Six months ago today, we closed on our house. We went to the closing in the morning, signed papers for what seemed like hours, went to lunch to celebrate, and then later that afternoon, drove over to our new house to pick up our keys. When we arrived at the house, Mom was already waiting for us on the porch (after driving for 7 hours!) and we started working right away. In honor of our 6th month anniversary of home ownership, I thought it would be fun to do some comparisons of where we were on closing day, and where we are now. So here they are, the before and now photos:

Downstairs bathroom - nothing. I picked out the new paint color, does that count?? I'm hoping to work on this room next.

Small front bedroom - nothing. This was our storage room for the first few months, but we've basically cleared it out. This is where we put guests when they come to visit (sorry guests!!). It will become our storage room again when we start clearing out the other rooms upstairs to have the floor refinished. Eventually this will be the office.

Small back bedroom - removed carpet and then also nothing. Started removing carpet pad that is stuck to the floor, but stopped. The floor refinisher will remove the rest when he sands. This is now our storage room, we keep the door shut at all times cause it's scary. Sadly, we've been making progress on unpacking boxes but it still looks like we have a lot left.

Upstairs bathroom - removed wallpaper, put giant hole in wall to find window, repaired window, drywall and trim patching around window, removed glass shower doors, removed closet door, removed medicine cabinet, painted closet, vanity, trim, and walls, and installed new light fixture.

We also cleaned the deck and put deck sealer on the entire deck and second floor balcony. It's dark outside so I didn't take any exterior comparison shots :-)

So that's where we are now. It's very easy to get frustrated at times with our progress. I'm getting very tired of having so much of our stuff in boxes still. It's difficult to always be living in a construction zone. All of our money seems to go towards the house. But, after seeing all of these pictures, we really have come a long way in six months. I'm really proud of us and it's a great feeling to have made so many improvements to a house that has so much potential. I can't wait to see where we are in another six months! I think that having the floors done upstairs will be a good start on the work upstairs. And in the spring, we have plans for the yard and some other projects outside. So happy anniversary house, it's been a great first six months!