in mind as you’re going through these pics that these “befores” are from two years before we bought the house. Our “befores” that I took on closing day, can be found in our House Tour page.

The dining room, then….

And now…

(We added laminate flooring, shelves and curtains, I painted the table white, added some vintage-inspired art, and styled the shelves)

The master bedroom, then…

and now…

(I painted, we replaced the carpet and windows, and started decorating. Lot’s more to go. But I like where we’re headed.)

The guestroom/office then…

And now…

Believe it or not, those are totally different wall colors (peach vs. greige) although the photos look somewhat similar.

And finally, the hangout room, then…

And now (well, now-ish… this is another space that I need to photograph as it currently is)…

(Check out this post, which incorporates painting and decor for this room. )

The carpeting in the bedrooms was the same in 2012 as when we bought the house, so apparently the asphalt we found poured beneath the carpeting in this room was done before then. Remember that???

I still think it’s the weirdest thing EVER. I mean, what the heck? #stopthejimmyhoffajokes

So, anyways, I hope to find more pics somewhere along the line of the house further back. I would LOVE to see it as it was originally, actually. It seems like the house changed significantly just since 2012 (let alone that exterior shot from 2004) so I can’t imagine what it used to look like at the get-go. Also, it’d be remiss of me not to mention that this house seems like a total team effort. It’s slowly gotten it together, first with the slate floors from 2 owners back, then the improvements made by the previous owners, and now us. Despite any differences in taste (or lack of maintenance over the years), I feel like (at least in the recent years), good intentions were had to improve the house and bring it back to life. And hopefully, we’ll be able to continue with that mission for a time to come. Because I love our house. I’ve never felt so grateful or “at home” than I do now.

So, tell me is anybody else nosy like me?? Trying to snoop around in your house’s past to see what it looked like? Any ideas on how I could get my hands on older pics??

21Apr2015

Our backyard… Holy Moly (inagoodway).

Posted in DIY by Christina

I am a lucky woman.

First, I get to stare at this all the time…

Relaxing on the sofa (I was sick that day) while a hot man performs manual labor in plain sight is pretty much living the dream (especially if you’re married to pictured hot man). Am I right, ladies?? Answer: Yes. Yes, I’m right. 😉

And now, thanks to all that manual labor, I also get to stare at our newly beautiful back yard as well. Before and after pics are totally my favorite things. Guilty pleasures, if you will. So, that’s what this post is gonna be. Before and afters of our yard. Now, keep in mind that “after” isn’t really a legit term since nothing is completely done yet. So, consider them “current”. And then give Joey a virtual pat on the back because he did this all himself. I had very little to do with it aside from taking pictures of him working. I’m nothing if not helpful.

First, let’s take a look at our covered patio shortly after moving in…

It was dirty, with spots of mold on the ceiling, and a decrepit railroad tie retaining wall which did nothing more than collect moisture and insects. We started by cleaning up the porch, and I sealed and enriched the terracotta floor, Joey replaced the moldy boards overhead, we had the exterior of the house painted, and Joey installed a new stone retaining wall (along with better drainage and many plants). He also built a stained wood surround for our HVAC unit (the inspiration for which I found on Pinterest).

Now, our patio looks like this….

And here’s the other view…

And now…

Detail shot!!

Isn’t the new retaining wall swell?? All the heart eyes. Right. Here. It’s so cozy out there now. We love just chilling out here with a glass of wine (or coffee — I remain convinced that coffee and wine can solve the world’s problems) while Lucas plays on this…

Oh, no. This is no swing set. We jokingly refer to this giant child-haven as the “Clarington Resort” (insert hoighty-toity accent and French-sounding “huh-huh!“). That’s the actual name of the playset, which we found at Costco. This monstrosity should have it’s own zip code if you ask me, thus the term “playset” does not suffice. The “Clarington Resort” (Huh-huh!) was purchased with our tax refund, and despite it’s massive size (it’s nearly 22-feet long including the slide), it’s actually quite charming with all the trees, all nestled up into the corner of our yard. When we saw it initially, set up on this high platform at Costco, I was all “No way. That thing is huge.” and Joey was all “Yes way. That thing is awesome.”. It took some serious convincing on Joey’s part to get me to agree to it. He measured it out for me and showed me how it would work in the yard, and then he gave me that look. You know the one. The you’re-totally-raining-on-my-parade-and-killing-all-of-my-dreams look, which is sometimes confused with the stop-being-bossy-and-just-trust-me-for-the-love-of-Pete look. And I caved. And now that all’s said and done, I’m kind of enamored of this little area. Like I said before…. it’s charming. And Lucas really seems to love it. Having our friends over just got way more fun for the kiddos, that’s for sure.

Joey boxed in the playground with landscaping timbers and used rebar to secure it to the ground (he drilled the holes for the rebar a size smaller and then pounded them in for a nice, tight fit). Then, he filled it with pea gravel which he found most inexpensively at a local place called Living Earth. It was $25 for an entire truckload (and this area took 4 truckloads or about 2 yards). He used concrete pavers for the walkway, and dug them in, surrounding them with decomposed granite (also found at Living Earth). He bordered the walkway with metal border and river rock. Then, he added sod (we needed a total of 1 palette which equaled about 150 squares for all areas of the yard).

Here’s a before shot of that area….

And Now:

And the other direction…

And now:

You can see that the HVAC screen is “L” shaped to still allow access to the unit, while making it more attractive from the porch. Here’s another view of it…

He also added a plant bed beneath our bedroom window for both drainage purposes and aesthetics…

Ignore that satellite dish… it’ll be gone soon. On the other side of the porch we have this area, which looked like this before…

And now looks like this…

One of my favorite new additions was Beyonce…

This lovely metal chicken was a housewarming gift from one of my best friends and is a total reference to this hysterical blog post. Beyonce makes our yard happy. And me. And I love her.

Here’s another seating area on the other side of the pool (I still owe y’all a completed pool post so ignore the pool for the time being)…

We still need to replace the fence. All in good time. This area around the pool mainly just needed some love. Joey pulled out all the weeds, trimmed the trees, added mulch, river rocks and liriope plants. We plan to also add more lighting around the pool eventually.

And finally, our view of the porch from the dining area inside. Here’s the before…

And now…

Seriously though, did Joey kick bootie out there or what?

I can’t wait to get out there and really enjoy it. Things still on the agenda include updating the decking around the pool, removing and replacing the remaining railroad ties along the perimeter of the yard, Making the fence look better, attacking the part of the yard on the side of our house next to the “Clarington Resort” (huh-huh!), painting the ugly brick surround for the pool filter (which I’ve tactfully cropped out of these pictures. You’re welcome.), boxing in the columns on the covered porch to give them a wood look, plus more. But seriously, I never thought that our backyard would look like this just 6 months after moving in. I’m fully in awe.

So, that’s where our back yard is currently. And we couldn’t be happier with it. Anybody else have yard projects going on right now?