Before

This morning we got an e-mail from our contractor saying that he had filed for permits and will be having a dumpster delivered to the new house today. It is so exciting to think about things starting up there! Also, Paul and I very rarely pay for someone else to do work for us. We usually try to figure out how we can do things ourselves and save some cash. Of course we are planning to do a lot of work ourselves at the house this time too, but it is really fun to think that stuff is happening over there today and I am not doing it. : )

We are hoping to get some tax refunds for what we're doing to the house since it's in a historic district. This requires a lot of before pictures, which are fun to post anyway. They kind of look better with nice, shiny, "after" pictures right beside them, but oh well. I will let you experience a little of the ohmygoodnesswehavealottodo factor we are feeling.

This is the fireplace where the water came down the chimney from an ill-conceived plumbing project upstairs undertaken by previous owners, who refused to turn any heat on all winter and let a pipe burst.

more drywall damage from pipe incident:

cool old firplace in need of some spiffing up (there are fireplaces in almost every room! but only possibly one is functional):

 the kitchen, or lack thereof, our first major project:

 holy murals batman!:

big beautiful staircase:

the ill-conceived plumbing project (yes this is a bedroom with a toilet and half shower installed. yes there is a section of pipe running into the doorway. yes they did not finish this at all, but did hang up a very pretty towel rack.):

another bathroom that was pretty much entirely wrecked (i think i can count 4-5 layers of wall visible):

and finally, here is that ohmygoodness factor i was mentioning: