Before and After

I've been reminiscing today about what we were doing a year ago. Things were rather hectic -- we were remodeling an old house, getting it ready to move into. We had owned this property as a rental unit for several years. The people who had rented it for the past 4 years were moving out and due to several different circumstances, we decided to sell our house in Belleville and move into this one. So we spent a full 3 months getting it ready. I thought it would be interesting to post before and after pictures, but alas, I forgot that they don't fall in the order in which I wanted them. So the top ones are the ones I wanted last. Oh well, you'll get the gist of what we went through to get it ready ------ and the great transformation of it all.

Our latest project (done this spring) was to add a one-car garage to the house. This is what it looked like last fall after we moved in. Before the garage.
Now it looks like this.
We saved the old kitchen cabinets and put the best ones in the garage. With a nice new countertop, it makes a nice storage area.
I have an extra refrigerator and 2 freezers in the garage, which is just off the dining room. Since it is so easily accessible, we also use it for entertaining. I've claimed this space as mine -- told John he can keep all his "stuff" in the big (31' x 52') garage out back. It's worked.......so far! You can see his garage in the outside "before" picture above.

One of the greatest transformations in the whole house was the upstairs bathroom. It was UNREAL -- BEFORE!! The built-in overhead cabinets made you feel claustrophobic. There was a little sink attached to the wall on the right of the toilet and the toilet leaned against the chimney next to it. The floor sloped about 1 1/2" -- apparently it had been an outside porch 'long time ago, so we totally gutted it, took up the floor, and started all over. Hence,
Now -- It is lovely.
Took out the old clawfoot tub.
Now in it's place is a lovely new sink and toilet. In re-designing the layout, we put the sink and toilet where the old tub was, and put a 48" shower and closet where the old toilet and sink were.

Our bedroom had this tiny little closet about 12" deep and 6' long. We tore it out and built a walk-in closet.
AFTER -- the new 4' x 7' closet
Before -- It had nasty 60s shag carpet.Now -- it has lovely teal carpet and nice new bedding which matches perfectly. (The picture doesn't show the true shades.)
Another view of our bedroom -- after

The dining room -- before The door is to the upstairs. We took it off and.....voila
AFTER --- What a transformation!!! We put a door into the attached garage, and took the nasty carpet out and put in laminate flooring.
Another view from the dining room. Living room to the right.

Doorway in the middle of the picture leads to the kitchen.

Laundry room -- There were no cabinets, so the guy that custom-built the kitchen cabinets made these to match the pine paneling. He did a great job! (This picture was taken before I had my curtains at the windows.)

The living room BEFORE. There was a closet that took up almost one wall. We tore it out! And got rid of the dark paneling and put drywall on.

AFTER -- The couch is sitting in the old closet!!

Before
After

Now, the
KITCHEN

Before

AFTER!!

Before

After

I so much enjoy my kitchen. I've never had a tile backsplash before, and John told me if I wanted it, I'd have to do it myself. SO I DID!!! It turned out better than I had even hoped it would. Don't want to do it for a living though.

The outside -- Before

After (We painted the siding a light beige, but that doesn't show up well.)

Before

After