Upstairs

Sadly, I don't have a lot of pictures of the upstairs :/

Here's a friend in my room, helping to hang the curtain rods up. We didn't have a ladder so we used my (antique) dresser to hoist ourselves up. Also, my friend is, errrm, detail orientated (shall we say) and measured many times to make sure they were COMPLETELY straight. It took a long time.



My bro caulking the outside of the office windows. Sigh, I wish someone had mentioned that all the windows needed to be caulked before the torrential rains started falling. Also, I tried to do some windows myself, but I could tell from his "ya that's pretty good sis" that it was a poor attempt at best. Hey, I can't be good at everything!

Skylight in Upstairs Bathroom

While in mid-progress...


Friends admiring the finished product. It's a truly a thing of beauty. Must post actual pictures of it soon...

Living Room

Two views of the living room before I got that awesome blue sofa from Room and Board. Updated pictures coming soon I promise! See that lamp on the ceiling? Sadly it was the only original feature that was salvageable :(

The roomie cleaning the ceiling lamp parts. I've known him 5 years and I've never seen him so concentrated. By the way, this took hours. The grim was pretty thick.

Kitchen and Dining Room

Ugh, the kitchen and the dining room were pretty darn dingy before the renovation. Here they are now, without the old wall separating the two. I found a coin dating from 1928 in the dust of construction there.

Same picture, less crap on the surfaces. Nice kitchen island! Don't you love the bright yellow color? Well I do, and mom helped to pick it out, so be nice. The dangling pendant lamps came from my parents house and were part of a connected three-lamp pendant. Looks sleek and nice in this kitchen (not so much in theirs). There's deceptively little storage space in this kitchen, thus the need for the closet in the den...

Fridge, containing the essentials.

Friend, trying on a funky urchin-like lamp (made from recycled plastic bottles and bought off of Etsy) for size. It's still not yet hung. Ugh, I'm so lazy...

Roommate hanging some of his modern artwork on the wall. He's a whizz at hanging. He really is. Though I made him hang about 80% of the pieces on all our walls, so I'm sure he was cursing his special gift at some point.

Den

The den off of the kitchen was the only room where the wooden floor was not salvageable. A minor miracle given that all the floors were covered with: a layer of rotting carpet, a foamy cover, glue, and in some cases, dark brown paint. They had to add new wood, but the rest of the house is original. Since there's only two small closets in the house, I asked my dad to add a closet where you see the Dyson (not mine, though I wish it were) and other cleaning products.


Dad and I in the closet. Before you get the misconception I had anything to do with it, let me admit that I didn't help a bit. Also, please excuse the appearance of the workout clothes...

I also got a second bathroom built opposite the closet with the First-Time Homeowner credit President Obama gave me. Thanks Obama! The den in now considerably smaller than it was before, but the closet and the bathroom as so useful I don't regret building them.

Backyard

This is what my backyard looked like while the contractors did their 2 months of renovation (bordering on a gut job). Except the pile was usually three times as high, and full of errand cats. Thank God the neighbors never complained of it. A ridiculously small open-back van hauled the trash during many trips to clear the backyard. It was almost comical to see the towering Pile O' Stuff it could drive away with.

My friend courageously came to visit when he was in DC (he lives in NY) to see the progress of the house. Though the picture is very dark since it was taken from the basement, you can see the bright sun shining on the trash in the backyard, and my friend valiantly showing enthusiasm in taking pictures of the progress.

Aaaaah! Much better! The grass was almost completely dead from not seeing the sun in 2 months. Fortunately it all grew back very quickly... And it's now 100% crab grass and dandelions.

My Bad

I've been embarrassingly remiss in posting new pictures of my place... Here are some for y'all to enjoy. **Eventually** if I get my act together, I will post before and after pictures. Sorry, my bad.

Enjoy this renovation of a Petworth, DC home...