Before and after tour: Part 1

This was the way the master bedroom looked before we moved in (above). It was one of the first rooms we changed.


We painted it a muted blue and replaced the carpet, switched out the old-fashioned sconces, and changed the layout.


I may be off on the order in which we renovated the rest of the rooms, but does it really matter? Next up we have the kitchen and family room area, which is one large space with two different levels. This is how it looked shortly after we moved in:

We painted, mostly, and added better lighting in the kitchen, but it made a huge difference:


A couple years later we fixed more stuff in the kitchen - namely, we replaced the crappy counter top and backsplash, which was a big project - the one below is before Tim got cracking on the tiling. I can't find a good shot of the whole thing, so I'm using a crowd-pleasing little baby Sam having a bath, and you can see the counter top, with molded sink, and cool tiles:


That's all for Part 1. Part 2 will include the living room and dining room, which have both changed dramatically. I'm actually having fun posting these - it's often easy to forget how much we've done in such a short time, and hard to not focus on everything that still needs to be done. I'm also incredibly thankful and proud to have such a smart and handy husband who, despite the never-ending setbacks that come with having a 150 year old house, always figures it out and always makes it look good. I can't even begin to count the money we've saved by doing so much ourselves, and even if it's not all perfect, it doesn't matter because it's really 'ours' and I just love it. Now if I could just pick up the house and move it a few miles...