Done at Last! Done at Last! Praise God Almighty, We’re Done at Last!**

**Ok, so technically we weren’t completely done, because two days after our renter moved in she called to tell us the front storm door fell off its hinges, so I was back over there again today with the handyman …. But for the most part, we are done!

Don’t worry, this isn’t turning into some kind of home-improvement blog. The one thing that renovating a rental property has taught me is that the Bob Villa gene obviously skipped a century or two in my family, and I have no desire to repeat the process anytime soon. While pleased with the work I accomplished, I also discovered there’s a whole lot more I *can’t* do than I can, and perhaps serving as landlord is better left to the “handy” people of the world. But for better or worse, it’s done now. Although I did really like the part where I got to buy new stuff.

It’s not that I even think our before and after pictures are that interesting, but by golly, this is the project that has taken up the vast majority of my time since we moved here, and so I’m going to post them. I reckon I’ve spent almost as much time there, as I have moving myself into my own house. We spent way more money (hence the reason our son is still living in a closet) and man-hours (I remember thinking I would have the whole house painted in a few days --- ha! Pity the fool!) {that fool would be me, in case it wasn’t clear} than we intended; I’ve had paint in my hair for two months, ruined at least three manicures, have freakishly overdeveloped shoulder muscles thanks to the paint roller (no lie, I broke one IN HALF with my strength! And well, with my really bad posture) and I am on a first-name basis with the paint guy at Home Depot. I’ve single-handedly made SEVERAL of my handy-man’s mortgage payments, spent many evenings away from my family, felt the thrill of manual labor (not) and the self-satisfaction of a job well done. And all things considered? I. AM. SO. OVER. THIS. PROJECT.

But in the meantime, for your viewing pleasure:


The master bedroom BEFORE:





The master bedroom AFTER:






The front bedroom BEFORE:



The front bedroom AFTER: (and I have no idea why the walls look so baby-shit yellow because they are actually tan in real life):







The middle bedroom BEFORE:



The middle bedroom AFTER:







The bathroom BEFORE:





The bathroom DURING:





The bathroom AFTER:







The kitchen BEFORE:







The kitchen AFTER:








The living room BEFORE:





The living room DURING:







The living room AFTER:






And then I was going to do some cute little Photoshopped images of ME, before and after, but quite frankly, I'm sick and damn tired of the whole thing.