Our first home! some before and "middle" pictures

No "after" pictures yet - those will be months in the making yet.  We closed on our first home on April 9th.  Lots and lots of money and work later, we're here!  It's not quite done, but we love it.  We still feel like we're house sitting, like soon we'll have to go back to our rental.  But it's really and truly ours!  It's been very hard work and very expensive to make it our own, but much more fun than we could have ever guessed.  Jer's family has saved us thousands and we've learned a lot.  Family (read: Corky!), if you're reading this, you know we wouldn't have our beautiful home without you -- a million thank yous!

Here are some before and after pictures for posterity's sake.  There is still a lot of work to be done, but here's our work in progress.   I started in the kitchen and worked my way clockwise around the house.

Our raw-nerve-ending red kitchen and cartoony white cabinet pulls before:

And our brown/gray after (we're still missing white trim under the bar counter):

Family room mid-demo with drab gray and silly Scott:

Stained concrete and happier neutral after:

Our affectionately termed "Aztec Wall" (we still don't know what to do with this space):

A detail of the 3 mis-matched grays before (they looked worse in real life - promise!) the walls were really just a downer, the carpet had lots of stains and a purple hue, and the tile (wait for it) had streaks of pink and turquoise painted on the gray fake marble:

And a detail of the stained concrete we opted for.  We love the cracks and ghosting from the tile.  Lots of character.  Wears well, easy to clean.  We're very happy with it!

One of the most breathtaking rooms in the house before, our powder room (even the ceiling was painted this color, including all vents):

And after, a barely-blue, with stained concrete floors (insert soothed sigh)

Our pink, 500 sq ft. master bedroom before:


Neutral after

And the wall we put in to make 2 huge rooms instead of 1 ridiculous one (pardon the mess - we live here now!):

And a double door we can close when we want a clean room :)

Pink master bath before (we didn't get a picture of the CARPETED floor!):

Neutral master w/ Jeremy-tiled floor (and grouchy Sammy) after:

more tile

Dining room before:

Dining room after (we'll replace the light fixture eventually):

Entry:

Our music room before:

A snapshot of wall color (a warmer gray) and carpeting after:

Ruthie's lemon room before:

and after:

The boys' Christmas room before:


after:

Sam's purple room before:


after:

                       

Kids' bathroom before:

and after:

And the backyard.  It is small, but not quite as small as it looks in the pictures.  It's about 20'x60', plus a covered patio, which should give the kids plenty of room to play once we get our sod in.  Before there was a massive shed we thought we could convert to a playhouse, but it wasn't in great shape, so we took it out and left part of the concrete pad:

And "middle" - Jeremy and the guys hauled out that shed, jack-hammered the awkward pieces of the concrete pad, hauled out wheelbarrowful after wheelbarrowful of rock, leveled the stone-hard ground, we had curbing poured, we bought a few pretty trees, Jeremy is in the process of trenching for sprinklers, and soon we'll have some grass!

It really does look tiny, but it really is 60'.  The small yard was our compromise, but we're still excited for the finished product.

And lastly, just for fun!  Babes and cousin Ella

James bo bames

and gap-toothed Scotty