I recently came across the pictures I snapped the first time I looked at my house – and even I could not believe how much it’s changed. This is the living room, BEFORE:

And After:

BEFORE:

and AFTER:

Kitchen BEFORE:

What do you think is behind that laminate on the wall? Nothing good, I bet…

What a nice view of the pantry…

and AFTER:

I would like to do a major remodel in here at some point…but as a temporary fix I replaced the appliances and the hardware on the cabinets, covered up the laminate behind the stove with a textured wallpaper painted copper to look like ceiling tile (this was done before they came out with those nifty plastic back splash pieces that look just like old ceiling tile), and painted the counter top. Yes, painted it…I found some directions on the HGTV website, asked some questions at Home Depot, and dove right in. I figured it couldn’t look any worse…but it came out great and it has held up pretty well for about 3 or 4 years now.

This is the bedroom that eventually became my son’s room:

Yet another room with wallpaper…AND a border…AND more skanky carpet. Lucky me.

When my son was still in the room, I let him pick out the color last time we painted. The room was a dark green cave with black furniture and Megadeth posters. Thankfully, no pictures exist for that incarnation.

When I was preparing the room for my current tenants, I knew they had 2 little girls, so I decorated it to suit them (I rent the house completely furnished).

I found the pair of headboards at a Rescue Mission thrift store – $4.99 each. The trunks were both in my basement,  and the painted night stands used to be display pieces in the store I own.

This bookcase also came from my store…I gave it a fresh coat of paint and added baskets for storage.

The dining room (no “before” pics for some reason):

“Life is too short to drink bad wine” LOL…..

Master Bedroom BEFORE:

This room was an ode to the 80’s…horrible flowered wallpaper and pink vinyl mini-blinds.

Master Bedroom AFTER:

I’ve changed this room a few times, but right now it has kind of a Morrocan thing going on. This is somewhat stripped down – it was right before my tenants moved in.

Spare Bedroom BEFORE:

Well, at least the wallpaper only went half-way up…sigh. But I loved the little enclosed porch.

While I was living in the house, this room went from a home office, to home to a series of housemates, to a spare room and a place to stash the elliptical machine:

Less than exciting…but I finally made it into a real bedroom in between my last 2 tenants:

One of my biggest projects ever was installing an 800 square foot flagstone patio.

View from the upstairs porch:

The first summer I was in the house I got rid of the turf. The grass was pretty cruddy, and the house is on a typical city lot – long and narrow. There didn’t seem to be much point to the lawn. I roto-tilled the entire thing and started planting a border around the perimeter with an island bed in the middle.

When I made the decision to rent out the house, I decided to eliminate the island and replace it with a patio – both to cut down on maintenance and to give the house more usable outdoor living space.

I did get some help with the first phase of the project  Scott, my favorite handyman/mechanic/jack of all trades came in and excavated the area and  leveled it out. We added a layer of sand and a layer of crushed gravel to create the base and allow for drainage.

Then came the flagstone. I had measured the area and given the dimensions  to the place that sold me the rocks. According to them, I was going to need 6 pallets of flagstone. It seemed like a lot, especially when they delivered it to my driveway, but I figured they knew what they were talking about. To me, it looked like I could pave my entire yard AND the neighbors on either side.

If you’ve never worked with it, some of the flagstones are big and heavy…a lot of the pieces had to be broken up with a sledgehammer in the driveway before I could place them on the patio.  Kind of back-breaking work..but fun, like a big jigsaw puzzle.

My elderly neighbors are convinced that I’m insane…lol.

Sure enough, I finished the project and had THREE full pallets left over. Three. I remeasured, and had Scott measure. Nope, I’m not an idiot…it really was 800 square feet. I called the company, and they told me that they don’t take anything back. What was I supposed to do with these things? They were parked in my driveway and you can’t move them without special equipment. After some pleading on my part, they finally agreed to take them back – but I had to pay for the pick up, plus a “restocking fee” which turned out to be about the cost of one pallet – over $300.

(I understand that there are variances in how far apart you can put these things – but three extra pallets? Seriously? It’s a good cautionary tale – don’t always assume that the guy behind the counter knows more than you do. If it doesn’t make sense to you – ask questions. )

The final step was to press pebbles into the “grout” lines:

In spite of the issues, I am really happy with it. It’s a better use of the space, and as a bonus the project also helped with some drainage issues I was having. The house behind me sits several feet higher than mine, so the water used to run right into the basement. When we leveled this out and added the gravel, it seemed to redirect most of the water.

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