This Old House, Part III

I'm going to have to take this in stages, because it is just so many photos to load. Today, I'll show you the before and after of the outside and the downstairs. Tomorrow I'll load the upstairs. Some of the pictures aren't from the exact same angles, so I tried to take a few more. Hopefully, it will give you a clear picture of the transformation. Also, I forgot to take a picture of the new front door, and well, it's dark now, so I'll have to put that with tomorrow's post. (I have to show you the new door, because I really like it, especially since I painted it.)

The front of the house. Before:

After. We just painted it this past spring, and I love the new color. It looked a little orange until I finished the green, and now I think it's the perfect tan. The picture is far away, but we added stone flower beds and put in all new grass this year.

While we're outside. Here is the back of the house before.

And now. We took off the porch and put in a new door. The barn in the left of the before picture is long gone, too. I also whacked away at the lilac bush that was blocking my view of the back yard.

Moving inside. Here is the living room, standing at the front door. Ta-DA! Same angle.
Looking back toward the door.

And now.
We added that French door when we moved the stairs. That room is an office/landing for both sets of stairs. It used to be the green bedroom.Now it looks like this...
The other bedroom had water damage on the plaster.The plaster is gone, but we did manage to save the floor. However, you can't see it in the picture. It's our guest bedroom now, so I haven't done much decorating. (I'm just thrilled to have another queen bed in the house. Josie and I spent more than a few nights in this room when she was a newborn.) Remember the nasty bathroom?
With the pink curtain and the window over the tub...
This shows the new floor.
But what about the shower? Well, we took out his hallway...
To make room for this... (I am no longer a tiling novice. After three floors and two showers, I think I count as experienced.) By the way, that is the same tub. I demanded that we keep it. It is cast iron, weighs about 700 lbs, and it is about fifteen inches deep. You can't buy a tub that deep anymore that will fit in a normal shower space. So, I completely understand if you need a bath instead of a shower when you come to visit.

And now for the gross old kitchen. I had to retake some of the kitchen photos so you could see the exact same angles. It has changed so much. This is the same corner now. I love these cabinets. They are knotty cherry, and the doors are one piece instead of five. We put a light cherry finish on the wood floors in the living room to match. So, you'll see above that we moved the sink. We also knocked out a wall. The next two photos are from the same spot. And now. I took a second so you can see the rest of the kitchen. By moving the basement stairs, we added three feet to the kitchen, thus moving the stove back. This is standing by the bar, looking to the back door. There's no before picture of this because there was a wall there. (I just wanted to prove that I still have a refrigerator. j/k)I had to throw this last one in. The built-in is new. I built it myself. Not too bad for a girl.


Stay tuned. Next time: the upstairs and the front door