Tag: before & after

In All Of Its Glory

Well, when we got the new couch I had already covered it up with blankets so we could begin to use it while saving up to replace the cushions altogether. All this happened immediately, before I could document it for my blog.

Unfortunately, this ordeal has taken much longer than I had hoped, but we’re finally ready to start pursuing options as far as cushions are concerned. The website I requested some fabric samples from–weeks ago–hasn’t contacted me back so I called a man from our church who does tailoring to ask him for a recommendation. He let me know about someone from the next town over that I’m going to get a quote from. Full disclosure here, the price range we found for custom cushions online was about $300. So, we’ll see what this guy estimates for us. Even if it’s $100 more, I’m glad it will be local–I have no idea what the online guys would charge for shipping and handling, anyway. So if it’s $400-$500 we’re going to go ahead and do it. A new couch is closer to a grand, anyway, so I still think we’re saving money.

Since I had to strip the old gal down and take pictures to e-mail for my quote, I figured I’d show them with you all. Watch out. it’s kind of a hot mess.

We’re going to get all-new foam and try to get a color in the dark charcoal grey range. Gotta get a durable fabric due to Mosey’s sharp little nails. Unfortunately since we’re currently using such dilapidated cushions, it put a lot of extra stress on the support straps underneath, which broke, as you can see… and I’m going to get a quote on those, too.

Here’s a piece of the decision that hasn’t been made yet… should we get three cushions on the bottom and three on the back, as it is currently? I was toying with the idea of three on the bottom (so we can rotate them for more even wear–the middle seat is the most frequently sat-upon) and one long one across the back. Your input is welcome!

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New House (With Pictures!)

This post is extremely long. I feel like Sherry from YHL! Get comfortable!

The moment has arrived. Photos of the new house. The interior, at least. It’s been dark out while we’ve been over there working, so I couldn’t get any shots of the exterior. Those will go up next week after I take some more pictures this weekend! All of these photos were taken after mopping the floors (didn’t want to majorly gross you out).

When you enter the front door, you step into the living room, with non-functioning fire place, which you can kind of see here. I can’t wait to paint everything a lighter shade and liven up the inside of the fire place with a glossy pop of color! The reason the front room light isn’t on is so you can get a better view of what lies beyond the arched doorway… the dining room, kitchen (you can see the cabinets) and small strange off-kitchen nook. The nook has a window with a high bar counter. I can envision eating breakfast there.

 

Here’s the living room from another angle. On the right of this picture you can see the doorway leading into the dining room, and the front door is out-of-frame on the left. What I stupidly didn’t take a picture of is the view as if you were standing by the fireplace. There are 5 windows in this room! The two on the front wall are really tall, and the 3 on the other walls are “normal” sized. Whatever normal is.

Here’s another view of the small off-kitchen and bar area, taken from the middle of the dining room. In the following photo you can see….

My doggy! And… one of our many doors for exit (we have 3). This one was painted shut and Doug had to use all of his manliest strength to open it from the outside. One of the first things to do is get our glass guy (we have a friend who does glass for a living; I love saying “our glass guy,” I hope someday I can be somebody’s “something guy” or gal) to replace that missing window. Due to the nastiness around it I assume a window AC unit used to be there. Note the breakfast bar area on the left. Getting your bearings?

Here is the kitchen. The room isn’t small but the counter space is surely limited. Is it sad that this is an upgrade from our current apartment? I assume the refrigerator is going to go on the blank wall next to the window. There’s no other spot for it!It will be SO nice to have a double sink. The drawers are tough to open and close so we are toying with the idea of turning them in to shelves (with cabinet doors). Out-of-frame, on the left side, the wall comes back and there is a door to the basement.

Now for the second half of the house!

First, I’ll show you the hallway. This is taken from the front bedroom. If you go through the doorway next to the fireplace (scroll up and picture it) and make a left, you are in the front bedroom. As you look down the hallway on the left you have a small closet, and the bathroom, and at the end you have the back bedroom. On the right you have two doorways. The first leads to the living room and the second leads to the dining room. This hallway is navy blue (even the ceiling!) and absolutely abysmal.

This is the view into the front bedroom. The window that goes all the way to the floor makes me hesitant about making this the master bedroom–harder to arrange furniture– although this room is slightly bigger

Eek! The bathroom. Look at that paint job. This room will be brightened up. I kind of hate the arch over the tub but we’ll see how it is once it’s repainted.

Lastly, here is the back bedroom. In my mind, this will be the master. I feel like the back of the house is safer than the front and the size of these windows lend to more interesting furniture setup (as opposed to the floor-length mirror in the front bedroom). However, this room is 11×11 as opposed to 13×11 so we shall see what we end up with.

In summary:

I am so excited over the floors in this house. So easy to keep clean. The wood is actually in quite nice shape. The smallness of the bedrooms is going to be interesting after going from our more loft-style apartment to this little hacienda-style bungalow. (You’ll see the exterior soon enough). I also have big plans for this place and I’m really excited about it.

Just Like it Should Be!

The title of this post has two meanings. First, when I start a project and show it to you here on MFS, I should finish it up and show “after” pics before you forget about it altogether–which, thanks to the miracle of Memorial Day, I actually did!

Second bringing poor, abused pieces of furniture into my house and making them look like they were meant to: after a couple hours’ worth of TLC, this sad coffee table looks much, much, better–more than the $20 (0r was it $10?) we spent for it Sunday at Goodwill!

Before:

After:

Naturally, some things didn’t disappear–like that giant water ring, but look at that wood shine! It’s much, much, much better. This took 4 applications of Watco Teak Oil–look how gorgeous it is! Now for a shot of it in the living room…

It doesn’t go with the couch we currently have in here AT ALL, but I should be getting a MCM style vintage couch from my grandma’s in Illinois soon! This will look KILLER with that.

Alas, for now, we put the black coffee table back into place temporarily so it will be a more dramatic change when the couch and table both debut to the public together.

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