Before & After

Living Room Before- Like waaaay before...

This is the Condo that the hubs bought before we ever met.  This is what it looked like the week I moved in right after we got married.  Ok... So about 3 years ago I got some wild hair and decided I wanted to "update" our condo. Don't get me wrong, I didn't necessarily HATE it, I just wanted to move out of the 80's. I am here to say that if our marriage survived all of this change and mess our marriage can survive anything!

And so it started.....

We had this ceramic tile that wasn't bad... It was GROSS! it was white tile with 1/2 inch PINK grout. It was very hard to maintain and keep clean. We had this tile in each and every room throughout the entire house. It is still in the bathrooms and laundry room, and it is even on the front porch... Who ever lived here before us got a killer deal on tile and LOVED the look of pink grout.

It all started with a slab leak in the kitchen... It actually started just before we got married. Bretts brothers and our FAVORITE plumber- Clint and Brian came over and assessed the damage. He had to remove part of the tile and drill through the cement to get to the leaking pipe under our foundation. We lived with the hole in the kitchen for about 6 months until we got another leak in the living room. It was at that time when I decided to rip out all of the tile and fix all the leaks and lay down new floor. We (Brett & I) got on our hands and knees and one by one with a hammer and chisle removed each and every tile by hand. We were trying to save $ by doing it ourselves, and we did!

After the tile came out we layed down laminate wood flooring... Let me tell you that was a chore in itself! That took a very long time! Thankfully my dad came out and helped us for a few days. We got a lot accomplished that weekend dad was here. We had carpet layed in both bedrooms too. It is so nice to wake up to nice soft carpet under your feet and not cold hard tile anymore.

Kitchen Before

We also have done a little in the kitchen... I LOVE the new look! Cant wait for my second wind to come where I will paint those honey oak cabinets! 

After

Before

After

After the floor was nearly complete wouldn't you know it.... WE GOT ANOTHER LEAK... This time in the master bedroom doorway.... it went into the living room under all of the new flooring... We had to rip out several feet of flooring and pull up the new carpet..... Again we called Clint and he was our life saver yet again!!! He came back and told us the bad news. He said that we were going to continue to have slab leaks and that he was not going to drill down through the foundation again. So I called our homeowners insurance. They came out looked at all the damage and though it took some time ~ Thats an entire different story. We got them to pay for a new re-plumb job which became another huge project. Clint came and cut holes in all of the drywall in all of the rooms in my house. He got the work done and we finally had working water both hot and cold. It felt so good to finally have it all finished. Because before if I wanted to take a shower I had to tromp out to the garage and turn the water on, quickly shower and run out and turn the water off. If I wanted to wash dishes, same thing, If I wanted to run the washing machine - yup, you guessed it water on. water off. This went on for a few months while we were waiting on the insurance company. Clint was able to do the re-plumb and then Bretts uncle Lester hooked us up with the other helpers to fix the holes and retexture the drywall, re-lay the flooring, and complete the baseboards, and finally the painter finished up. WOO HOO!!! It is finished. I never thought I could say it. But it is done. I really have nothing more to complain about and that is a very good feeling! ~ Well except I would love to do the bathrooms... but that my friend is going to wait!

Living Room After

Before

After

Dont you just love a good before and after story?