Before and After: a tale of a home renovation, part 2

I'm so excited about the great response to my first Before and After home renovation post! It appears that you like before and after transformations as much as I do. Now, come on inside, welcome to our home. Like I mentioned in part 1, when we bought the house it needed some major TLC, but we could see the beautiful details that we knew we wanted to save. One of the things that sold us on the house were the beautiful molding details on the high ceilings in the parlor level of the house, these are typical of houses built in the late 1800's especially in this area of Brooklyn. You can see them a bit in this picture taken the week we closed on the house...

I wish that we had taken a picture of the pink shag carpet that covered the floor of the the living room, but it was so horrible that it was the first thing we took up.
Here is our living room today, you can see more of the beautiful moldings in this one. I love that in the "before" picture Jasper is growing in my belly, and in the "after" picture he is playing on the floor, a true before and after.

The next two are looking at the same room, from the back of our living room towards the front of the building, you can see the front door entryway through the arch to the right. Before..

and after...

And now another looking from the front of the room towards the back of the house, where the living room opens onto the kitchen...

Frank had to do some molding restoration work in these rooms, as well as replacing the wooden floors and lots of painting. Do you see the soft blue on the walls of the living room, with a bit of texture? That is actually Venetian Plaster work, which is the sort of decorative painting work that Frank does for a living...so we are lucky enough to have it all over our house!

Next time we'll go into the kitchen, in part 3 of the before and after series!

5 comments:

Karla Tull Aron said...

I hope your Renovation Tale has lots of parts to it because it is just too much fun to read and I don't want it to end! I found myself reading slowly and taking in each little part and photo as if it were the last piece of chocolate in the house. I love your decorating sensibility . . and that chandelier is so cool. It reminds me of your work -- looks like a pod or orb from one of your paintings Faith. Plus I also like how your photos show your home breathing and alive . . with children tripping through the image and toys and bits of your life scattered about. It makes it very appealing and just enjoyable to imagine what your life is like living there. This is so inspiring to me, too, for working on our house and letting go more with color and bringing in to view objects that have meaning to us. Thank you for sharing this wonderful Tale . . . I'm going to read Part 1 again. . .

Sonja said...

I love the before and after pictures! Especially how you are pregnant with Jasper and then he is playing on the floor in the first few! Your house is beautiful, I love your light fixture and the light blue walls. I can't wait to see part 3! <3 Sonja

BananaSaurusRex said...

So cool - I'm a sucker for before-and-after pics, anyway.... these are amazing! More!

jacqueline said...

This is really fun and i am sooo happy i didnt miss on part 2!! I am loving your decorating sensibility ~ i look at each photo before and after carefully. I really love your home...it's so beautiful, warm and cozy! Thanks so much for sharing with us your tale...it's very inspirational! Have a lovely merry happy week and love to you!

Mandy Saile said...

I love seeing where artists live and create. THanks for sharing these....your home looks so warm and inviting...

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