Before and After

Building a custom modern home ain’t cheap, so a few years ago we moved in to the hood to save up money for the dream.

I thought I’d share some of the lovely before and after shots with you. Now keep in mind that almost all of our stuff has been in storage for nearly five years now, so the “After” shots aren’t really decorated… like at all. That being said here ya go:

Paint peeling, rotting wood, over grown brush, disintegrating shingles, oh what fun we had! You can’t tell with the screen door, but the front door had been kicked in.

The back door was also broken in and served as the main entrance for all of the drug addicts. Did I forget to mention this was a former crack house?

Notice the blue theme through out the house. The exterior siding and every room on the inside was painted a slightly different shade of blue. Yeah, it was sweet. The carpet pad had disintegrated into orange powder and the nasty red berber had lumps and didn’t extend all the way to the walls. Each room had a different elevation of one to two inches. The worst part, though, may have been the smell: rancid puke. Lasted for months. *GAG*

Everything had to be replaced: sheetrock, flooring, plumbing, electric, insulation, decks… everything!

The kitchen was the grossest room in the house. Major rot and big time roach infestation. Roach poop poured out of the cabinets and walls when we took them out. Look how disgusting that door is! And the cabinet doors! Eeww!!

Due to rot (and a poor configuration) the entire bathroom had to be cut out.

And now drum roll please…

Ta da!

I don’t have pics of the bedrooms before. This one was blue (of course) but with lovely elmo wallpaper.

The house didn’t have a laundry before, so we added an area in the bathroom.

These after shots are actually pretty old. Remember we sold all the Ikea furniture a while back? Oh, and I finally got around to putting new throw pillows together for the couch instead of those boring gray ones.

So, there you have it. It’s so nice to be moving on. We couldn’t be more ecstatic or relieved to be selling. We’ve been in a too small house for too long. It was intended to be temporary, but half way through the renovations I got knocked up with baby # 1 and slowed the whole remodel down. By the time we were done, the market collapsed. POOP. But we’re okay. It’s a miraculous answer to prayer to be selling in this market. Plus, we accomplished what we had hoped for which was saving the 25% down payment for the new house.