Front of house before:

Obviously nothing had been done to the exterior of the home in many, many years.  Although I was told that the previous owners just recently painted the trim on the house that gray-blue color.  Why?  I have no idea!  Sad…

Front of house after (in the summer, when the grass is green and trees are blooming):

So what didn’t we do to the exterior of this house?!  We had the trim painted a nice neutral color and had the garage door painted a shade or 2 darker beige.  I was a little hesitant about a different color garage door at first but we really liked it after it was all done.  We completely gutted the flower beds, plants, rocks, mulch…everything.  Gutters were installed on the front of the house to deal with the drainage problem in the flower bed.   I washed every window on the outside at least 3 times.  Then we rebuilt the flowerbeds with new border rocks, mulch, shrubs, a flag pole and flowers.  And voila, looks like a different house!

Now we will venture inside and I’ll show you some of the rooms that we have redone so far. Every single room in this house will have to be redone…from paint to carpet to sheetrock work.  We still have many more projects to do…but we are so pleased with the ones that we have accomplished this past year.

Study (ECP workroom) before:

All I can say is ewww dirty pink and boob light…

Study (ECP workroom) after:

We added the wainscoting around the bottom and painted the walls a fun “Betsy Ross Blue”.  These 3 photos are 20×30 prints framed up to a 24×36.  I got the white mats cut at Hobby Lobby to fit in the frames.  I always love how a white mat sets off the whole b/w portrait.  LOVE!  Chair & rug came from Target, light & console from IKEA and desk…well my hubby made it out of reclaimed barn wood.  It is my favorite thing ever!  It is just a fun room all the way around!

Downstairs powder room before:

Anyone love hummingbird wallpaper and brass  light fixtures from the ‘80’s?  Yah, me either….  I did not edit these to make the before rooms look worse than they are.  They are just that bad!  I think the toilet paper rolls add character to an an already awful bathroom.

Downstairs powder room after:

Complete gut job again.  New marble floors, new wall texturing and paint, new toilet, vanity, mirror, sink, faucet, art.  All the fixtures came from Lowes and the photo frames came from IKEA with just some random scenery photos I took.   I love the crisp, clean feeling of this powder room now.

Master Bedroom before:

Ok, I am seriously mad at myself for not taking any before photos of the bedroom…it was the most drastic change thus far.  Oh well, just to give you a little idea.  The walls were a yellowish color, yucky old carpet with stains, the door to the bedroom was in a different place (we sheet rocked it up and put the door way back to where it was supposed to be).  Sheet-rocked over a random closet that the previous owners had made in the room.   Yucky old blinds…I think you get the idea.

Master Bedroom after:

Complete gut job yet again.  New carpet, sheet-rock, paint (Grey Morning), crown molding and very cool white siding behind the bed that the Crump men installed while I was on vacation.  And of course all new décor.  Curtains from www.carouseldesigns.com , chairs and table from Overstock, yellow art from High Fashion Home, and bedding from Target.  We still have a few other pieces to get…matching nightstands, etc.  And I am working on a very large b/w photo to go over the bed!

Living Room before:

So feast your eyes on the living room before.  See that little hole that the balloon is sticking out of?  Well that used to be the door to the bedroom until the previous owners decided to wall it in.  But see they had to leave that hole there for the a/c to work properly.  Really???  And take a look at the wall paper and flower trim.  That took me 3 solid weeks of nights after the kids went to bed to scrape all that wallpaper off.  Never again…

Living room after:

This room required a little more TLC.  The strange master bedroom door situation was remedied with a little sheet-rock work and some paint.  See what happened to the “balloon hole” from the before photos? All the flower wall paper border and striped wall paper disappeared and it started to resemble a room I could relax in.  We retextured and painted all the walls and trim.  Added some wood floor in the area that we opened up to be the new master bedroom door and took down all the dirty old blinds.  But my favorite parts of this room, hands down,  are all the photos of my family that make me smile every day!

I pictured this canvas collage in my head for the longest time before it all came together.  I bought a few canvases at a time and eventually it all came together.  The 4 canvases on the sides are 20×30 size and the one in the middle is a custom ordered 24×42.  I love seeing my kids photos big on the walls!  Are you beginning to see a theme here?!

Yes, that is a barn door on the wall… and yes, I love it!

Kid’s upstairs playroom before:

Again, mad at myself for no good photos of the before just lots of nasty carpet, lots of green paint (that had also spilled on the carpet), lots of changes needed…

 Kid’s upstairs playroom after:

This playroom was a pretty easy room to renovate.  It just needed a lot of cleaning, new paint on the walls and trim, and new carpet.  I had a playroom in our old house so the rug,  bookshelves and numbers on the wall came with us.  The frame is from www.organicbloom.com.  You can only buy them from a professional photographer so I am your woman if you like it! (ok, shameless plug over).  The tree is vinyl and came from an Etsy store…complete with two owls for two perfect kiddos.  And the curtains from the same place as the master bedroom.  I love this room.  I think it is fun and playful but can still grow up with them.

So, exactly one year later and that is what has happened to our little fixer upper house.  Hope you enjoyed our little tour!  This year we are planning on doing more painting on the interior (the entry way and My little mister’s room) a sprinkler system and a backyard deck and lighting.  Renovating our whole house is going to take lots of time.  Good thing we plan on being here for a while!

For more wonderful “best face” photos go to www.iheartfaces.com.  You might just feel inspired to work on your “best face” photo for 2012.

Well this is a year of change.  This year I will pull out that “big” camera and record those memories!  I am going to be doing a 52 week personal photography project geared towards my families everyday activities.  Won’t you join me in your own 52 week project.  You won’t regret those precious memories that you capture and your camera skills will probably improve with all the practice!

Just a reminder that all 2011 Christmas mini sessions booked up in AUGUST of last year.  So you may want to put a reminder in your iphone for 2012 Christmas mini sessions.  Those will start booking in AUGUST of this year as well!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  The leaves are changing and the weather is getting cooler.  Bundle up your wee ones and take them outside for photos with the changing leaves!  So pretty!