Six Years of Home-Making

We're coming up on the sixth anniversary of the purchase of our home, and I thought it'd be fun to do some photo comparisons* to see just what's changed.  If home improvement projects bore you, consider yourself forewarned.  This is one of those posts that is really more for us than for any of you guys--we've sacrificed many a date night in the name of home improvement, and these kinds of posts can help us feel better about all that.  (Sometimes.  Other times, they make us--okay, me--gnash teeth in frustration over how slowly this whole ordeal is going. . .)

Front Yard

I'm taking artistic liberty here.  The truth is that right now, under cover of snow, the front of the house is basically identical to that first picture.  Most of what we've done in the front has been minor landscaping--adding a flower bed, planting some bulbs/shrubs/perennials, and seriously abusing the front lawn (we had to dig trenches to lay sprinklers and to replace a water main.  Gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet, as they say.)

Back Yard

Okay, these photos really don't do justice to the blood, sweat, and tears that have gone into this space.  Our sweet, sweet neighbors endured three long summers of our noisy, smelly tractor as we installed two new retaining walls, a raised brick patio, two new fences, a sprinkler system, and a foundation for the "man lair".  But what really stands out in this picture is the luxurious new lawn, which took less than 4 hours to install.  Oh, the irony. 

Kitchen

Like the front yard, there's not much visible change aside from filling it up with "stuff".  Some re-wiring, some new lights, some repair work on the ceiling, and a fresh coat of paint.

Living Room

  

Again, not much change here either, aside from the new furnishings--just recessed lights, some fresh paint, and some more behind-the-scenes stuff (wiring, insulation, etc.)

Master Bedroom

Just some new paint and a trip to IKEA, along with the rewiring treatment that the whole house received.  (I took this picture right before Ben was born, after I'd gone through a wild flurry of "nesting".  Hence the cosleeper and overall tidiness.  I don't have a more current picture without the cosleeper, probably because my room hasn't been this clean since, nor have I had the time/energy to update anything else in the room.) 

Big Bedroom

Another room by IKEA.  (The red dressers, by the way, are Elizabeth's contribution;  for reasons still unknown to us, she asked for a red dresser for her birthday one year.  We got two kid-sized plain wooden dressers and the girls helped us paint them BRIGHT red.) 

Little Bedroom

It's not in the picture, but Jared built a shelf system in the closet of this room, right before Anna was born.  (And I mean RIGHT before--I started going into labor as I was painting it!)

Main Bath

Yes, these pictures were taken from the same spot just outside the doorway.  See where Elizabeth is standing in the first picture?  That's where the new back wall of the bathroom is.  Yep, it's much smaller now (you'll see why below), but there still is a tub/shower, to the right of the toilet (we stole the space from the built-in cabinets in the hallways plus the shower in the master bathroom). 

Master Bath

Paving the way for a new master bathroom.  This picture actually represents a pretty significant improvement;  there was water damage and rot under that pink shower, and we swapped/borrowed some square footage from the main bathroom to transform our closet-sized 3/4 bath into a full bathroom with a little more elbow room. (See that window on the right?  That's the same window just over the toilet in the "before" picture of the main bathroom.) 

Basement

Wait, wasn't this post supposed to be about home IMPROVEMENT?  Forget the eggs/omelets analogy;  this is more like a tornado hitting the henhouse.  Our basement right now is at the same point our yard was at early last spring--the point at which it really couldn't get any worse.  (Actually, contrary to what the pictures may lead you to believe, it's gotten a little better:  we no longer have trenches chiseled in the floor, and we've even gotten our washer and dryer hooked up down there.)  Again, the pictures don't really do justice to the amount of work that's gone into the basement, especially the "innards" of the house down there:  in addition to the rewiring that I've mentioned a million times, Jared has also installed a water softener, swapped out our enormous old boiler for a small high-efficiency boiler, and re-plumbed most of the house, from the vents in the attic down to the drains in the basement floor.  (Yeah.  I know.  Sometimes I feel like I'm married to the entire crew of This Old House. . .)

Our Family

And if you're wondering what *I* was busy doing while Jared was building, here's your answer:  in addition to creating a couple of people from scratch, I've been doing all those little things that keep our home running  and help make things like family portaits happen. . .along with shooing our little darlings away from the miter saws, grout buckets, and framing guns while Daddy worked.  (This last job is proving especially challenging with Ben, who really wants to be on the business end of all those cool-looking tools.  The girls used to love helping Daddy when he did quieter jobs but would run away when he turned on something noisy like the tile saw;  when Ben hears a noise like that, he runs TOWARD it.) 

It's been an incredible six years, building our family and our home.  Six years of elation, exhaustion, and everything in between. . .here's to many, many more!

*Note:  If you believe for one second that these "after" photos are a fair representation of what our house looks like on a daily basis. . .well, just drop by for an unannounced visit sometime so you can be set straight.  The girls' room, in particular, has been that tidy for approximately three cumulative hours over the past two years.