I'm really disappointed that I neglected to take more "before" pictures of our house. We have been working very hard inside and out, but it's hard to see exactly what has been done unless you look at pictures that show the difference. I've been able to scrounge up a few that give an idea.
We have done a lot of work in the backyard. It is massive and it was very overgrown. Things hadn't been weeded or trimmed back in a very long time. We've weeded all the flower beds and trimmed all the hedges. It's looking so good. (This is one of the cases where I should have taken more before pictures, but you can see how overgrown the bushes are behind David and I took a picture from an old Marco Polo video, but it's very blurry.)
This bed in the middle of the yard was completely overgrown with grass and weeds. You could hardly see the brick border. We weeded it all out, spread out the flower bulbs, and laid new top soil.
We've torn down half of the weird privacy fence - the part that had a dangerous lean. Eventually we'll take down the other half too. We also trimmed the hedges, cut out some trees and bushes, weeded, and raked.
We added some kid stuff to the back yard. We plan to add a zip line, tether ball, and volleyball standards. If we're ever rich, we'll put in a pool. There's plenty of room to add one and still have a big yard.
We put up a gazebo on the patio and got a table and chairs.
Inside, we've mostly done a lot of painting. We haven't painted the kids bathroom, but we spruced it up a bit and fixed some caulking. Eventually, we'll paint it.
One of the biggest changes inside has been the master bath. It was the only room that I completely hated. It had ugly brown painted cupboards and tan walls. I love it now. It's so much fresher and feels way bigger.
The shower area had dull yellow walls and ceiling. We painted it all white and went with a nautical theme for both parts of the bathroom. We also re-caulked, took off one door and changed the hinges on another to get rid of some rust marks. It makes me happy just to go in there now.
Baylie's room will eventually get some paint, but for now it looks really cute with the way she has it decorated. We also bought her a bookcase and desk. It's the kind of room I always wanted to have.
Jalen's room was in the worst shape of all with lots of scuff marks on the walls. We recently found the paint in the garage and were able to cover all the marks. It's also decorated cute, but eventually we'll paint his room and update it as well.
We actually love the paint color in the master bedroom, but it was scuffed as was the chair rail. We found matching paint for those as well and were able to fix the scuff marks.
We liked the front porch, especially the swing, but she took the swing with her. We have purchased our own porch chairs, Tiff got us a swing, and we have put in a lot of flowers. I love our front porch. I really wanted a house with a good porch. Eventually, I want to add railings - I think.
The entryway was rather blah. It looks great now.
The front room, which we now call the conservatory, is one of my favorite rooms. I always wanted a house with a library.
One of the most drastic changes is the family room. David painted all the wood paneling white and it is a huge improvement.
The kitchen was already amazing, so we haven't done much there. I did repaint a wall that was scuffed really badly and touched up a windowsill, but other than that, it's the same as before.
I love our house so much. It's perfect for us.
We still have a lot of work to do. We need to tear down the rest of the fence and clean up the dog run. It's a mess. Tashi can jump the fence, so we're going to cut the dog run in half and use it as a garden area.
