Befores and Afters via Instagram

Apologies to my followers and readers for the long pause in blog posts. It’s completely and utterly attributed to my insanely insane week at school. Let’s just say it’s the week before Spring Break, so everything is due at once – tests, presentations, papers, you name it. But the good thing about it being the week before Spring Break is that… well, next week is Spring Break!!

If you’ve noticed in my posts lately, I’ve mentioned Instagram a couple times. I’m pretty new to the social photo sharing app, but I absolutely love it so far. I’ve tried out the photos both ways – taking them from the camera and instantly applying filters to them, as well as importing previous photos I’ve taken from another camera and applying filters to them. I imported some of the before and after photos I took of two of our favorite renovation projects with my camera a while back and started applying some of my favorite filters.

My first semester of graduate school started in January of 2011, and one of the things I really wanted to accomplish before starting back (after having been out of school for almost two years) was completing my “office.” The “office” is actually a bedroom, but since Todd and I don’t have any kids yet, why not turn it into something I can use? It originally had linoleum on the floors, so we put laminate hardwood down, took some wooden shelves down, installed new trim and doors (one for the closet and one for the main door), painted and decorated. The total time for this project was about a month, and that’s only because Todd and I were both working full time, too.

Since I got my dream office, Todd made sure the next thing on the to-do list was his game room renovation. I had already started school by this point, so it was hit and miss on when I could help him out. We were able to lay hardwood laminate, install new trim and doors, paint and decorate. He loves his little room. 🙂 I think the total time for this project was about a month, too.

So that’s a little background on the two projects shown in the following pictures. Let me know what you think! And if you want to try out Instagram for yourself, learn more about it here!

Office Before

Office After

Office After (another view)

Game Room Before

Game Room After

Game Room Before (another view)

Game Room After

Game Room Before (yes, that's a TV in the closet!)

Game Room After

Kitchen Remodel: Before and After

I got some great feedback from my living room renovation post, so I decided to post some of my past renovations every now and then. I’ll start with my kitchen remodel that my husband and I did a little over a year ago. Up until the living room, we thought the kitchen was the worst renovation. Everything that could have gone wrong… did.

Trying to laugh about the paint and primer in one disaster.

For example, we thought we’d go the easy route and buy paint and primer in one at Lowe’s. You might have seen the commercials where the family wanted to paint over a wall that was previously striped. On the commercial, it only took one coat to cover it up (with no primer first), so I got sucked in. That would take out an extra step, right? Wrong. Long story short, the first coat looked sloppy, so when we were painting the second coat, huge bubbles started forming on the walls. Todd spent a whole day orbital sanding the layer of paint off, inch by inch (yes, we had to buy dust masks and rig up a ventilation/fan system through our kitchen to keep from breathing it all in). Todd talked to someone at Lowe’s who said you really still need to use a primer, even if you buy a paint and primer in one. Hmm? But Lowe’s was very helpful and let us return the paint we had already bought. On a side note, I tweeted the manufacturer of the paint and received no reply. Moral of the story: we’ll never buy paint and primer in one again.

But we kept truckin’, and a month-and-a-half later, we had us a new kitchen. We try to be very economical during our renovations, so you’ll notice in the photos that we kept our old cabinets and appliances. However, about six months later, we were tired of the old dishwasher that didn’t like to clean our dishes very well. So the dishwasher has been replaced since the photos were taken (and I now love how sparkly my dishes are!).

Things we did to the old kitchen:

1. Painted walls (twice.. ha ha!)
2. Tile floors
3. New countertops
4. New backsplash
5. New trim
6. New knobs on cabinets
7. New sink/faucet/garbage disposal

Check out the before and after pictures of our kitchen! And speaking of before and after pictures, have you ever checked out HGTV’s Rate My Space pictures? People like you and me can upload and share photos to get feedback from others. The best part is that some people actually get chosen for a renovation on the Rate My Space television show. You never know! Try uploading a photo of a room you’d like to renovate and see what other people suggest. I like to take a peek at those befores and afters because it reminds me that outdated rooms can be turned into beautiful dreams. Click here to take a look at some kitchen remodels on Rate My Space.

And if there’s anything you learn about me through my blog, it’s that I’m a stickler for befores and afters. 😉

Yes, those are my dogs fighting over a kitchen towel on the left