We're back, plus some before and after time

We have finally moved back to Church Hill, and it is marvelous. While we miss the delicious (and free) home-cooked meals nearly every night, the 10-minute commute is awfully nice. I’ve gotten an extra hour back every day, half of which I use to sleep. The fatties are back as well and have adjusted, I think. Kirin has always adapted to new environments quite easily, but Tanga always needs a little more time. He spent most of Sunday evening after we moved back walking around and hissing at everything, including us, but he’s back to his usual over-affectionate self again. I have to share the story of corralling the cats for the move. Getting them into their crates is always a challenge because they totally know what’s up and will hide. Tanga’s easy, since he’s more comfortable with being picked up, but Kirin is stubborn, plus she’ll pick the worst place to hide. At the in-laws, her hiding place of choice was inside of a box spring. We can usually get her out without much work, but Sunday, we had to strip the bed, lift off the mattress, and literally dump Kirin out of the box spring. You’d think we’d learn to close off all access to rooms where they can hide before attempting to get them in their crates, but we always think it’ll be much easier than it actually is. But, we’re all back home now, and for the first time in two years, Michael and I have a decent place to call home.

We still have lots left to finish on the house, but it’s clean (for the most part) and comfortable. Next on the list is redoing our old bathroom on the second floor. After that, we will probably paint the hallway upstairs. The door to the bathroom may get moved, so why bother with the hallway if it’s just going to get messed up? Then we’ll have the second bedroom (currently housing our tools and materials for any work we do inside the house) and the third floor (currently a spare bedroom and storage area) to tackle. We also have the outside of the house – we’d like to redo the deck, plus the yard is in need of some landscaping. Our backyard is mostly concrete with a giant sycamore in the middle of it. If anyone has ten grand they’re willing to part with so that we can cut down that tree, that’d be great. We also want to replace the fence with one that gives more privacy.

And now, it is time for something I’ve been wanting to post since before the renovations started: before and after shots. The before shots are about a year old, and it’s hard to believe that the house ever looked like this, even though we lived here and saw it every day.

To start, here's what you'd see when you first walk in the door:

There was a wall there to the right (the living room is one the other side), and those awful green stairs AND the green floor. Now, when we come home, this is what we see:

The space has been opened up, the floors refinished, and the stairs repainted black.

Next, here's what the living room used to look like:

That used to be the furnace there on the right, with the duct work coming out and going along the wall. This room also had a drop ceiling. Now, the living room looks like this (Tanga, once again, makes an appearance):

Onto the dining room; here's the before...


...and here's the after:

Quick detour: that odd looking structure on the right? Is a homemade scratching post. Michael made it out of the scraps of wood we had around (for Kirin) and the couch cushion covers (for Tanga) that shrunk because I was too impatient and put them in the dryer. (Not that big of a deal, since we'd planned to buy a new cover anyway. Yay for IKEA!)


And now we move into the kitchen. Here's the before...

and here's the after:

Here's another before and after shot:

Here are a few more pictures of what the first floor looks like now:

Among the many things we need, one of them is a larger TV; the new living room makes the one we have look so, so tiny. Here's the dining room, though Michael's started calling it the interrogation room because all we have in there, besides the scratching post, is the one table and two chairs across from each other:

And finally, here's a shot of my favorite view in the house. This is taken from the couch, looking back through the dining room and into the kitchen. I love it because you can see all three wall colors.

I'll post before and after shots of the second floor, which is mostly done, later on. We don't have the Internet up and running at our house yet (I'm currently taking advantage of my sister-in-law's wireless connection); I hope it won't be too long before I can update again (I know all five of you readers hope that, too).