Home Renovation -- Complete

Long-term readers of my blog know that my family went through a home addition and renovation for six months, ending in January. I know you've been waiting for some "after" photos, and I'll tell you why it's taken me until now to take them. Because once the professionals are done, you still have a lot more to do. Like buy curtains and rods, since your new rooms have new windows. Paint the art room, because you stupidly said, well I'll just do that myself. Move all the massive amounts of art supplies that you have in your art room -- wondering how all this used to fit in the corner of your bedroom, but now will barely fit in an entire room. (Reality: your art stuff was in your bedroom, in the hall closet, in the family room, in the computer desk; you get the idea.) You need to find just the right shower door, and discover that they don't exist anymore. You need to make a curtain for the new bathroom door, since you were shocked to discover it was installed with unfrosted glass. You need to buy new towels, sheets, garbage cans, and all kinds of things to fill your new rooms. You need to install shelving in the new closets, because you stupidly said, we'll do that ourselves. All that took time, but my house is at a clean stage right now (because I invited friends over last week; if you need to clean your house, invite your friends over, and that will motivate you to do it) so I've finally taken pictures. Here they are. And I love it.

The start of the addition being put on the back of the house. The little window you see got covered up, and they broke through the end of a small closet to make the doorway connecting the two.




Here's down the hallway to the addition.



The outer wall to my son's old bedroom. I let him draw a creature on it, then I painted it. It was fun for the month it was up, then they tore down that wall to expand the family room.


Here's the room after the wall was removed.


This is the finished room. Well maybe not finished -- I'm going to paint another picture to put in here, and I need something in the corner, maybe a plant. Yeah, it's never-ending.


My beautiful new kitchen.


With really cool vein in the granite.


Looking the other way to the dining room.


And one more view.


And finally, the art room.




We've only lived here for 18 years, and it took about 3 to find the right builder. Yeah, baby, it was worth it.

Renovation Update

For seven months now, my family has been in the midst of an addition. I thought my home was in disarray a few months ago. Little did I know just how crazy it would be now that they've gotten into the main part of the house, and they're working on the kitchen, and the tiling of the floors.



The cabinets and granite countertops are in. I've placed post-its on the doors and drawers of what I'll fill them with.


I'm dying to fill the cabinets, but I've hit an interruption. Now that they're tiling the floors, I'm in the way. I've holed myself up in my bedroom until they're done at the end of each day.

I have furniture stacked up in corners of rooms. I can't find anything I need.


Hopefully I'll be able to post some "after" photos soon. I've told my husband, we better not take six months putting everything back in the kitchen and the new closets. I'll give myself one month, or I'll get very stressed out.

Are you working on any challenging projects? Hopefully you see an end in sight too.