Before and after

Seeing as how I might not have many before and after photos of our new house for you for a while I thought I would show a few pictures of what we did at our old house. Originally I wanted to do everything in one post, but I don't have time for that considering the girls will be waking up any minute. So let's get started. We moved into our old house right after college. It was a tiny, two bedroom starter home that will always hold such a special place in my heart. In fact, if it had just one more bedroom I have a feeling I never would have left. It was not my dream house but it was just a such a cozy little place and it was in a great neighborhood and closer to family and friends. I also think I am so attached to that house because it is where Shaun and I started our "adult" lives together...yes we are high school sweethearts. We lived there for only two years but it was just a special time in my life...we got married, had our first dog together and had our first daughter Madeline while we lived there (so sad she won't remember living there.)

When we moved in, the house was a little less to be desired. The previous owners were both heavy smokers and clearly never opened a window to get any fresh air. The smell was horrible and the walls that were supposed to be white were stained yellow! There was some gross wall paper that had to be taken down and then we went to work immediately with a heavy duty primer and paint. I can still remember the smell of the primer was so intense that you could smell it from the street! And it was so difficult, like trying to paint the walls with tar. There was a lot of cleaning to be done also to get everything smelling better.  Once we moved in was when I really realized that rather than going out and partying or having fancy vacations and expensive dinners, Shaun and I had more fun saving up to do fun projects around the house. We are a good team....I come up with ideas...and he tells me if I am crazy or if we can actually make them happen.

I'm sure if we had stayed there longer we would have done much more but I think with our time and budget we really spruced her up a bit. (I apologize if the photography in these pics aren't the best)

Here's the front of the house before:

And after we painted the porch, door and added new shutters and flowers:

My favorite room remodel was our guest bathroom. Before:

After: (these pictures really don't do that room any justice but at the time I did not realize I would want to have a blog about my decorating adventures!) And here's some advice: even if you don't want to do a blog ALWAYS take before and after photos! We added wainscoting, changed the paint color (it was not as pink looking in person), got a new mirror and added a pedestal sink that was a wedding gift from my brother.

 Different light fixture and a really cool faucet that everyone loved to play with when they visited. (ugh..I really wish I could go back and rephotograph this house.) 

 Loved this floor! It was actually tile that looked like wood. It was the most expensive part of the re-do but since the room was small we decided to splurge.

Tomorrow I will post our old kitchen remodel and the rest of the rooms. Wow, looking through these pictures really brings up so many emotions and memories. Will I ever get over leaving my first house? Something tells me no. Does anyone else feel this way about their first home?