Riot and Frolic

We bought a fixer-upper a few years ago.  [Grand understatement.]

The first year or so was the blissful demolition of the sagging back deck and sketchy basement "apartment" and pulling up the carpet.

BEFORE: plus, hornets!

BEFORE: as creepy as you think it was

BEFORE: this was the first to go

BEFORE: "blue institutional" did not say "home" to me

Then we moved onto refinishing the overly polyurethaned wood floors and removing the five unnecessary doors separating our lower level rooms.  

BEFORE: where's jim morrison?

Overhauling the kitchen was next.

BEFORE: the evil set of "that 70s show"

AFTER: thank you, ikea

AFTER: careful, you might step on the 21st century in here

After that, there was ripping off the old siding and starting to replace it, which lead to replacing the exterior doors and fixing some floor joists and putting in header beams to open up the floor plan, and on and on and on.

AFTER: this is what insulation looks like, heretofore, not known of in these parts

AFTER: there was a wall there once

Basically, we've been living in a construction zone for 5 years.  There are many unfinished edges.  

But we are making progress.

As of a week ago, my home has two, TWO, entry points which open and shut AND lock.  

It's nonsense.

There is a wall of lovely double hung windows where a drafty, missing-paned, unsecure pair of French doors used to be. 

BEFORE: there's no lock on these? that's cool

AFTER: sunny all the time

AFTER: i'm never buying curtains

What will become of our house now that there's no longer a secret entrance?  How will we keep undesirables away without the rickety staircase leading up to the only door that works?  Will I have to answer the door if our doorbell actually works?  Do I need to start using my dust pan in preparation when I don't have a hole in the floor that I can sweep my dirt into?

*sigh*

P.S. Looking back on the photos – BLURG! – what did we move into?  A million high fives to The G (Hollister and Bratt relations, too) for doing ALL THE WORK.   The house looks great, seriously.

 Two years ago: LLLL, in which the new baby farts.