Before and After

We took some pictures of our house before we purchased it – that way we were able to go back and look through them while we were still making our decisions. I’ve been glad that I did that since there wasn’t a whole lot of time to take the pictures before we started working on the house and moving in.

So, today, since things were quasi-neat, I thought I’d take some pictures. B/c while we were in PA for Christmas, Loudon’s Finest Painting - Eddie Briceno (thanks Jason Townsend for hooking us up w/ a great contractor!) came in and painted our 1st and 2nd levels. We were happy w/ them when they re-did our basement (once I clear through some of the remaining boxes and clutter, I’ll do before and after pictures of the basement) and our 2nd level (I don’t have energy to clean up the toys on that level today!).

Eddie has been really great…..especially when he came to finalize our painting job before Christmas. I had a worthless Comcast technician at the house trying to re-do what the first worthless technician didn’t do back in September. Long story short, this technician had incorrect orders and he told me that it didn’t matter what Comcast had told me or was telling me (I had them on the line relaying the information to him live), he wasn’t going to do anything until he received new orders from his supervisor since he wasn’t employed directly by Comcast. So, until he received his new orders, he said he’d be waiting down at the 7-11. I’m not kidding.

I could see Eddie smiling….and I could feel my head about to pop off. This would have been one of those moments where I would have welcomed the times when people are usually nicer to pregnant people. So, I said fine and told him he could at least do what he had on his orders. While he was searching for the cable box (I told him it was outside and he told me they never are…..btw, ours is outside), Eddie told me not to worry about it b/c he looked outside and saw everything was activated but just needed to be plugged in. He told me it would take him like 5-7 minutes to fix it. So, after the technician wandered around our house looking for the cable box that was NOT outside, he told me this was a waste of his time and left. I said fine. Again, I’m not kidding.

Sure enough, w/in 5-7 minutes, Eddie had all of our cable ports working – which was what Comcast was supposed to do for us. Oh well. We’ve been really happy w/ the work that Eddie has done for us, and this was just one example of him going the extra mile for us. At any rate, here’s some before and after pics:

Here's the kitchen before we moved in:

And now, it's red....but only on the two walls you see. Red was a big step for us, but we both love it. Everything else is in a khaki-ish shade. And check out our sweet island! Hopefully soon, we'll get our pots/pan rack up that'll hang over it.....which will thankfully give me one more cabinet. I'm already enjoying this extra space.

Here's the living room before we moved in:

And here's after....(Rachel kept saying "smile" when she saw me taking pictures):

Here's the bedrooms before we moved in (they're basically identical, so I'm only posting a picture of one empty room): And, here's after - paint and new bedding for us (the circle on the wall seems to be weird lighting and I'm too lazy to go take another picture)!
The next two pictures are of the girls' room (we've decided to have them share until we feel Rachel is ready to move upstairs....for now, the upstairs is one sweet playroom). Rachel has graduated to her new bed. She does really well.....she doesn't get out of bed until we come and get her, but I do think we need to adjust the location.....I hear banging most times and when I look out the backdoor where I can see her window, I often see a little Rachel standing in the window. So, we're working on the no blinds issue, but other than that, the transition to a big girl bed has gone very smoothly. We transitioned her the first night we were back from Ohio, and we haven't looked back.
I've started getting out all the baby bedding....since Rachel wasn't using the bumpers. But for now, we've left the crib like this so it doesn't look like it's an option for her to be in it. We stored the mattress and raised the rails to newborn levels - that way she thinks it's not available and it's not easy for Ben and I to give in and let her go back to her crib. It hasn't been an issue, but to be safe, we'll leave it like this until we're a little closer to the baby. For now, this is just my reminder of more things that I need to wash.