My house... before and after pictures

Before Pictures:

Old Dining room window
Old living room windows (with the casing torn off!)
Living room pre-crown molding
Dining room pre-crown molding

Okay, here are a bunch of pictures of my house in Coon Rapids "before" the latest updates of this winter. Like I mentioned yesterday, I had declared a moratorium on further house improvements until I had more of my previous improvements paid off. I changed my mind, however, because with the economy the way it is I found that I can get a good deal on material and labor for most everything I wanted done.

I started the winter with finishing off the garage, a project that had been planned since last spring. The original intention was to finish it off so i could comfortably run on the treadmill, but alas, I have no treadmill. Instead finishing off the garage meant that RR had a very comfortable workshop to use to finish all the indoor work. I have no pictures of the garage, but he finished insulating and sheetrocking the remaining 1.5 walls that weren't finished and re-painted the whole garage. It now holds heat very well with just one little heater going when necessary.

The windows in the front of my house were replaced last winter and I decided to finish off the back windows as well before Lowes discontinued the model leaving me with no choice but to have mis-matched windows. I had toyed with the idea of adding a deck off of my dining room, an upgrade I'd seen in similar floor plans, and I figured why replace the old window with a new window only to tear it out in a year or two for a patio door? The door required a lot of work; RR had to basically tear open the wall, reframe, move electric lines, etc. But it looks great.

I also decided to add crown molding throughout my living and dining rooms, and my upstairs hall. I already have crown in my bedroom and office, but we jazzed up the living room crown by adding the corner blocks.

I finished off the look by adding a silk plant/tree thing (I never imagined I'd spend $80 on a silk tree) and a dining room table. No, I did not have a table before this.
New living room windows.

New patio door.

Complete living room- crown and curtains
Complete dining room view
Complete sans curtains, but with compressor.

Oops, I seem to have forgotten to blog

Actually, it's not so much that I forgot as much as I was unmotivated to do so. What follows are some random stream of consciousness tidbits and a promise to be more diligent in updating this blog:

I ran about .75miles at the gym today and had to stop because my ipod ran out of battery life while listening to Lil' Wayne.

I've been meaning to update my blog for about 2 weeks because I have some awesome pictures of the house stuff I've done in the last two months. I really meant to take this winter, nay, year off from spending money on the house, yet a couple of thousand dollars later I have new windows in the back of the house (front of the house was done last winter), a new patio door to replace my old dining room window (yes, that means I'll need a deck at some point). Also a new patio door to replace my renter's patio door that became so warped as to not close. I splurged and had RR (who did all this work for me) also put in crown molding throughout my main floor living and dining rooms. I then REALLY splurged and bought a $80 silk plant (tree) and a cheap-but-good-looking dining room table.

I've been craving fattening foods lately, especially pizza and ranch dressing. And Chinese food.

My Valentine's Day plan, being single, was to get a facial, eat either pizza or Chinese food, and watch t.v. Instead I went up to Two Harbors with the Fab Four and stayed at a hotel that is made out of rail cars. I watched the Enforcer play beer pong with a bunch of 20-somethings and failed the booze barometer while sober.

I am the Force's new financial advisor. I've taken complete control of his finances and am helping him stay organized and get out of debt. I figure I can control all the balls of my debt, I may as well help him out.

We've finalized our dates for our trip to WY this summer: July 11th-26th, for about 12 days or so. We'll climb Francs Peak (no apostrophe, really, even though it was named for Otto Franc) and see George Strait in concert at Cheyenne Days. We may have 3 extra people joining the Fab Four.

I really did more at the gym than just a .75 mile run. I did 45 minutes on the stair machine listening to Dave Ramsey.

I quit the part time job a couple weeks ago, although the time frame for exactly when I quit is vague. I felt I needed a break so I called in sick for a week. Then I still needed some time so I just didn't go in for a week. My manager called to ask if I was okay and if I wanted to reduce my hours. I told her I'd think about it. I still didn't go in. She called again and asked if I was resigning and I said I guessed I was. She told me to call them back if interested in a position in the future. Huh.

I got a pile of money back from taxes because of Party Central. I changed my withholding to get it back in my paychecks instead of at year end. Also got a bit of a raise with my new position, spend a lot less in gas now, and am reimbursed time and mileage when I have to drive to a different location for work.

A co-worker and I might do the Fargo marathon. Not sure yet. They also want to do the Ragnar relay in August and I might tell them I will. I hate to commit however.

I haven't blogged yet because I want to post house pictures. I am using my USB drive to charge my ipod, however, so can't upload the pictures yet.

I have ranch dressing, but no pizza. I gave my leftovers to RR earlier this evening so I wouldn't eat all the leftovers, but now I am regretting that decision.