Friday, January 8, 2010

Before and During






I've been trying to find a few Before and Afters of our house to share with you.


Unfortunately, when we moved into this house I wasn't too keen on taking Before pics. Not sure if it was the seafoam green carpet, the 4 kinds of wallpaper, or that fact that we had just set the record for paying the highest price ever in our neighborhood for a 1970's paradise, but I didn't really want to document what we had gotten ourselves into. That, coupled with the fact that we hadn't yet gone digital and didn't want to "waste film" means we have a dearth of photos.

Of course, had I heard of blogging back then and realized how we all love a good Before and After, I would have snapped some pics for posterity. Actually, I'd rather call them Before and Durings, because are we ever really finished putzing around and changing things here and there?

I came across a few that I'll share with you. Here's our staircase "Before." The iron railing continues around the right up one more small level. Of course the true "before" would have a formal Oriental carpet runner going down the stairs and wallpaper on the wall. Do we still say Oriental carpet or is Asian?





We ripped up the carpets and had the floors and stairs professionally refinished. A railing guy put up this new banister and posts in one day, then Tom painted the risers for me for our anniversary.


I like to hang greens on the banister at Christmas:






Or maybe some little mice at Halloween:




The stairs are too messy today to get you a good picture, but believe me--6.5 years later and I still love it!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was fun! I am curious about those cunning little mice. How did you do that?

jbhat

Kate Coveny Hood said...

Looks great! It's amazing what a facelift can do.

Kristina P. said...

I LOVE the mice.

Masala Chica said...

It's gorgeous. I love the new look. And I have to say - I did a double take when I saw the mice. very, very cute! Do tell how you did that.

Madge said...

I love the mice!

Jacci said...

Wow, Anna. I hadn't realized that you've lived in your home that long. I can identify on the "before" thing - it can be embarassing showing the world (well, the teeny part that reads my blog, anyway) what a style-deprived world my children are living in each day.

Your stairs look great, though! You'd never know the Asian carpet had been there ;)

~Jacci

Expressions by Heather said...

Those mice are just ridiculously adorable!

Mel said...

I am J.E.A.L.O.U.S. of the new stairs! I am still living with those FUGLY wrought iron pickets with the ever so fancy dancy plastic railings.
I try my best to ignore them.

Anonymous said...

The thing is iron is back... with a twist of course.
When we moved almost 2 years ago we were looking at new homes... it was the beginning of a decidedly buyers market.
Most of the homes have wrought iron spindles, however, with wood railings.

I miss my white spindles and stained rails. The new millennium iron is rough and so it collect dust that is very visible.

K A B L O O E Y said...

Love the mice too. And the cute hubby painting on your anniversary present. At our house, we are currently rocking the loose (do you call them?) spindle and dog-hair-bunny look. But for some reason there's no photodocumentation.

Chris said...

Your Halloween decorations are adorable! I'm not sure if it's "Asian" or "Oriental", but the fact that you're trying to be so PC makes me laugh and... like you! :-)

Kirsten said...

I love before and afters. And those mice are so cute I can't stand it.

Deidra said...

Great redo! I remember that you posted about those mice at Halloween and I copied the idea!

We currently have naked steps in our house. They had shag carpet on them when we moved in and I just could not stand it anymore. So H and I tore the carpet up and pulled out about a million (I kid you not) carpet tacks to discover the stairs are made of MDF and not real wood. My plans to stain and paint have to be revised.

I love your new banisters!

CasaCullen said...

oh my gosh, oh my GOSH!!! i love love love the mice!!! please fill me in on WHERE and how those cute lil' decals come on and off for holidays!!! and what a difference the paint makes...looks great! cheers