New House - After Pictures

Here are some Before - After comparison pictures of the work we've done so far.

For a complete set of pictures of the outside and the before shots, click HERE.

Foyer

We didn't get any direct shots of the foyer for before, but here's what it looks like now.

Dining Room/Music Room

The first two pictures are Before of the previous owner's colors and furnishings.  The second two are the After pics of what we've done with the big room.  The mantle around the fireplace was fake, and the previous owners took it with them.  We've also added a small electronic organ since the After pics were taken, and rearranged that wall slightly.  We won the organ in an auction for the local community theater, which we support and Jeffrey performs at regularly.  I may update the picture later to include the organ.

Living Room

Like most of the rooms in this house, we've had to drastically change the colors.  They didn't fit with our style and furnishings at all. In this instance, the wainscoting you see in the first picture is fake.  That's actually the old 70s style wood paneling, painted white on the bottom, a border across the middle, and wallpaper across the top.  We had to take it all down, patch a huge hole in the wall behind the paneling, actually finish the wall because it hadn't been originally, and lay a new floor.  Floors were replaced in all the bedrooms, the hallway and the living room.  Originally, it was the sub-floor with peel-n-stick adhesive tiles.  Now they're a good quality laminate hard wood.  Again, the mantle around the fireplace was fake, and the previous owners took it with them.

Kitchen

We haven't done much with the kitchen, yet, except get all new appliances.  We're probably going to rip out all the cabinetry, lay tile, and install new cabinets.  Previous owners had put some sort of fascia on all of cabinet doors, which made it impossible to open the corner doors.  Right now, the cabinet doors have been removed, and we're dealing with the kitchen as-is until we can afford to do it right.

Hallway

We don't have any Before pics specifically of the hallway, but here's an After pic looking out from what we call the Computer Room, or the Command Center.  These book shelves are full of paperbacks, while the book shelves in the Music Room/Dining room are full of hard backs.  The door in the foreground is now the Game Room.

Game Room

The first picture is the Before picture.  It's the only bedroom that had flooring other than those adhesive tiles, and it was a mess.  We had to rip that floor out before would put the new one in.  This room had some damage in the walls that was hidden and needed to be repaired.  We decided to turn this into a game room.  Jeffrey some radio contest where the prize was a $500 gift certificate to Amazon.com, and we decided to get a pool table.  We got the dart board from someone on Craig's List.  The last picture is the cheap neon sign we got for it.  We also call this the Party Room.  We put a mini bar rail around two of the walls.

Guest Bedroom

This became our Guest Bedroom.  The first picture is the Before shot, the others are After shots, looking from opposite walls.  This room had an ugly felt green outdoor lawn kind of carpet that we had to rip out before we could lay the new floor.  Again, this room was wall papered, then painted over several times.  We had to get rid of all that before we could repair the walls, finish them properly and then paint.

Computer Room

(aka Command Center)

This was the smallest of the bedrooms, so it became our Computer Room.  Again, painted wallpaper that had to be removed before we could lay the new floor and paint.  All of the electronics, by the way, are connected to my computer so I can burn movies, music, and even watch TV on my computer screen if I want to.  You'll notice part of Jeffrey's unusual doll collection on the window sill, and the tops of the book cases and entertainment center.  The aquarium is barely visible in the lower right corner of the middle picture.

Master Bedroom

The first picture is the Before picture, and unfortunately it's the only one we have.  I'm on the right, and our realtor is on the left.  This was the first room we tackled and discovered that most of the house was wallpapered and then painted over through the years.  The last picture is what we've done with the closet.  We had to rebuild half of it, since it wasn't finished, the 2x4 joists weren't plumb, or even level!!  We're still trying to finish laying the new floor in there, but it's been hard to find the time since Jeffrey's been busy with the theater, and what remains needs both of us to work on.

That's it for the work we've done inside the house.  The outside hasn't changed much at all.  That's next year's project.  We're still trying to decide on which color to paint the house, though we do have it narrowed down a bit.

Following are some random shots from our first year here.

Halloween.  Jeffrey carved a pumpkin into Frankenstein.  It looked better in the dark, and from a little distance.		Thanksgiving.  Brother-in-law asked where we got the "Martha Stewart" picture.  Had to tell him it was our dining room, and I made the turkey.	Christmas.  Our street is known to the locals as "Candy Cane Lane" since everyone decorates, and usually incorporates candy canes as part of their theme.  This year, we're thinking of doing a "Christmas Story" theme.  I WAS Ralphie.
Front of the house after the first snow storm.	Backyard patio after the first storm.	Backyard apple tree while it was snowing.	One of the neighbor kids sledding down the alley behind the house.
This is our cat Roxie.  She's a psycho bitch from hell.		These are our dogs.  The white one is Courage the Cowardly Dog, and he a pure-breed Chihuahua.  The black one is Diva.  We adopted her from the Humane Society in Ft. Lauderdale, and she's a Chihuahua mix.  You should have seen them the first time they encountered snow.

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