House Photos - After

Here are some recent photos that show some of the improvements we've made to the place. As you can see, there is still some work to be done, but it's getting there! Thank God we have a Home Depot right down the street...! lol

House details:
2-story town-home - 3 bedroom/2 full bathrooms. It has an attached one-car garage with enough space for a washer and dryer, a balcony, and a small backyard. I think it's about 1300-1350 square feet. The house was built in 1988.

OK, I have added some kitchen photos! I was going to clean out the garage and take some photos of that today but the painting company was here painting the garage door so I haven't been able to open it (good thing I noticed them earlier and parked my car outside!) I'll try to do that tomorrow.

Entryway/Foyer

Things in the entry way just as you walk in the front door. These were some of our wedding flowers that my parents took and pressed/framed for us. They gave them to us as a Christmas present for our first married Christmas.

Stairs leading down to the garage (on right) and scrapbook room/wine cellar (!) on the left. Huge improvement from the urine-yellow and painted-over outlets! :)

Entry way with my fake tree thing. The blue colour is Behr's Blue Agave. The off-white is Glidden's Soft Ecru that we had mixed with Behr paint. We called it French Vanilla since it looks like the colour of vanilla ice cream. :) yum... We had quite a few Coldstone Creamery runs during our painting sessions! lol

Real plant at the bottom of the stairs!

More of the entry way - my overly superstitious mom always told me elephants should face the door, hence the elephant mirror facing the front door! That stick is one of hubby's kung fu spears... terrible feng shui having weapons by the door but whenever I move them he complains so I'll just have to deal!

Kitchen


The wall colour in the kitchen is the Soft Ecru that is in some of the other rooms in the house.




Dining Room


The dining room. We just got the new table as a 2nd anniversary present to ourselves ;) It's a bar-height table - we love it! The red paint (isn't that awesome? PITA to paint, though!) is Glidden's Drum Beat mixed with Behr paint.


Living Room


Living room. Again, a big improvement from the green/yellow/whatever nasty colour this was before we got our paws on the house!


Hubby's favourite toy :) We got ourselves a 40" Sony Bravia LCD TV (the full HD 1080P or whatever it is one...) I'm not much of a TV person, but I have to say, this was worth the money! It was our Christmas present to ourselves since hubby got a bit of a bonus at work.


Living room paint colours - the main walls are Behr's Brown Bread, the accent wall (the one with all those windows behind the big blue/white chair) is Blue Agave. All these colours look even prettier in person!


Bookcase thing we got at Ikea... I love the vaulted ceilings we have throughout this house!

Second Bedroom/Guest Room


Guest bedroom. You can't really tell, but the back wall (with the windows) is now a really pretty gray-blue colour. It's called Silent Tide (Behr). Goes really well with that comforter!


Master Bedroom


Master Bedroom. This was the only room which was a decent colour when we moved in so we haven't painted in here.


Third Bedroom/Office


Home office - this is my side of the office. Very cluttery! lol


Hubby's side of the office... I love his green computer! How fun is that thing?! :) Not so cluttery, but a bit of a mess.. lol ;)


We used our office closet to store office-related stuff. There's my little white MacBook :) I'd like to get a Mac desktop when my current computer bites the dust. The current one is hubby's and he's a PC guy so I'll have to see about that... he did buy me the laptop, though!


More office supplies on the other side of the closet (mostly my teacher/work junk!)

Backyard


Some photos of my hibiscus. I was going to cut this back, but it has been doing so well this year! I'll probably just trim it a bit when these latest flowers die.


Random purple plant. We have no idea what this is but it's so pretty. This also needs to be cut back quite a bit!




Some pretty pink lilies (I think...) right outside one of our bedroom windows. The one in the front (to the right of the photo) is as tall as I am - and I'm 5'7"!!

House Photos - Before

These are some photos I took of the house before we moved in. I was so irked that day - we had gotten both sets of parents together to come see our house and there was a freaking open house going on! WTH?! We had closed on the house, etc. but the seller (do not get me started on him!) decided he felt the need to have another open house.. ugh! oh well... here you go :) Obviously we got the house so I'm over it now... just nice to vent about every now and then ;) lol


Garage/front of house - stupid Open House sign! Grrrr... ;)

Entry way from front door - the steps you can see go up to the main part of the house. Notice the painted-over outlets.. who the heck paints over outlets?! Losers...


Yes, the disgusting urine-yellow walls (and their matching outlets!) were the first things to go!
This is the rest of the entry way from the front door. These stairs go down to the garage on the right (door that propped open a bit) and a large closet on the left - door that is completely open. The closet is where I store my scrapbook stuff (it's like a small room, really), wine/beer, coke/Dr Pepper, all our board games, school books, brooms/swiffer stuff, coats.


Kitchen with the dining room in the background - those people were the sellers' agents... my dad let them have it! lol ;) That dishwasher was so gross. I swear, the dirtiest people on the planet lived in our house before us! I made the seller pay for a new dishwasher for us. Well, look at that thing! It's older than I am!


Don't you love the green walls?! I won't tell you what we nicknamed them... Painting was one of the first things we did after we got the keys!


Ooh look, another painted-over outlet!


Hall bathroom/hubby's bathroom.


2nd bedroom - I LOVE the plantation shutters (even though one section is a bit broken.. lol) This room was also that attractive "green" colour... Over that fence that you can see through the window is our back yard.


Really dark.. sorry! This is the 3rd bedroom (front of the house) - we transformed it into a home office. The balcony is also out there in the front.


My huge walk-in closet :) Yes, those shelves are now full of my shoes...! lol


Rest of the closet.

Master bathroom/my bathroom.

More of the master bathroom.

Balcony and my neighbor's magnolia... so jealous! lol ;)

Casa de Mark & Gillian

Well, there it is! Casa de us :) Attractive fire hydrant, huh?! Oh well, probably a nice thing to have right in front of your house!
It's supposed to be getting painted soon (the HOA people just sent out a thingy saying the trim and front door would be painted... we're also supposed to get new garage doors - the sectional ones, not the one-piece one like we have) so no doubt, our ridiculous HOA fees will go up!
I'll try to take a new photo soon (sans random red VW) - especially if the paint colour changes!
The tree is nice, but my next door neighbors and the people in the next house down have magnolias outside of their's... I want a magnolia! We can stand on our balcony and have a nice view of our next door neighbor's tree, though, so I guess that counts for something :)