Before and After

Last Thursday, we hosted a house party for Kay Barnes at our home (yes, Joe and I are raging Democrats, but you can be assured that this is a bipartisan blog and we won't hold anything against our Republican readers). The nice thing about it--other than raising over $1000 to get dirty-dog Sam Graves out of office--was the compliments we got on the house, many from people who were familiar with the house and the shape it was in before we bought it. As I was telling Mayor Barnes that we used to live in a new loft in downtown Kansas City (which is where, incidentally, we saw firsthand what an excellent leader she is--now I promise I'm done with the political rants), one of our friends laughed about how funny it was that we decided to move from a 1000 square foot loft that required basically no DIY skills (or home maintenance for that matter) to a 2500 square foot DIY challenge. It made me laugh, too, but also made me think about how far we've come since we somewhat naively purchased this place. I think it's easy to get so wrapped up in the to-do lists that we forget how much we've done and how much we've grown and learned here. And since July 31 was our six-month anniversary of living in the house--and because I haven't posted for so long (sorry!) that I am backed up with pictures to share--I thought it would be fitting to create a sort of before and after "gallery" of what we've done so far! And as tempting as it might be to pepper the photos with captions about what still needs to be done, I won't. Let's just enjoy...

Our Home: A Before and After Web Album