Seeing the House through the Walls

You know the old saying, "You can't see the forest through the trees"!  Maybe the title doesn't have quite the same ring, but you get the idea.  You spend so much time during a renovation staring at the walls (literally!), that it's very easy to lose track of how the house looks...  Writing the last post made me realize this.  Before, I had at most two weeks of pictures to go through to show what's changed, and when you're there every day, two weeks out of an (ultimately) 9 month project isn't much time, so there never seems to be substantial changes.  However, the last post had such a large gap that I had two months worth of pictures to go through, and suddenly it was plainly clear that progress was actually being made.

Now there's still dozens of little things to be done, and this still drives me nuts, but going through those hundreds of pictures (it should not surprise you that I take a lot of pictures of this house at every stage!) at least gave things a little perspective.  I'm not quite yet willing to say we're almost done, because there's too many open things, but it's getting closer!

Now is the part where I get clever, because that title has two meanings!  ;-)  Because since the end of the last post (actually, this happened before the last post, but it took me too long to get that one together), the walls have actually been painted, and thanks to the walls, it suddenly looks like a house!  The first time I saw a sudden step change was the day the walls came down, the next time was the day the walls went back up, and now the third is the day the walls have been painted.  So it seems that progress is all about the walls!  So here's the latest* crop of pictures!

The living room in the front of the house, complete with new floors and fireplace

The fireplace and mantel came out very well in the end!  The bricks match the existing ones in the exposed brick wall, and you might just think that the fireplace was original!

The back half of the living room with a view into the kitchen.  The whole first floor feels much more open with the divider between the two halves of the front room and the wall between front room and the kitchen removed!

The kitchen with everything in place at last! 

The new back doors in the kitchen came out really well, and actually let more light in

An outside view of the new back doors in the kitchen and the master bedroom upstairs 

Looking down the stairs towards the front door

The landing upstairs with a view into the front two bedrooms and the new linen closet

While the first floor and landing on the second floor had a pale yellow paint on the walls, to give them some subtle color to complement the warm red/orange of the brick wall, the bedrooms upstairs have a little bit bolder colors.  The front bedroom is tannish/peachish color that makes it feel like it is in direct sunlight, even though it's not

The middle bedroom shape turned out very nicely in the end, and will be a perfect office.  It was initially meant to be a red color, but it turns out when you try to pick a lighter, brighter shade of red, you get neon pink.  So it settle with more of a light orange.

The clawfit tub looks really good after being refinished, and fits in the guest bathroom nicely

The vanity, counter, sink, and mirror in the master all came out very well, all that's left is to tile the wall around the mirror

The shower is also still missing the glass, but everything else is done

Looking down the hallway towards the stairs from inside the master bedroom, the brick wall and the floors match each other really well

The master bedrooms is nice and bright with the new doors and a brighter, warmer yellow color

* As usual, the amount of time to pick the pictures and get the post up means there's newer things, but they were the latest when I started this post!