Our Home Transformation...

Again, it has been too long since my last post...many of you know our home has been being renovated for the past month. Normally, I keep my posts to creative endeavors; however, many of you were curious to see how our home remodel was taking shape - so today I thought I would do a quick post and show you why I have been a little scarce lately...but don't worry, I will keep it short and be back with my usual artistic posts soon...

I never knew how disruptive all the construction would be...sheesh, did it ever cause a commotion. We had decided to do a lot of work at one time, so it was a month of complete chaos, to say the least. I thought I had a bunch of "before" pictures, but I searched and searched and only found a few...so the before photo shown below was actually taken before we moved into the house (if you know me, then you know I am WAY too conservative to have a large wooden snowman in my front yard or what looks to be a cutesy reindeer on the door). We actually replaced the roof and skylights last fall, so those old bubble looking skylights are now beautiful new glass and much more modern and efficient...and the roof is now a rich Onyx Black - we also pulled out the (awful) hedges that were enclosed in a wooden bed and replaced them with a stone retaining wall bed, plus we added a new retaining wall in the backyard. From these pictures our house looks quite small, but in all actuality, we have three full levels (including a finished walkout basement). In the last month, we replaced all the windows and doors - and there are a lot - we have three sets of sliding doors on the back of our house...we totally rebuilt the deck (which is huge at 36' x 12')...we replaced all the siding with HardiePlank siding and all the trim with HardieTrim...we also replaced the outdoor lighting and all the gutters. I am very happy with our new front windows and door, along with the HardieShingle Siding (staggered edge) on the front of the garage - to me it looks like a completely different home....almost like a cottage. I am also thrilled with the colors I chose - I was worried the Iron Grey may be a bit dark...but with the Arctic White trim, I think it looks amazing (and luckily, so do our neighbors!). I can already tell a noticeable difference in temperature regulation - the house is now MUCH MORE energy efficient, which is wonderful! Everything is finally winding down and I am hoping to have a quiet house this week to catch up on the HUGE piles of work on my desk...and maybe, just maybe, I can find some time to do a little sewing (I can dream)...

"BEFORE" (remember, this was taken before we moved in!):

"AFTER" - my FABULOUS new home (much more "me"):