The First of Many...

So here is the first of the 'before' pics! This is the entire upstairs of the house: 3 bedrooms and a full bathroom. I would love to be posting 'before and afters', but right now we are slow going, really taking the time to wipe walls thoroughly and fill in holes and everything. I figured, read previous post, that if I'm living in the 'befores', you can too for right now :-)  So here we go:

This is the first bedroom and the smallest. It will be my 1 year old's room.

This is the 2nd bedroom, and it will be my 3 years old's room.

This is the 3rd Bedroom, the original master in the house, and it will be used as the master for a while, maybe forever. I don't like being on a different level than my kiddos at night :-)

Here is the hallway to the upstairs bedrooms.

 



And my personal favorite: here is the upstairs full bathroom.

Okay. So i'd love to say that everything all these spaces need is happening today, but that's not going to happen. A lot will be changed, and, hopefully, each room will slowly be tranformed, but it'll take some time. In the meantime, my family of boys are going to love this pink tub!

Before and Afters...

I love 'before and afters'. I mean it is always inspiring to see how the old and sometimes ugly is transformed to the new and beautiful. For the past weeks I've been invisioning all the 'afters' in our new home. I could SEE it you know. But, yesterday, as I walked around in our first full day in our new home, I was beginning to panic. I am surrounded by all the 'befores' right now and suddenly doubting if there will ever be an 'after'. Have you been there before? I mean who lingers on the 'before'? You look it over quickly and then even more quickly scroll to find those 'afters'. And you linger and drink in all the details of how those wonderful 'afters' came to be. Right? Sigh. Of course I know that any beautiful 'after' probably involved a lot of blood, sweat, and tears as the 'before' disappeared, but yesterday the thought of all that blood, sweat, and tears was more than a little overwhelming. Sleep is good though, and today when my sweet 3 year old woke me up at his typical 5:45 wake up, and I groggily made him cereal and me coffee, this house began to feel like home, and, even more importantly, I began to feel some peace about everything. I mean don't get me wrong. This renovation is going to be difficult, and I have no doubt I will second guess our decision numerous times. But, hopefully, please Lord, we will have our 'afters' too, and they will be beautiful. And regardless I will have my sweet, loving family beside me. And, I must remember, that's what's most important.

p.s. All those wonderful 'before' pics will be up soon!