Before and after--home edition

As you all know, we bought the house that I grew up in (at least spent most of my childhood in) from my parents earlier this summer. This was a great opportunity, but one that came up a bit sooner than we had originally anticipated (we had previously planned on doing all of this next year). You see, we had always joked with my folks that they should let us know when they were ready to move, but they always responded that we should let them know when we were ready. Long story short, it ended up that this summer was right time, so we all jumped!

The "before" shots...

The top one is technically our side yard, but that's where the garage and driveway are, so it gets the most useage. The second is the front of the house.

 

Before we moved, we knew that there were some things that we definitely wanted to do to the house.  Primarily, adding a second bathroom, moving the laundry room up from out of the dungeon basement, pushing back the garage to add a workshop and building out over the garage which had a flat roof.  This house, like our old house, was built back in the late teens/early twenties, so while it has a lot of charm, there were still some upgrades that we felt were necessary.

What does that mean, exactly?  Well, basically we hired out the big stuff (framing, plumbing, HVAC, electric, drywall), but J decided he wanted to do the "finish" work i.e. windows, trim, painting, flooring and built-ins.  I give him so much credit--every night, since late May, he has been working on some project or another on the house.  Weekends too.  It isn't easy to work your "day" job and then come home and start another, but he's more than happy to do it.  Says it is therapeutic for him.  I don't totally get it, but that's o.k., 'cuz he's in his element, things are getting accomplished and the house is slowly but surely taking shape. 

Some people have asked how my parents feel about all the changes we've done to the house and thankfully they're totally fine with them.  They're excited to see J's vision become a reality.  Me too!

The "after" shot of the side yard with the changed roofline and room over the garage.

The front of the house remained the same (see above).

Here's the "back side" of the house with the extended garage.

In all the photos, you'll have to excuse the yard and grass (or lack there of).  We had some trees removed and of course this hot, brutal summer with hardly any rain certainly didn't do any wonders for the landscaping.  Add in work trucks parking all over the grass, and well, there you have it.

 

But still...........we're soo excited!!