Goodbye Sunset Lane

I can't believe I have missed the entire month of June and most of July! But I have a good excuse. We are moving to a new house. Well, new to us, but over fifty years old. I love old houses though, just like the one we currently have. We have done a lot of work to our current house, and I've wanted to make a collection of "before and after" photos. The reason I've never done it is because I don't feel like I have finished our house here. But guess what? It's too late. I'm walking away. It is what it is.

Today I took pictures of our current house to use on a "for rent" advertisement. We are hoping to get it rented as soon as possible. I decluttered, defurnitured, dekidded, and got a little depressed. I love our house. I hate to say goodbye. But our new house is bigger. And it has more space. And it's bigger.

And it has more space.

Here are some pictures to try and show the before and after. And I want to make sure I say thank you to everyone who has helped us make Sunset Lane look this good. Some of you will see yourselves later in the renovation pics.

These first three pictures I took to show a friend our new house back in 2005. I had painted the kitchen purple. Not my best color choice, but not too terrible.

Before:
This is the best I can do of the kitchen "before" because my husband took a sledge hammer to the wall before I could get my head and find my camera.

After:
The living and dining rooms were floor to ceiling real pine paneling. Not attractive, but I appreciate real wood. So it took me until 2008 to take the step of dealing with it. And I wanted the kitchen open to everything. I needed to be able to see Penelope in the high chair while I was cooking. So we took it out, knowing my dad would rescue us of course. And he did. Of course. The before pictures are from Libby's first and fourth birthdays. We began right after her fourth birthday, in June of 2008.

Before:

My mom is holding Libby in the above picture.

After:




So after we took out the walls into the kitchen we lived with only the dining room done with the paneling in the new way. For like a year. Then we tackled the living room in the same way.

Before:

After:


The bathroom looked like this when we moved in. We painted, updated the fixtures, and took out the tiny medicine cabinet. My dad built me a cool shelf. I couldn't have done any of my home renovations without my dad. Thank you Slim Jim!

Before:


After:

We did other work in the house. Like adding a wall and making a great room into two. But I don't have pictures at the ready about that. But that was pretty darn cool too. Here are some pictures from all the work. We have worked on this house. I love this house. I had three babies while living here. I walked around the circle with heartburn that could make me breathe fire. I labored in the shower. I have nursed approximately 5,376 times all over this house. I have cooked terrible and wonderful things here. I have yelled. A lot. I have cried. Walked the hill around the block numerous times. Sometimes pushing three kids. I love it here.

But our new house is bigger. And it has more space.

And it's bigger.

So here are some pics from all the work. I am willing to work. Work is good.

Brian Janek. Always willing to destroy your house at no charge.

Can you see Andrea's face in this? It says "What are these crazy people doing?"

I guess we took out the wall and then lived with exposed wires from the ceiling and patched up countertops through the next Christmas. It's all kind of a blur. We were under construction a lot.Then came cutting the paneling one third of the way down and drywalling where it used to be.

Slim Jim made and laid the beam. It is now my favorite part of the house. I like to look at it just as much as I like to look at the television. Can I say thank you to my dad again?

Yes, here are the exposed wires. So safe.

Andrea may have thought we were crazy but she came to help turn the crazy into something cool.


Here is my friend Sandra helping with the million and one coats of primer and paint it took to cover the pine. See my patch of blue where she is working? I was trying it out. I labored over the paint color choice.

Here I am, committing to the blue. It was such a payoff after working so hard on the white. I picked well. I still love it.

Here is my awesome husband Jimmy who is always up for a home improvement project. At first he wasn't sure about my vision, but he totally trusted me and after the dining area was done, he pushed me to move into the living room. He was very encouraging.

Are you wondering what in the world my four children were doing during this whole process? Me too. We were crazy. They were running around and getting yelled at, basically.


I guess I'm at the end. But the end of the work on this house is only the beginning of the work on the next. It's already begun. I am thankful for an able body and family and friends who help us with all our crazy ideas. I hope you think they've paid off as I do!

I love you Sunset Lane!