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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

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.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

It looks great in the pictures. Can't wait to see it in person. Guess I can stop looking for tables for you! Mom

Diane said...

The table was a $200 special at Mills Fleet Farm. Perfect size for me and my dining room and perfect colors. And perfect price range.

SteveQ said...

Man, you are NEVER seeing my house! I thought I got used to the asbestos and lead and then you had to post what houses are supposed to look like.

Londell said...

Now I understand why you have been blogless... Nice job! So I suppose a deck is getting started in April? Maybe plan a great long run starting from you place and when we all arrive, just say "if you all help a little I could run with you". Amazing how fast things get built with a whole bnch of volunteers...

Diane said...

Steve,
Just don't chew on the window sills and you should be fine!

Diane said...

Londell,
Yeah, the deck is pretty close to the top of my to-do list. My original plan was to do it in a year or two, but I'm not very good at waiting. I also need a new roof at Party Central. The roof can wait 1 year at most, since the deck on my house will be more "fun". Roof is more important, though, and will look good with the new exterior paint that will be done next month. Too bad I don't have any money left...!

Mike T Nelson said...

Nice work Diane and friends!!!
Rock on
Mike T Nelson

Anonymous said...

The room looking pretty "sh-nazzy" with all the updates. I really do like it. Great work!

Timothy

Diane said...

Hey, thanks! Bought deck materials tonight, so I'll have to post some pictures in a couple weeks when that's done, too!