House Pictures - 6 months later

Since we moved in last September, we've done a lot of work to this house. More than I think we actually thought we'd have to do when we put in the offer. I remember thinking - this house is move in ready. Says a lot about the houses we were looking at before!!! So we wanted to post pictures of what the house looks like now but since the old pictures we took when the other people lived here were from like August, you may not remember what it looked like before. So I wanted to post before and after pictures of each room and in the interest of space, decided to make it a video. Before the video though, I'll detail what changes we made.

Paint: We painted every room in the house except the bathrooms and kitchen (which are the next things we're budgeting for since paint always means new towel racks and baseboard right?) The most dramatic change was in our master bedroom that went from electric green to a sandy color. Big thanks to the Jamisons, Eva, and my family for helping us paint.

Light Fixtures: With the exception of the kitchen, laundry room, and storage room, we've replaced ALL the light fixtures. All the bedrooms got ceiling fans and both bathrooms & the dining room got updated lighting. (Even though the hanging crystal balls in the bathroom and deco looking glass chandelier were just so lovely...)

Windows: Thanks to my dad and his parents, we were able to replace all the bedroom and bathroom windows. They were sooooo gross and old. Single pane, metal framed, some painted shut multiple times, some with so much mold on them I felt sick looking at them. But now they are new and beautiful!!!

Front: Luckily the front was in great shape so the only change we really made was changing the address numbers.

Living Room/Dining Room: Well first of all, they are now separate. Before they had the combo room just one big living room with 3 separate areas: main entertainment center, computer and ancestor shrine area, and video game area. Their entertainment center took up the entire dining room wall! They had already updated the room with a new gorgeous picture window and crown moulding.

Hall Bathroom: While I'd love to replace the vanity and sink, it just wasn't in the budget. However, we did get the tub done, with the plumbing all brand new and the shower head raised and a built in caddy. It also went from having the sliding doors (pain to clean!!!) to a curtain. I'd love to change out the fixtures in there too but they painted so weird that we'd have to paint at the same time and replace the vents since they painted over those too....

Bedrooms: Not much had to done to the bedrooms. Just in Daniel's current room, they originally had a hole from the hall closet into the bedroom where they had a TV. Ya. So my dad framed that out and drywalled it up and you can't even tell) except in the closet since we haven't finished it.

Kitchen: The granite was already there so that was a nice touch. Since they didn't have an oven or a dishwasher though, we put in all new appliances: fridge, stove/oven, micro hood, & dishwasher. We lost a little cabinet space but we are definitely not hurting for space. We also framed and drywalled up the door from the kitchen into the master bath. Ya.

Laundry Room: Well, now there is one. Before they had their laundry set up outside and they had a dining table in the little added-on room. We thought it was too small and since it's right behind the kitchen, we tapped into the plumbing and had our friend set up lines for a laundry room. Matt and my dad then hung up a bar and shelf for all my laundry needs.

Storage Room/Video game room/Scentsy/Scrapbook room: Technically they were using it as another bedroom. It's part of the addition but we thought we could use it as a catch all room right now until we need it. The only thing we've really done is paint.

Backyard: They had sooooo much crap back there and everything was overgrown. However, with the help of a young women service project and our realtor's housewarming gift (gardener), it looks a thousand times better back there. Still a lot more work to do (like getting rid of the koi pond) but it's getting there.

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