This is my first set of before and after pics.  I’m only posting them in sections because, well, I have only finished a couple areas of the house. 

Lots of people have said they “couldn’t do it” - meaning downsizing to the extent that I have.  Losing 2200 square feet is quite a bit and required every ounce of organizational ability I stole from years of knowing Sara.  I’m fairly proud of my work and sometimes I would go so far as to say I’m pleased as well.  My life has been simplified to an extreme degree - I can probably clean the entire house (haven’t tried yet, because I’m still unpacking) in 45 minutes.  It will take me much longer to mow the front and back yard than it will to clean the entire house. 

I’ve posted a flickr badge at the end of this post if you want to see the whole set; some people asked me where I got things, and a lot of the pictures have the specifics in the “info” section if you click on it as you are viewing the slideshow. 

So up first:  Lily and Arden’s room.  My brother, my dad and some friends helped get the painting done before the bunkbeds were assembled. I wanted their room completely done before they moved in to cut down on any sort of additional stress for them, and we got 98% of the way there. 

Before:

After:

The girls’ room presented a number of challenges, not the least of which being the closet space (basically none).  I used a stackable shoe rack, purged a bunch of their clothes, rearranged and stored things in places I hadn’t though of (like repurposing Lily’s shelf baskets as storage for under the bunkbeds) and secretly sneaking out with armfuls of stuffed animals to donate when they weren’t looking.  I love the paint colors; I took the linens from Target and picked a very pale pink and a very Granny Smith green for alternating walls.  The louvered closet doors were not only ugly as all get out but hard to open and close.  I ripped them off and hung a beaded curtain.  I’d like to say it was intentional, but I didn’t realize until the beads were up that it really didn’t give any coverage for the mess in the closet, so I added a curtain road and a sheer dotted curtain from Target over it. The result was super cute and the girls love their “sparkly” closet. 

And the picture of Thora?  Really nothing spectacular about it but she’s so cute.  And she looks so well-behaved in this picture. 

Next up:  the office.

Unfortunately, I have a lot of things for my home office that had to come with me.  I had to keep my sewing table (it’s my old, tile topped table from 1996), I had to drag my inventory, and I needed a desk.  Fitting those three things into one smallish room with a tiny little closet was challenging to say the least.  Here’s what the office looked like before:

Tiny office closet:

And now:

Closet:

My wall of inventory:

My “master” bedroom was definitely a challenge.  It had nasty carpet that smelled like a nursing home to me.  The wall color was a sickly beige contrasted against a slightly less sickly white for the louvered doors.  The blinds were cream, and plastic, and mostly broken.  It clashed horribly with the very very blue bathroom.  Someone got a peel and stick bug up their butt and decided to “improve” the blue bathroom by adding hideous tiles in completely the wrong shade of blue.  The result was as follows.

Bedroom Before:

With a lot of carpet pulling and staple removing, a bunch of paint, new blinds, curtains, and a hard look at what I really needed to keep, the end result is this:

And finally, my last set for the night. . . the dreaded master bathroom.  With one tiny light, hideous blue on white tile, decaying grout, a blue toilet with a white lid, and some bizarre looking blue sink, I cried my ass off the first night I showered in there.  It was grungy, depressing, and made me feel like I was staying in a flophouse somewhere.  Dramatic, yes, but seriously gross:

View from inside the shower - note huge door not able to really open . . .

And the afters, with tons of help from Nicole on the curtains and the overall color scheme.  Did I mention Steve ripped out the blue sink and toilet, and replaced both in the span of about 2 hours?  Yeah, he rocks.  He’s my brother, and no, you can’t have him. 

New flooring:

and the world’s best invention - a suction cup thingy to hold a hairdryer and brush!!!!

I just finished the girl’s bathroom tonight and am also done with the family room.  The screen porch has become my holding area, even though Robey and Co. made fun of me when I had them hang up my “festive” garden lights. They say it now looks like a mexican restaurant’s bar, and that’s okay with me.  More to come later - as I get finished. 

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