'Twas the Night Before Christmas

While visions of sugar plums danced in her head ...

Note the Minion PJs

Girls' Rooms

A little more Before and After:

When we first moved into the house, I let the girls come upstairs and choose their rooms. Naturally, Lucy chose the room that was purple with lots of stickers all over the wall (and then wanted it painted different color).

Caroline, on the other hand, was a total wildcard and picked the tiniest room that was painted white and red stripes on the walls and the ceiling. It came complete with a red ceiling fan.

While I was in the process of putting gallons and gallons of primer on the walls, I was cursing her sweet little voice telling me, "Mama, I like this room best!" But to be honest, if she would have chosen the other room that was much bigger and painted white, then this tiny room would still be red with white stripes because I would have totally avoided the task of painting over the stripes.

But I digress.

Here are the before shots:

The during shots:

And now the after:

Lucy's room has no before shots because it wasn't hideous enough for me to document. So, here is her room now:

I Love a Good Before and After

I love watching shows like Fixer Upper on HGTV. I love seeing the transformations that people can perform with some paint, a contractor, and a little imagination.

I also love a project. Our house in Connecticut was full of projects, and it always felt so satisfying to complete one and then admire our work.

I suppose that is why I love our home in Wisconsin - it is full of projects! (much to Steve's dismay) And while we have tackled some big ones early, there is still plenty to do.

I have been meaning to post some before and after pictures of the main floor. We renovated the kitchen, widened some doorways, knocked down some walls, and put in all new flooring. I wanted to take pictures when everything was finished, but I finally realized that we would never really be done. So I was cleaning today in preparation for Christmas guests and figured that now was as good a time as any to get the pictures done. I won't even point out the things that still need to be done ;-)

In the kitchen we got rid of pretty much everything except the appliances:

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

We knocked the wall out that was between the kitchen and the dining room and then got rid of all of the carpeting and light fixtures in the dining room.

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

As you walk into the house, we redid the entryway by getting new flooring and all new white trim/doors (we changed the trim to white in nearly all of the first floor).

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Looking back at the front door from the kitchen:

BEFORE

AFTER

The dining room/living room area was opened up and all of the flooring and trim was changed. Below are a few before/during pics followed by the after pics from several angles.

DURING (looking from the dining room into the living room)

AFTER (nearly the same angle - looking from the dining room into the living room)

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE:

AFTER

AFTER (miscellaneous)

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

BEFORE (first floor bathroom)

AFTER

BEFORE (first floor family room - very little other than paint done to this room)

AFTER

So here is our first floor. I'm thrilled with the results! I've got some other outdoor before and afters and also a few from the girls' rooms. I'll get to it soon.

The Prairie

In an effort to get the kids out of the house, we went for a walk in "the prairie" which is a set of trails that go through the property around our school.

I think it was good for everyone to get out and have some fresh air.

Jake looking regal

Getting their ya-yas out

Our neighborhood is actually right across the water

Glamour Shots

The school that we work at is going to feature our family in the next publication, and as a result, we had our picture taken by one of the school photographers.

I can't say that having my picture taken is my favorite, and having a former boss refer to these as "Family Glamour Shots" didn't make it much better, BUT it is nice to see our family at one moment in time, smiling and happy.