Before…and After!

[portfolio-gallery include=2139]We’re finally into our new house!  Completely!  After spending a full day last weekend moving the rest of our junk into our new garage, we’ll have the rental cleaned next week and will be DONE with renting forever. Now comes the unpacking, sorting, and putting away all the stuff we’ll keep, with the rest of it left in the garage for a future sale.  But that’s down the road a bit. The past couple of weeks have been filled with cleaning, painting, and shopping, with poor Thom taking the brunt of the work because of my job. The garage and the outside, which is in desperate need of a paint job, had to wait while we re-did the inside. Kevanna is coming next weekend, and we HAD to have it ready for them! Thom’s  brother-in-law was down this past week and installed a beautiful set of French patio doors that just make the room. Here’s some befores and afters:

First, the living area looking out to the front door. We removed the curtains, then Thom took down the wallpaper border on the left. We decided to stay with the same color as the rest of the room, and since there was a can of paint in the garage with the name on it, we were able to match it perfectly! We put some 2″ white wood blinds in the front window. A new front door and screen door are in our future.

The kitchen had some big changes. We had to put a new counter top in as the old one was actually warped. Thom spent days sanding and painting the cupboard doors and drawer fronts, including the wood around the light fixture. We were forced to get a new (used) fridge, so we went for a big white side-by-side. We hope to replace the stove and microwave with white ones down the road.

But I have to say our most favorite improvement is in our beautiful little lanai!  Here are a couple of before and a couple of after pictures. The lanai was just filthy when we got in there. No one had lived in the house for over two years. Once we cleaned it, we realized it had beautiful tile under all the dirt. But the slider had to go. It wouldn’t slide; it kept falling off the track. It made all kinds of noise. It just begged to be replaced! Huge thanks go to Bobby for such a great job installing it with some help from Thom. The perfect housewarming gift!

So, aside from the bedrooms, which really didn’t need any big fixes, I think we’re ready for our first company! (We just have to keep them out of the garage.)